Opinion

Bush's science flashpoints p885

The president-elect seems to have failed to inspire scientists during his campaign. Although support for research will probably grow, some policies and appointments are likely to signal trouble ahead.

doi:10.1038/35050205

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Futures' end p885

doi:10.1038/35050207

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News

Tussle starts for research posts as Bush rides into Washington p887

Tony Reichhardt and Paul Smaglik

doi:10.1038/35050209

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Stem-cell work in the balance p887

Matthew Davis

doi:10.1038/35050212

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New regime may aim to craft compromise on green issues p888

Tony Reichhardt

doi:10.1038/35050215

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NASA set to move Pluto back up its priority list p889

Tony Reichhardt

doi:10.1038/35050218

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Japanese genomics company offers shares in sequences p889

David Cyranoski

doi:10.1038/35050221

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Italian women meet glass ceiling in the lab p890

Alison Abbott

doi:10.1038/35050223

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International search underway in Italy for institute directors p891

Alison Abbott

doi:10.1038/35050226

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Correction p892

doi:10.1038/35050229

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News in brief p892

doi:10.1038/35050231

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2000 in context

Genomics: Beyond the book of life p894

It was the year of genomes. Every week seemed to bring another landmark — be it human, animal, plant or pathogen. But there was more to 2000 than strings of 'A's, 'C's, 'G's and 'T's. Nature explores some of the highs, lows and emerging trends behind the year's scientific headlines.

Peter Aldhous

doi:10.1038/35050235

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Global warming:  A climate of uncertainty p896

Heike Langenberg and Peter Aldhous

doi:10.1038/35050238

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In Context

Stem cells:  Panacea, or Pandora's box? p897

Peter Aldhous

doi:10.1038/35050241

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Space:  Where are they boldly going? p898

Tony Reichhardt

doi:10.1038/35050245

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Mathematical biology: Life is a game of numbers p900

Marina Chicurel

doi:10.1038/35050249

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AIDS: In and out of Africa p901

Declan Butler

doi:10.1038/35050252

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Neurodegeneration: Battling the killer proteins p902

Peter Aldhous and Alison Abbott

doi:10.1038/35050255

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High-energy physics: When priorities collide p903

Philip Ball

doi:10.1038/35050258

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Nanotechnology: Molecular movers and shakers p904

Philip Ball

doi:10.1038/35050261

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Correspondence

Cloning's not a new idea: the Greeks had a word for it centuries ago p905

A. A. Diamandopoulos and P. C. Goudas

doi:10.1038/35050264

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Taiwan pays the price for growth, in toxic pollution p905

Govindasamy Agoramoorthy and Minna J. Hsu

doi:10.1038/35050266

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Erratum p905

doi:10.1038/35050268

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Book Reviews

A diaspora and its blessings p907

Jewish academics exiled from 1930s Germany rejuvenated science elsewhere.

Walter Gratzer reviews Hitler's Gift: Scientists Who Fled Nazi Germany by Jean Medawar and David Pyke

doi:10.1038/35050148

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Tuck in, and enjoy! p908

Anthony Blake reviews The Cambridge World History of Food

doi:10.1038/35050151

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Blood, gore and holey stomachs p909

W. F. Bynum reviews Sick! Bloody Moments in the History of Medicine by Gael Jennings

doi:10.1038/35050154

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Science in culture p910

Vaclav Smil reviews

doi:10.1038/35050157

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Millennium Essay

Temptations of the tree p911

A perennial image of life, history and enlightenment.

Geir Hestmark

doi:10.1038/35050204

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Futures

Monolith p913

With apologies to Arthur C. Clarke.

Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen

doi:10.1038/35050175

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News and Views

Model behaviour p915

Trials in mice of a possible vaccine for Alzheimer's disease show that it reduces the behavioural defects and the brain damage seen in the disease. As promising as these results are, a human vaccine remains a long way off.

Paul F. Chapman

doi:10.1038/35050179

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Astronomy: The Big Bang is bang on p916

Did the Universe really start in a hot Big Bang? New measurements of the temperature of the Universe when it was young provide exciting confirmation that it was indeed hotter in the past.

John Bahcall

doi:10.1038/35050182

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Evolutionary biology: Cooperation can be dangerous p917

In social situations, opportunities arise for some individuals to take advantage of others. This happens in wild populations of the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum.

Richard H. Kessin

doi:10.1038/35050184

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Fundamental constants: Measuring big G p919

Newton's constant, G, which governs the strength of the gravitational attraction between two masses, is difficult to measure accurately. A new set of experiments aims to end 200 years of uncertainty.

