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.
Telecommunications and semiconductor companies are suffering from a precipitous downturn. But researchers can be sure that a healthy, handy electronic future is on the way.
The nineteenth century scientists who studied the oceans were explorers, not hypothesis testers. Mark Schrope finds that modern-day oceanographers want to revive this pioneering spirit.
Glial cells were long thought to play a peripheral role in the theatre of the brain. But some neuroscientists now believe that they are intimately involved in the way the brain processes information. Bas Kast charts the cells' move into the limelight.
The differences between quantum and classical chaos show up on the smallest of scales. Although tiny, these differences have implications for our understanding of quantum mechanics.
Qualitative studies of airflow over insect wings have long been possible, thanks to the use of smoke trails. With a new robotic fly, flow and force can be analysed quantitatively, so theories of insect flight can be tested.
Atom statistics is a fundamental property of all particles that dictates how they behave in certain situations. But behaviour previously attributed to atom statistics is equally likely to arise from cooperative effects.
Stem cells have great potential for treating a variety of diseases and seem to hit the headlines almost every week. An extremely pure population of brain stem cells has now been obtained from adult mice.
Long ago, Earth experienced a series of especially severe glaciations. A new explanation for deposits laid down at the end of these events centres on the large-scale release of methane from solid gas hydrates.
Neuroscientists often study brain function by presenting a stimulus many times and averaging the neural response. A trick for finding brain activity in single trials might reveal how animals mentally categorize information.
The most sophisticated simulations yet of the Moon's birth show that it could have been created from an impact of a large body with a fully formed, rather than half-formed, Earth.
Red blood cells contain iron so blood could, in principle, be pumped around the body under the influence of magnetic fields - perhaps offering an alternative to artificial hearts.
