Opinion

Resolutions to enhance confident creativity p1

Outstanding discoveries are inspiring, thanks to the research opportunities that they open up. But the creative processes involved, and obstacles to them, also deserve consideration.

doi:10.1038/47310

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News

Europe lifts patent embargo on transgenic plants and animals... p3

Quirin Schiermeier and David Dickson

doi:10.1038/47312

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...as US tightens up on 'speculative' claims p3

Paul Smaglik

doi:10.1038/47315

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Big gains for biology and IT in Japanese science budget p4

Asako Saegusa

doi:10.1038/47317

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Genomics companies boom on New York stock exchange p4

Paul Smaglik

doi:10.1038/47320

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'US politicians have fallen in love with basic research' p5

From our own correspondent: Colin Macilwain (Washington)

Colin Macilwain

doi:10.1038/47322

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'The role of science is to illuminate political choices, not enforce them' p6

Declan Butler

doi:10.1038/47326

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'Japan's scientists must learn to take action' p7

David Swinbanks

doi:10.1038/47330

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'I have reported on astonishing achievements in times of hardship' p8

Alison Abbott

doi:10.1038/47333

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'If knowledge is king, we may need a republican revolution' p9

David Dickson

doi:10.1038/47337

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news in brief p10

doi:10.1038/47341

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Correspondence

Do we need a huge new centre to annotate the human genome? p12

Jean-Michel Claverie

doi:10.1038/47343

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How nature itself uses genetic modification p12

Anthony Trewavas and Christopher Leaver

doi:10.1038/47345

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Commentary

Millennial highlights p13

... from Gerbert d'Aurillac to Watson and Crick.

doi:10.1038/47347

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Book Reviews

The waning of the Golden Age p17

Politics, war and the decline of German science.

Walter Gratzer reviews Einstein's German World by Fritz Richard Stern

doi:10.1038/47353

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Beneficent squid p19

Tomoyuki Takahashi reviews The Squid Synapse: A Model for Chemical Transmission by Rodolfo R. Llinas

doi:10.1038/47357

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Medicine's least respectable branch? p19

Dylan Evans reviews A Century of Psychiatry, Volumes I and II

doi:10.1038/47360

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In retrospect: chosen by David Jones p20

David Jones reviews The Year 2000: A Framework for Speculation on the Next Thirty-three Years by Herman Kahn and Anthony Wiener

doi:10.1038/47362

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Millennium Essay

Making waves in physics p21

Three wave singularities from the miraculous 1830s.

Michael Berry

doi:10.1038/47364

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Futures

How science saved the world p23

Kim Stanley Robinson

doi:10.1038/83892

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News and Views

Astronomy: Optics adapt to the whole sky p25

Atmospheric distortion limits the sensitivity of ground-based telescopes. Adaptive optics is the answer — new techniques mean that computer-controlled mirrors may soon compensate for distortion in any part of the sky.

Brent Ellerbroek and François Rigaut

doi:10.1038/47369

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100 and 50 years ago p26

doi:10.1038/47372

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Conservation biology: Living on the edge p26

Thomas Brooks

doi:10.1038/47374

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Apoptosis: Caspases find a new place to hide p29

Huseyin Mehmet

doi:10.1038/47377

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Astronomy: A bright future for dark matter p30

Brad Hansen

doi:10.1038/47380

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Earth science: Taking the temperature of slabs p31

Stephen H. Kirby

doi:10.1038/47382

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Cell biology: Telomeric tethers p34

Wai-Hong Tham and Virginia A. Zakian

doi:10.1038/47385

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Methane combustion: Durable catalysts for cleaner air p35

Jon G. McCarty

doi:10.1038/47388

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Reproductive biology: Taking the squeeze off sperm p35

Tim Lincoln

doi:10.1038/47391

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Daedalus: Depth of insight p36

David Jones

doi:10.1038/47394

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Brief Communications

Marine iguanas shrink to survive El Niño p37

Changes in bone metabolism enable these adult lizards to reversibly alter their length.

Martin Wikelski and Corinna Thom

doi:10.1038/47396

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Conservation: Biogeography of the Indonesian coelacanths p38

H. Fricke, K. Hissmann, J. Schauer, M. Erdmann, M. K. Moosa and R. Plante

doi:10.1038/47400

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Neuroscience: Extrapolating movement without retinal motion p38

John Schlag, Rick H. Cai, Andrews Dorfman, Ali Mohempour and Madeleine Schlag-Rey

doi:10.1038/47402

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Cognition: Numerical memory span in a chimpanzee p39

Nobuyuki Kawai and Tetsuro Matsuzawa

doi:10.1038/47405

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Medical physics: Explaining the T-wave shape in the ECG p40

Diego di Bernardo and Alan Murray

doi:10.1038/47409

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Progress

The language of covalent histone modifications p41

Brian D. Strahl and C. David Allis

doi:10.1038/47412

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (307K)

