Table of contents
Volume 412 Number 6844 pp3-360
Naturejobs
ProspectsImmunological planets align p3
Paul Smaglik
doi:10.1038/35091265
Careers and Recruitment
Immunological assay of Europe p4
Young European immunologists should benefit from demographic shifts if they can wait long enough for the opportunities to materialize, says Helen Gavaghan.
Helen Gavaghan
doi:10.1038/35091243
Immune response looks healthy p6
Foundations and philanthropists are injecting new life into vaccine and drug development, especially for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, says Diane Gershon.
Diane Gershon
Opinion
The meaning of life p255
'Pro-life' groups define the beginning of human life as the union of sperm and egg, and equate the harvesting of human embryonic stem cells to homicide. But our biological understanding lends little support to these views.
doi:10.1038/35085689
Can the leopard change its spots? p255
With less politics and more money, Italy's scientific community could take its rightful place among the world's élite.
doi:10.1038/35085691
News
Smithsonian head ruffled by inquiry p257
Corie Lok
doi:10.1038/35085693
Britain seeks transgenics deal to fend off transatlantic trade war p257
David Dickson
doi:10.1038/35085695
Millennium Dome sees signs of a Wellcome break p258
Peter Aldhous
doi:10.1038/35085698
Simple technology could reclaim America's lost votes p258
Mark Schrope
doi:10.1038/35085701
Congress touts budget boost for NASA and the NSF p259
Tony Reichhardt
doi:10.1038/35085703
Physical sciences lose ground as US shifts towards biology p259
Jonathan Knight
doi:10.1038/35085706
Search for alien life reasserts its credibility p260
William Triplett
doi:10.1038/35085709
Action urged to combat killer algae p260
Rex Dalton
doi:10.1038/35085712
Outbreak of chicken flu rattles Hong Kong p261
David Cyranoski
doi:10.1038/35085715
Disgruntled homeopathists seek remedy in court p261
Alison Abbott
doi:10.1038/35085718
news feature
Forza scienza! p264
Italy is a major economic power, but it underachieves in research. Alison Abbott examines attempts to reform the nation's scientific institutions — and considers their prospects under the new government of Silvio Berlusconi.
Alison Abbott
doi:10.1038/35085639
Windows on the brain p266
By monitoring the activity of up to a hundred brain cells at once, neuroscientists are gaining new insights into brain function and paving the way for fully functioning prosthetic limbs. Marina Chicurel reports.
Marina Chicurel
doi:10.1038/35085727
Correspondence
Making sure that the world's palaeodata do not get buried p269
Keith Alverson and C. Mark Eakin
doi:10.1038/35085644
Who will organize sharing of biodiversity data? p269
Michael Boulter
doi:10.1038/35085646
Mistaken identity in a watery arms race p269
Richard M. Crawford
doi:10.1038/35085648
Commentaries
Mission now possible for AIDS fund p271
Adequate support by the G8 countries is needed to defeat this global killer.
doi:10.1038/35085650
HIV a '9' on Richter scale of viral diseases p271
doi:10.1038/35085653
Success hinges on support for treatment p272
doi:10.1038/35085656
Book Reviews
China on the losing side p273
Mao's drive to conquer nature had shocking consequences for his country.
Crispin Tickell reviews Mao's War Against Nature: Politics and the Environment in Revolutionary China by Judith Shapiro
doi:10.1038/35085617
The battle against lethal vectors p274
C. F. Curtis reviews Mosquito: The Story of Mankind's Deadliest Foe/Mosquito: A Natural History of Our Most Persistent and Deadly Foe by Andrew Spielman and Michael D'Antonio
doi:10.1038/35085620
Transgenic ills and otherwise p275
Bernard Dixon reviews Redesigning Life? The Worldwide Challenge to Genetic Engineering
doi:10.1038/35085623
Not quite the whole story p276
Karine Chemla reviews The Story of Mathematics by Richard Mankiewicz
doi:10.1038/35085625
words
Walking with producers p277
Is science on television often edited for impact rather than accuracy?
Simon Lamb
doi:10.1038/35085658
News and Views
New-age drug meets resistance p281
A new sort of anticancer drug, designed to suppress the wayward protein that causes a type of leukaemia, is under the spotlight. Biological detective work has now revealed how this cancer becomes resistant to the drug.
Frank McCormick
doi:10.1038/35085665
Astronomy: Dark arc casts a long shadow p282
The interstellar medium is mainly hydrogen gas, which is thought to cool to form clouds of molecular hydrogen. But the discovery of a large cloud of cold atomic hydrogen overturns that belief.
John M. Dickey
doi:10.1038/35085668
Signal transduction: An alternative to destruction p283
The traditional view is that, when a cellular protein becomes linked to a modifying group known as ubiquitin, it's curtains for that protein. But non-destructive functions for ubiquitin are now emerging.
Daniel Finley
doi:10.1038/35085671
100 and 50 years ago p285
doi:10.1038/35085674
Biogeochemistry: Space for hydrogen p286
Mats of photosynthetic microorganisms known as cyanobacteria generate molecular hydrogen. If they were doing so earlier in Earth's history, the effect on the evolution of the atmosphere could have been profound.
Bo Barker Jørgensen
doi:10.1038/35085676
Immunology: End game for B cells p289
Plasma cells are a key part of the immune system, secreting antibodies to ward off invaders. The discovery of a protein required for the production of plasma cells will give immunologists a better idea of how they develop.
Kathryn Calame
doi:10.1038/35085679
Superconductivity: Iron cast in exotic role p290
Conventional wisdom says that superconductivity and magnetism are incompatible bedfellows. So the idea of iron as a superconductor is ruled out — or is it?
