Opinion

Don't underestimate the enemy p269

When an infectious disease appears to be in decline, the agent that causes it tends to disappear from the biomedical research agenda. As recent events have revealed, that can be a mistake.

doi:10.1038/35053282

Full Text | PDF (83K)

The stuff of ideas p269

Introducing new ways in which researchers and others can stimulate Nature's readers.

doi:10.1038/35053284

Full Text | PDF (83K)

News

Biotech sector still looking lively p271

Sally Lehrman

doi:10.1038/35053286

Full Text | PDF (203K)

Harvard to spend 'hundreds of millions' on further expansion p271

Rex Dalton

doi:10.1038/35053288

Full Text | PDF (203K)

Japanese legume project may help to fix nitrogen problem p272

David Cyranoski

doi:10.1038/35053291

Full Text | PDF (166K)

South Africa reveals funding allocations for research p272

Michael Cherry

doi:10.1038/35053294

Full Text | PDF (166K)

Group urges survey of antibiotics in animals p273

Meredith Wadman

doi:10.1038/35053297

Full Text | PDF (193K)

French museum report sparks researchers' revolt p273

Declan Butler

doi:10.1038/35053300

Full Text | PDF (193K)

Genes may solve hormone-disrupter debate p274

Robert Triendl

doi:10.1038/35053303

Full Text | PDF (173K)

Spanish leader lends ear to science p274

Xavier Bosch

doi:10.1038/35053306

Full Text | PDF (173K)

CNN founder launches arms control initiative p275

Irwin Goodwin

doi:10.1038/35053309

Full Text | PDF (162K)

BSE fallout sends shock waves through Germany p275

Alison Abbott

doi:10.1038/35053312

Full Text | PDF (162K)

news in brief p276

doi:10.1038/35053315

Full Text | PDF (120K)

news feature

Polio's last stand p278

Does an outbreak of poliomyelitis in the Caribbean caused by a mutated vaccine mean that plans to complete the disease's eradication must be reworked? Tom Clarke considers the evidence.

Tom Clarke

doi:10.1038/35053235

Full Text | PDF (663K)

Correspondence

. . . and senior staff say there's no problem p281

S. K. Sopory

doi:10.1038/35053318

Full Text | PDF (84K)

Funding assured for India's international biotechnology centre . . . p281

Adolfo R. Taylhardat and Arturo Falaschi

doi:10.1038/35053320

Full Text | PDF (84K)

Doing our best for returners to Spain p281

Carme Picallo

doi:10.1038/35053322

Full Text | PDF (84K)

Difficulty in reconciling global-warming data p281

S. Fred Singer

doi:10.1038/35053324

Full Text | PDF (84K)

Book Reviews

How Maxwell made his mark p283

His findings, taken for granted now, were fiercely contested during his life.

Scott Walter reviews Electrodynamics from Ampère to Einstein By Olivier Darrigol

doi:10.1038/35053149

Full Text | PDF (750K)

Not so crazy after all p284

Dylan Evans reviews Strong Imagination: Madness, Creativity and Human Nature by Daniel Nettle

doi:10.1038/35053152

Full Text | PDF (182K)

A book that rocked the Victorian world p285

David Oldroyd reviews Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation by James A. Secord

doi:10.1038/35053155

Full Text | PDF (160K)

The treasures beneath our feet p285

doi:10.1038/35053157

Full Text | PDF (160K)

words

The birth of scientific reading p287

The social structures of science were invented to cope with an explosion of printed information.

Adrian Johns

doi:10.1038/35053242

Full Text | PDF (191K)

concepts

The key to the past? p289

Richard B. Alley

doi:10.1038/35053245

Full Text | PDF (180K)

News and Views

Talk is cheap in the city p291

Telecommunications companies have paid a heavy price for their share of the radio spectrum. So they have been quick to exploit 'multiple antennas' that can increase transmission rates in urban areas.

Henry L. Bertoni

doi:10.1038/35053248

Full Text | PDF (284K)

Diabetes: The missing link with obesity? p292

The molecular mechanisms underlying the link between obesity and diabetes have been elusive. A new protein, christened 'resistin', can now be added to the panoply of factors that may be involved.

Jeffrey S. Flier

doi:10.1038/35053251

Full Text | PDF (258K)

Geochemistry: New prospects for old gas p293

Isotope studies furnish evidence of the source of CO₂ in certain natural-gas reserves, and of the long-term retention of such gas in unexpected environments such as ancient continental crust.

Bernard Marty

doi:10.1038/35053254

Full Text | PDF (133K)

RNA silencing: Diced defence p295

RNA silencing allows cells to block invading viruses or mobile DNAs. An RNA-cleaving enzyme involved in the first step of silencing has now been identified.

