Category Archives: Highlights

The ebb and flow of neurotransmitters switches our brains between sleep and wakefulness in carefully regulated cycles.

Russia and Qatar prepare to dominate market as gas price inflation puts researchers under pressure.

Engineered bacteria make self-assembling tetrahedra.

Despite decades of work to develop alternative ways to make ammonia, the Haber–Bosch process is here to stay, Mark Peplow discovers.

Erratic supplies of a critical chemical have long denied millions of people in the developing world the malaria therapies that could save their lives. Now an effort to create a more reliable source is finally bearing fruit.

One thing’s for sure: the bees are not happy. Since 2006, worrying numbers of worker bees have been deserting their hives, a phenomenon dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD). Although apiculturists have noted for centuries that bees can suddenly disappear in … Continue reading →

Mark Peplow assesses a chronicle of the blighted US and Soviet communities that fuelled the nuclear arms race.

Space telescope culls exotic creation theories with ultra-precise microwave map.

Necklace of gold nanoparticles can sense single electrons.

Proponents of hydrogen-powered vehicles have long argued that it is the future of motoring. But today, their dream is almost as distant as ever – and increasingly serves as a distraction in the quest to cut greenhouse gas emissions by … Continue reading →