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The US National Institutes of Health is toughening its funding rules to persuade researchers to share materials more widely. The move is commendable but it raises critical questions that urgently require resolution.
Hiroaki Serizawa's promising US academic career was ruined when a favour to a friend led to him being charged with economic espionage on behalf of Japan. He tells his story to David Cyranoski.
Ever woken up with the answer to a problem that had seemed insoluble the night before, or able to perform a task that had previously taxed your skills? We may soon know why, says Laura Nelson.
A protein has been identified that enables cells to survive when dislodged from their substrate, and to migrate to new sites in the body. Such a mechanism might give cancer cells a significant advantage.
Silicon carbide is a highly desirable material for high-power electronic devices — more desirable even than silicon. And now the problem of producing large, pure wafers of the carbide could be solved.
Kinship fosters the evolution of cooperation. However, a once-heretical theory and an unconventional social organism show that the cooperation-enhancing effect of kinship is sometimes negated.
The future for intracellular imaging looks bright with the development of fluorescent probes made entirely of RNA. The cunning design exploits structural attributes of RNA to detect a variety of small molecules.
Whether a protein can transmit disease in mammals has been an open question for some time. The latest test of this idea provides some strong evidence in favour, but is unlikely to end the debate.
Which came first, the stars and gas that make up a galaxy, or the giant black hole at its centre? Observations of a distant galaxy, caught as it forms, could help solve this chicken-and-egg problem.
Activation-induced deaminase catalyses two processes that diversify antibodies. But this enzyme need not work alone: a partner links it to its substrate — single-stranded DNA — and to DNA-repair molecules.
As Western lifestyles spread around the world, diabetes has become an epidemic. Improved treatments are desperately needed, and the funding is there for those who may be able to help, says Ricki Lewis.
