Table of contents
Volume 387 Number 6636 pp831-936
Opinion
Games people play with authors' names p831
Authorship of a scientific paper is a privilege that is all too easily abused. Attempts to solve the problem with general rules encounter insurmountable obstacles, but individual accountability is unavoidable.
News
Congress and Varmus in clash over 'illegal' embryo research p833
Meredith Wadman
US attacks EU gene-food labelling move p833
NIH may drop special funds for 'new investigators' p834
Meredith Wadman
Accord could lift block on European biotech patents p835
Alison Abbott
Leicester centre is set for take-off p835
Japan reaches a compromise on organ transplants p835
David Swinbanks
Rio follow-up faces frustrated ambitions p836
Colin Macilwain
India may set up genetics advisory panel p836
K. S. Jayaraman
Geologist set to challenge 'creationism' verdict p837
Peter Pockley
South African museums' status 'at risk' p837
Michael Cherry
Competition is the spur for German research centres p837
Quirin Schiermeir
News Analysis
Nuclear love affair loses its charm p838
The strong showing of environmentalists in last month's elections in France has marked a turning point in the history of its nuclear power programme, and raised doubts over the future of French reprocessing.
Declan Butler
Japan set to face a lonely future in fast-breeder research p838
David Swinbanks and Declan Butler
Cogema's 'arrogance' adds to La Hague's problems p839
Declan Butler
Correspondence
Serious flaws in UK funding system p841
Linda M. Castell and Hillary Rose
Cannibalism and kuru p841
June Goodfield
Tories out on cue p842
J. Richard Gott, III
Stranglehold on science p842
Peter Cohen
You read it here first p843
Robert W. Levis and Steven Henikoff
Commentary
Europe ambivalent on biotechnology p845
Biotechnology and the European Public Concerted Action This article has been written by an international team of researchers working as part of a Concerted Action of the European Commissions (B104-CT95-0043) administered on behalf of Directorate General XII by Andreas Klepsch. For details see box overleaf. Address for correspondence: G. Gaskell, Department of Social Psychology, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, UK (e-mail: Email: gaskell@se.ac.uk). Throughout Europe, there is widespread lack of trust in the ability of governments and other public authorities to deal effectively with people's concern about biotechnology applications.
News and Views
Symmetry as destiny — taking a balanced view of IQ p849
Steve Blinkhorn
Galaxy evolution: The end of the beginnings p850
Roberto Abraham
Potassium channels: Dendritic shock absorbers p851
Rafael Yuste
Nonlinear optics: Solitons light the way p854
Allan Boardman
Palaeoclimatology p854
Philip Newton
Theoretical biology: A robust view of biochemical
pathways p855
Leland Hartwell
Biological oceanography: Sulphur, climate and the microbial maze p857
Gillian Malin
Cell biology: Explorers deliver tea to the pole p858
Alison Mitchell
Gamma-ray astronomy: Bursting out all over p859
Joshua S. Bloom and Malvin Ruderman
100 and 50 years ago p859
Daedalus: A level viewing field p860
David Jones
Scientific Correspondence
A peptide antibiotic from human skin p861
J. Harder, J. Bartels, E Christophers and J.-M. Schröder
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (285K)
The zebrafish organizer requires chordino p862
Stefan Schulte-Merker, Kevin J. Lee, Andrew P. McMahon and Matthias Hammerschmidt
Have quantum scars been observed? p863
T. S. Monteiro, D. Delande and J.-P. Connerade
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (247K)
Reply: Have quantum scars been observed? p864
T. M. Fromhold, F. W. Sheard, L. Eaves and P. B. Wilkinson
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (215K)
Book Reviews
A richly varied life in physics p865
H. B. G. Casimir reviews A Tale of Two Continents: A Physicist's Life in a Turbulent World by Abraham Pais
Our flexible friends p866
J. M. W. Slack reviews Cells, Embryos and Evolution: Towards a Cellular and Developmental Understanding of Phenotypic Variation and Evolutionary Adaptability by JohnGerhart and MarcKirschner
Bear essentials p866
New in paperback p867
Earthquakes and elephants p867
Keith Cox reviews Fieldwork: A Geologist's Memoir of the KalaharibyChristopher Scholz
Fringe maths p868
Keith Devlin
Money in the equation p868
Article
K+ channel regulation of signal propagation in dendrites of hippocampal pyramidal neurons p869
Dax A. Hoffman, Jeffrey C. Magee, Costa M. Colbert and Daniel Johnston
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (363K)
Letters to Nature
The optical counterpart to the 
