Table of contents
Volume 408 Number 6808 pp1-120
Opinion
Following through on Phillips p1
Britain's inquiry into the BSE crisis has revealed significant weaknesses in the way the government used scientific advice and established research priorities on a topic of urgent social concern. These require more detailed public scrutiny.
doi:10.1038/35040709
Total eclipse unlikely p1
Even as large optical telescopes steal much of the limelight, smaller instruments can retain an important role.
doi:10.1038/35040711
News
Inquiry blames missed warnings for scale of Britain's BSE crisis p3
Peter Aldhous
doi:10.1038/35040713
Were some CJD victims infected by vaccines? p3
Karen Birmingham
doi:10.1038/35040718
Scientific turf war 'delayed potentially vital research' p5
David Dickson
doi:10.1038/35040721
Kenyans protest at being left off AIDS patent p6
Wachira Kigotho
doi:10.1038/35040724
Puffer fish joins genome stampede p6
David Cyranoski and Paul Smaglik
doi:10.1038/35040727
US fusion community 'must end isolation', says panel p7
Colin Macilwain
doi:10.1038/35040730
Whitehead enters into array deal p7
Steve Nadis
doi:10.1038/35040733
Aquarium group fights 'cyanide fishing' . . . p8
Mark Schrope
doi:10.1038/35040735
. . . as scientists raise alarm over coral reefs p9
Peter Pockley
doi:10.1038/35040738
News Feature
Does size matter? p12
Large telescopes are starting to dominate astronomy, putting their smaller predecessors under pressure to close. But if astronomers can adapt their ways of working, says Alexander Hellemans, both big and small could thrive.
Alexander Hellemans
doi:10.1038/35040743
Torn between a rock and a high place p13
doi:10.1038/35040748
Europeans ponder the scope for improvement p15
doi:10.1038/35040751
Correspondence
Genes should not be patentable, but if they are, we all have to do it p017
Edgar Dutra Zanotto
doi:10.1038/35040754
Results may not fit well with current theories . . . p17
Gabby Dover
doi:10.1038/35040756
. . . but yeast prion offers clues about evolution p17
Susan Lindquist
doi:10.1038/35040758
In defence of Spanish R&D spending p18
Ramón Marimon
doi:10.1038/35040760
Don't ignore the risk of vaccine contamination p18
G. Lecatsas
doi:10.1038/35040762
Commentary
Is Russian science recovering? p19
A Nobel Prize raises morale, but research needs money and democracy.
doi:10.1038/35040625
Book Reviews
A powerful leap from chaos p21
The natural world, financial crises, wars, history — all modelled in a pile of sand.
Niall Ferguson reviews Ubiquity: Why the World Is Simpler Than We Think by Mark Buchanan
doi:10.1038/35040628
From pioneers to marketeers p22
Rino Rappuoli reviews From Alchemy to IPO: The Business of Biotechnology by Cynthia Robbins-Roth
doi:10.1038/35040631
Secrets will out p23
Simon Singh reviews Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II by Stephen Budiansky
doi:10.1038/35040634
Now you see it, now you don't p24
Douglas R. O. Morrison reviews The Undergrowth of Science: Delusion, Self-deception and Human Frailty by Walter Gratzer
doi:10.1038/35040637
With a hammer and passion p27
Philippe Janvier reviews Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution by Richard Fortey
doi:10.1038/35040646
Metamorphosis of a brain p30
Yadin Dudai reviews The Dying of Enoch Wallace: Life, Death, and the Changing Brain by Ira B. Black
doi:10.1038/35040657
Unravelling a tangled mind p31
Bruce A. Yankner reviews Decoding Darkness: The Search for the Genetic Causes of Alzheimer's Disease by Rudolph E. Tanzi and Ann B. Parson
doi:10.1038/35040660
Millennium Essay
What's in a name? p33
Linnaeu's marginal jottings created order out of botanical chaos.
Sandra Knapp
doi:10.1038/35040663
Futures
The stars my incarnation p35
You read it here first, folks.
Robert A. Metzger
doi:10.1038/35040666
News and Views
Small but mighty timekeepers p37
A tiny RNA molecule ensures that the larvae of a roundworm develop into adults. The discovery of this RNA in many other animal groups implies that this way of keeping developmental time may be universal.
André Adoutte
doi:10.1038/35040669
Solid-state physics: Surprising movements in solids p38
A process as simple as diffusion should be easy to understand. But our knowledge of the movements of atoms in semiconductors is still far from complete.
