You are reading this message because you cannot see our css files. Please read our explanation of accessible NPG websites.

Explaining accessible NPG sites

The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.
Source: Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web.

Starting from October 2004, Nature Publishing Group (NPG) sites are being constructed to be accessible to a wider range of people than before, including those using assistive technology. NPG websites built to be accessible are now easier to use, quicker to download, display better across a wide range of devices and platforms, and are simpler for producers to update and modify.

Accessible NPG sites now use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS 1/2.1) for all page layout and design details. Tables are now only used for the display of tabular data. We now use strict extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML 1.0), ensuring NPG sites will be compatible with past, present and future web browsers/applications.

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If you use an older browser

CSS, which we use for layout and design, is not fully supported by older web browsers, resulting in unpredictable display. To deal with this problem we have hidden the CSS from these older browsers that do not conform to web standards. However, even if you use one of these browsers, you will still be able to access all of our content presented with a simplified layout.

Our statistics show that as of September 2004 more than 95% of our audience use browsers that support CSS. If you are one of the small percentage of people that are unable to see our site as intended, please visit the Web Standards Project's "Browse Happy" website, which gives useful information on upgrading to standards compliant browsers. The Web Standards Project is an independent, vendor neutral organization.

If you are unable or unwilling to upgrade your browser or if you are prevented from seeing our CSS for other reasons, we hope that you will enjoy the more basic interface. Although not as visually appealing as the CSS interface, it should be just as usable.

We have done our best to ensure that our accessible sites render consistently across as wide a range of browsers as possible. Due to slight discrepancies between browsers, imperfections may appear. If you find significant bugs with our site, please contact us - we appreciate all feedback.