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Clean water and decent sanitation. Those of us who live in developed countries probably don’t give these things a second thought. But for more than 800 million people around the globe, safe drinking water is a distant luxury

Nobel laureates, like all scientists, have published their findings in peer-reviewed journals. Their initial results, theories and thoughts in these publications have been preserved in the digital archives of the scientific literature, as if they have been frozen in time. [More]

LINDAU, Germany--Drab details dominate most academic conferences, but here at the 61st Meeting of Nobel Laureates, the hundreds of young scientists in attendance want and get a lot more--including career tips and snappy anecdotes about the twists and turns of how science actually happens. [More]

In her lecture today, Ada Yonath compared her scientific quest to determine the structure of the

Editor's Note: William Gilly , a professor of biology at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station, embarked on new expedition this month to study jumbo squid in the Gulf of California on the National Science Foundation–funded research vessel New Horizon. This is his fourth blog post about the trip. [More]

Tasmanian devils ( Sarcophilus harrisii ) have been besieged by a highly contagious cancer that has been pushing the species ever-closer to extinction . In the past 15 years, Devil Facial Tumor Disease has spread throughout Australia's Tasmania island, killing most Tasmanian devils that catch it

Even if you adore red meat, you'll put off your big juicy steak by hearing what

By Amber Dance of Nature magazine Those wanting to raise awareness about a rare disease will be able to take advantage of an initiative being launched later this year: a website that connects research projects with members of the public who can donate just a few dollars to help to develop cures. The plan, called the Global Genes Fund, will "democratize the research proposal game", says Irwin Feller, an emeritus professor of the economics of science and technology at Pennsylvania State University in University Park. The idea has been developed by the Children's Rare Disease Network, a non-profit organization based in Dana Point, California.

The U.S. Supreme Court's 7-2 ruling Monday (pdf) that California cannot regulate the sale or rental of violent video games to minors is the latest chapter in the long-simmering debate over the impact of aggression in the virtual world on children's behavior in the real world. The high court's ruling is based on law and politics; it noted that states don't have the right to restrict children's First Amendment rights

By Eugenie Samuel Reich of Nature magazine Amateur historians and astronomers are buzzing with intrigue over allegations that the legendary US astronomer Edwin Hubble, after whom NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is named, may have actively censored the work of a competitor to advance his own career. Professional historians are demanding further evidence, but advocates of the position are already urging NASA to name a future space mission after the slighted researcher

It was an accidental mutation of the Tetrahymena thermophila (left), a pond organism, during a lab experiment that revealed that the enzyme telomerase keeps the protective caps on the end of chromosomes long. Speaking at the 61st Meeting of Nobel Laureates at Lindau, Elisabeth Blackburn compared the caps, called telomeres , to the tips on the end of a shoelace that prevent it from fraying. Telomeres protect DNA during cell division

Oliver Smithies won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2007. On June 27th, he spoke to students [at the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting] about what he learned from his thesis research, which involved developing a new method to measure the osmotic pressures of mixes of proteins: "Here's my osmotic pressure measurement. And I was rather proud of this method

As Operation Enduring Freedom, the war on terror in Afghanistan, winds down and some 33,000 U.S.

Madhurima Benekareddy