Life Unregulated faecal transplants could squander gut-bug promise The case for using gut bugs to cure diseases is strong, but transplanting gut microbes for diseases that there’s no proof it helps risks halting medicine’s march Opinion
Life Mission to Europa will test Jupiter moon's friendliness to life Big questions are on the horizon Is Europa habitable? That's the big question that NASA hopes to answer in a future mission to the icy moon, slated to launch sometime in the 2020s. New details emerged on Tuesday when NASA revealed the nine scientific instruments chosen to chip away at Europa's mysteries. Europa is thought … News
Health Ebola doctor: I would have been dead in a week As Ebola devastated West Africa, Ian Crozier flew in to help. Weeks later he too became infected. Dubbed the sickest man ever to survive Ebola, this is his story Opinion
Life Cute but deadly: The camouflaged world of the pygmy seahorse (Image: Alex Mustard/naturepl.com) NO ONE knew that pygmy seahorses existed until marine biologist George Bargibant came across one by accident . He was studying sea fans – the gorgonian corals found throughout the world's oceans – when out popped a tiny seahorse that resembled a swimming chunk of coral. The species was duly named after … Regulars
Technology Quark ages: How these particles are the key to new physics Busting open protons to get to the stuff inside could tell us how matter gets its mass, why we're all here – and maybe even how to make a real lightsaber Features
Technology Mondo Nano: What video games can teach nanoscience At very small scales, engineering becomes indistinguishable from video game design, claims Colin Milburn in his new book. Should science open itself up to play? CultureLab
Feedback: Scatological scorecards Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Scatological scorecards SEVERAL times a week, Feedback receives alerts from the American Society for Microbiology . We welcome them; our colleagues even find some alerts useful. But we are puzzled by a common streak running through them: an apparent fixation … Regulars