A numerical perspective on Nature authors.

At the Curie Institute, in the heart of Paris, Edith Heard and her team study X-chromosome inactivation — how female embryos ‘silence’ one of their X chromosomes, to prevent overexpression of the genes contained on the two copies.

The group is part of the Epigenome Network of Excellence, an initiative that spans ten European countries and aims to understand changes in genome function that occur without a change in DNA sequence. Heard says that communication between the member groups helps to coordinate research efforts and share knowledge.

Heard's latest collaborative work shows that although it is always the X chromosome inherited from the father that is silenced, this is active at first but then switched off through the action of one of its own genes (see page 369).

231 Nature authors published in 2005 work in France (total number of published authors=5,098).

53% of papers published in Nature this year that have contributing authors working in France are in the physical sciences.

7 people are in Edith Heard's Mammalian Developmental Epigenetics Group at the Curie Institute.

3 papers in this week's issue, have contributing authors working in France.