-ray burst GRB970508 p876
S. G. Djorgovski, M. R. Metzger, S. R. Kulkarni, S. C. Odewahn, R. R. Gal, M. A. Pahre, D. A. Frail, M. Feroci, E. Costa and E. Palazzi
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (282K)
Spectral constraints on the redshift of the optical counterpart to the -ray burst of 8 May 1997 p878
M. R. Metzger, S. G. Djorgovski, S. R. Kulkarni, C. C. Steidel, K. L. Adelberger, D. A. Frail, E. Costa and F. Frontera
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (276K)
Self-trapping of incoherent white light p880
Matthew Mitchell and Mordechai Segev
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (410K)
Crystallization of hard-sphere colloids in microgravity p883
Jixiang Zhu, Min Li, R. Rogers, W. Meyer, R. H. Ottewill, STS-73 Space Shuttle Crew, W. B. Russel and P. M. Chaikin
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (359K)
Dissolved metals in surface sediment and a microbial mat at 100-
m resolution p885
W. Davison, G. R. Fones and G. W. Grime
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (539K)
Measuring the pulse of a plume with the sedimentary record p888
Nicky White and Bryan Lovell
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (496K)
A new route for synthesis of dimethylsulphoniopropionate in marine algae p891
Douglas A. Gage, David Rhodes, Kurt D. Nolte, Wayne A. Hicks, Thomas Leustek, Arthur J. L. Cooper and Andrew D. Hanson
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (314K)
Grazing-activated chemical defence in a unicellular marine alga p894
Gordon V. Wolfe, Michael Steinke and Gunter O. Kirst
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (301K)
Effects of sea-ice extent and krill or salp dominance on the Antarctic food web p897
V. Loeb, V. Siegel, O. Holm-Hansen, R. Hewitt, W. Fraser, W. Trivelpiece and S. Trivelpiece
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (311K)
Corticofugal modulation of frequency processing in bat auditory system p900
Yunfeng Zhang, Nobuo Suga and Jun Yan
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (276K)
Congenital leptin deficiency is associated with severe early-onset obesity in humans p903
Carl T. Montague, I. Sadaf Farooqi, Jonathan P. Whitehead, Maria A. Soos, Harald Rau, Nicholas J. Wareham, Ciaran P. Sewter, Janet E. Digby, Shehla N. Mohammed, Jane A. Hurst, Christopher H. Cheetham#, Alison R. Earley#, Anthony H. Barnett, Johannes B. Prins and Stephen O'Rahilly
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (389K)
Fringe modulates Notch–ligand interactions p908
Vladislav M. Panin, Venizelos Papayannopoulos, Richa Wilson and Kenneth D. Irvine
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (676K)
Robustness in simple biochemical networks p913
N. Barkai and S. Leibler
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (325K)
A family of cytokine-inducible inhibitors of signalling p917
Robyn Starr, Tracy A. Willson, Elizabeth M. Viney, Leecia J. L. Murray, John R. Rayner, Brendan J. Jenkins, Thomas J. Gonda, Warren S. Alexander, Donald Metcalf, Nicos A. Nicola and Douglas J. Hilton
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (542K)
A new protein containing an SH2 domain that inhibits JAK kinases p921
Takaho A. Endo, Masaaki Masuhara, Masahiro Yokouchi, Ritsu Suzuki, Hiroshi Sakamoto, Kaoru Mitsui, Akira Matsumoto, Shyu Tanimura, Motoaki Ohtsubo, Hiroyuki Misawa, Tadaaki Miyazaki, Nogueira Leonor, Tadatsugu Taniguchi, Takashi Fujita, Yuzuru Kanakura, Seturo Komiya and Akihiko Yoshimura
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (407K)
Structure and function of a new STAT-induced STAT inhibitor p924
Tetsuji Naka, Masashi Narazaki, Moritoshi Hirata, Tomoshige Matsumoto, Seijiro Minamoto, Atsufumi Aono, Norihiro Nishimoto, Tadahiro Kajita, Tetsuya Taga, Kazuyuki Yoshizaki, Shizuo Akira and Tadamitsu Kishimoto
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (502K)
Repair of DNA loops involves DNA-mismatch and nucleotide-excision repair proteins p929
David T. Kirkpatrick and Thomas D. Petes
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (242K)
erratum: Myc and Ras collaborate in inducing accumulation of active cyclin E/Cdk2 and E2F p932
Gustavo Leone, James DeGregori, Rosalie Sears, Laszlo Jakoi and Joseph R. Nevins
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (200K)
New on the Market
Finding the meaning in genes p933
Ways of deciphering and analysing genetic code are the focus in this issue — including clone-design software, a personal server for database searching, a system for site-directed mutagenesis and microsatellite analysis gels.
compiled by Brendan Horton from information provided by the manufacturers.
