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How Japan deals with the radioactive and political fallout from the natural disasters of March 2011 that wrecked the Fukushima Daiichi atomic plant will have immense implications for the nuclear power industry worldwide. In a Comment piece this week, two prominent Japanese politicians, Tomoyuki Taira and Yukio Hatoyama, call for the nationalization of the plant as part of the recovery process. Only with the government in control, they say, can scientists find out what really happened and make the necessary plans to cope with the aftermath. One example of the inadequacy of the current arrangement is the redacted reactor-operator�s manual shown on the cover. Presented to a Diet committee by the plant�s operators, the document was rendered almost unintelligible by heavy redactions.
Even Japan's political leaders struggle to get answers regarding the Fukushima disaster. It is just the latest example of the government's lack of independent scientific advice.
In two decades of covering climate-change negotiations, Frank McDonald, has seen youthful hope fight dark forces, and a distant threat become a reality.
South Africa is vying fiercely with Australia to host a giant radio telescope that may never be built — but the competition itself is changing the country's science landscape.
The structure of an antibody that potently neutralizes a wide range of HIV-1 strains, together with a minimal antigen mimic, is an advance towards the design of vaccines that may elicit protective responses. See Article p.336
Most soft materials, such as sand, can be in either a solid-like or a liquid-like state. New experiments probe the surprisingly rich nonlinear physics that can occur in between these two states. See Letter p.355
A long-standing issue in nanotechnology is how to connect molecular electronic devices. A method for splicing nanoscale wires made from different materials paves the way for a solution to this problem.
Stellar explosions known as type Ia supernovae are a significant tool in cosmology, but their exact nature is unknown. Two studies bring an understanding of these cosmic blasts a step closer. See Letters p.344 & p.348
The efficacy of the anticancer drug vemurafenib, which is used to treat metastatic melanoma, is plagued by acquired resistance. A picture of how such resistance develops is emerging. See Letter p.387
The crystal structure of V1/V2, the only unresolved portion of the HIV-1 gp120 envelope glycoprotein, is reported in complex with human antibody PG9 and reveals a paradigm of antibody recognition with implications for vaccine development.
Multi-instrument detection of a nearby type 1a supernova shows that the exploding star was probably a carbon–oxygen white dwarf star in a binary system with a main-sequence companion.
Archival images of the progenitor system of supernova SN 2011fe are so sensitive that the presence of luminous red giants or most helium stars is directly ruled out.
Use of nanomechanical resonators has the potential to offer microwave amplification with the minimum possible added noise, namely that due to quantum fluctuations.
Within the previous framework of jamming, granular systems were expected to jam only above a critical density, but here it is shown that application of shear to frictional grains can lead to a rich set of anisotropic jammed states at densities below this critical value.
The persistent, shallow connection between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea that caused the Messinian salinity crisis may have been sustained by a balance between tectonic uplift and erosion due to inflow.
Although clinical trials have shown that RAF inhibitors prolong the survival of patients with BRAF-mutant melanoma, resistance inevitably develops; resistance is shown here to be frequently mediated by the expression of splicing variants of mutant BRAF.
Identifying the patients most likely to progress from a precancerous condition to multiple myeloma could help doctors catch the disease early and stop it taking hold.
Drugs introduced to fight multiple myeloma in the past decade have revolutionized treatment and extended patients' lives. Are the improvements set to continue?
Stem-cell transplants are an important tool for treating myeloma. But with improved drug alternatives, doctors disagree about the best time to give the treatment.