Astronomer Geoff Marcy resigns over sexual harassment cases
Exoplanet hunter Geoff Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, has resigned following revelations that he had repeatedly violated the institution's sexual harassment policy
Ebola after-effects unclear as nurse becomes critically ill
As nurse Pauline Cafferkey lies critically ill nine months after recovering from Ebola, evidence is building that the virus can re-emerge in survivors
Zoologger: The robber ants living in a gang of their own
Some of the ants in Costa Rican nests devote their lives to stealing from neighbours, which suggests a distinct behavioural caste
World’s first trial of stem cell therapy in the womb
Starting in January, 20-week-old fetuses with brittle bone disease will be given transplants of stem cells in the first clinical trial of its kind
‘Gay test’ fear mustn’t derail work on sexuality’s genetic basis
Talk of using DNA to determine whether someone is gay misunderstands efforts to explain human variation, says Dean Hamer, who published the first evidence for a genetic predisposition to homosexuality
Elephants almost never get cancer thanks to multiple gene copies
Duplications of the p53 gene makes elephant cells more likely to die in response to DNA damage, rather than turn cancerous
Digital version of piece of rat brain fires like the real thing
Including 31,000 neurons and their 37 million synapses, a digital recreation of a chunk of rat brain is already giving clues as to how the real thing works
60 Seconds
Early spring, antibiotics in livestock, Indian pharmacy strike and more
Bacterial genes that turn mercury lethal mapped across world
Some bacteria turn mercury into a neurotoxin called methylmercury that accumulates in the food we eat. Now we know where those bacteria are found
Pufferfish planets could explain how hot Jupiters get so big
Many of the gas giant planets we've seen orbiting other stars are up to twice as large as theory says they should be. A new class of planets could explain why