Ulrich Gösele
doi:10.1038/35040672
Plant biology: Turning fields into grains p39
Cereal seeds contain an embryo and an endosperm, which is used as a food source. Differentiation of the endosperm is guided by several 'positional' molecular cues throughout development.
Richard D. Thompson
doi:10.1038/35040675
100 and 50 years ago p41
doi:10.1038/35040678
Space physics: An auroral signature decoded p42
It has been hard to relate the activity of the northern lights to specific events in space. But the latest data show that 'auroral streamers' can be matched to bursts of ionized particles from Earth's magnetotail.
Patrick T. Newell
doi:10.1038/35040680
Developmental biology: One cell, two fates p43
The two types of cell that make up blood vessels can develop from the same precursor. This discovery might improve our understanding of the role of blood vessels in disorders ranging from cancer to heart disease.
Peter Carmeliet
doi:10.1038/35040684
Nanotechnology: Flipping a molecular switch p45
Switches lie at the heart of electronics and their design puts a limit on the size of integrated circuits. By harnessing chemistry, researchers have reduced this problem to a molecular level.
Dan Feldheim
doi:10.1038/35040687
Transcription: Regulation of the regulators p46
The list of proteins whose activity is controlled by transport into different subcellular compartments keeps growing. The latest additions are two regulators of gene expression.
Scott Stewart and Gerald R. Crabtree
doi:10.1038/35040690
Astronomy: Cosmic discord p47
New data on the cosmic background radiation are making cosmologists revise their view of the Universe. The biggest surprise is that the data favour a larger amount of 'ordinary matter' than was thought.
Craig J. Hogan
doi:10.1038/35040693
Brief Communications
Global spread of microorganisms by ships p49
Ballast water discharged from vessels harbours a cocktail of potential pathogens.
Gregory M. Ruiz, Tonya K. Rawlings, Fred C. Dobbs, Lisa A. Drake, Timothy Mullady, Anwarul Huq and Rita R. Colwell
doi:10.1038/35040695
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (243K)
Materials science: The smallest carbon nanotube p50
Lu-Chang Qin, Xinluo Zhao, Kaori Hirahara, Yoshiyuki Miyamoto, Yoshinori Ando and Sumio Iijima
doi:10.1038/35040699
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,279K)
Materials science: Single-walled 4 Å carbon nanotube arrays p50
N. Wang, Z. K. Tang, G. D. Li and J. S. Chen
doi:10.1038/35040702
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,279K)
Neurobiology: Hydrodynamic stimuli and the fish lateral line p51
J. Engelmann, W. Hanke, J. Mogdans and H. Bleckmann
doi:10.1038/35040706
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,253K)
Progress
Telomere states and cell fates p53
Elizabeth H. Blackburn
doi:10.1038/35040500
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (128K)
Article
Interleukin 21 and its receptor are involved in NK cell expansion and regulation of lymphocyte function p57
Julia Parrish-Novak, Stacey R. Dillon, Andrew Nelson, Angie Hammond, Cindy Sprecher, Jane A. Gross, Janet Johnston, Karen Madden, Wenfeng Xu, Jim West, Sara Schrader, Steve Burkhead, Mark Heipel, Cameron Brandt, Joseph L. Kuijper, Janet Kramer, Darrell Conklin, Scott R. Presnell, Jon Berry, Faith Shiota, Susan Bort, Kevin Hambly, Sherri Mudri, Chris Clegg, Margaret Moore, Francis J. Grant, Catherine Lofton-Day, Teresa Gilbert, Fenella Raymond, Andrew Ching, Lena Yao, Deb Smith, Philippa Webster, Theodore Whitmore, Mark Maurer, Kenneth Kaushansky, Rick D. Holly and Don Foster
doi:10.1038/35040504
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (444K)
Letters to Nature
A photorefractive organically modified silica glass with high optical gain p64
Pavel Cheben, Francisco del Monte, Dennis J. Worsfold, Dave J. Carlsson, Chander P. Grover and John D. Mackenzie
doi:10.1038/35040513
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (179K)
A nanometre-scale electronic switch consisting of a metal cluster and redox-addressable groups p67
David I. Gittins, Donald Bethell, David J. Schiffrin and Richard J. Nichols
doi:10.1038/35040518
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (184K)
