Opinion

Vacuum at the heart of Europe p1

A sudden withdrawal of support by the European Union for key scientific institutes could be a major setback for the continent's biological research and is yet another example of a lack of scientific vision at the European level.

doi:10.1038/46847

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Fiction's futures p1

A forward-looking series of articles depends at least as much on imagination as reality.

doi:10.1038/46849

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News

Life science facilities in crisis as Brussels switches off funding p3

Declan Butler

doi:10.1038/46851

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South Africa says AIDS drug 'toxic' p3

Michael Cherry

doi:10.1038/46855

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Framework funding ban hits mouse mutant archive p4

Alison Abbott

doi:10.1038/46857

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Californian universities scrap hospitals merger p5

Rex Dalton

doi:10.1038/46860

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Silicon pioneer funds biomedical engineering centre p5

Rex Dalton

doi:10.1038/46863

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NIH panel to limit secrecy on gene therapy p6

Meredith Wadman

doi:10.1038/46865

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Protests grow over interrogation of Ukraine scientists p6

Natasha Loder

doi:10.1038/46868

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NASA relativity probe facing costly delay p7

Tony Reichhardt

doi:10.1038/46871

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Threats to US primate researchers p7

Steve Nadis

doi:10.1038/46874

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French scientists resign from Allègre's advisory council p8

Heather McCabe

doi:10.1038/46877

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Japan plans ethics guidelines p8

Asako Saegusa

doi:10.1038/46880

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News Profile

Providing support and a voice for Europe's young researchers p9

A body set up primarily to promote a fellowship scheme for postdoctoral scientists is seeking to play an active role on the political stage.

Natasha Loder

doi:10.1038/46882

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news in brief p10

doi:10.1038/46885

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Correspondence

Europe must grant crucial funds for biological research p12

Michael Ashburner

doi:10.1038/46888

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University becomes political football p12

Georges Dreyfus

doi:10.1038/46890

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Book Reviews

Making sense, making money p13

An enlightened approach to using energy and materials.

Norman Myers reviews Natural Capitalism: The Next Industrial Revolution by Paul Hawken, Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins

doi:10.1038/46892

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Making no sense, making money p13

Alison Mitchell

doi:10.1038/990012

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Condensed physics matters p14

Philip W. Anderson reviews More things in Heaven and Earth: A Celebration of Physics at the Millennium edited by Benjamin Bederson

doi:10.1038/46895

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Simple twists of fate p15

Jonathan Hodgkin reviews Chance, Development and Aging by Caleb E. Finch and Tom Kirkwood

doi:10.1038/46898

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Science in culture p16

John Carmody reviews WozzeckAlban Berg

doi:10.1038/46900

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Millennium Essay

Are you serious, Dr Mitchell? p17

Few would have laid money on cells generating energy with proton pumps.

Leslie E. Orgel

doi:10.1038/46903

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Futures

Improving the neighbourhood p19

The death of a nearby star system comes as a relief — and a warning.

Arthur C. Clarke

doi:10.1038/46906

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News and Views

Catching the first fish p21

Most major animal groups appear suddenly in the fossil record 550 million years ago, but vertebrates have been absent from this 'Big Bang' of life. Two fish-like animals from Early Cambrian rocks now fill this gap.

Philippe Janvier

doi:10.1038/46909

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Particle physics: Maxwell's other demon p22

Frank Wilczek

doi:10.1038/46912

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Genomics: Functional links between proteins p23

Andrej ali

doi:10.1038/46915

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Geophysics: Latest spin on the core p26

F. A. Dahlen

doi:10.1038/46918

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Protein folding: Linking catalysts to chemistry p27

Robert Freedman

doi:10.1038/46920

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Galaxy formation: Clumps that survive to tell a tale p29

Sidney van den Bergh

doi:10.1038/46922

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Signal transduction: Grabbing phosphoproteins p30

Michael B. Yaffe and Lewis C. Cantley

doi:10.1038/46925

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Daedalus: Chain in miniature p31

David Jones

doi:10.1038/46928

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130th anniversary p32

A selection of words and images from the first issue of Nature, published on 4 November 1869. The first issue is available for viewing at http://helix.nature.com/first.

doi:10.1038/46930

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Brief Communications

Trans-gender induction of hair follicles p33

Human follicle cells can be induced to grow in an incompatible host of the other sex.

