Over the past decade, the pace of investigation in the field of gout has accelerated tremendously. New advances have led to deeper insight into the processes of inflammation and innate immunity, and new treatments are now available, or likely to become available in the near future. Some of the more interesting new findings in the field of gout are presented in the context of gout biology and treatment overall. Gout epidemiology, current understanding of renal urate handling, recent investigations into the mechanism of inflammation in acute gout, dietary factors in gout development, the potential role of hyperuricemia in cardiovascular and renal disease, and treatments that are either newly available or in development are discussed.