Society & Policy
Astrophysicist Confirmed as NSF Director
France Cordova takes the helm of the National Science Foundation at a time of tight federal budgets for science
Stories by Nature News Blog
Space
A Wish List of Future Space Missions
NASA's long-term vision, released by the agency's astrophysics division, restates its broad and popular themes for scientists to pursue including "Are We Alone?" and "How Did We Get Here?"...
Sustainability
Readers' Choices of Nature's Top Science Blog Posts in 2013
See which science blog posts were most-read on Nature's Web site this year
The Sciences
Frederick Sanger, Father of DNA Sequencing, Dead at 95
Sanger is one of only three scientists to have been awarded two Nobel Prizes in the sciences
The Sciences
U.S. Government Researchers Barred from Scientific Conferences
Government researchers are barred from their own labs during the shutdown, and they cannot travel to conferences
Health
Personal-Genetics Firm Denies Pursuit of 'Designer Babies'
23andMe says it has no plans to pursue concepts discussed in its patent for a method to predict a baby's traits based on its parents' DNA
The Sciences
European Research Council Funds ArXiv Online Pre-Print Physics and Math Papers Repository
The ERC's support provides a taste of what may be to come for the arXiv, including more financial support for the web site by other research funders and publishers
Health
Standard Vaccines Can Offer Protection against H5N1 Pandemic Avian Flu
A test vaccine has been found to be protective against a synthetic version of the H5N1 virus, but the result might not predict performance on real pandemic H5N1
The Sciences
Obama Nominates Astrophysicist to Head NSF
France Anne Cordova served as president of Purdue University from 2007 to 2012, and oversaw the creation of the Colombia–Purdue Institute for Scientific Research
Space
Cassini Probe Captures View of Earth from Saturn
Earth is a tiny blue dot in a photograph taken by the probe on July 19 when the sun was eclipsed by the gas giant
Health
Tests Confirm Pablo Neruda Had Terminal Cancer
The Chilean poet had prostate cancer in an advanced state, with extended metastasis, according to an analysis of his remains
Sustainability
Europe Restricts 3 Commonly Used Pesticides in Effort to Protect Honeybees
The UK's chief scientific advisor warns that the moratorium could harm the continent's crop production, but environmental groups pronounced the two-year ban a victory
Evolution
House Built by Evolutionary Theorist Alfred Russel Wallace Up for Sale--£1.5 Million
Wallace, who came up with the concept of evolution by natural selection independently of Charles Darwin, had the house built in 1872 in Grays, England. The naturalist is said to have lived in the house for about four years...
The Sciences
Dark Matter Signals Recorded in Minnesota Mine
Detectors at the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search have recorded three events that may represent collisions from weakly interacting massive particles
Mind
Is the World's Top Neuroscience Group Quashing Dissent on the U.S. BRAIN Initiative?
The president of the Society for Neuroscience asked its members to stay positive about a multibillion project to record all the brain's neurons in action, but some psychologists have called foul on this scientific advocacy...
Health
FDA Approves Recombinant Flu Vaccine
The agency's approval of the first seasonal flu vaccine made of recombinant proteins rather than inactivated or weakened virus comes as emergency rooms are clogged with victims of an early and severe flu season...
Health
Obama Trumps Congress and Orders Research into Gun Violence
The president issued a memorandum directing the CDC and other public-health agencies to conduct or sponsor research into the causes of gun violence and the ways to prevent it, doing an end-run around congressional moves for several years to muzzle such efforts...
Tech
Justice System "Overreach" Blamed in Suicide of Open-Access Technology Activist
Aaron Swartz faced an imminent trial for having downloaded some four million articles from a not-for-profit scholarly archive, and a possible penalty of 35 years in prison and a $1-million fine, which some call disproportionate to his actions...
Health
Research Beagles Released as Pets
70 puppies were released after activists alerted the Indian government that the animals had been falsely described as "pets" by a contract organization seeking to import them
Sustainability
Arctic Report Card: Dark Times Ahead
Conditions in the Arctic, where several environmental records were broken this year, are slipping rapidly from bad to worse as the pace of climate change accelerates in that region
