Table of contents
Volume 410 Number 6828 pp499-612
Opinion
Problems with the president p499
Rapid-fire decisions on ergonomics, arsenic levels and carbon dioxide emissions indicate that scientific opinion sits low in the pecking order of influence inside the new Bush administration.
doi:10.1038/35069194
Fossil-fuelled feuds p499
Palaeontology and local politics make troublesome bedfellows.
doi:10.1038/35069196
News
Delays allowed foot-and-mouth epidemic to sweep across Britain p501
Jim Giles
doi:10.1038/35069198
Americans perplexed by GM food p501
Corie Lok
doi:10.1038/35069201
Publishers challenged over access to papers p502
Meredith Wadman
doi:10.1038/35069203
Butchery lay behind CJD cluster p502
David Adam
doi:10.1038/35069207
Critics claim 'sight-saving' rice is over-rated p503
Nina Schnapp and Quirin Schiermeier
doi:10.1038/35069209
Plans to reduce acceptable arsenic limit put on hold p503
Corie Lok
doi:10.1038/35069212
Race is on to win Australian funding for big science projects p504
Peter Pockley
doi:10.1038/35069215
Japan's academics get green light to make their fortunes p504
David Cyranoski
doi:10.1038/35069218
Sonar system offered special dispensation p505
Mark Schrope
doi:10.1038/35069222
Regulator rebuked over cannabis p505
Alison Abbott
doi:10.1038/35069225
news feature
The battle of Tugen Hills p508
Behind claims that the oldest human ancestor has been discovered lies a bitter row over access to Kenyan field sites — pitching the bones' discoverers against some of palaeoanthropology's biggest names. Declan Butler reports.
Declan Butler
doi:10.1038/35069232
Think like a bee p510
Are silicon circuits that mimic the nervous systems of insects and other animals the future of computing? Jim Giles considers the merits of neuromorphic engineering.
Jim Giles
doi:10.1038/35069236
Chips offer insights into vision p512
doi:10.1038/35069241
Correspondence
Faculty start-ups offer temptation to breach academic rules . . . p513
Richard K. Koehn
doi:10.1038/35069244
. . . but Syngenta deal is a boon to Berkeley p513
Matthew Metz
doi:10.1038/35069246
'Art' was a load of fluff p513
Magnus Johnson
doi:10.1038/35069248
Commentary
Managing foot-and-mouth p515
The science of controlling disease outbreaks.
doi:10.1038/35069250
Book Reviews
The Bone Wars revisited p517
The best and the worst of palaeoanthropology in Ethiopia.
Tim D. White reviews Adventures in the Bone Trade: The Race to Discover Human Ancestors in Ethiopia's Afar Depression by Jon Kalb
doi:10.1038/35069129
Citation gold standard p518
John Ziman reviews The Web of Knowledge: A Festschrift in Honor of Eugene Garfield
doi:10.1038/35069132
Darkness at noon p519
Jay M. Pasachoff reviews Glorious Eclipses: Their Past, Present and Future by Serge Brunier and Jean-Pierre Luminet
doi:10.1038/35069135
Feeling our way p520
Simon Baron-Cohen reviews Emotion: The Science of Sentiment by Dylan Evans
doi:10.1038/35069139
words
Unwritten knowledge p521
Preliterate societies depend on the wise words of the older generations.
Jared Diamond
doi:10.1038/35069154
News and Views
Magnetic explosions in space p525
The magnetic field that surrounds the Earth is rarely quiet. An explanation for the explosive nature of magnetic storms is gathering support from satellite data.
James F. Drake
doi:10.1038/35069160
Palaeoanthropology: Our newest oldest ancestor? p526
These are exciting times in the study of human origins. But excitement needs to be tempered with caution in assessing the claim of a six-million-year-old direct ancestor of modern humans.
Leslie C. Aiello and Mark Collard
doi:10.1038/35069164
Neurobiology: Cannabinoids act backwards p527
Cannabis is useful for treating many ailments, but has unwanted side effects. Drugs that control signalling by cannabinoids found naturally in the body might be more useful.
MacDonald J. Christie and Christopher W. Vaughan
doi:10.1038/35069167
Plant biology: Night moves of pregnant moths p530
Tobacco plants attacked by caterpillars release different blends of volatile compounds by day and night. Those released at night tell nocturnal moths not to approach — a signal that benefits both plants and moths.
Clarence A. Ryan
doi:10.1038/35069170
Nanotechnology: Dragging single electrons p531
Controlled transfer of single electrons in nanoscale devices allows electric current to be measured in fundamental units of charge and frequency. A new silicon device promises to make these standards more practical.
Konstantin Likharev
doi:10.1038/35069173
Cognitive neuroscience: Colour my i's blue p533
Studies of people who perceive colours when they see particular letters or digits are providing help with an old problem — that of whether awareness is needed to 'bind' visual features of an object together.
Lynn C. Robertson
doi:10.1038/35069176
100 and 50 years ago p534
doi:10.1038/35069178
Palaeontology: Chinese salamanders tell tales p534
A palaeontological treasure trove of over 500 specimens will help in understanding the evolutionary history of salamanders and their relationships with other amphibians.
Robert Carroll
doi:10.1038/35069181
Cancer: Chromosome defects in the colon p536
A tumour-suppressor protein known as adenomatous polyposis coli malfunctions in many colon cancers. So too does chromosome segregation during cell division. These features may somehow be connected.
David M. Livingston
doi:10.1038/35069185
Daedalus: Natural currents p537
David Jones
doi:10.1038/35069188
Obituary: Leonard Mandel (1927–2001) p538
G. S. Agarwal and Z. Y. Ou
doi:10.1038/35069190
Brief Communications
Pattern and intensity of physical activity p539
Keeping moderately active is the best way to boost total daily energy expenditure.
