Technology Features in 2017

A small community of scientists has taken a do-it-yourself approach to microscopy: when the right tool for the job doesn’t exist, make it.

Ultrasonic energy can be harnessed to alter brain activity and treat disease — but first, scientists need to learn how it works.

Offering long reads and rapidly improving accuracy, nanopore sequencing has the potential to upend the DNA sequencing market.

Improvements in mapping protein–protein interactions are allowing researchers to deconstruct the delicate mechanics of cells.

Chemical probes and screening libraries can easily get mixed up or messed up, causing misleading results for unwary biologists.

After tackling the genomes of bacteria and yeast, synthetic biologists are setting their sights on rewriting those of more complex organisms, including humans.

Researchers are exploiting the structural properties of DNA to build nanoscale models for use in medicine and materials science.

Microfluidic devices filled with intricate channels that exploit fluid behaviour promise to make it easier to diagnose genetic disease.

Mobile phones are helping to take conventional laboratory-based science into the field, the classroom and the clinic.

Innovative tools are revealing the forces that guide cellular processes such as embryonic development and tumour growth.

Innovative techniques are giving researchers unprecedented access to the inner workings of the immune system.

As researchers open up to the reality of RNA modification, an expanded epitranscriptomics toolbox takes shape.

Neuroscientists are starting to share and integrate data — but shifting to a team approach isn't easy.