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Volume 415 Issue 6869, 17 January 2002

Prospects

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Special Report

  • Will toxicogenomics turn toxicology into a predictive and preventive science? Diane Gershon looks at the plans for the future.

    • Diane Gershon
    Special Report
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Opinion

  • Twelve European nations this month adopted a common currency. But the goal of creating a unified scientific career structure remains distant. The consequent brain drain will undermine Europe's ability to compete with the United States.

    Opinion
  • The United States should rejoin the ITER project, whose management must communicate better with politicians and public.

    Opinion
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News

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News in Brief

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News Feature

  • Males are promiscuous and females are choosy, according to evolutionary dogma embodied in a theory called Bateman's principle. Only recently have researchers begun to test the theory's limits, says Jonathan Knight.

    • Jonathan Knight
    News Feature
  • Germany plans to reform its antiquated academic career structure. But has the new model been fully thought through and is it adequately resourced? Quirin Schiermeier considers the evidence.

    • Quirin Schiermeier
    News Feature
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Correspondence

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Book Review

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Concepts

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News & Views

  • The effects of gravity and quantum mechanics rarely overlap because of the different scales involved. An experiment with ultracold neutrons has now been able to probe both simultaneously.

    • Thomas J. Bowles
    News & Views
  • Obesity and a rare, congenital absence of fat cells are associated with damaging levels of fat in various tissues, and diabetes. Leptin helps to remedy these problems by causing oxidation of fatty acids in mitochondria.

    • Jeffrey Friedman
    News & Views
  • In experiments, animals often prefer smaller, immediate rewards over larger rewards that are deferred — thus failing to maximize their total gain. Many people exhibit similar behaviour.

    • Ernst Fehr
    News & Views
  • New AIDS-virus vaccines induce cellular responses that can contain, but not prevent, infection. Mutations can allow the virus to escape this immune control, emphasizing the challenges in developing an effective vaccine.

    • Jeffrey D. Lifson
    • Malcolm A. Martin
    News & Views
  • Taking advantage of nuclear and electron 'spin interactions' to store and process information is a long-standing goal. A systematic technique for manipulating spin in a semiconductor provides a low-temperature solution.

    • Jay Kikkawa
    News & Views
  • Nerve cells communicate by using chemical messengers, which are released from neurons after a 'priming' step. It seems that priming may be key to controlling the strength of chemical transmission.

    • Lynn E. Dobrunz
    • Craig C Garner
    News & Views
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Correction

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News & Views

  • Daedalus has devised a cunning way to check the theory of continental drift. Transoceanic communications cables must be stretching or shrinking fractionally in response to drift, causing changes in their resistance – which it should be possible to measure.

    • David Jones
    News & Views
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Brief Communication

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Article

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Letter

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New on the Market

  • Robotic systems and accessories for high-throughput applications.

    New on the Market
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