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.

A literature meta-analysis of the effects of nitrogen and phosphorus on plant growth prompts a thought-provoking inference — that the supply of, and demand for, these nutrients are usually in close balance.