Proxy indicators of relative moisture balance, in combination with long control simulations from coupled climate models, show that the Indian Ocean drives multidecadal hydroclimate variability by altering the local Walker circulation, whereas the influence of the Pacific Ocean is minimal on these timescales.

To help transform our understanding of the biosphere, ecologists — like climate scientists — should simulate whole ecosystems, argue Drew Purves and colleagues.

Inactivated virus vaccine could deliver the final blow.

Critics say that antibody therapy is too expensive for its African target population.

Pilot schemes launched this year could be the start of a world-class system — if the country can solve its data-gathering problems, says Qiang Wang.

Cholera reappeared in Haiti in October, 2010 after decades of absence. Cases were first detected in Artibonite region and in the ensuing months the disease spread to every department in the country. The rate of increase in the number of cases at the start of epidemics provides valuable information about the basic reproductive number ( 1.06 to 2.63. At a national level, 46% vaccination coverage would result in an (

Global prediction partnerships would cost little and reduce the regional carnage caused by floods, droughts and tropical cyclones, argues Peter J. Webster.

The world is starting to win the war against tuberculosis, but drug-resistant forms pose a new threat.

Scientists are once again reporting alarmingly high methane emissions from an oil and gas field, underscoring questions about the environmental benefits of the boom in natural-gas production that is transforming the US energy system.

For more than a decade, the target of keeping global warming below 2 °C has been a key focus of the international climate debate. In response, the scientific community has published a number of scenario studies that estimate the costs of achieving such a target. Producing these estimates remains a challenge, particularly because of relatively well known, but poorly quantified, uncertainties, and owing to limited integration of scientific knowledge across disciplines.