Ann Arbor, MI, USA. The strong, sustained growth in research spending by Asian nations threatens a brain drain away from a U.S. mired in short-term approaches and budget cuts.

The United States has long led the world in jobs and marketable discoveries generated by government research funding. Top students from around the world visit for training and often stay to help fuel medical innovation.

Pasadena, CA, USA. A mechanical device can measure the mass of individual molecules one at a time, a scientific first that advances study of the molecular machinery of cells.

A description of this technology, which includes prototype nanodevices, appears in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Saskatoon, SK, Canada. A protein in semen acts regulates the growth, maintenance, and survival of nerve cells, but also acts on the female brain to prompt ovulation.

Male mammals have accessory sex glands that contribute seminal fluid to semen, but the role of this fluid and the glands that produce it have not been well understood. The current research raises intriguing questions about fertility in mammals, including humans.

Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA. Epigenetic information from spots of a newborn's blood on filter paper has provided a powerful retrospective view of the epigenome at birth.

The Guthrie test, originally devised to detect phenylketonuria, a disorder of amino acid metabolism, has become so routine over the last 50 years that since 2000, more than 90% of newborns in the United States have had their blood archived for analysis.

Boston, MA, USA. Getting control of health care expenses may be even harder than covering the uninsured. Massachusetts is launching the nation’s broadest effort so far.

Like the federal Affordable Care Act, the 2006 Massachusetts health law it was patterned after was aimed primarily at providing health coverage for the uninsured. There is no question it did that.