David Baulcombe

doi:10.1038/35053256

Full Text | PDF (179K)

Neutron stars: Pulsars crash the magnetar party p296

The discovery of a youthful neutron star with an extreme magnetic field blurs the once clear divide between magnetars and pulsars.

Jim Cordes

doi:10.1038/35053259

Full Text | PDF (298K)

100 AND 50 YEARS AGO p297

doi:10.1038/35053262

Full Text | PDF (194K)

Evolution: Speciation in the round p299

'Ring species' occur when one species grades into two at the overlap of a circular population distribution. Good examples are rare, but one case has now passed some rigorous tests.

David B. Wake

doi:10.1038/35053264

Full Text | PDF (183K)

Water structure: Order and oddities p300

Water is a common but unusual liquid. Precise measures of the arrangement of molecules in water may help us to better understand some of its peculiar properties.

Srikanth Sastry

doi:10.1038/35053267

Full Text | PDF (197K)

Neuroscience: Cats, dogs and categories p300

Hemai Parthasarathy

doi:10.1038/35053271

Full Text | PDF (197K)

Obituary: Louis Néel (1904–2000) p302

Michael Coey

doi:10.1038/35053274

Full Text | PDF (215K)

Brief Communications

A viable herd of genetically uniform cattle p303

Deleterious alleles seem to have been purged in a feral strain of inbred cows.

P. M. Visscher, D. Smith, S. J. G. Hall and J. L. Williams

doi:10.1038/35053160

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (180K)

Surface science: Topology of two-dimensional C₆₀ domains p304

J. G. Hou, Yang Jinlong, Wang Haiqian, Li Qunxiang, Zeng Changgan, Yuan Lanfeng, Wang Bing, D. M. Chen and Zhu Qingshi

doi:10.1038/35053163

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (465K)

Neurology: Self-recognition and the right hemisphere p305

Julian Paul Keenan, Aaron Nelson, Margaret O'Connor and Alvaro Pascual-Leone

doi:10.1038/35053167

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (187K)

Geophysics: Life, geology and snowball Earth p306

Daniel P. Schrag and Paul F. Hoffman

doi:10.1038/35053170

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (109K)

reply: Life, geology and snowball Earth p306

William T. Hyde, Thomas J. Crowley, Steven K. Baum and W. Richard Peltier

doi:10.1038/35053172

Full Text | PDF (109K)

Article

The hormone resistin links obesity to diabetes p307

Claire M. Steppan, Shannon T. Bailey, Savitha Bhat, Elizabeth J. Brown, Ronadip R. Banerjee, Christopher M. Wright, Hiralben R. Patel, Rexford S. Ahima and Mitchell A. Lazar

doi:10.1038/35053000

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (235K)

See also: News and Views by Flier

Letters to Nature

Non-detection at Venus of high-frequency radio signals characteristic of terrestrial lightning p313

D. A. Gurnett, P. Zarka, R. Manning, W. S. Kurth, G. B. Hospodarsky, T. F. Averkamp, M. L. Kaiser and W. M. Farrell

doi:10.1038/35053009

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (195K)

Tripling the capacity of wireless communications using electromagnetic polarization p316

Michael R. Andrews, Partha P. Mitra and Robert deCarvalho

doi:10.1038/35053015

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (286K)

See also: News and Views by Bertoni

Relationship between structural order and the anomalies of liquid water p318

Jeffrey R. Errington and Pablo G. Debenedetti

doi:10.1038/35053024

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (182K)

See also: News and Views by Sastry

Transparent nematic phase in a liquid-crystal-based microemulsion p321

Jun Yamamoto and Hajime Tanaka

doi:10.1038/35053035

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (2,673K)

Increased thermohaline stratification as a possible cause for an ocean anoxic event in the Cretaceous period p325

Jochen Erbacher, Brian T. Huber, Richard D. Norris and Molly Markey

doi:10.1038/35053041

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (269K) | Supplementary information

300-Myr-old magmatic CO₂ in natural gas reservoirs of the west Texas Permian basin p327

Chris J. Ballentine, Martin Schoell, Dennis Coleman and Bruce A. Cain

doi:10.1038/35053046

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (449K)

See also: News and Views by Marty

The electric Moho p331

Alan G. Jones and Ian J. Ferguson

doi:10.1038/35053053

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (232K)

Speciation in a ring p333

Darren E. Irwin, Staffan Bensch and Trevor D. Price

doi:10.1038/35053059

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (511K)

See also: News and Views by Wake

Three-butterfly system provides a field test of müllerian mimicry p338

Durrell D. Kapan

doi:10.1038/35053066

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (269K)

Identification of a receptor mediating Nogo-66 inhibition of axonal regeneration p341

Alyson E. Fournier, Tadzia GrandPre and Stephen M. Strittmatter

doi:10.1038/35053072

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (583K)

