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.
A new agreement by stakeholders to improve the sharing of flu data should eventually stimulate research on many infectious diseases. Now to make it work.
While attending the International Astronomical Union's meeting in Prague, Jenny Hogan kept the world up to date on the Pluto debate through our newsblog. Edited excerpts:
IVF isn't something most Westerners associate with Africa. But low-cost methods are urgently needed to treat the misery of infertility rampant on the continent, says Helen Pilcher.
The rising level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is making the world's oceans more acidic. Jacqueline Ruttimann reports on the potentially catastrophic effect this could have on marine creatures.
The immune system not only attacks microbes, but also regulates itself to avoid harming vital organs. Cells notorious for their involvement in allergy turn out to be vital to this protective function.
That is the question. The search for a single theory of everything is as old as science itself, and is now the beat of quantum cosmologists. But some basic tenets that inform the quest are being challenged.
NMR spectroscopy has changed enormously over the years, but signal detection has stayed the same since the technique was invented. The latest thinking literally shines a new light on things.
How soluble proteins get into the cell nucleus is known in great detail, but how membrane proteins make it into the inner nuclear membrane has long been an enigma. The two processes in fact turn out to be related.
What exactly is the relationship between bursts of cosmic γ-rays and the stellar explosions known as supernovae? Intimate, it seems: highly magnetic neutron stars might even have spawned both.
Is rebranding research as 'nanoscience' just jumping on the bandwagon? A recent conference in Basel proves that the name does at least attract researchers from different disciplines to mingle for mutual inspiration.
Sequences responsible for targeting integral membrane proteins to the inner nuclear membrane (INM) resemble classical nuclear localization signals. Recognition of these signals by the import receptor karyopherin-alpha promotes nuclear import; targeting of INM proteins is dependent on the Ran GTPase system and specific nuclear pore complex proteins.
Observations of the close gamma-ray burst GRB 060218 and its connection to supernova SN 2006aj reveal the break-out of a shock wave driven by a mildly relativistic shell into the dense wind surrounding the GRB progenitor. These observation catch a supernova in the act of exploding.
A report of the optical discovery and follow-up observations of the type Ic supernova SN 2006aj associated with X-ray flash XRF 060218. SN 2006aj was intrinsically less luminous than the gamma-ray burst (GRB)–supernovae connection, but more luminous than many supernovae not accompanied by a GRB.
Radio and X-ray observations of X-ray flash XRF 060218, which is associated with supernova SN 2006aj, show that this event is 100 times less energetic but ten times more common than cosmological gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The production of relativistic ejecta seems to be the key physical distinction between GRBs/XRFs and ordinary supernovae.
Modelling the spectra and light curve of supernova SN 2006aj shows that it had a much smaller explosion energy and ejected much less mass than other gamma-ray burst–supernovae, suggesting that it was produced by a star whose initial mass was only ∼20 solar masses, and which left behind a neutron star, rather than a black hole.
The nutrients that limit phytoplankton growth also influence fluorescence. The nature of these relationships in the tropical Pacific are now established, allowing fluorescence measurements to determine the factors that limit phytoplankton growth in this region more accurately, and on a larger spatial scale, than has been possible previously.
The median fins of sharks develop from a continuous finfold derived mainly from paraxial mesoderm. Expression of Tbx18, which specifies the anterior limit of the paired forelimbs, also delineates the boundaries of median fin outgrowth. Lampreys, primitive vertebrates that lack paired limbs, have a median fin that shares a similar pattern of development with sharks.
An fMRI study of healthy human volunteers finds that when dopamine levels are either enhanced or reduced by drugs, both reward-related learning and associated striatal activity are modulated, confirming the critical role of dopamine in integrating reward information for future decisions.
Plants exposed to environmental stresses such as ultraviolet light exhibit increased recombination between homologous chromosomes. Here, the progeny of plants that were exposed to an environmental stress also exhibited increased levels of genetic recombination, even though the progeny were not actually exposed to the stress.
Yeast Tor1 is dynamically distributed in the cytoplasm and nucleus, and its association with the rDNA promoter is important for 35S rRNA synthesis and cell growth.
The structure (at ∼7-nm resolution) of a complete flagellar motor obtained in situ by electron cryotomography of intact Treponema primitia cells is presented. The stator's 16-fold symmetry and its multiple connections to the rotor, C ring and a novel P-ring-like structure are described.
Doubt is often cast on the reliability of DNA microarrays, but resources are becoming available to help researchers overcome many of the problems inherent in this technology. Michael Eisenstein reports.
