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Vegetation is traditionally regarded as passive, doing nothing but what is essential to grow and survive. Evidence is accumulating, however, in support of formerly esoteric notions that plants can communicate, remember, even count--features that one would call cognitive if they were observed in animals. Michael Gross reports.

Large animals have a disproportionate capacity to transport nutrients along gradients and against water flow directions, making them more available to ecosystems and ultimately saving them from disappearing in sea floor sediments. Megafauna extinctions have reduced this capacity dramatically, while humans and their livestock aren’t stepping in to restore this important ecosystem service.

Summary Debate has erupted over the current, hard-won policy of leaving isolated tribes in the Amazon alone. After two anthropologists suggested well-planned contacts may be needed to save them, activists have fiercely rejected this suggestion. The discussion evokes memories of not-so-distant crimes against the natives and philosophical questions as to what counts as a good life. Michael Gross reports.

SummaryDogs have evolved to become the animal species most integrated with human society. Surprisingly, the origins and mechanisms of the remarkable co-evolution are still obscure and provide fuel for debates. Brain imaging studies showing up similarities and recent results implicating the hormone oxytocin also suggest that it makes sense to compare the social mind of dogs to our own. Michael Gross reports.

SummaryAs the performance of electronic tracking devices improves dramatically, their use opens up new areas of investigation. The movements of individuals can be linked to physiology, environmental conditions and group behaviour, report back on otherwise inaccessible parts of the biosphere, and warn us of disease spread and natural disasters. Michael Gross reports.

Summary A recently discovered gene editing tool raises the possibility of precisely targeted changes to human genes, even in the germline. The nascent debate over the ethics and limitations of its use has already been overtaken by events. Is this a whole new Pandora's box for bioethics? Michael Gross investigates.

Summary The global spread of our species has led to a massive loss of terrestrial species, which dramatically changed the size distribution of land-based fauna and disrupted its ecological function. The less readily accessible ocean biotopes have so far been spared this fate, but lessons from the mass extinction on land must be learned if we don't want the sawfishes and whale sharks to follow the sabre-toothed cats and woolly mammoths into oblivion. Michael Gross reports.

Summary The human sense of smell has long been belittled as a vestige of the more powerful olfactory capabilities observed in other mammals. Yet, now that the genes for our 350 olfactory receptors are known and researchers are beginning to link them both to olfactory stimuli and to downstream neurological processes, olfaction emerges at an important crossroads allowing scientists to investigate connections between evolution and behaviour, and between perception and language. Michael Gross reports.

Summary An official committee now ponders the question of whether human impacts have derailed the Earth system sufficiently to declare the beginning of a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. Meanwhile, researchers have updated and improved two influential assessments of our global status, namely the ‘planetary boundaries' and the ‘great acceleration' graphs. Michael Gross reports.

Summary Plastic waste accumulates in the oceans and eventually breaks down to small particles known as microplastics. These can be taken up by hundreds of different species, but research is only beginning to explore their effects on organisms and their fate in the food web. Michael Gross reports.

Summary Yersinia pestis , the pathogen that causes plague in humans, has disappeared from Europe, but still thrives in animal reservoirs in several areas around the world, threatening new epidemics. As researchers uncover its evolution and the origins of its pathogenicity, concerns over future risks from drug-resistant and/or weaponised variants also come to the fore. Michael Gross reports.

Summary Recent research shows that a large number of behavioural elements in chimpanzees are specific to each community. These are passed on through social learning and can thus be described as cultural. As both chimpanzee and bonobo are endangered in the wild, the opportunity to study such cultures in our nearest relatives in their natural habitat is also under threat. Michael Gross reports.

Summary Many more people than previously thought don't match the gender recorded on their birth certificates, growing up to identify as either transgender or non-binary. As their visibility is now increasing dramatically, both science and society still have many things to learn about males, females, and everything in between. Michael Gross reports.

Summary The 2015 wildfires in Indonesia are possibly the largest environmental disaster of the century so far. They connect and highlight important global issues including climate change, El Nino, and deforestation driven by the booming global trade with palm oil. Michael Gross reports.

Summary Thirty years after Carl Sagan popularised the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and anticipated its success in a novel, a large-scale project similar to the one he envisioned is about to take off. Meanwhile, the booming discovery and analysis of extrasolar planets gives us first glimpses of the alien worlds where those extraterrestrials might live. Michael Gross reports.

