Comment

A radical restructure is the only way to solve the systemic problems of the world's biggest funder of biomedical research, argues Michael M. Crow.

Madeleine C. Thomson and colleagues call on climate and health researchers, policy-makers and practitioners to work together to tackle infectious diseases.

On the 50th anniversary of the first attempt to drill into Earth's mantle, Damon Teagle and Benoît Ildefonse say that what was once science fiction is now possible.

Combining Maxwell's equations with Einstein's general relativity promises perfect images and cloaking devices, explains Ulf Leonhardt.

James Clerk Maxwell's 1861 work on electromagnetism, which unified scientific fields, was driven as much by technology as by abstract theorizing, argues Simon Schaffer.

An old influenza strain still circulating in birds and swine could easily jump back to humans now that immunity to it has dropped, warn Gary J. Nabel and his colleagues.

Most Europeans haven't heard of their nation's repositories of human blood and tissue samples. Promote them, say George Gaskell and Herbert Gottweis, or they could fail.

Two centuries on from the Luddite insurrection, David Edgerton celebrates today's most important opponents to new ideas, inventions and innovations: scientists.

Two views on whether scientists who believe that animal experimentation is necessary should become public advocates, or work quietly behind the scenes.

Will the $27-billion investment in electronic records in the United States revolutionize care and research, or will it be a missed opportunity for patients and science?

Most protein research focuses on those known before the human genome was mapped. Work on the slew discovered since, urge Aled M. Edwards and his colleagues.

Anthropology isn't in the crisis that parts of the media would have you believe, but it must do better, argue Adam Kuper and Jonathan Marks.

Extracting minerals from sea-floor vents should not go ahead without a coherent conservation framework, argues Cindy Lee Van Dover.

Patrick D. Shirey and Gary A. Lamberti call for action to stem the rising tide of species redistribution caused by Internet sales.

Regulators, doctors and patients need to prepare for the ethical, legal and practical effects of sequencing fetal genomes from mothers' blood, says Henry T. Greely.

Earth scientists need better incentives, rewards and mechanisms to achieve free and open data exchange, says David Carlson.

On the anniversary of Haiti's devastating quake, Nicholas Ambraseys and Roger Bilham calculate that 83% of all deaths from building collapse in earthquakes over the past 30 years occurred in countries that are anomalously corrupt.

The dismal patchwork of fragmented research on disease-associated biomarkers should be replaced by a coordinated 'big science' approach, argues George Poste.

Chemistry needs an overhaul if it is to solve big global problems and advance fundamental understanding, say George M. Whitesides and John Deutch.

Ten leading chemists set priorities for the forthcoming decades, and reveal the scientists they find inspiring.