[Image Source: Serial/Trash]{style=“font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 150%;”} [After centuries of endeavour, scientists and doctors have made great strides towards improving cancer treatment. Nonetheless, while conventional therapy has undoubtedly saved innumerable lives, a worrying number of tumours remain inoperable and incurable by chemo- or radiotherapy.

[By Claire Sand, PhD student at King’s College London]{style=“font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;”} [ ]{style=“font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;”} [Note: Claire Sand was highly commended for her entry this year. She was a joint second-place winner in Access to Understanding 2013 competition. Check back tomorrow to read her entry.]{style=“font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;

[Image design: Serial/Trash]{style=“font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 150%;”} [Malaria claims a million lives a year, a majority of which are children, and threatens the lives of billions more within its tropical ranges. It is caused by ]{style=“font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 150%;”} Plasmodium, [a parasite]{style=“font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;

[By Aidan Maartens, Post-doc student at the Gurdon Institute ]{style=“background-color: white; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;”} [ ]{style=“font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;”} [Note: Aidan was awarded third place in this year’s Access to Understa ]{style=“font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;

[Image Source: Serial/Trash]{style=“font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 150%;”} [People have little trouble recognising and following the beat in a piece of music. We can even continue to play the beat in our minds once a song has finished. However, despite the ease with which we carry out such a task, the brain activity which underpins it remains a topic of investigation.]{style=“font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;

[By Elizabeth Kirkham, PhD student at the University of Sheffield]{style=“font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;”} [ ]{style=“font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;”} [Note: Elizabeth was the winner of this year’s Access to Understanding competition. Check back tomorrow to read her winning entry! It has also been published by eLife.

Image design: Serial/Trash [New research challenges common beliefs about the origin of the disease and draws attention to the nerve cells’ ability to tidy up.]{style=“font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;”} [ ]{style=“font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;”} [Parkinson’s disease is a devastating neurological disorder where nerve cells in the brain slowly degenerate and die.

[Last night marked the ]{style=“font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;”} Access to Understanding [2014 science-writing competition award ceremony.]{style=“font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;”} [ ]{style=“font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;”} [At its heart, the competition is a celebration.

[We are pleased to announce the launch of our first ever People’s Choice Award for the Access to Understanding science-writing competition!

[The Access to Understanding science-writing competition 2014 attracted over 260 entrants. As an international competition we were thrilled to receive entries from 14 different countries.

[Our External Links Service means that we]{style=“font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;”}[ link out to free resources that enrich our articles.]{style=“font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;”} [ ]{style=“font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;”} [We started with links out to data (at Dryad), to full text articles not otherwise available from Europe