Neighbouring neuron recordings reflect behavioural changes.

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Second authorUnderstanding the nature and origin of asteroids that pass by — and occasionally hit — Earth may help us to identify future impact threats. Richard Binzel, a planetary scientist at Mas...

At the Seven Stones blog (http://tinyurl.com/5apjbw), Thomas Lemberger, an editor on Molecular Systems Biology, discusses work by James Evans of the University of Chicago in Illinois (Science321, 3...

The world has an abundance of renewable energy to offer, the question is how to harness it.

J. Geophys. Res. doi:10.1029/2008JF001005 (2008) When icebergs collide, they create seismic tremors that are detectable thousands of kilometres away and might one day be used to track the disintegr...

Proc. R. Soc. B doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.0506 (2008) The hierarchy of stages involved as blood stem cells develop into the various blood-cell types does not differ significantly across all species of ...

Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA doi:10.1073/pnas.0804609105 (2008)Metallic helium isn't as hard to make as scientists thought, according to Lars Stixrude of University College London and Raymond Jeanloz ...

Geophys. Res. Lett. doi:10.1029/2008GL034160 (2008)The weekly weather cycles detected in some big cities have been linked to higher levels of vehicle exhaust and factory emissions on weekdays than ...

Astrophys. J.682, 724–736 (2008) 10.1086/589568A survey of exploding stars shows that the farther away they are, the slower they seem to blow apart, as predicted on the basis of general relativity....

J. Fish Biol.73, 728–731 (2008) 10.1111/j.1095-8649.2008.01949.xWhen mothers warn their daughters that boys are after only one thing, a meal probably isn't what they have in mind. However, male fis...

Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA105, 10693–10698 (2008)Agriculture began in a region of the Middle East known as the Fertile Crescent. That it diffused across Europe as human populations did is broadly ac...

Cell doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2008.06.034 (2008)Researchers have for the first time reversed symptoms of HIV infection in a living animal using the technique of RNA interference. They constructed an ant...

Science321, 836–838 (2008) 10.1126/science.1159023In about 4,000 species of flowering plant, individuals can grow both male and hermaphrodite flowers. This curious trait is called andromonoecy, and...

Soft Matter doi:10.1039/b805434g (2008)A polymer developed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio can move up and down as fast as a hummingbird's flapping wings when it is hit with laser light....

A geochemist wonders about the Solar System's true age.Scientists have long looked at the constituent elements of meteorites to find out how old the Sun and its planets are. The most perfect exampl...

SirWe would like to suggest a possible reason for the disputes and failures in the search for a genetic basis for mental illnesses that was not mentioned in your News Feature 'Psychiatric genetics:...

SirYour News Feature ‘The brains of the family’ (Nature454, 154–157; 2008) and accompanying Editorial ‘An unnecessary battle’ (Nature454, 137–138; 2008) highlight the need to adopt a more integrate...

SirYour News Feature ‘The brains of the family’ (Nature454, 154–157; 2008) summarizes the problems in the hunt for genetic variants associated with psychiatric disorders. But it contains ambiguitie...

For Marcel Proust, the madeleine evoked childhood memories — a new treatment of the science of smell attempts to take our everyday experience of odour to a more insightful level, explains Gary Beau...

Science is a gamble. Publication, applying for grants, student admissions and corporate relationships all involve high-stakes bets, a mixture of skill and luck, and often a bit of bluffing. Which g...

The lack of women, especially senior women, in science departments is familiar. Less widely appreciated is the effort that has gone into addressing this under-representation. Women in Science, Engi...

In 1927, on the shore of Lake Michigan, an unemployed and possibly drunk US inventor contemplated suicide. Then, according to the legend he later spun, he had an out-of-body experience. He felt he ...

In today's computer age, the implications of the discovery in formal logic that Newman and Nagel articulated in 1958 are of even broader interest, says Andrew Hodges.

