Opinion

Support for a pragmatic health minister p421

Cancer patients in Italy are threatening their own survival through faith in a miracle cure. But the government is justified in sanctioning controlled tests of the therapy, even if it lacks a scientific basis.

doi:10.1038/32960

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Diplomats need science p421

A lack of scientific and technical expertise among diplomats is likely to marginalize the diplomatic corps.

doi:10.1038/32962

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News

Legal fight looms over patent bid on human/animal chimaeras p423

David Dickson

doi:10.1038/32964

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Africa defends rights to indigenous knowledge p423

Ehsan Masood

doi:10.1038/32968

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Neuroscientist accused of misconduct turns on his accusers p424

Rex Dalton

doi:10.1038/32970

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Space agency adopts user-led strategy... p425

Declan Butler

doi:10.1038/32972

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...but leaves question mark over science funding p425

Declan Butler

doi:10.1038/32975

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Asian states take 'first step' on acid rain p426

Robert Triendl

doi:10.1038/32977

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El Niño in the frame for Pacific temperature and height increases p426

doi:10.1038/32979

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US foreign policy under fire over strategy on science p427

Tony Reichhardt

doi:10.1038/32982

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Scientists defy their ethics codes and take gifts from industry p427

Colin Macilwain

doi:10.1038/32984

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Ageing population of voters backs Alzheimer's funding p428

Meredith Wadman

doi:10.1038/32986

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Coalition to pursue ethnic concerns over gene research p428

Sally Lehrman

doi:10.1038/32989

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Tokyo's plan for new campus under threat p429

Asako Saegusa

doi:10.1038/32991

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Russian students warn of demonstrations over spending cuts p429

Carl Levitin

doi:10.1038/32993

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News in Brief p430

doi:10.1038/32996

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Correspondence

Scapegoat for fraud in Germany? p431

Marion A. Brach

doi:10.1038/32999

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AIDS therapy in Brazil p431

Luiz R. R. Castello-Branco, Maria I. Linhares-Carvalho and Antonio C. M. Ponce de Leon

doi:10.1038/33001

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Arguments in favour of the space station p432

Alberto Passerone, I. A. Crawford and John-David F. Bartoe

doi:10.1038/33003

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News and Views

A sense of direction p433

David Ferster

doi:10.1038/33005

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Bose-Einstein condensates:  Superfluids mixing it up p434

Brett D. Esry and Chris H. Greene

doi:10.1038/33009

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100 and 50 years ago p437

doi:10.1038/33012

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Molecular endocrinology:  Steroids tickle cells inside and out p437

Didier Picard

doi:10.1038/33014

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Condensed-matter physics:  Stripes of a different stripe p438

A. J. Millis

doi:10.1038/33017

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Biomathematics:  Merging lines and emerging levels p439

Karl Sigmund and Eörs Szathmáry

doi:10.1038/33020

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Conservation biology:  Inbreeding leads to extinction p441

Richard Frankham and Katherine Ralls

doi:10.1038/33022

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Apoptosis:  Phagocytic docking without shocking p442

John Savill

doi:10.1038/33025

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Daedalus:  High radiation levels p443

David Jones

doi:10.1038/33028

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Obituary:  Haroun Tazieff (1914-98) p444

Alexander McBirney

doi:10.1038/33030

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Art and Science

Saenredam's shapes p445

Painting 'portraits' of churches might seem a limiting pursuit. But the seventeenth-century Dutch artist Pieter Saenredam turned it into a paean of praise for the geometrical way in which we perceive space.

Martin Kemp

doi:10.1038/33033

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Scientific Correspondence

First protozoa-trapping plant found p447

Wilhelm Barthlott, Stefan Porembski, Eberhard Fischer and Björn Gemmel

doi:10.1038/33037

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (420K)

Domains of rasGAP and rhoGAP are related p447

Benjamin Bax

doi:10.1038/33040

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (420K)

Support for shared ancestry of GAPs p448

Katrin Rittinger, William R. Taylor, Stephen J. Smerdon and Steven J. Gamblin

doi:10.1038/33043

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (243K)

Meningitis bacterium is viable without endotoxin p449

Liana Steeghs, Ronald den Hartog, Arie den Boer, Bert Zomer, Paul Roholl and Peter van der Ley

doi:10.1038/33046

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (210K)

Speed perception fogs up as visibility drops p450

Robert J. Snowden, Nicola Stimpson and Roy A. Ruddle

doi:10.1038/33049

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (171K)

Spring Books

Further steps towards one culture p451

Paul H. Harvey reviews Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge by E. O. Wilson

doi:10.1038/33052

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At the limit p452

John L. Casti reviews Impossibility by John D. Barrow

doi:10.1038/33055

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Reinterpreting the historical record p453

Philippe Taquet reviews Georges Cuvier, Fossil Bones, and Geological Catastrophes: New Translations and Interpretations of the Primary Texts by Martin J. S. Rudwick

doi:10.1038/33057

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Radical remedies p454

Leslie Iversen reviews The Antidepressant Era by David Healey

doi:10.1038/33060

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Objects of desire p455

A. M. Snodgrass reviews The Elgin Marbles: Should they be Returned to Greece? by Christopher Hitchens and The Elgin Affair: The Abduction of Antiquity's Greatest Treasures and the Passions it Aroused by Theodore Vrettos

doi:10.1038/33063

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Civilized living p456

Roy Porter reviews Cities for a Small Planet by Richard Rogers

doi:10.1038/33066

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Cyber-sociology p457

Karl Sigmund and Martin A. Nowak review The Complexity of Cooperation: Agent-Based Models of Competition and Collaboration by Robert Axelrod

doi:10.1038/33069

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Bar fun p457

Harry Collins reviews Ripples on a Cosmic Sea: The Search for Gravitational Waves by David Blair and George McNamara

doi:10.1038/33071

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Disregarding the social sciences p458

