Nature
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Flu papers warrant full publication22 February 2012, 12:00 am
Although more debate is needed, the benefits of publishing sensitive data outweigh the risks that have so far been made public....
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Turing at 10022 February 2012, 12:00 am
This year marks the centenary of the birth of Alan Turing. He deserves your attention....
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Over the line22 February 2012, 12:00 am
Dishonesty, however tempting, is the wrong way to tackle climate sceptics....
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The man behind the machine
Alan Turing is famous for many reasons. Andrew Hodges delves into why Turing's achievements took so long to be recognized....
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Evolution: Lilliputian lizards come to light22 February 2012, 12:00 am
The forests of northern Madagascar harbour a dwarf chameleon that is the smallest lizard in the world in terms of total length. Adult males of the diminutive Brookesia micra reach a length of less than 24 millimetres.B. micra and three other tiny...
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Biophysics: Claustrophobic DNA in tug of war22 February 2012, 12:00 am
When a long thin polymer such as DNA is forced into a confined space — say a small membrane channel — it loses some of its freedom, and hence its entropy. Regaining that entropy is a powerful driving force for escape.Chia-Fu Chou at the...
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Cell signalling: Sideways activation22 February 2012, 12:00 am
Elucidation of a cell receptor's crystal structure has revealed a unique lateral docking mechanism, report Hugh Rosen of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and his colleagues.G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are signalling molecules that span the plasma membranes of cells and are generally...
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Biology: Immunity's circadian link22 February 2012, 12:00 am
Daily patterns in the body's biochemical and physiological processes called circadian rhythms may influence immune-system function. Erol Fikrig and his colleagues at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, have found that the expression of an immune protein called TLR9 rises and falls with the circadian...
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Stem-cell biology: Restore my beating heart22 February 2012, 12:00 am
Infusions of a patient's own cardiac stem cells may reduce scar tissue and promote heart-muscle growth after a heart attack, according to a small safety study. Eduardo Marbán of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, California, and his colleagues harvested heart cells from 17...
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Genomics: Loss-of-function found in droves22 February 2012, 12:00 am
Genome-sequencing work has suggested that even healthy humans carry hundreds of 'loss of function' (LoF) mutations that seriously disrupt protein-coding genes. Daniel MacArthur at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, UK, and his colleagues performed extensive analysis on 185 genomes and determined that a...
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