Much ado about some thing

Nanotechnology: the next big thing, or much ado about nothing?

Nanotechnology encompasses an increasingly sophisticated ability to manipulate matter at the nanoscale, resulting in new materials, products and devices that demonstrate new and unusual behaviour. While emerging nanotechnologies have great potential for good, there are increasing concerns that the selfsame attributes that make them attractive will also lead to new risks to human health. Researc...

Nitric oxide determinations: much ado about NO.-thing?

The nitric oxide radical (NO) is an important mediator of both physiological and pathophysiological processes. NO is produced by nitric oxide synthase (NOS; EC 1.14.13.39), an enzyme that exists in three isoforms encoded by distinct genes [1, 2]. All isoforms of NOS catalyze the conversion of l-arginine into citrulline and NO. In this reaction, which requires oxygen and NADPH, a guanidino-nitro...

Much ado about nothing?

I t all started with the submission of an unsolicited review on idiopathic pulmonary haemosiderosis by IOACHIMESCU et al. [1]. During the review process of this excellent manuscript, the idea evolved to launch a whole series on rare (orphan) interstitial lung disorders in the European Respiratory Journal. Why bother? Well, admittedly, these diseases are rare, but for the affected patient that d...

Much ado about nothing?

Much Ado about Nogo

Three proteins in mature myelin (Nogo, MAG, and OMgp) have been purported to be critical in causing both regenerative failure and minimal sprouting after CNS injury. However, the role of this repulsive trio in vivo has been controversial. Lee et al., in this issue of Neuron, provide evidence that genetically deleting all three major myelin inhibitors either singly or all together does not resul...