See also: News and Views by Feldheim
Large disparity between gallium and antimony self-diffusion in gallium antimonide p69
H. Bracht, S. P. Nicols, W. Walukiewicz, J. P. Silveira, F. Briones and E. E. Haller
doi:10.1038/35040526
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (186K)
See also: News and Views by Gösele
Early onset and tropical forcing of 100,000-year Pleistocene glacial cycles p72
Scott Rutherford and Steven D'Hondt
doi:10.1038/35040533
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (192K)
Accelerated hydration of the Earth's deep crust induced by stress perturbations p75
Bjørn Jamtveit, Håkon Austrheim and Anders Malthe-Sørenssen
doi:10.1038/35040537
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (469K)
Elevated CO2 increases productivity and invasive species success in an arid ecosystem p79
Stanley D. Smith, Travis E. Huxman, Stephen F. Zitzer, Therese N. Charlet, David C. Housman, James S. Coleman, Lynn K. Fenstermaker, Jeffrey R. Seemann and Robert S. Nowak
doi:10.1038/35040544
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (218K)
Evolutionary origins of vertebrate appendicular muscle p82
C. Neyt, K. Jagla, C. Thisse, B. Thisse, L. Haines and P. D. Currie
doi:10.1038/35040549
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (483K) | Supplementary information
Conservation of the sequence and temporal expression of let-7 heterochronic regulatory RNA p86
Amy E. Pasquinelli, Brenda J. Reinhart, Frank Slack, Mark Q. Martindale, Mitzi I. Kuroda, Betsy Maller, David C. Hayward, Eldon E. Ball, Bernard Degnan, Peter Müller, Jürg Spring, Ashok Srinivasan, Mark Fishman, John Finnerty, Joseph Corbo, Michael Levine, Patrick Leahy, Eric Davidson and Gary Ruvkun
doi:10.1038/35040556
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (196K)
See also: News and Views by Adoutte
Polarization of the anterior–posterior axis of C. elegans is a microtubule-directed process p89
Matthew R. Wallenfang and Geraldine Seydoux
doi:10.1038/35040562
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (254K)
Flk1-positive cells derived from embryonic stem cells serve as vascular progenitors p92
Jun Yamashita, Hiroshi Itoh, Masanori Hirashima, Minetaro Ogawa, Satomi Nishikawa, Takami Yurugi, Makoto Naito, Kazuwa Nakao and Shin-Ichi Nishikawa
doi:10.1038/35040568
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (496K) | Supplementary information
See also: News and Views by Carmeliet
Bidirectional control of airway responsiveness by endogenous cannabinoids p96
A. Calignano, I. Kátona, F. Désarnaud, A. Giuffrida, G. La Rana, K. Mackie, T. F. Freund and D. Piomelli
doi:10.1038/35040576
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (277K)
Identification of genes that modify ataxin-1-induced neurodegeneration p101
Pedro Fernandez-Funez, Maria Laura Nino-Rosales, Beatrice de Gouyon, Wei-Chi She, James M. Luchak, Pedro Martinez, Enrique Turiegano, Jonathan Benito, Maria Capovilla, Pamela J. Skinner, Alanna McCall, Inmaculada Canal, Harry T. Orr, Huda Y. Zoghbi and Juan Botas
doi:10.1038/35040584
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (544K) | Supplementary information
Signal-dependent nuclear export of a histone deacetylase regulates muscle differentiation p106
Timothy A. McKinsey, Chun-Li Zhang, Jianrong Lu and Eric N. Olson
doi:10.1038/35040593
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (396K)
See also: News and Views by Stewart & Crabtree
Structural basis for signal transduction by the Toll/interleukin-1 receptor domains p111
Yingwu Xu, Xiao Tao, Baohe Shen, Tiffany Horng, Ruslan Medzhitov, James L. Manley and Liang Tong
doi:10.1038/35040600
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (349K) | Supplementary information
Structural basis for the activation of 20S proteasomes by 11S regulators p115
Frank G. Whitby, Eugene I. Masters, Larissa Kramer, J. Randolph Knowlton, Yi Yao, Ching C. Wang and Christopher P. Hill
doi:10.1038/35040607
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (600K)
erratum: Production of gene-targeted sheep by nuclear transfer from cultured somatic cells p120
K. J. McCreath, J. Howcroft, K. H. S. Campbell, A. Colman, A. E. Schnieke and A. J. Kind
doi:10.1038/35040609