Feature Article

Shipping is one of the most fuel-efficient ways to move freight, but the industry still produces significant greenhouse-gas emissions, including more than a quarter of the world's nitrogen oxides emissions. And it also produces more sulphur dioxide emissions than all land transportation combined. In the latest of Nature's our Future Transport series, Duncan Graham-Rowe looks at the new wave in shipping.

Where does innovation come from? How can it best be nurtured and encouraged? These questions are taking on global significance as fast-developing nations such as China, India and Brazil increasingly see leadership in innovation as key to their economic competitiveness. Although the link between innovation and economic strength is a matter for debate, the power of innovation to shape and transform society makes it worth studying. (Editorial)

The speed of the plant movement is alarming. The plant death is striking, and occurred in most species. The latest finding provide a glimpse of what could happen to the world's vegetation as the Earth faces inevitable global warming and results appear in journal Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, August 19, 2008,vol.105,no. 33,11823

The airline industry's insatiable demand for fuel is bad news for the environment. But can biofuels provide the solution, asks David Strahan.

What's going to happen over the next decade? New Scientist looks at the latest forecasts - and how reliable they are.

Skyrocketing mineral prices are fuelling a mining boom for which few developing nations are prepared, says William Laurance.

Nature-loving visitors to protected animal reserves can make carnivorous animals like bobcats and coyotes scarper, a new study says.

We need more accurate climate forecasts, even if their predictions threaten to weaken the political imperative to tackle emissions. (Editorial)

The explosion of cardiovascular disease in India may not only be bad for the country's health, it could also be bad for its economy. If the surge continues, it could decrease India's productivity and overwhelm its already struggling public-health system, say experts.

This paper analyses levels of women's malnutrition in India over the seven years between 1998-99 and 2005-06, based on the National Family Health Survey. During a period of higher growth and a reasonable pace of reduction in poverty, malnutrition especially iron-deficiency anaemia has increased among women from disadvantaged social and economic groups. The adverse influence of maternal malnutrition extends beyond maternal mortality to causing intrauterine growth retardation, child malnutrition and an increasing prevalence of chronic diseases.