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.
Nature investigates what human embryonic stem-cell lines have been derived worldwide so far, and why scientists are so desperate to work with new ones.
The idea that readers should be able to replicate published scientific results is seen as the bedrock of modern science. But what if replication proves difficult or impossible? Jim Giles tracks the fate of one group of papers.
The United States has embarked on a huge effort to try to track the H5N1 avian flu virus in birds migrating into the country. But is surveillance more urgently needed elsewhere? Erika Check reports.
Faster, safer and easier to control — chemical reactions in microreactors are taking off in the lab. Now industry is being seduced by the charms of the lab on a chip. Jenny Hogan investigates.
A deft technique allows magnetic atoms to be placed one by one in a semiconductor crystal. It's a further step towards an ambitious goal: a computer chip that might simultaneously store and manipulate data.
Many newly synthesized bacterial proteins avoid aggregation by folding inside a chaperonin nanocage. Unexpectedly, it turns out that the cage's internal properties can be optimized to accelerate folding.
Titan is viewed as a sibling of Earth, as both bodies have rainy weather systems and landscapes formed by rivers. But as we study these similarities, Titan emerges as an intriguingly foreign world.
What's the best way to make a tube? Roll up a sheet? Hollow out a solid rod? Some innovative movies show how the problem is tackled during the development of blood vessels in embryos.
Transient bursts of cosmic light provide a unique window on what's going on in the distant Universe. But similar bursts closer to home may be muddying the view, and hopes rest on a new tool to resolve things.
In the developing nervous system, tremendous multiplication and diversification of cells elaborate the exquisite pattern of the brain. But how do cells shift from early proliferation to assume their mature states?
Molecular 'snapshots' of the MnmA thiouridylase–tRNA complex reveal that during RNA sulphuration, a key α-helix forms around the active site, burying U34 into the catalytic pocket. This 'closed' conformation of the active site ensures that sulphur is incorporated into uridine at the correct place.
Analysis of the N2H+ — and, by inference, the N2 — abundance inside a cold dark molecular cloud finds that most of the nitrogen is atomic, rather than molecular, explaining the low N2 abundance in comets.
Calculations show that severe methane convective storms accompanied by intense precipitation may occur on Titan under the right environmental conditions. Such rainfalls on Titan's surface are comparable to flash flood events on Earth.
In situ data from Saturn's moon Titan indicates an upper methane ice cloud and a lower, barely visible, liquid methane–nitrogen cloud, with a gap in between. The lower liquid cloud produces drizzle that reaches Titan's surface.
Isolation and cultivation of an extreme thermoacidophilic archaeon from hydrothermal vents suggests that this organism may be important in the iron and sulphur cycles in these environments.
High-resolution time-lapse imaging from zebrafish shows that the lumen of blood vessels is formed by coalescence of intracellular vacuoles, followed by fusion to the plasma membrane.
Examination of the role of the ATM protein in oncogenic chromosomal translocations in the disease ataxia telangiectasia finds that ATM is involved directly in stabilizing a complex that occurs when DNA double-strand breaks are made in lymphocyte antigen receptor loci. When the complex is not stabilized, the DNA ends are able to undergo aberrant reactions that can lead to translocations.
The anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) has a key role in controlling mitosis. This paper identifies Id2 as a target of the APC/C that is responsible for its function in regulating axonal growth.
Cryo-electron tomography was used to produce a three-dimensional model of sea urchin sperm microtubule doublets with a resolution sufficient to identify tubulin as well as other components — such as tektins that form a filament inside the A-tubule of the doublet.
The drug industry may be going through lean times, as new candidates have to clear ever-higher safety hurdles. But this gives scientists who can steer a drug through clinical trials a head start in the job market, says Hannah Hoag.
The ability to perform experiments on small scales using miniaturized (lab-on-a-chip) devices has many benefits, and highly integrated and compact labs on chips with exciting functionality have been developed despite the engineering challenges involved. This Insight highlights recent advances in the application of microfluidic-chip-based technologies such as chemical synthesis, the study of cellular metabolism and medical diagnostics.