SummaryAs the world is about to find out whether or not our civilisation is up to the challenge of dealing with climate change, research shows a wide range of responses from other species, which may benefit or suffer from the change, and mitigate it or make it worse. Michael Gross reports.

Summary Systemic pesticides, including the widely used neonicotinoids, have been linked to colony losses in honeybees and declines in other pollinator species. More recently, evidence has accumulated suggesting that their widespread, often prophylactic use is harming important parts of soil and water ecosystems, putting biodiversity and ecosystem services at risk. Michael Gross reports.

Summary Today's technology, from smartphones to drones, provides researchers and conservation workers with many new and improved ways of observing and protecting wildlife. Michael Gross reports.

SummaryThe use of bacteriophages to combat bacterial infections may help to address the current crisis of antibiotic resistance. Fundamental issues arising from the ecological dynamic of host, bacterium and phage can be investigated in trees, offering both a natural approach to treating plant disease, and a chance to avoid creating a new resistance problem. Michael Gross reports.

SummaryAs a rapidly growing global consumer base appreciates the pleasures of coffee and chocolate and health warnings are being replaced by more encouraging sounds from medical experts, their supply is under threat from climate change, pests and financial problems. Coffee farmers in Central America, in particular, are highly vulnerable to the impact of climate change, made worse by financial insecurity. Michael Gross reports.

Summary Stress responses that evolved for occasional dangerous situations can make us ill when they become chronic. But why do we perceive our relatively safe lives as stressful and what can we do to avoid the associated dangers? Michael Gross investigates.

Advanced methods of sequencing ancient DNA provide unprecedented insights into the origins of our species, adding up to a much more complex picture than previously established models suggested. Michael Gross reports.

Summary As a new interactive satellite map presents a global picture of deforestation, trees are also increasingly exposed to spreading pests and diseases. Loss of forests to human activity or disease often removes vital ecosystem services, not least mitigation of the effects of climate change. Michael Gross reports.

Summary Ruins remind us that complex and sophisticated civilisations have collapsed in the past. Could over-exploitation of natural resources, climate change, and/or hi-tech conflict lead to a dramatic decline of ours? And, if so, can we avert this fate? Michael Gross reports.

Summary Against the backdrop of a global loss of biodiversity, some wildlife species have recovered from severe decimation, as a recent report shows for dozens of species in Europe. While these encouraging signs don't diminish the current crisis of species loss, the analysis of the underlying reasons — ranging from targeted conservation measures to unintended consequences of changes in human behaviour — can help researchers understand what measures may help to save other species as well. Michael Gross reports.

SummaryAs the commercial success of electronic cigarettes offers the opportunity to study harm reduction by replacement therapy, the UK government steers in the opposite direction and plans to expand the ‘war on drugs’ with a blanket ban on all psychoactive substances. Michael Gross reports.

Summary As immigration is once more becoming an explosive political issue, studies of genomes and haplotype tracers show that migration patterns of the human race are more complicated than anticipated. Ultimately, we all have a migration backgroundof some sort. Michael Gross reports.

SummaryThe questions of why allergies exist and why they are becoming more prevalent continue to puzzle immunologists. Recent research has uncovered a wealth of details and in the process grown an impenetrable hedge of acronyms around the issue, but the answers may be hidden elsewhere, in the ecology and evolution of our interactions with insects, worms and snakes. Michael Gross reports.

Summary At the end of the year that saw Ebola virus disease dominate the news, experts warn that other zoonoses also pose serious threats. To prepare for disease outbreaks and avoid global epidemics, health services and researchers may have to adopt a broader perspective, known as the ‘One Health' paradigm, which links the health of people, domestic and wild animals, and the ecosystems they inhabit. Michael Gross reports.

SummaryA century after the opening of the Panama Canal, a second inter-oceanic passage is set to be built in Central America, this time in Nicaragua. The ambitious and astronomically expensive project promises to bring economic opportunity to a poor country but it also carries risks to its tropical ecosystems. Will the new waterway ultimately link two oceans or divide a continent? Michael Gross investigates.

Summary Human–wildlife conflict is often about humans trying to stop wild animals harming domesticated ones, but pets can also be predators and efforts to protect farm animals can backfire and cause havoc in nature. For simultaneous success in conservation and efficient agriculture we need a better understanding of complex relations in the ecological triangle formed by wild and tame animals and people. Michael Gross reports.

Summary Traditionally, science is objective and thus separated from all our emotional responses to the world. But, as neurosciences can now describe physiological correlates of emotional states, researchers in other fields are beginning to view emotions as a biological reaction that they can use in many different areas, from medicine to conservation. Michael Gross reports.

