Opinion

Fading pan-European visions? p1

Making the most of European collaboration would seem to be sensible as pressures on research budgets intensify. But those with the power to pursue that agenda are failing to do so.

doi:10.1038/33981

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News

UK insurers oppose moratorium plea on use of genetic data p3

Ehsan Masood

doi:10.1038/33983

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Agreement likely on Framework budget p3

Alison Abbott

doi:10.1038/33986

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CERN celebrates end to a period of uncertainty p4

Alison Abbott

doi:10.1038/33988

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Court affirms judges' right to reject 'junk science' p4

Tony Reichhardt

doi:10.1038/33991

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Council resigns as ANZAAS wind-up fails p4

Peter Pockley

doi:10.1038/33993

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News Analysis

Post-war ideals trip over modern reality p5

Pressures are mounting to bring in radical reforms to German universities to reduce bureaucracy and give a boost to scientific research.

Alison Abbott and Quirin Schiermeier

doi:10.1038/33995

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Universities face global challenge p5

doi:10.1038/33998

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Battle to boost the status of French universities p6

Declan Butler and Eric Glover

doi:10.1038/34000

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Britain faces research funding dilemma p7

David Dickson

doi:10.1038/34003

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US universities are in flux, not crisis p8

Colin Macilwain

doi:10.1038/34006

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Reforms get a rough ride in italy p8

Alison Abbott

doi:10.1038/34009

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Japan faces problem of science recruits p9

Asako Saegusa

doi:10.1038/34011

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News in Brief p10

doi:10.1038/34014

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Correspondence

Spotlight needed on Italian policy p12

Giulio de Leo, Gianmarco Paris, Marino Gatto and Paolo Menozzi

doi:10.1038/34017

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Life, love and soil p12

Gregory J. Retallack

doi:10.1038/34020

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Spotlight needed on Italian policy p12

Peter Ayres

doi:10.1038/36000001

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Commentary

Eighteen-ninety-eight and all that p13

Anniversaries of note this year range from the discovery of alpha particles and inert gases to a plague of medical breakthroughs, the creation of a health service to make them available... and the invention of an ice-cream freezer.

doi:10.1038/34022

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News and Views

How black holes stay black p17

Reinhard Genzel

doi:10.1038/34029

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Neurobiology:  The analytical bend of the leech p18

L. F. Abbott

doi:10.1038/34032

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Nanotechnology:  New tricks with nanotubes p19

M. S. Dresselhaus

doi:10.1038/34036

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Apoptosis:  An endonuclease at last p20

Andrew Wyllie

doi:10.1038/34040

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Nuclear transplantation:  The science of the lambs p21

Alison Mitchell

doi:10.1038/34042

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Animal welfare:  The physiology of the hunted deer p22

Georgia Mason

doi:10.1038/34045

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Cosmology:  Density and destiny p23

David Branch

doi:10.1038/34048

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100 and 50 years ago p23

doi:10.1038/34051

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Kaposi's sarcoma:  Coupling herpesvirus to angiogenesis p24

Chris Boshoff

doi:10.1038/34054

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Low-temperature physics:  Condensate forced out of hiding p25

Allan Griffin

doi:10.1038/34058

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Daedalus:  The Brain-cleaner p26

David Jones

doi:10.1038/34061

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Art and Science

Dali's dimensions p27

Salvador Dali's image of the crucified Christ represents the search for the transcendental or fourth dimension. Artists, theologians, mathematicians and cosmologists down the ages have all joined in the quest.

Martin Kemp

doi:10.1038/34063

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Scientific Correspondence

False teeth of the Roman world p29

Eric Crubzy, Pascal Murail, Louis Girard and Jean-Pierre Bernadou

doi:10.1038/34067

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (289K)

Breeding phenology and climate... p29

Mads C. Forchhammer, Eric Post and Nils Chr. Stenseth

doi:10.1038/34070

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (289K)

...temperature and egg-laying trends p30

R. H. McCleery and C. M. Perrins

doi:10.1038/34073

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (314K)

Synchronized courtship in fiddler crabs p31

Patricia Backwell, Michael Jennions, Neville Passmore and John Christy

doi:10.1038/34076

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (294K)

Connexin mutations and hearing loss p32

Daryl A. Scott, Michelle L. Kraft, Edwin M. Stone, Val C. Sheffield and Richard J.H. Smith

doi:10.1038/34079

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (157K)

Book Reviews

Time and its milestones p33

E. G. Richards reviews Questioning the Millennium: A Rationalist's Guide to a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown by Stephen Jay Gould and Calendrical Calculations by Nachum Dershowitz and Edward M. Reingold

doi:10.1038/34083

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Centrepieces p34

Emmanuel Lellouch reviews Carl Sagan's Universe edited by Yervant Terzian and Elizabeth Bilson

doi:10.1038/34087

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How we feel p35

Ray Dolan reviews Friday's Footprint: How Society Shapes the Human Mind by Leslie Brothers and What Emotions Really Are: The Problem of Psychological Categories by Paul E. Griffiths

doi:10.1038/34090

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Scientific disciples of the artificial eye p35

doi:10.1038/34092

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Shadow history p36

Peter Harman reviews To Light Such a Candle by Keith J. Laidler

doi:10.1038/34095

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Review

Earthquakes and friction laws p37

Christopher H. Scholz

doi:10.1038/34097

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (296K)