Terry Quinn

doi:10.1038/35050187

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100 and 50 years ago p920

doi:10.1038/35050190

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Neurobiology: Moving forward by looking away p921

In one model of the brain, a central processing region is sandwiched between separate input and output areas. But studies of humans, and now monkeys, hint that this model may be too simplistic.

Larry Snyder

doi:10.1038/35050192

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Magnetoelectronics: Teaching magnets new tricks p923

A way to control magnetism in semiconductors using an external electric field has been shown for the first time. This long-awaited result could lead to new types of information-storage devices.

David D. Awschalom and Roland K. Kawakami

doi:10.1038/35050194

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Meteorology: Oscillating opinion p924

Why, since around 1960, have winters in northern Europe tended to become milder and wetter? The meteorological conditions responsible came under discussion at a meeting last month.

Heike Langenberg

doi:10.1038/35050198

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Nanotechnology: Solid progress in ion conduction p925

Materials that conduct ions are useful in devices involving electrochemical reactions, such as fuel cells and batteries. Low ionic conductivity was a problem for these materials until researchers built nanoscale versions.

Alan V. Chadwick

doi:10.1038/35050201

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Brief Communications

Does the Queen speak the Queen's English? p927

Elizabeth II's traditional pronunciation has been influenced by modern trends.

Jonathan Harrington, Sallyanne Palethorpe and Catherine I. Watson

doi:10.1038/35050160

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (177K)

Ecophysiology: Penguin fathers preserve food for their chicks p928

Michel Gauthier-Clerc, Yvon Le Maho, Yannick Clerquin, Samuel Drault and Yves Handrich

doi:10.1038/35050163

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (206K)

Biomechanics: Penguin waddling is not wasteful p929

Timothy M. Griffin and Rodger Kram

doi:10.1038/35050167

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (196K)

Ecology: Mistletoe seed dispersal by a marsupial p929

Guillermo Amico and Marcelo A. Aizen

doi:10.1038/35050170

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (196K)

Articles

The cosmic microwave background radiation temperature at a redshift of 2.34 p931

R. Srianand, P. Petitjean and C. Ledoux

doi:10.1038/35050020

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (183K)

See also: News and Views by Bahcall

Stargazin regulates synaptic targeting of AMPA receptors by two distinct mechanisms p936

Lu Chen, Dane M. Chetkovich, Ronald S. Petralia, Neal T. Sweeney, Yoshimi Kawasaki, Robert J. Wenthold, David S. Bredt and Roger A. Nicoll

doi:10.1038/35050030

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (800K)

Letters to Nature

Electric-field control of ferromagnetism p944

H. Ohno, D. Chiba, F. Matsukura, T. Omiya, E. Abe, T. Dietl, Y. Ohno and K. Ohtani

doi:10.1038/35050040

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (240K)

See also: News and Views by Awschalom & Kawakami

Mesoscopic fast ion conduction in nanometre-scale planar heterostructures p946

N. Sata, K. Eberman, K. Eberl and J. Maier

doi:10.1038/35050047

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (199K)

See also: News and Views by Chadwick

Pairing of isolated nucleic-acid bases in the absence of the DNA backbone p949

Eyal Nir, Karl Kleinermanns and Mattanjah S. de Vries

doi:10.1038/35050053

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (142K) | Supplementary information

The influence of rivers on marine boron isotopes and implications for reconstructing past ocean pH p951

D. Lemarchand, J. Gaillardet, É. Lewin and C. J. Allègre

doi:10.1038/35050058

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (148K)

Evidence from episodic seamount volcanism for pulsing of the Iceland plume in the past 70 Myr p954

J. M. O'Connor, P. Stoffers, J. R. Wijbrans, P. M. Shannon and T. Morrissey

doi:10.1038/35050066

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (830K) | Supplementary information

Subduction and collision processes in the Central Andes constrained by converted seismic phases p958

X. Yuan, S. V. Sobolev, R. Kind, O. Oncken, G. Bock, G. Asch, B. Schurr, F. Graeber, A. Rudloff, W. Hanka, K. Wylegalla, R. Tibi, Ch. Haberland, A. Rietbrock, P. Giese, P. Wigger, P. Röwer, G. Zandt, S. Beck, T. Wallace, M. Pardo and D. Comte

doi:10.1038/35050073

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (367K) | Supplementary information

Disturbance and diversity in experimental microcosms p961

Angus Buckling, Rees Kassen, Graham Bell and Paul B. Rainey

doi:10.1038/35050080

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (194K)