S. S. Saxena and Peter B. Littlewood
doi:10.1038/35085681
Cell biology: Cytoskeleton in the cell cycle p291
During cell division, a series of checkpoints make sure that events are proceeding normally. The latest checkpoint to be discovered monitors the actin cytoskeleton, ensuring that it is organized correctly.
Yukinobu Nakaseko and Mitsuhiro Yanagida
doi:10.1038/35085684
Daedalus: Unchemical chemistry p292
David Jones
doi:10.1038/35085687
Brief Communications
Nile flooding sank two ancient cities p293
Sediment failure caused these riverbank sites to drown over 1,200 years ago.
Jean-Daniel Stanley, Franck Goddio and Gerard Schnepp
doi:10.1038/35085628
Animal behaviour: An unusual social display by gorillas p294
Richard J. Parnell and Hannah M. Buchanan-Smith
doi:10.1038/35085631
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (71K)
Articles
Dynamics of collapsing and exploding Bose–Einstein condensates p295
Elizabeth A. Donley, Neil R. Claussen, Simon L. Cornish, Jacob L. Roberts, Eric A. Cornell and Carl E. Wieman
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (249K)
Plasma cell differentiation requires the transcription factor XBP-1 p300
Andreas M. Reimold, Neal N. Iwakoshi, John Manis, Prashanth Vallabhajosyula, Eva Szomolanyi-Tsuda, Ellen M. Gravallese, Daniel Friend, Michael J. Grusby, Frederick Alt and Laurie H. Glimcher
doi:10.1038/35085509
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (726K)
See also: News and Views by Calame
Letters to Nature
A massive cloud of cold atomic hydrogen in the outer Galaxy p308
Lewis B. G. Knee and Christopher M. Brunt
doi:10.1038/35085519
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (180K)
See also: News and Views by Dickey
Isotopic homogeneity of iron in the early solar nebula p311
X. K. Zhu, Y. Guo, R. K. O'Nions, E. D. Young and R. D. Ash
doi:10.1038/35085525
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (165K)
Entanglement of the orbital angular momentum states of photons p313
Alois Mair, Alipasha Vaziri, Gregor Weihs and Anton Zeilinger
doi:10.1038/35085529
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (319K)
Superconductivity in the non-magnetic state of iron under pressure p316
Katsuya Shimizu, Tomohiro Kimura, Shigeyuki Furomoto, Keiki Takeda, Kazuyoshi Kontani, Yoshichika Onuki and Kiichi Amaya
doi:10.1038/35085536
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (306K)
See also: News and Views by Saxena & Littlewood
Direct observation of hole transfer through DNA by hopping between adenine bases and by tunnelling p318
Bernd Giese, Jérôme Amaudrut, Anne-Kathrin Köhler, Martin Spormann and Stephan Wessely
doi:10.1038/35085542
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (155K)
Thermolysis of fluoropolymers as a potential source of halogenated organic acids in the environment p321
David A. Ellis, Scott A. Mabury, Jonathan W. Martin and Derek C. G. Muir
doi:10.1038/35085548
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (153K) | Supplementary information
The role of microbial mats in the production of reduced gases on the early Earth p324
Tori M. Hoehler, Brad M. Bebout and David J. Des Marais
doi:10.1038/35085554
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (184K)
See also: News and Views by Jørgensen
Reproductive pair correlations and the clustering of organisms p328
W. R. Young, A. J. Roberts and G. Stuhne
doi:10.1038/35085561
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,094K)
Evolution of digital organisms at high mutation rates leads to survival of the flattest p331
Claus O. Wilke, Jia Lan Wang, Charles Ofria, Richard E. Lenski and Christoph Adami
doi:10.1038/35085569
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (260K) | Supplementary information
Evolution and transmission of stable CTL escape mutations in HIV infection p334
Philip J. R. Goulder, Christian Brander, Yanhua Tang, Cecile Tremblay, Robert A. Colbert, Marylyn M. Addo, Eric S. Rosenberg, Thi Nguyen, Rachel Allen, Alicja Trocha, Marcus Altfeld, Suqin He, Michael Bunce, Robert Funkhouser, Stephen I. Pelton, Sandra K. Burchett, Kenneth McIntosh, Bette T. M. Korber and Bruce D. Walker
doi:10.1038/35085576
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (193K) | Supplementary information
An open form of syntaxin bypasses the requirement for UNC-13 in vesicle priming p338
Janet E. Richmond, Robby M. Weimer and Erik M. Jorgensen
doi:10.1038/35085583
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (502K)
Hypermutation of multiple proto-oncogenes in B-cell diffuse large-cell lymphomas p341
Laura Pasqualucci, Peter Neumeister, Tina Goossens, Gouri Nanjangud, R. S. K. Chaganti, Ralf Küppers and Riccardo Dalla-Favera
doi:10.1038/35085588
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (272K) | Supplementary information
TAK1 is a ubiquitin-dependent kinase of MKK and IKK p346
Chen Wang, Li Deng, Mei Hong, Giridhar R. Akkaraju, Jun-ichiro Inoue and Zhijian J. Chen
doi:10.1038/35085597
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (245K) | Supplementary information
See also: News and Views by Finley
A MAP kinase-dependent actin checkpoint ensures proper spindle orientation in fission yeast p352
Yannick Gachet, Sylvie Tournier, Jonathan B. A. Millar and Jeremy S. Hyams
doi:10.1038/35085604
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (596K)
See also: News and Views by Nakaseko & Yanagida
Cdc6 cooperates with Sic1 and Hct1 to inactivate mitotic cyclin-dependent kinases p355
Arturo Calzada, Maria Sacristán, Elisa Sánchez and Avelino Bueno
doi:10.1038/35085610
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (315K) | Supplementary information
New on the Market
Immuno-this, immuno-that p359
Recent introductions in the fields of immunology and immunoassay.
doi:10.1038/35085634