Klaas R. Westerterp
doi:10.1038/35069142
Forensic palaeontology: The Archaeoraptor forgery p539
Timothy Rowe, Richard A. Ketcham, Cambria Denison, Matthew Colbert, Xing Xu and Philip J. Currie
doi:10.1038/35069145
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (296K) | Supplementary information
Articles
Liquid crystalline spinning of spider silk p541
Fritz Vollrath and David P. Knight
doi:10.1038/35069000
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (469K)
Essential role of the mitochondrial apoptosis-inducing factor in programmed cell death p549
Nicholas Joza, Santos A. Susin, Eric Daugas, William L. Stanford, Sarah K. Cho, Carol Y. J. Li, Takehiko Sasaki, Andrew J. Elia, H.-Y. Mary Cheng, Luigi Ravagnan, Karine F. Ferri, Naoufal Zamzami, Andrew Wakeham, Razqallah Hakem, Hiroki Yoshida, Young-Yun Kong, Tak W. Mak, Juan Carlos Zúñiga-Pflücker, Guido Kroemer and Josef M. Penninger
doi:10.1038/35069004
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (463K) | Supplementary information
Letters to Nature
Production of iron nanoparticles by laser irradiation in a simulation of lunar-like space weathering p555
Sho Sasaki, Keiko Nakamura, Yoshimi Hamabe, Erika Kurahashi and Takahiro Hiroi
doi:10.1038/35069013
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (232K)
Rapid magnetic reconnection in the Earth's magnetosphere mediated by whistler waves p557
X. H. Deng and H. Matsumoto
doi:10.1038/35069018
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (328K)
See also: News and Views by Drake
Manipulation of elementary charge in a silicon charge-coupled device p560
Akira Fujiwara and Yasuo Takahashi
doi:10.1038/35069023
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (152K)
See also: News and Views by Likharev
Vortex dynamics in superconducting MgB2 and prospects for applications p563
Y. Bugoslavsky, G. K. Perkins, X. Qi, L. F. Cohen and A. D. Caplin
doi:10.1038/35069029
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (265K)
Extreme damping in composite materials with negative-stiffness inclusions p565
R. S. Lakes, T. Lee, A. Bersie and Y. C. Wang
doi:10.1038/35069035
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (238K)
Climate variability 50,000 years ago in mid-latitude Chile as reconstructed from tree rings p567
Fidel A. Roig, Carlos Le-Quesne, José A. Boninsegna, Keith R. Briffa, Antonio Lara, Håkan Grudd, Philip D. Jones and Carolina Villagrán
doi:10.1038/35069040
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (164K)
Simulating the amplification of orbital forcing by ocean feedbacks in the last glaciation p570
M. Khodri, Y. Leclainche, G. Ramstein, P. Braconnot, O. Marti and E. Cortijo
doi:10.1038/35069044
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (666K)
Late Jurassic salamanders from northern China p574
Ke-Qin Gao and Neil H. Shubin
doi:10.1038/35069051
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (609K) | Supplementary information
See also: News and Views by Carroll
Caterpillar-induced nocturnal plant volatiles repel conspecific females p577
Consuelo M. De Moraes, Mark C. Mescher and James H. Tumlinson
doi:10.1038/35069058
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (333K)
See also: News and Views by Ryan
Unconscious priming eliminates automatic binding of colour and alphanumeric form in synaesthesia p580
Jason B. Mattingley, Anina N. Rich, Greg Yelland and John L. Bradshaw
doi:10.1038/35069062
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (121K)
See also: News and Views by Robertson
Vertical interactions across ten parallel, stacked representations in the mammalian retina p583
Botond Roska and Frank Werblin
doi:10.1038/35069068
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (539K)
Endogenous cannabinoids mediate retrograde signalling at hippocampal synapses p588
Rachel I. Wilson and Roger A. Nicoll
doi:10.1038/35069076
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (319K)
See also: News and Views by Christie & Vaughan
Ca2+ signalling between single L-type Ca2+ channels and ryanodine receptors in heart cells p592
Shi-Qiang Wang, Long-Sheng Song, Edward G. Lakatta and Heping Cheng
doi:10.1038/35069083
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (775K)
Drought-induced guard cell signal transduction involves sphingosine-1-phosphate p596
Carl K.-Y. Ng, Kathryn Carr, Martin R. McAinsh, Brian Powell and Alistair M. Hetherington
doi:10.1038/35069092
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (342K) | Supplementary information
Hedgehog acts as a somatic stem cell factor in the Drosophila ovary p599
Yan Zhang and Daniel Kalderon
doi:10.1038/35069099
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (426K)
Structural basis for co-stimulation by the human CTLA-4/B7-2 complex p604
Jean-Claude D. Schwartz, Xuewu Zhang, Alexander A. Fedorov, Stanley G. Nathenson and Steven C. Almo
doi:10.1038/35069112
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (433K)
Crystal structure of the B7-1/CTLA-4 complex that inhibits human immune responses p608
Carin C. Stamper, Yan Zhang, James F. Tobin, David V. Erbe, Shinji Ikemizu, Simon J. Davis, Mark L. Stahl, Jasbir Seehra, William S. Somers and Lidia Mosyak
doi:10.1038/35069118
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (338K)
correction: Genetic control and evolution of sexually dimorphic characters p611
Artyom Kopp, Ian Duncan, Dorothea Godt and Sean B. Carroll
doi:10.1038/35069125
correction: Mitochondrial genome variation and the origin of modern humans p611
Max Ingman, Henrik Kaessmann, Svante Pääbo and Ulf Gyllensten
doi:10.1038/35069127
New on the Market
Are you getting enough protein? p612
New ideas in proteomics and protein handling.
doi:10.1038/35069149