Altruism and social cheating in the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum p965

Joan E. Strassmann, Yong Zhu and David C. Queller

doi:10.1038/35050087

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (247K)

See also: News and Views by Kessin

Asymmetric leaves1 mediates leaf patterning and stem cell function in Arabidopsis p967

Mary E. Byrne, Ross Barley, Mark Curtis, Juana Maria Arroyo, Maitreya Dunham, Andrew Hudson and Robert A. Martienssen

doi:10.1038/35050091

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (367K)

Neuronal switching of sensorimotor transformations for antisaccades p971

Mingsha Zhang and Shabtai Barash

doi:10.1038/35050097

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (563K)

See also: News and Views by Snyder

A learning deficit related to age and -amyloid plaques in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease p975

Guiquan Chen, Karen S. Chen, Jane Knox, Jennifer Inglis, Andrew Bernard, Stephen J. Martin, Alan Justice, Lisa McConlogue, Dora Games, Stephen B. Freedman and Richard G. M. Morris

doi:10.1038/35050103

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (400K)

See also: News and Views by Chapman

A peptide immunization reduces behavioural impairment and plaques in a model of Alzheimer's disease p979

Christopher Janus, Jacqueline Pearson, JoAnne McLaurin, Paul M. Mathews, Ying Jiang, Stephen D. Schmidt, M. Azhar Chishti, Patrick Horne, Donna Heslin, Janet French, Howard T.J. Mount, Ralph A. Nixon, Marc Mercken, Catherine Bergeron, Paul E. Fraser, Peter St George-Hyslop and David Westaway

doi:10.1038/35050110

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (259K) | Supplementary information

See also: News and Views by Chapman

A peptide vaccination prevents memory loss in an animal model of Alzheimer's disease p982

Dave Morgan, David M. Diamond, Paul E. Gottschall, Kenneth E. Ugen, Chad Dickey, John Hardy, Karen Duff, Paul Jantzen, Giovanni DiCarlo, Donna Wilcock, Karen Connor, Jaime Hatcher, Caroline Hope, Marcia Gordon and Gary W. Arendash

doi:10.1038/35050116

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (222K)

See also: News and Views by Chapman

Induction of vanilloid receptor channel activity by protein kinase C p985

Louis S. Premkumar and Gerard P. Ahern

doi:10.1038/35050121

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,807K)

Co-assembly of polycystin-1 and -2 produces unique cation-permeable currents p990

Kazushige Hanaoka, Feng Qian, Alessandra Boletta, Anil K. Bhunia, Klaus Piontek, Leonidas Tsiokas, Vikas P. Sukhatme, William B. Guggino and Gregory G. Germino

doi:10.1038/35050128

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (307K)

Hypoinsulinaemia, glucose intolerance and diminished -cell size in S6K1-deficient mice p994

Mario Pende, Sara C. Kozma, Muriel Jaquet, Viola Oorschot, Rémy Burcelin, Yannick Le Marchand-Brustel, Judith Klumperman, Bernard Thorens and George Thomas

doi:10.1038/35050135

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (270K)

Controlled growth factor release from synthetic extracellular matrices p998

Kuen Yong Lee, Martin C. Peters, Kenneth W. Anderson and David J. Mooney

doi:10.1038/35050141

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (198K) | Supplementary information

A role for Saccharomyces cerevisiae histone H2A in DNA repair p1001

Jessica A. Downs, Noel F. Lowndes and Stephen P. Jackson

doi:10.1038/35050000

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (255K) | Supplementary information

Structural basis for binding of Smac/DIABLO to the XIAP BIR3 domain p1004

Zhihong Liu, Chaohong Sun, Edward T. Olejniczak, Robert P. Meadows, Stephen F. Betz, Thorsten Oost, Julia Herrmann, Joe C. Wu and Stephen W. Fesik

doi:10.1038/35050006

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (375K)

Structural basis of IAP recognition by Smac/DIABLO p1008

Geng Wu, Jijie Chai, Tomeka L. Suber, Jia-Wei Wu, Chunying Du, Xiaodong Wang and Yigong Shi

doi:10.1038/35050012

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (353K) | Supplementary information

correction: Digital selection and analogue amplification coexist in a cortex-inspired silicon circuit p1012

Richard H. R. Hahnloser, Rahul Sarpeshkar, Misha A. Mahowald, Rodney J. Douglas and H. Sebastian Seung

doi:10.1038/35050018

Full Text | PDF (221K)