Uptake of the childhood measles, mumps and rubella triple vaccine (MMR) declined sharply in the United Kingdom after a publication in medical journal The Lancet reported a link between the ‘triple jab’ and autism. Although the study was retracted after concerns about both its scientific validity and the authors’ sources of funding, many parents [...]

When a predator attacks a songbird nest, the threatened birds often call on their neighbours for assistance. Birds such as pied flycatchers join together to mob the interloper and – hopefully – drive it away.
The existence of such cooperation between unrelated individuals has long puzzled biologists, because birds that do not bother [...]

Sufferers of LCA have a faulty version of an enzyme involved in the production of retinol, a chemical found in the cells of the retina and which is necessary for normal sight. People with the condition have severely impaired vision which degenerates with age.
Last year, a team from Moorfields Eye Hospital in London reported [...]

Amber Budden and her colleagues analysed papers published in two ecology journals. One, (Behavioural Ecology) switched to double-blind review in 2001 while the other (Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology) uses the traditional method of single-blind review, where reviewers remain anonymous but authors do not.
In the four years which followed the introduction of double-blind [...]