Hans von Storch reviews Is the Temperature Rising? The Uncertain Science of Global Warming by S. George Philander

doi:10.1038/33074

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Thumbs up for signal work p459

Simon Baron-Cohen reviews The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin and Principles of Geology by Charles Lyell

doi:10.1038/33076

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A feast for the senses p460

Stephen Battersby reviews Tibaldo and the Hole in the Calendar by Abner Shimony

doi:10.1038/33079

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Review

The core–mantle boundary layer and deep Earth dynamics p461

Thorne Lay, Quentin Williams and Edward J. Garnero

doi:10.1038/33083

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,084K)

Letters to Nature

Birth and early evolution of a planetary nebula p469

Matthew Bobrowsky, Kailash C. Sahu, M. Parthasarathy and Pedro García-Lario

doi:10.1038/33092

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (337K)

Unexpected stellar velocity distribution in the warped Galactic disk p471

R. L. Smart, R. Drimmel, M. G. Lattanzi and J. J. Binney

doi:10.1038/33096

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (339K)

Pairing of charge-ordered stripes in (La,Ca)MnO₃ p473

S. Mori, C. H. Chen and S.-W. Cheong

doi:10.1038/33105

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (486K)

See also: News and Views by Millis

Electrically switchable mirrors and optical components made from liquid-crystal gels p476

R. A. M. Hikmet and H. Kemperman

doi:10.1038/33110

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (433K)

Light-driven production of ATP catalysed by F₀F₁-ATP synthase in an artificial photosynthetic membrane p479

Gali Steinberg-Yfrach, Jean-Louis Rigaud, Edgardo N. Durantini, Ana L. Moore, Devens Gust and Thomas A. Moore

doi:10.1038/33116

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (260K)

Ocean margins as a significant source of organic matter to the deep open ocean p482

James E. Bauer and Ellen R. M. Druffel

doi:10.1038/33122

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (263K)

The deep structure of a sea-floor hydrothermal deposit p485

Robert A. Zierenberg, Yves Fouquet, D. J. Miller, J. M. Bahr, P. A. Baker, T. Bjerkgård, C. A. Brunner, R. C. Duckworth, R. Gable, J. Gieskes, W. D. Goodfellow, H. M. Gröschel-Becker, G. Guèrin, J. Ishibashi, G. Iturrino, R. H. James, K. S. Lackschewitz, L. L. Marquez, P. Nehlig, J. M. Peter, C. A. Rigsby, P. Schultheiss, W. C. Shanks, III, B. R. T. Simoneit, M. Summit, D. A. H. Teagle, M. Urbat and G. G. Zuffa

doi:10.1038/33126

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (381K)

Megaliths and Neolithic astronomy in southern Egypt p488

J. McKim Malville, Fred Wendorf, Ali A Mazar and Romauld Schild

doi:10.1038/33131

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (542K)

Inbreeding and extinction in a butterfly metapopulation p491

Ilik Saccheri, Mikko Kuussaari, Maaria Kankare, Pia Vikman, Wilhelm Fortelius and Ilkka Hanski

doi:10.1038/33136

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (332K)

See also: News and Views by Frankham & Ralls

Cerebellar complex spikes encode both destinations and errors in arm movements p494

Shigeru Kitazawa, Tatsuya Kimura and Ping-Bo Yin

doi:10.1038/33141

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (402K)

Synaptic vesicles retain their identity through the endocytic cycle p497

Venkatesh N. Murthy and Charles F. Stevens

doi:10.1038/33152

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (319K)

C. elegans phagocytosis and cell-migration protein CED-5 is similar to human DOCK180 p501

Yi-Chun Wu and H. Robert Horvitz

doi:10.1038/33163

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (421K)

See also: News and Views by Savill

Human CD14 mediates recognition and phagocytosis of apoptotic cells p505

Andrew Devitt, Odette D. Moffatt, Chandra Raykundalia, J. Donald Capra, David L. Simmons and Christopher D. Gregory

doi:10.1038/33169

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (334K)

See also: News and Views by Savill

Inhibition of oxytocin receptor function by direct binding of progesterone p509

Eric Grazzini, Gilles Guillon, Bernard Mouillac and Hans H. Zingg

doi:10.1038/33176

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (289K)

See also: News and Views by

Fatty acyl-CoA thioesters are ligands of hepatic nuclear factor-4 p512

Rachel Hertz, Judith Magenheim, Inna Berman and Jacob Bar-Tana

doi:10.1038/33185

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (318K)

Dual function of the messenger RNA cap structure in poly(A)-tail-promoted translation in yeast p516

Thomas Preiss and Matthias W. Hentze

doi:10.1038/33192

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (347K) | Supplementary information

Interaction of polyadenylate-binding protein with the eIF4G homologue PAIP enhances translation p520

Andrew W. B. Craig, Ashkan Haghighat, Annie T. K. Yu and Nahum Sonenberg

doi:10.1038/33198

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (322K)