In Martin Kemp's article on Ferdinand Verbiest (Nature454, 405; 2008), the nationality of Chinese bandit hero Goyo was incorrectly given as Japanese. Also, it is his nickname Chitasei, not the name...

Pairs of quantum-mechanically entangled particles seem to know at once what is happening to each other. Experiments show that even if this signalling is not instantaneous, it must be really, really...

Certain enzymes that synthesize antibiotics play a game of pass the parcel, handing biosynthetic intermediates from one active site to another. A study reveals the dynamic nature of interactions be...

The indications are that a solid ball of iron lies at Earth's centre. But only the identification of an elusive seismic signature can confirm the long-standing assumption that it is indeed solid.

Humans who colonized Australia did not reach Tasmania until thousands of years later — granting the island's giant kangaroos a brief respite before they joined their Australian brethren in oblivion.

A vacuum may be devoid of matter, but its shape is still important. The strength of the Casimir force caused by quantum fluctuations in the space between surfaces is critically dependent on their n...

A drug that normally suppresses an immune response by trapping lymphocytes in lymphoid organs results in the elimination of a chronic viral infection when applied at low doses. Why should this be?

Autism is a common neurodevelopmental syndrome with a strong genetic component. The study of autistic individuals whose parents are cousins highlights the genetic diversity of this condition.

A sleepy brain pays little attention to its surroundings, and its neurons are lulled by a common oscillation. As the brain swiftly rouses from this sluggish state, its neurons function more indepen...

The development of alternatives to fossil fuels as an energy source is an urgent global priority. Cellulosic biomass has the potential to contribute to meeting the demand for liquid fuel, but land-...

The gut-derived hormone ghrelin exerts its effect on the brain by regulating neuronal activity. Ghrelin-induced feeding behaviour is controlled by arcuate nucleus neurons that co-express neuropepti...

At termination of protein synthesis, type I release factors promote hydrolysis of the peptidyl-transfer RNA linkage in response to recognition of a stop codon. Here we describe the crystal structur...

Understanding the nature and origin of the asteroid population in Earth’s vicinity (near-Earth asteroids, and its subset of potentially hazardous asteroids) is a matter of both scientific interest ...

Correlations are generally described by one of two mechanisms: either a first event influences a second one by sending information encoded in bosons or other physical carriers, or the correlated ev...

Graphite vaporization provides an uncontrolled yet efficient means of producing fullerene molecules. However, some fullerene derivatives or unusual fullerene species might only be accessible throug...

The onset of major glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere about 2.7 million years ago was most probably induced by climate cooling during the late Pliocene epoch. These glaciations, during which th...

Since the discovery of the Earth’s core a century ago, and the subsequent discovery of a solid inner core (postulated to have formed by the freezing of iron) seismologists have striven to understan...

In many infectious diseases, an unknown fraction of infections produce symptoms mild enough to go unrecorded, a fact that can seriously compromise the interpretation of epidemiological records. Thi...

Internal brain states form key determinants for sensory perception, sensorimotor coordination and learning. A prominent reflection of different brain states in the mammalian central nervous system ...

Diverse cell polarity networks require positive feedback for locally amplifying distributions of signalling molecules at the plasma membrane. Additional mechanisms, such as directed transport or co...

All viruses rely on host cell proteins and their associated mechanisms to complete the viral life cycle. Identifying the host molecules that participate in each step of virus replication could prov...

For a wide variety of microbial pathogens, the outcome of the infection is indeterminate. In some individuals the microbe is cleared, but in others it establishes a chronic infection, and the facto...

Structured RNAs embedded in the untranslated regions (UTRs) of messenger RNAs can regulate gene expression. In bacteria, control of a metabolite gene is mediated by the self-cleaving activity of a ...

Non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS) and polyketide synthases (PKS) produce numerous secondary metabolites with various therapeutic/antibiotic properties. Like fatty acid synthases (FAS), these...

Non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS) and polyketide synthases (PKS) found in bacteria, fungi and plants use two different types of thioesterases for the production of highly active biological c...

Getting to grips with scientific variables.