Amanda J. Reynolds, Clifford Lawrence, Peter B. Cserhalmi-Friedman, Angela M. Christiano and Colin A. B. Jahoda

doi:10.1038/46938

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Conservation biology: Restoration of an inbred adder population p34

Thomas Madsen, Richard Shine, Mats Olsson and Håkan Wittzell

doi:10.1038/46941

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (145K)

Olfaction: The world smells different to each nostril p35

Noam Sobel, Rehan M. Khan, Amnon Saltman, Edith V. Sullivan and John D. E. Gabrieli

doi:10.1038/46944

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Vision: Trichromatic vision in prosimians p36

Ying Tan and Wen-Hsiung Li

doi:10.1038/46947

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Articles

Nonlinear dynamics of lava dome extrusion p37

O. Melnik and R. S. J. Sparks

doi:10.1038/46950

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (187K)

Lower Cambrian vertebrates from south China p42

D-G. Shu, H-L. Luo, S. Conway Morris, X-L. Zhang, S-X. Hu, L. Chen, J. Han, M. Zhu, Y. Li and L-Z. Chen

doi:10.1038/46965

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,108K) | Supplementary information

Natural engineering principles of electron tunnelling in biological oxidation–reduction p47

Christopher C. Page, Christopher C. Moser, Xiaoxi Chen and P. Leslie Dutton

doi:10.1038/46972

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (161K)

Letters to Nature

Debris streams in the solar neighbourhood as relicts from the formation of the Milky Way p53

Amina Helmi, Simon D. M. White, P. Tim de Zeeuw and HongSheng Zhao

doi:10.1038/46980

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (2,381K)

Multiple stellar populations in the globular cluster Centauri as tracers of a merger event p55

Y.-W. Lee, J.-M. Joo, Y.-J. Sohn, S.-C. Rey, H.-c. Lee and A. R. Walker

doi:10.1038/46985

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (2,312K)

Discovery of a planet orbiting a binary star system from gravitational microlensing p57

D. P. Bennett, S. H. Rhie, A. C. Becker, N. Butler, J. Dann, S. Kaspi, E. M. Leibowitz, Y. Lipkin, D. Maoz, H. Mendelson, B. A. Peterson, J. Quinn, O. Shemmer, S. Thomson and S. E. Turner

doi:10.1038/46990

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (217K)

The inverse band-structure problem of finding an atomic configuration with given electronic properties p60

Alberto Franceschetti and Alex Zunger

doi:10.1038/46995

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Frozen-bed Fennoscandian and Laurentide ice sheets during the Last Glacial Maximum p63

Johan Kleman and Clas Hättestrand

doi:10.1038/47005

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (556K)

Limits on differential rotation of the inner core from an analysis of the Earth's free oscillations p66

Gabi Laske and Guy Masters

doi:10.1038/47011

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (472K)

Environmental warming alters food-web structure and ecosystem function p69

Owen L. Petchey, P. Timon McPhearson, Timothy M. Casey and Peter J. Morin

doi:10.1038/47023

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A network of fast-spiking cells in the neocortex connected by electrical synapses p72

Mario Galarreta and Shaul Hestrin

doi:10.1038/47029

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Two networks of electrically coupled inhibitory neurons in neocortex p75

Jay R. Gibson, Michael Beierlein and Barry W. Connors

doi:10.1038/47035

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Complex lipid determines tissue-specific replication of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in mice p79

Jeffery S. Cox, Bing Chen, Michael McNeil and William R. Jacobs, Jr

doi:10.1038/47042

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (262K) | Supplementary information

A combined algorithm for genome-wide prediction of protein function p83

Edward M. Marcotte, Matteo Pellegrini, Michael J. Thompson, Todd O. Yeates and David Eisenberg

doi:10.1038/47048

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (175K)

Protein interaction maps for complete genomes based on gene fusion events p86

Anton J. Enright, Ioannis Iliopoulos, Nikos C. Kyrpides and Christos A. Ouzounis

doi:10.1038/47056

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (250K) | Supplementary information

Glycoproteins form mixed disulphides with oxidoreductases during folding in living cells p90

Maurizio Molinari and Ari Helenius

doi:10.1038/47062

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (179K) | Supplementary information

The CoRNR motif controls the recruitment of corepressors by nuclear hormone receptors p93

Xiao Hu and Mitchell A. Lazar

doi:10.1038/47069

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (206K)

Mitochondrial DNA repairs double-strand breaks in yeast chromosomes p96

Miria Ricchetti, Cécile Fairhead and Bernard Dujon

doi:10.1038/47076

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (233K)

Mechanical unfolding intermediates in titin modules p100

Piotr E. Marszalek, Hui Lu, Hongbin Li, Mariano Carrion-Vazquez, Andres F. Oberhauser, Klaus Schulten and Julio M. Fernandez

doi:10.1038/47083

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (260K)

New on the Market

Molecular matters p105

ATP, DNA, SPC and other TLAs (three-letter acronyms) feature this week.

doi:10.1038/47089

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