Article

A caspase-activated DNase that degrades DNA during apoptosis, and its inhibitor ICAD p43

Masato Enari, Hideki Sakahira, Hideki Yokoyama, Katsuya Okawa, Akihiro Iwamatsu and Shigekazu Nagata

doi:10.1038/34112

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (633K)

See also: News and Views by Wyllie

Letters to Nature

Discovery of a supernova explosion at half the age of the Universe p51

S. Perlmutter, G. Aldering, M. Della Valle, S. Deustua, R. S. Ellis, S. Fabbro, A. Fruchter, G. Goldhaber, D. E. Groom, I. M. Hook, A. G. Kim, M. Y. Kim, R. A. Knop, C. Lidman, R. G. McMahon, P. Nugent, R. Pain, N. Panagia, C. R. Pennypacker, P. Ruiz-Lapuente, B. Schaefer and N. Walton

doi:10.1038/34124

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (420K)

See also: News and Views by Branch

The inner edge of the accretion disk around a supermassive black hole p54

B. C. Bromley, W. A. Miller and V. I. Pariev

doi:10.1038/34130

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (298K)

Evidence for a Bose–Einstein condensate in liquid ⁴He from quantum evaporation p56

Adrian F. G. Wyatt

doi:10.1038/34134

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (355K)

See also: News and Views by Griffin

Electronic structure of atomically resolved carbon nanotubes p59

Jeroen W. G. Wilder, Liesbeth C. Venema, Andrew G. Rinzler, Richard E. Smalley and Cees Dekker

doi:10.1038/34139

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (336K)

See also: News and Views by Dresselhaus

Atomic structure and electronic properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes p62

Teri Wang Odom, Jin-Lin Huang, Philip Kim and Charles M. Lieber

doi:10.1038/34145

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (315K)

See also: News and Views by Dresselhaus

Deglacial changes in ocean circulation from an extended radiocarbon calibration p65

Konrad A. Hughen, Jonathan T. Overpeck, Scott J. Lehman, Michaele Kashgarian, John Southon, Larry C. Peterson, Richard Alley and Daniel M. Sigman

doi:10.1038/34150

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (296K) | Supplementary information

The effect of loading rate on static friction and the rate of fault healing during the earthquake cycle p69

Chris Marone

doi:10.1038/34157

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (245K)

Biodiversity inventories, indicator taxa and effects of habitat modification in tropical forest p72

J. H. Lawton, D. E. Bignell, B. Bolton, G. F. Bloemers, P. Eggleton, P. M. Hammond, M. Hodda, R. D. Holt, T. B. Larsen, N. A. Mawdsley, N. E. Stork, D. S. Srivastava and A. D. Watt

doi:10.1038/34166

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (295K)

A neuronal network for computing population vectors in the leech p76

John E. Lewis and William B. Kristan, Jr

doi:10.1038/34172

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (303K)

See also: News and Views by Abbott

The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor- is a negative regulator of macrophage activation p79

Mercedes Ricote, Andrew C. Li, Timothy M. Willson, Carolyn J. Kelly and Christopher K. Glass

doi:10.1038/34178

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (264K) | Supplementary information

PPAR- agonists inhibit production of monocyte inflammatory cytokines p82

Chengyu Jiang, Adrian T. Ting and Brian Seed

doi:10.1038/34184

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (281K)

G-protein-coupled receptor of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus is a viral oncogene and angiogenesis activator p86

Carlos Bais, Bianca Santomasso, Omar Coso, Leandros Arvanitakis, Elizabeth Geras Raaka, J. Silvio Gutkind, Adam S. Asch, Ethel Cesarman, Marvin C. Gerhengorn and Enrique A. Mesri

doi:10.1038/34193

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (629K) | Supplementary information

See also: News and Views by Boshoff

Activating Smoothened mutations in sporadic basal-cell carcinoma p90

Jingwu Xie, Maximilien Murone, Shiuh-Ming Luoh, Anne Ryan, Qimin Gu, Chaohui Zhang, Jeannette M. Bonifas, Ching-Wan Lam, Mary Hynes, Audrey Goddard, Arnon Rosenthal, Ervin H. Epstein Jr and Frederic J. de Sauvage

doi:10.1038/34201

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (457K) | Supplementary information

Induction of filopodium formation by a WASP-related actin-depolymerizing protein N-WASP p93

Hiroaki Miki, Takuya Sasaki, Yoshimi Takai and Tadaomi Takenawa

doi:10.1038/34208

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (401K)

Cleavage of CAD inhibitor in CAD activation and DNA degradation during apoptosis p96

Hideki Sakahira, Masato Enari and Shigekazu Nagata

doi:10.1038/34214

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (376K)

See also: News and Views by Wyllie

Poly(A)- and poly(U)-specific RNA 3' tail shortening by E. coli ribonuclease E p99

Hongjin Huang, Jian Liao and Stanley, N. Cohen

doi:10.1038/34219

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (329K)

Structure of IRF-1 with bound DNA reveals determinants of interferon regulation p103

Carlos R. Escalante, Junming Yie, Dimitris Thanos and Aneel K. Aggarwal

doi:10.1038/34224

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (500K)