●Family matters. Haig, D. Nature 30 January (2003). This News and Views article discusses findings by Hager and Johnstone — also published in this issue — that mouse litter size depends on paternal genotype, whereas the level of maternal resource allocation depends on an interaction between maternal and offspring genotypes.

●RecQ helicases: caretakers of the genome. Hickson, I. D. Nature Reviews Cancer March (2003) A Review on the role of RecQ helicases in maintaining genomic stability and on their function in protecting against cancer.

●Designer milk from transgenic clones. Karatzas, C. N. Nature Biotechnology February (2003) A News and Views article that describes the biotechnological implications of the successful generation of transgenic cows that overexpress casein proteins in their milk.

●Congenics: cutting tools for complex immune disorders. Rogner, U. & Avner, P. Nature Reviews Immunology March (2003) In this Review, the authors assess the use of mouse models to determine the genetic basis of autoimmune diseases.

●Surprise ending. Sedivy, J. M. et al. Nature Genetics February (2003) A News and Views piece, which accompanies an article in the same issue, on a new PCR-based method that allows accurate measurement of human telomere length.

●Everything is E(Z): linking histone methylation to B cell development. Ramsden, D. & Zhang, Y. Nature Immunology February (2003) The authors of this News and Views article explore new evidence that histonemethyl transferases are involved in controlling V(D)J recombination of immunoglobulin genes.

●Dissecting dyskeratosis. Meier, U. T. Nature Genetics February (2003) A new mouse model for dyskeratosis congenita — a human disorder characterized by bone marrow failure — is discussed in this News and Views article. It had been proposed that the disease was caused by telomerase deficiency, but recent studies on mouse mutants indicate that the primary cause is defective protein synthesis.

●Damage alert. Bartek, J. & Lukas, J. Nature February (2003) A News and Views article in which the authors discuss new details of the mechanism of double-stranded DNA break repair.

●Towards an e-biology of ageing: integrating theory and data. Kirkwood, T. B. L. et al. Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology March (2003) The authors of this Perspective present an integrative web-based initiative to model ageing.