| Title | | 1 |
| Editorial | | 3 |
| Content | | 4 |
| Humour | Paul the Postdoc | 6 |
| News | Gender differences in science / Questionable metabolome study / Recently awarded /
UK university budget cuts / France: Borrowing money for research | 6 |
| Opinion | Research letter from ...England: Females Thrive After Sex | 12 |
| Opinion | Observations of The Owl (21): Fighting The Beast | 14 |
| Humour | The Other Dictionary (1) | 15 |
| Analysis | The economics of extinction - How much is a species worth?
| 16 |
| Analysis | Lab supply shortages - What to do if a supplier suddenly discontinues a product indispensable for your research
| 22 |
| Journal Club | Compact Origin of life / Transcription control / Cell senescence | 26 |
| Journal Club | Munich/Germany Protein synthesis at the ribosome | 28 |
| Journal Club | Antwerp/Belgium Imaging seasonal neuroplasticity | 30 |
| Publication Statistics | Basic neuroscience in Europe | 32 |
| Publication Statistics | Don’t be misled by citation figures! (20): The Far East – Get to Know the Unknown | 35 |
| Analysis | Career strategies for young European scientists (XX) - Doing a PhD (or more) in Italy | 36 |
| Biobiz | News | 42 |
| Biobiz | Personal genomics - 23andMe receives generous cash backing while Decode Genetics struggles, and other
competitors are entering the playing field | 44 |
| Biobiz | Next generation sequencing - Device manufacturers buy into young companies, while Chinese branch out into the market
| 46 |
| Biobiz | Close-up: Newbiotechnic (Seville, Spain) - For ten years, a young Andalusian team has been developing environmentally friendly phytosanitary products from microbes | 48 |
| Methods | Tips and tricks of the trade: Cheap and simple dot blot technique | 51 |
| Methods | Bench philosophy (22): Next generation sequencing software | 52 |
| Products | Product survey: Laboratory automation | 54 |
| Books | A documentary on Nobel laureate Eric Kandel - The Tale of the Snail | 58 |
| Humour | One fine day in the lab (16) | 59 |
| Products | New products | 60 |
| Humour | Cartoon: Superdoc (16) | 66 |
