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This issue's focus on avian flu highlights progress and incoherence in the world's response to a potential human pandemic. But the threat is enormous, and some priorities are clear enough.
Welcome to my weblog. I'm Sally O'Reilly, a freelance journalist based in Washington DC. I've been researching a book on pandemic preparedness. But now the time for preparation has run out.
Drugs that could lessen the death toll in a flu pandemic do exist. But global stockpiles are too small, and the countries at most immediate risk are among the worst prepared. Alison Abbott reports.
Global agricultural authorities should harmonize with the public-health sector to ensure the exchange of flu virus samples, and establish a single international standard for vaccines, say Robert Webster and Diane Hulse.
Early detection and rapid response to bird flu, on a global scale, will drastically cut the costs of dealing with a full-blown human flu pandemic, argue Ron Fouchier, Thijs Kuiken, Guus Rimmelzwaan and Albert Osterhaus.
There is no bigger acute microbial threat to China, and to the rest of the world, than an influenza pandemic, and no better time to prepare for this eventuality than now. David Ho asks what more China could be doing.
A committed, transparent research effort into the detection, prevention and treatment of bird flu is now critical. Anthony S. Fauci presents the questions that need answers.
Our persistence in placing ourselves at the top of the Great Chain of Being suggests we have some deep psychological need to see ourselves as the culmination of creation.
The movement of cattle around the country, and the presence of badgers, are both implicated in the high incidence of bovine tuberculosis in Britain. The problem may get even worse in the near future.
An early epoch of planetary migration could explain the current orbits of the giant planets, the origin of Jupiter's Trojans, and an intense bombardment of the early Solar System with a shower of asteroids and comets.
Embryonic cells learn their fate early in development. Discovery of a factor that controls the development of one embryonic tissue, the ectoderm, highlights a mechanism that might also influence the growth of cancer cells.
The observation that there is interference between a laser-induced electron wave and a single molecule means that it may be possible to image changes in molecular structure with a sub-femtosecond resolution.
Farmers and gardeners have long taken advantage of the growth-altering properties of the plant hormone auxin. The discovery of the elusive auxin receptor hints at how plant cells ‘sense’ and respond to this protein.
The best low-energy measurement yet obtained of the electroweak mixing angle — a central parameter of the standard model of particle physics — is the last hurrah for Stanford's powerful two-mile linear accelerator.
Once hyped, gene therapy still holds promise as an effective method for treating a variety of diseases. On the road to fulfilling that expectation, opportunities exist for young scientists who are excited by a still-emerging field, says Hannah Hoag.
Switzerland is proving that small countries can make a big impression in science. It is recruiting some of the brightest young researchers from all over the world and convincing them to stay, says Quirin Schiermeier.