Maize yellow stripe1 encodes a membrane protein directly involved in Fe(III) uptake p346

Catherine Curie, Zivile Panaviene, Clarisse Loulergue, Stephen L. Dellaporta, Jean-Francois Briat and Elsbeth L. Walker

doi:10.1038/35053080

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (198K)

CD45 is a JAK phosphatase and negatively regulates cytokine receptor signalling p349

Junko Irie-Sasaki, Takehiko Sasaki, Wataru Matsumoto, Anne Opavsky, Mary Cheng, Grant Welstead, Emily Griffiths, Connie Krawczyk, Christopher D. Richardson, Karen Aitken, Norman Iscove, Gary Koretzky, Pauline Johnson, Peter Liu, David M. Rothstein and Josef M. Penninger

doi:10.1038/35053086

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

MAD2 haplo-insufficiency causes premature anaphase and chromosome instability in mammalian cells p355

Loren S. Michel, Vasco Liberal, Anupam Chatterjee, Regina Kirchwegger, Boris Pasche, William Gerald, Max Dobles, Peter K. Sorger, V. V. V. S. Murty and Robert Benezra

doi:10.1038/35053094

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (328K) | Supplementary information

Pre-meiotic S phase is linked to reductional chromosome segregation and recombination p359

Yoshinori Watanabe, Shihori Yokobayashi, Masayuki Yamamoto and Paul Nurse

doi:10.1038/35053103

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (307K) | Supplementary information

Role for a bidentate ribonuclease in the initiation step of RNA interference p363

Emily Bernstein, Amy A. Caudy, Scott M. Hammond and Gregory J. Hannon

doi:10.1038/35053110

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (222K) | Supplementary information

See also: News and Views by Baulcombe

A model for SOS-lesion-targeted mutations in Escherichia coli p366

Phuong Pham, Jeffrey G. Bertram, Mike O'Donnell, Roger Woodgate and Myron F. Goodman

doi:10.1038/35053116

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (235K) | Supplementary information

-Sequence recognition and DNA translocation by single RecBCD helicase/nuclease molecules p370

Kathleen M. Dohoney and Jeff Gelles

doi:10.1038/35053124

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (224K) | Supplementary information

Processive translocation and DNA unwinding by individual RecBCD enzyme molecules p374

Piero R. Bianco, Laurence R. Brewer, Michele Corzett, Rod Balhorn, Yin Yeh, Stephen C. Kowalczykowski and Ronald J. Baskin

doi:10.1038/35053131

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (350K) | Supplementary information

Crystal structure of the transcription activator BmrR bound to DNA and a drug p378

Ekaterina E. Zheleznova Heldwein and Richard G. Brennan

doi:10.1038/35053138

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (351K) | Supplementary information

correction: Halocarbons produced by natural oxidation processes during degradation of organic matter p382

F. Keppler, R. Eiden, V. Niedan, J. Pracht and H. F. Schöler

doi:10.1038/35053144

Full Text | PDF (293K)

erratum: Memory B-cell persistence is independent of persisting immunizing antigen p382

Mitsuo Maruyama, Kong-Peng Lam and Klaus Rajewsky

doi:10.1038/35053144

Full Text | PDF (293K)

insight

Vision things p385

Philip Campbell

doi:10.1038/35053174

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (82K)

Synthesizing life p387

Jack W. Szostak, David P. Bartel and P. Luigi Luisi

doi:10.1038/35053176

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,307K)

Modelling cellular behaviour p391

Drew Endy and Roger Brent

doi:10.1038/35053181

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (418K)

Pasteur's Quadrant and malnutrition p397

George L. Blackburn

doi:10.1038/35053187

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (333K)

Actions from thoughts p403

Miguel A. L. Nicolelis

doi:10.1038/35053191

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (412K)

The relationship between matter and life p409

Rodney Brooks

doi:10.1038/35053196

Full Text | PDF (113K)

Life's lessons in design p413

Philip Ball

doi:10.1038/35053198

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (474K)

Earth systems engineering and management p417

Stephen H. Schneider

doi:10.1038/35053203

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (380K)

Geoengineering p420

David W. Keith

doi:10.1038/35053208

Full Text | PDF (191K)

Interfering for the good of a chemical reaction p422

Stuart A. Rice

doi:10.1038/35053211

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (238K)

Future optical and infrared telescopes p427

Roger Angel

doi:10.1038/35053217

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (266K)

New physics with the Compact Linear Collider p431

John Ellis and Ian Wilson

doi:10.1038/35053224

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (472K)

New on the Market

Lab automation ideas p437

Automated metabolism studies, and software to go under the microscope.

doi:10.1038/35053230

Full Text | PDF (347K)