Volume 397 Issue 6721, 25 February 1999

A survey of junior researchers in Europe shows a moderately satisfactory situation, but room for improvement.

london

Increasing numbers of UK graduates are turning away from postgraduate training in engineering and physical sciences, according to new government data.

paris

The prosecution's case against Laurent Fabius, a former prime minister, in France's ‘contaminated blood’ trial appears to have been undermined further.

washington

US environmentalists and organic farmers have filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency for violating its own regulations when it approved the commercial planting of genetically engineered crops.

barcelona

The Spanish government has decided that companies which produce or plant genetically modified crops must contribute to a $100 million insurance fund intended to cover environmental accidents.

london

Leading British scientists are considering an approach to the Press Complaints Commission following a spate of what they claim to be inaccurate media reports on the risks of genetic modification.

london

The British government indicated last week that there will be no commercial planting of genetically modified crops until it is satisfied that such crops pose a negligible risk to human health and the environment.

tokyo

Japan needs to improve the research environment at national laboratories and universities, according to a progress report on the government's 5-year plan on science and technology.

montreal

Canada has become the latest country to explicitly declare its commitment to developing a “knowledge-based economy”.

washington

Seventy-seven members of Congress have criticized the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala, for allowing federal funding of research using the human cells.

boston

Henry Kendall — professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, physics Nobel laureate, and chairman of the Union of Concerned Scientists since 1973 - died last week while scuba diving in a Florida lake.

More than two thirds of Europe's young scientists say they are not given full credit for their research achievements. A survey commissioned jointly by Nature and the European Science Foundation reveals the countries with the best — and the worst — postdoc working conditions.

The effective and equitable dissemination of climate forecasts is as important and challenging as their accuracy. During El Niño 1997-98, Peruvian fisheries showed the need to understand forecast use and all parties' interests.

Do nestling birds signal their food needs honestly to their parents? A study of begging reed warblers shows that they do, but that parental sensitivites to vocal and visual cues can be exploited by an invading cuckoo chick.

Physicists are investigating phenomena at ever smaller scales. One example comes from work on the ‘Aharonov-Bohm effect’, the quantum mechanical influence of a magnetic field on electron motion — the effect has now been shown to occur in a carbon nanotube, illustrating the potential for doing basic physics with single molecules.

Hox proteins are transcription factors that operate during the development of different tissues. The structure has now been determined of a complex between DNA, a Hox protein and its cofactor. The homeodomains of the two proteins bind to opposite sides of the DNA but make contact through a short length of the Hox protein that reaches round the DNA to insert itself into a pocket on the cofactor, thereby strengthening the complex.

It has long been thought that the energetic costs of running are higher than for flying, and that swimming is cheaper than both. But recent estimates for mammals indicate that, weight for weight, these are about the same. Swimming is expensive for semi-aquatic mammals, so they tend to move slowly as a result: over a distance of 50 metres, dolphins swim five times faster than human world-record holders.

Membrane proteins in the neuron are often segregated either to the soma and dendrites or to the axon. But how? It turns out that, in a region between the soma and axon called the initial segment, membrane proteins are tethered to the underlying cytoskeleton by anchoring proteins. Not only does this prevent the membrane proteins from diffusing, but it also blocks the passage of other, untethered proteins.

The Sm proteins are a conserved family that form the core of the small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particles (snRNPs), which are involved in RNA splicing. There are seven Sm proteins in all, and they can form three stable sub-complexes. The crystal structures of two of these sub-complexes have now been solved, giving an insight into organization of the Sm core domain, and how it might bind RNA.

Vacant crystal lattice sites, or vacancies, allow atoms to migrate in a crystalline solid. A new way of measuring such vacancies using laser interferometry shows how vacancy concentration changes with a sudden increase in temperature. This technique could be used to study the mechanical strength of certain alloys.

What social and environmental consequences will result from altered climate in the future? A modelling study, in which the authors examined projected river flow and wheat yields in Europe up to the middle of the next century, emphasizes the need to take natural climate variability into account in assessing the impacts to be expected from human-induced climate change through increased levels of atmospheric CO₂.

The modern hypodermic needle is not only feared by many patients, but it is an extremely wasteful way of administering drugs. Daedalus prefers the idea of a ‘microdermic needle’, which is so small it could pass harmlessly through tissues to a specific target in the body, requiring perhaps a millionth of the usual drug dose.

New offerings from 15 manufacturers claim to make combinatorial chemistry easier, quicker, cleaner, cheaper — or perhaps unnecessary. Theese notes are compiled in the Nature office from information provided by the manufacturers. For more details, fill in the reader service card bound inside the joural