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With the US National Academies about to pronounce on science's role in counteracting bioterrorists, it falls on the Congress to oppose and restructure the domestic security framework proposed by the Bush administration.
The textbooks say that oxygen-producing microorganisms evolved some 3.5 billion years ago. But as that claim and its author come under attack, the history of life on Earth may have to be rewritten. Rex Dalton investigates.
Across the world, animal facilities are overflowing with mutant mice. Jonathan Knight and Alison Abbott consider a logistical nightmare that is reaching crisis point, thanks to the revolution in genomics.
Genetic markers — unlike ancient chroniclers — do not lie. But their interpretation can be as perilous as attempts to decipher ancient inscriptions in an unknown tongue.
In bacterial genomes, functionally related genes are often clustered and controlled as a unit. Such 'operons' are not normally found in animals — so why are they so abundant in one class of worm?
The planetary nebulae of gas and dust that are formed from red-giant stars are usually far from spherical in shape. Observations of the gas distribution in one red giant caught in the act of transition show why.
Cardiovascular diseases are some of the biggest killers in the developed world. The discovery of a new enzyme that affects cardiac function might provide fresh insight into heart disease.
Recognition of a new species of living cetacean is a rare event. But following the DNA analysis of specimens held in museum collections,Mesoplodon perrini, a type of beaked whale, has made its debut.
The cost of making chip components smaller using photolithographic printing might soon invalidate Moore's law. A new imprinting technique that can reproduce features as small as 10 nm could save it.
We learn in several ways, one of which involves forming an association between an action and its consequence. Studies of a marine mollusc shed light on how this creature forms a connection between biting and food.
The wave nature of light manifests itself in diffraction, which hampers attempts to determine the location of molecules. Clever use of microscopic techniques might now be circumventing the 'diffraction limit'.
Telomeres are protein–DNA structures protecting the ends of chromosomes. The crystal structure of a four-stranded stretch of human telomere DNA, bound to K+ ions, has implications for the design of anticancer drugs.
Daedalus wants to make farming more predictable by firing a carbon dioxide laser at clouds, followed by a beam of electrons or alpha particles. Disruption of a cloud top by this beam should release huge numbers of droplets, eventually producing full-sized raindrops.
