The results of a powerful combination of computer modelling and experimental tests can account for the establishment of gradients of the plant molecule auxin and for major patterning elements in the plant root.

A major hurdle in treating cancer is that tumour cells acquire drug resistance. To overcome this problem, one strategy might be to fine-tune the right mixture of drugs that target specific molecules.

Measurements on the attosecond timescale had been limited to the dynamics of electrons in an atomic gas. But a record has now been set in a quite different context — the photoemission of electrons from a surface.