News & Comment

After dodging icebergs and flying fish, Jeff Standish and colleagues collected a suite of basalts from the Southwest Indian Ridge, to try and determine the mechanisms of mid-ocean-ridge formation.

Taxpayer-funded scientific research carries with it the responsibility to communicate to the general public its relevance in an accessible, open and inspirational manner. The HiRISE project that steers a camera on Mars admirably achieves this aim.

Fiamma Straneo and colleagues travelled to the heart of a glacial fjord in East Greenland to determine the causes of glacial retreat.

Indonesia's tsunami-warning system is scheduled to enter full operational mode by March 2010. The sooner it runs, the better: the threat of a tsunamigenic earthquake in the region is still imminent.

Arsenic contamination of groundwater affects millions of people in southern Asia. Water from deep wells could help, but only if used in moderation.

Self-censorship of private scientific e-mail-exchanges cannot be the solution to the threat from hackers.

Nearly an eighth of the population in Bangladesh relies on arsenic-contaminated drinking water. Arsenic-removal filters could help to reduce exposure, but their price is high for the poor and their maintenance is cumbersome.