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.
The resignation of the head of the Smithsonian Institution highlights a misguided tendency for museums to focus on communication at the expense of research. It also offers the chance of a fresh start.
The head of China's drug-safety agency is under investigation for alleged corruption. David Cyranoski looks at how the inquiry might affect the country's fast-growing pharmaceutical industry.
Vast stellar nurseries, clouds that dwarf the Solar System and lurking swarms of black holes. Jeff Kanipe probes the unfolding mysteries at the heart of the Milky Way.
Philadelphia's venerable natural history museum is teetering on the brink of financial disaster. A new president recently took the helm, but can he save one of America's great institutions? Rex Dalton reports.
Can a vast monoculture plantation be at the forefront of biodiversity protection? David Cyranoski meets conservation biologists who hope to save species by making peace with the enemy.
Two light-sensitive proteins from unicellular organisms have been harnessed to rapidly activate or silence neurons. This optical remote control allows precise, millisecond control of neural circuits.
The tunnelling of a bound electron out of an atom in a laser field is a well-known quantum-mechanical process. But it happens very quickly, and it takes some fast work with X-rays and lasers to see it in action.
Auxin is one of the main agents that regulate plant growth and development. Intricate crystallographic studies reveal how this hormone acts as a 'molecular glue' in mediating substrate–receptor interactions.
The strange, slimy creatures called hagfishes are of abiding interest to students of vertebrate evolution: just where do they fit in? Investigations of hagfish development take the story forward.
Earth's magnetic field has protected our atmosphere from erosion by the solar wind ever since it started up. Silicate crystals from some of Earth's oldest rocks date that event to more than 3 billion years ago.
A time-resolved observation of electron tunnelling and the short-lived electronic states that subsequently appear is useful as a new approach to obtain insights in multi-electron dynamics inside atoms and molecules. This technique of 'attosecond tunnelling' is applied to study the cascade of electronic transitions that occur in xenon atoms as a result of their ionization.
A light-activated chloride pump that occurs naturally in bacteria can be transfected into neurons, thereby permitting inhibition of neural activity on a millisecond timescale. This complements an existing tool for activating neurons through a photoactivatable algal channel.
Study of the crystal structures of three different auxin compounds in complex with the receptor transport inhibitor response 1, as well as an Aux/IAA peptide, reveals that auxin acts as 'molecular glue' to promote interactions between the receptor and protein substrates targeted for degradation.
The heavy rare earth elements differ only in their number of 4f electrons, but this subtle difference leads to a wide variety of magnetic structures. This paper rationalizes this diversity of behaviours within a common theoretical framework, in which the magnetic properties of these elements are intimately tied, in two distinct ways, to the lattice parameters describing their otherwise identical crystal structures.
The rates at which organic matter and pyrites were buried in marine sediments seem to have been inversely related during the Early Cretaceous period, in comparison to modern sediments. This puzzling relationship could be due to the deposition of evaporites during the opening of the South Atlantic basin, as this event removed enough sulphate from the ocean to significantly reduce the rates of pyrite formation and organic matter breakdown by bacteria.
Analysis of silicate rocks from the Archaean Kaapvaal craton is used to obtain palaeodirections and intensities of the Earth's magnetic field some 3.2 billion years ago, and finds that the field strength was within 50 per cent of the present-day value, indicating that a viable magnetosphere sheltered the early Earth's atmosphere from solar wind erosion.
A study of hagfish embryology reveals the presence of genetic markers that are indicative of the development of neural crest, a key vertebrate character, similar to the course of events in lampreys.
Deregulation of the Wnt signalling pathway has been implicated in the development of cancer, including colorectal tumours. This paper shows that regulation of the transcription factor c-Myc is the most critical target for Wnt signalling in the early stages of intestinal neoplasias.
A previously unknown signalling pathway is shown to enhance the formation of metastases in a mouse model of prostate cancer. This pathway can be activated by RANK ligand that is expressed by inflammatory cells in the tumour and triggers activation of IKKα in the nucleus, where it directly represses the transcription of maspin, a known metastases suppressor.
This small but inventive island is putting transgenics and nanotechnology to novel uses. A pay rise might be all it needs to lure its expatriate scientists home, says Paul Smaglik.
