Life extension has been a human goal for millennia, and research into ageing is providing grounds for optimism that this goal can be achieved. But are there any reasons we should be wary of extending lifespan? In general, living longer is thought to be a good thing. Indeed life expectancy is one of the criteria on which we judge whether a nation is doing well or badly.

There's a new column starting this month. “In the Lab” let us discover labs and facilities spread around our country.

How do eukaryotic cells regulate the size and activity of different compartments to couple functional competence and homeostasis? How do they readapt to fulfil novels physiological tasks? Over the last years, some answers to these fundamental questions came from studies on the secretory system.

The recent popularity of systems approaches in molecular biology is perhaps best understood as a reaction to technological developments beginning in the 1990s, notably the large sequencing projects such as the Human Genome Project.

Over the last decades the life sciences have gained increasing prominence in the public sphere, as the exponential success of our molecular gaze on life has been opening not only new vistas of knowledge but also unprecedented options to intervene into living processes.