The flow of goods in Manzhouli, China’s main border crossing with Russia, underscores increasingly close ties between the two countries, complicating China’s relationship with Europe.

China’s sympathies show up on store shelves in Manzhouli: Stalin-brand vodka and ground coffee are on sale, and one store even specialises in busts of past Soviet leaders and matryoshka dolls ...

An ancestral Matryoshka doll This month’s Genome Watch highlights the genomic traits underlying the ancestral association between endobacteria, which live inside arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi ...

The Ariel doll looks right at home under the sea, featuring a fanned out collar designed to look like an opening clam shell, ...