Summary As high-throughput genome sequencing technology now enables researchers to study the microbiota in our digestive system both in breadth and in detail, the hope is that mysteries of common problems, including obesity and diabetes, will finally be solved. Michael Gross reports.

Summary The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), to be published in May, will include highly controversial changes. Some diagnoses have been broadened to include a range of behaviours hitherto considered normal. As the coverage of mental disorder diagnoses increases, is there any space left for normal biological variability in human behaviour? Michael Gross investigates.

Summary Scientists equipped with some of the most advanced supercomputers are attempting to simulate the functions of vital organs, including heart, lungs, and brain. They hope to come up with tools that will further both research and medical treatments. Michael Gross reports.

Recent research shows that artificial DNA constructs can self-assemble fast and efficiently and adopt the precise three-dimensional structures they were designed for. Functional units produced include hotspots for single-molecule fluorescence studies and a nanopore mimicking the shape of the α-haemolysin pore. Michael Gross reports.

The Paris accord on climate change set an ambitious target of limiting climate change to 1.5°C, but the signatories appear to be in no hurry to undertake the revolutionary steps that would be necessary to achieve this. Meanwhile, ‘exceptional’ flooding events are becoming the new normal around the world, revealing how poorly we are prepared for change.

SummaryAhead of the imminent start of the industrial exploitation of deep sea resources, an EU report finds that scientific knowledge and understanding of this environment and its ecosystems still fall short of what would be needed for a sustainable use. Michael Gross reports.

SummaryAs a top predator using rifles and harpoons, humans are shaping ecosystems in a unique way, often killing the wrong animals for the wrong reasons. Considering the ongoing crises of mass extinction and climate change, which is boosted by meat farming, we should employ our species-defining intelligence to reinvent our ecological role and learn to savour alternatives to meat. Michael Gross reports.

Summary Recent research has provided new insights into how crowds of people and herds of animals share information and make decisions. Does this knowledge help to keep people safe, and does it extend to online swarming behaviour? Michael Gross investigates.

SummaryAs the NASA rover Curiosity approaches Mars on its quest to look for signs of past or present life there and sophisticated instruments like the space telescopes Kepler and CoRoT keep discovering additional, more Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars, science faces the question of how to spot life on other planets. Even here on Earth biotopes remain to be discovered and explored. Michael Gross reports.

SummaryAnalysis of short, species-specific sequences known as DNA barcodes has become a widespread practice in biodiversity and ecological research, and also finds practical applications from trade control to biomedicine. One of the challenges is to ensure that the molecular information is reliably linked to physical specimens in collections. Michael Gross reports.

Summary The first genome sequence of a cephalopod species, together with comprehensive functional annotation, offers a glimpse at how nature achieved complex functions and indeed intelligence in a lineage independent of vertebrates. It thus allows a more general view on complex life that could be extrapolated beyond the confines of life on Earth. Michael Gross reports.

SummaryCatastrophic wildfires have become more frequent in the last few decades. The standard depiction in the media of fires as a disaster that has to be avoided and stopped at all cost fails to do justice to a more complex ecological balance of destruction and new growth. The emerging discipline of pyrogeography aims to gain a holistic understanding of the role that fire plays in nature and the ways in which we can manage it sustainably. Michael Gross reports.

Summary Food prices on global markets rose sharply before the financial crisis and are now rising again. Global warming, the rise of biofuels, and the increasing demand all play a role, but experts also warn of the consequences of increasing speculation with food commodities. Michael Gross investigates.

The rioting and looting that occurred in English cities at the beginning of August has provoked contradictory responses from politicians. Now academic research is looking into what happened and why. Michael Gross investigates.

Summary Having spent the 20 th century taking living things apart, biologists are now beginning to put pieces together in new forms. Synthetic biology emerges as a new discipline with a few success stories, but no clear direction yet. Michael Gross reports.

Summary Only six years after ‘next generation' sequencing sent the cost of a human genome spiralling downwards, a third generation now promises single molecule read-out and electronic detection. Michael Gross reports.

Summary Advances in photosynthesis research may help to find new ways of reconverting carbon dioxide into fuel, which would solve several global problems at once. Michael Gross reports.

Summary Bacterial infections resistant to antibiotics kill 23,000 people per year in the US alone, a recent report warns. This crisis is man-made, as misuse of the miracle drugs over decades has thrown away their life-saving potential. Michael Gross reports.