Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Next week's special conference of the Soviet Communist Party will probably have the wit to confirm Mr Mikhail Gorbachev as its leader. Will it have the courage to set Soviet science free?
Prospects that there will soon be an effective vaccine against HIV are diminishing. In the absence of a good animal model of AIDS, direct human trials of candidate vaccines are inevitable.
Canada is looking to science as part of a formula that will bring future prosperity. But researchers question whether the government understands the nature of the scientific enterprise.