News Feature in 2006

Interdisciplinary research is the new buzzword, but does a grounding in different disciplines really make you better at solving problems? Amanda Haag joins an experiment to find out.

Maurice Taieb laid the groundwork for the discovery of Lucy, the most famous fossil human ancestor. Rex Dalton meets the Tunisian-born geologist who prefers the desert to the limelight.

We've been told to eat less and move more to battle the growing obesity epidemic. But could getting more shuteye also be a way to fight the fat? Helen Pearson investigates.

Physicists and climate scientists have long argued over whether changes to the Sun affect the Earth's climate? A cloud chamber could help clear up the dispute, reports Jeff Kanipe.

No one has seen a dodo in three and a half centuries, but that hasn't stopped the bizarre speculation about this extinct bird. Henry Nicholls investigates whether recent excavations in Mauritius could reveal the real creature.

Sunlight is a ubiquitous form of energy, but not as yet an economic one. In the first of two features, Oliver Morton looked at how interest in photovoltaic research is heating up in California's Silicon Valley. In this, the second, Carina Dennis talks to Australian researchers hoping to harness the dawn Sun's heat.

Sunlight is a ubiquitous form of energy, but not as yet an economic one. In the first of two features, Oliver Morton looks at how interest in photovoltaic research is heating up in California's Silicon Valley. In the second, Carina Dennis talks to Australian researchers hoping to harness the dawn Sun's heat.

The rising level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is making the world's oceans more acidic. Jacqueline Ruttimann reports on the potentially catastrophic effect this could have on marine creatures.

IVF isn't something most Westerners associate with Africa. But low-cost methods are urgently needed to treat the misery of infertility rampant on the continent, says Helen Pilcher.

Can everyone use technology creatively? Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology think so and have launched 'Fab Labs' around the world to prove it. Apoorva Mandavilli reports.

Changes in the structure of children's brains may account for some of the risky business of adolescence, Kendall Powell finds.

Is targeting cancer stem cells a way to finish tumours off once and for all — or just the latest in a long line of false dawns? Alison Abbott looks at a debate that's generating both heat and light.

The detection of cancer at an early stage in its development can be life-saving. With research efforts under way to find better methods to detect minuscule tumours, Laura Spinney finds out how near some of these cancer 'biomarkers' are to the clinic.

Much of what we know about cancer comes from studying mice, and potential therapies are tested in the animals. But the differences between the species can scupper the best laid plans of researchers and drug companies, reports Carina Dennis.

One way to keep carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere is to put it back in the ground. In the first of two News Features on carbon sequestration, Quirin Schiermeier asked when the world's coal-fired power plants will start storing away their carbon. In the second, Emma Marris joins the enthusiasts who think that enriching Earth's soils with charcoal can help avert global warming, reduce the need for fertilizers, and greatly increase the size of turnips.

One way to keep carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere is to put it back in the ground. In this, the first of two News Features on carbon sequestration, Quirin Schiermeier asks when the world's coal-fired power plants will start storing away their carbon. In the second, Emma Marris joins the enthusiasts who think that enriching Earth's soils with charcoal can help avert global warming, reduce the need for fertilizers, and greatly increase the size of turnips.

Some feared that widespread use of AIDS treatments in Africa would encourage drug resistance, with globally disastrous consequences. But there's no crisis yet, reports Erika Check.

There's more to ecology than ringing birds, and in this special section Nature explores how the molecular sciences are transforming the field. In the first of two features, Sharon Levy explored how atoms in feathers can reveal the secrets of rare warblers. In this, the second, Carina Dennis unveils a technique that aims to make killing whales for science a thing of the past.

There's more to ecology than ringing birds, and in this special section Nature explores how the molecular sciences are transforming the field. In this, the first of two features, Sharon Levy explores how atoms in feathers can reveal the secrets of rare warblers. In the second, Carina Dennis unveils a technique that aims to make killing whales for science a thing of the past.