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Welcome to my genome

Welcome to my genome

George Church is a genetics pioneer whose research spans treating diseases, altering bodies and a desire to breed woolly mammoths

On the rise

On the rise

Africa has a poor reputation for scientific innovation. But when South Africa jointly won a bid in 2012 to host the world's largest science project, for a radio telescope called the Square Kilometre Array, it hoped to foster a new image.

Let the light shine in

Let the light shine in

Scientists make much of the fact that their work is scrutinised anonymously by some of their peers before it is published. This "peer review" is supposed to spot mistakes and thus keep the whole process honest.

The useful science?

The useful science?

Economics is highly parochial: there were more papers focused on the United States than on Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa combined.

Top 20 things scientists need to know about policy-making

Top 20 things scientists need to know about policy-making

When scientists moan about how little politicians know about science, I usually get annoyed. Such grouching is almost always counterproductive and more often than not betrays how little scientists know about the UK's governance structures, processes, culture and history.

GM maize, health and the Séralini affair

GM maize, health and the Séralini affair

The journal Food and Chemical Toxicology has just retracted a controversial article published in September 2012 claiming a link between genetically modified maize and cancer.

No physicist is an island

No physicist is an island

The physicist Richard Feynman liked to gripe about what he called "Alfred Nobel's Other Mistake." The first mistake was the invention of dynamite. The second was creating the Nobel Prizes.