SCIENCE MAGAZINE

A recent slowdown in the processing of U.S. visas for foreign scientists and some seemingly arbitrary visa denials have prompted a fresh look at how to streamline the process.

Author: Richard Stone

An unexpected abundance of high-energy electrons from space could be evidence of particles of dark matter--the weighty and mysterious stuff whose gravity holds the galaxies together. But if the sightings really do point to dark matter, then physicists may have to revise their ideas about what the stuff is.

Author: Adrian Cho

On 7 November, the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria voted to adopt a new financing system aimed at bringing the best malaria drugs at rock-bottom prices to the local private-sector stores where most Africans buy their drugs--by letting the market do the work.

Author: Martin Enserink

In a series of cleverly designed experiments reported in a paper published online by Science this week, researchers found that if people see one norm or rule being violated (such as graffiti or a vehicle parked illegally), they're more likely to violate others--such as littering, or even stealing.

Author: Constance Holden

In addition to helping to close the divide between the research capabilities of the northern and southern hemispheres, the 871-member Academy of Sciences for the Developing World is now focusing on another divide: the widening gap between the South's scientific haves and have-nots.

Author: Robert Koenig

Systems biologists describe online in Science this week how fluorescent markers and a time-lapse microscope have allowed them an unprecedented view of the fluctuating locations and levels of about 1000 proteins in individual human cancer cells.

Author: Jocelyn Kaiser

Even those who believe there's plenty of oil left in the ground to meet rising demand are warning that the final crisis could come uncomfortably soon.

Author: Richard A. Kerr

A string of successful missions had the European Space Agency riding high and making ambitious plans, but the worldwide financial downturn may bring it back to Earth.

Author: Daniel Clery

The caterpillar-hijacking fungus Cordyceps sinensis is touted as a natural Viagra. But overharvesting has put the peculiar parasite's back against the wall.

Author: Richard Stone

A small association of Romanian scientists, many of them working abroad, is fed up with the slow pace of reforms in their country. And politicians are paying attention.

Author: Martin Enserink

In the late 1980s, communist dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu sought to demolish the Institute of Cellular Biology and Pathology (ICBP) to make way for his "House of the People." Then came the Christmas revolution of 1989. Ceauşescu didn't survive; ICBP did.

Author: Martin Enserink

Last week on his final day as director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Elias Zerhouni formalized his policy that since 2007 had set a floor--a numerical quota--for the number of awards made to new investigators.

Author: Jocelyn Kaiser

An international body has for the first time placed restrictions on experiments designed to fertilize large swaths of the world's oceans with a view to combating global warming.

Author: Eli Kintisch

A 1.2-meter-long chunk of stalagmite from a cave in northern China recorded the waning of Asian monsoon rains that helped bring down the Tang dynasty in 907 C.E., researchers report on page 940 of this week's issue of Science. A possible culprit, they conclude: a temporary weakening of the sun, which also seems to have contributed to the collapse of Maya civilization in Mesoamerica and the advance of glaciers in the Alps.l warming.

Author: Richard A. Kerr

This week, three reports describe the first African, the first Asian, and the first cancer patient to have their entire DNA deciphered. The sequences provide clues about genome variation and disease; they also demonstrate the potential of a relatively new sequencing technique to mass-produce human genomes.

Author: Elizabeth Pennisi

At a meeting last week, about 40 scientists and ethicists debated how to present the torrent of new findings from gene sequencing studies to the public without using the "fraught" terminology of race.

Author: Constance Holden

How the stock market turmoil, a credit crunch, and a recession will affect scientific research is an urgent question. Among the first to feel the slowdown are charitable foundations and other philanthropies, which provide billions of dollars in funding to scientists each year.

Author: Jennifer Couzin

This region of chromosome 17 has had a storied history, with changes in its DNA of import to human evolution and disease.

Author: Elizabeth Pennisi

A recent meeting on neural prosthetics provided an update on progress and some interesting digressions.

Author: Greg Miller

Many scientists who got their first grant in the 1950s or 1960s are still going strong. How do they view affirmative action for first-time grantees?

Author: Jocelyn Kaiser