Article

Crystal structure of the hereditary haemochromatosis protein HFE complexed with transferrin receptor p46

Melanie J. Bennett, José A. Lebrón and Pamela J. Bjorkman

doi:10.1038/47417

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (520K)

Letters to Nature

Adaptive-optics corrections available for the whole sky p54

Roberto Ragazzoni, Enrico Marchetti and Gianpaolo Valente

doi:10.1038/47425

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (131K)

Infrared spectrum of an extremely cool white-dwarf star p57

S. T. Hodgkin, B. R. Oppenheimer, N. C. Hambly, R. F. Jameson, S. J. Smartt and I. A. Steele

doi:10.1038/47431

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Tunnelling between the edges of two lateral quantum Hall systems p59

W. Kang, H. L. Stormer, L. N. Pfeiffer, K. W. Baldwin and K. W. West

doi:10.1038/47436

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Magnetic trapping of neutrons p62

P. R. Huffman, C. R. Brome, J. S. Butterworth, K. J. Coakley, M. S. Dewey, S. N. Dzhosyuk, R. Golub, G. L. Greene, K. Habicht, S. K. Lamoreaux, C. E. H. Mattoni, D. N. McKinsey, F. E. Wietfeldt and J. M. Doyle

doi:10.1038/47444

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Reverse microemulsion synthesis of nanostructured complex oxides for catalytic combustion p65

Andrey J. Zarur and Jackie Y. Ying

doi:10.1038/47450

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Forecasting Andean rainfall and crop yield from the influence of El Niño on Pleiades visibility p68

Benjamin S. Orlove, John C. H. Chiang and Mark A. Cane

doi:10.1038/47456

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Channelized fluid flow in oceanic crust reconciles heat-flow and permeability data p71

A. T. Fisher and K. Becker

doi:10.1038/47463

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A highly unsaturated fatty acid predicts carbon transfer between primary producers and consumers p74

Dörthe C. Müller-Navarra, Michael T. Brett, Anne M. Liston and Charles R. Goldman

doi:10.1038/47469

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The Santa Barbara Basin is a symbiosis oasis p77

Joan M. Bernhard, Kurt R. Buck, Mark A. Farmer and Samuel S. Bowser

doi:10.1038/47476

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Mortality of sea lions along the central California coast linked to a toxic diatom bloom p80

Christopher A. Scholin, Frances Gulland, Gregory J. Doucette, Scott Benson, Mark Busman, Francisco P. Chavez, Joe Cordaro, Robert DeLong, Andrew De Vogelaere, James Harvey, Martin Haulena, Kathi Lefebvre, Tom Lipscomb, Susan Loscutoff, Linda J. Lowenstine, Roman Marin III, Peter E. Miller, William A. McLellan, Peter D. R. Moeller, Christine L. Powell, Teri Rowles, Paul Silvagni, Mary Silver, Terry Spraker, Vera Trainer and Frances M. Van Dolah

doi:10.1038/47481

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Dynamic biogeography and conservation of endangered species p84

Rob Channell and Mark V. Lomolino

doi:10.1038/47487

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Reduced vas deferens contraction and male infertility in mice lacking P2X₁ receptors p86

K. Mulryan, D. P. Gitterman, C. J. Lewis, C. Vial, B. J. Leckie, A. L. Cobb, J. E. Brown, E. C. Conley, G. Buell, C. A. Pritchard and R. J. Evans

doi:10.1038/47495

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Turning of nerve growth cones induced by localized increases in intracellular calcium ions p89

James Q. Zheng

doi:10.1038/47501

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Calcium signalling in the guidance of nerve growth by netrin-1 p93

Kyonsoo Hong, Makoto Nishiyama, John Henley, Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Mu-ming Poo

doi:10.1038/47507

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Caspase-12 mediates endoplasmic-reticulum-specific apoptosis and cytotoxicity by amyloid- p98

Toshiyuki Nakagawa, Hong Zhu, Nobuhiro Morishima, En Li, Jin Xu, Bruce A. Yankner and Junying Yuan

doi:10.1038/47513

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Anti-inflammatory cyclopentenone prostaglandins are direct inhibitors of IB kinase p103

Antonio Rossi, Pankaj Kapahi, Gioacchino Natoli, Takayuki Takahashi, Yi Chen, Michael Karin and M. Gabriella Santoro

doi:10.1038/47520

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Nuclear pore complexes in the organization of silent telomeric chromatin p108

Vincent Galy, Jean-Christophe Olivo-Marin, Harry Scherthan, Valerie Doye, Nadia Rascalou and Ulf Nehrbass

doi:10.1038/47528

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (290K) | Supplementary information

Three-dimensional structure of the ion-coupled transport protein NhaA p112

Karen A. Williams

doi:10.1038/47534

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (320K)