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In the United States, assisted reproduction and embryo research in the private sector have been left largely unregulated, whereas federally funded labs face stringent controls. The distinction makes little sense.
NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts aims to turn speculative ideas into tomorrow's space missions. Tony Reichhardt attends its latest get-together, and asks whether the investment is worth it.
In many countries, students are turning away from the hard sciences. Can initiatives that give young people hands-on experience of research help to lure them back? Sally Goodman goes back to school.
A primary function of mitochondria may have been to compartmentalize respiration, thus protecting cells from the damaging side-effects of oxygen metabolism.
Events such as wildfires, occurring on a tiny area of the globe, can have a huge impact on the global carbon cycle. This much is plain from investigation of the terrible fires that afflicted Indonesia five years ago.
The crab Bythograea thermydron has eyes that consist of large naked retinas. Studies of the crab's larval forms suggest that these eyes are a specific adaptation to the dim environment of oceanic volcanic vents.
Neutron stars, as the name suggests, are mostly made of neutrons. But the cores of these tiny, dense stellar leftovers might conceal new states of matter, including strange matter. The light from these stars holds the key.
Experiments and computer simulations are converging in their exploration of the timescales on which protein folding occurs. Such developments are a promising way forward in molecular biophysics.
The seeds of plants need to be dispersed to locations where they can survive and grow. In the deserts of Mexico, it seems that a species of bat is the dispersal agent of choice for a giant cactus.
Atomic spins in a 'frustrated' magnet cannot simultaneously minimize the energies of their local interactions: they fluctuate continuously, even at very low temperatures. But under pressure, they line up in an ordered way.
Between the Magellanic Clouds, in a region swept with tides of gas, stars are forming. The detection of carbon monoxide shows gas is condensing, and further observations may reveal the ultimate fate of the clouds.
New work in mice finds that certain anti-cholesterol drugs can reduce symptoms of disease in brain autoimmune disorders that are akin to human multiple sclerosis. There are also hints as to how the drugs might work.
