Naturejobs

Collaborative conundrums p3

Paul Smaglik

doi:10.1038/nj6882-03a

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Biodefence research p4

Funding increases for biodefence research in the United States will have a sizable impact on the landscape for jobs, says Eugene Russo.

Eugene Russo

doi:10.1038/nj6882-04a

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Opinion

NASA needs 'the vision thing' p663

Planetary scientists and astronomers may fare reasonably well under the US space agency's new budget-conscious chief. But in the long term, can NASA provide the inspiration to excite future generations about these disciplines?

doi:10.1038/416663a

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Women don't want to be 'one of the boys' p663

At the top of Japan's scientific establishment, women are faced with a past they thought they had escaped.

doi:10.1038/416663b

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News

Frogs put in the gender blender by America's favourite herbicide p665

Rex Dalton

doi:10.1038/416665a

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Scripps to trawl sea-microbe data p665

Jonathan Knight

doi:10.1038/416665b

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Parkinson's patients show positive response to implants p666

Erika Check

doi:10.1038/416666a

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Physicists blast US missile defence review p667

Geoff Brumfiel

doi:10.1038/416667a

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Chirac's scientific overtures greeted by scepticism p667

Sally Goodman

doi:10.1038/416667b

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Clinton bill calls for revamp of chronic-disease tracking p668

Virginia Gewin

doi:10.1038/416668a

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Money-spinning journal ruse foiled p668

Geoff Brumfiel

doi:10.1038/416668b

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California observatory sweeps the skies for springtime Asian dust p668

Rex Dalton

doi:10.1038/416668c

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Conservationists under fire in the Philippines p669

Regina Wegner and Quirin Schiermeier

doi:10.1038/416669a

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Bush rallies opposition to cloning p669

Erika Check

doi:10.1038/416669b

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news in brief p670

doi:10.1038/416670a

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news feature

Dengue virus: Break-bone fever p672

The dengue virus exacts a devastating and growing toll on public health in the tropics, yet remains little studied. Tom Clarke talks to the scientists who are intent on raising dengue's profile.

Tom Clarke

doi:10.1038/416672a

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Ukranian science: DIY, Kiev style p675

Many Ukrainian research institutes went to the wall when the Soviet Union collapsed. Quirin Schiermeier finds out how home-grown talent — and home-made equipment — have helped one centre to buck the trend.

Quirin Schiermeier

doi:10.1038/416675a

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Correspondence

Work on weapons adds to public distrust of science p677

Academics need to remain independent and remember their ethical obligations.

Peter Nicholls

doi:10.1038/416677a

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Mutation not universally linked with diabetes p677

Ching-Wan Lam

doi:10.1038/416677b

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Single-locus studies p677

Antonio Arnaiz-Villena, Eduardo Gomez-Casado and Jorge Martinez-Laso

doi:10.1038/416677c

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Call for Elan to publish Alzheimer's trial details p677

Glenda M. Bishop, Stephen R. Robinson, Mark A. Smith, George Perry and Craig S. Atwood

doi:10.1038/416677d

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Book Reviews

The story of an ecosystem p679

A ten-year study of a Canadian forest shows the way ahead for ecology.

Nils Chr. Stenseth reviews Ecosystem Dynamics of the Boreal Forest: the Kluane Project

doi:10.1038/416679a

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A power that's clean and bright p680

Richard Corkish reviews Clean Electricity from Photovoltaics

doi:10.1038/416680a

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A changing view of the Universe p680

doi:10.1038/416680b

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Last words of a medical historian p681

Andrew Scull reviews Madness: A Brief History by Roy Porter

doi:10.1038/416681a

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New in paperback p681

doi:10.1038/416681b

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concepts

Biological computation: Amazing algorithms p683

Natural selection has created many species in which individual survival rests on computations performed by the organism's own physiology.

Mark J. Schnitzer

doi:10.1038/416683a

Full Text | PDF (75K)

News and Views

Device physics: Defective promise in photonics p685

Using self-assembly to produce technologically useful photonic devices becomes more feasible with the demonstration of defect engineering in a self-assembled photonic crystal.

T. Andrew Taton and David J. Norris

doi:10.1038/416685a

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Medicine: Interfering with bone remodelling p686

As they mature, bone-resorbing cells trigger the production of their own 'off-switch' — the interferon- protein — to prevent the runaway bone loss that is seen in diseases such as osteoporosis.

Tamara Alliston and Rik Derynck

doi:10.1038/416686a

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Evolutionary biology: The tale of the parasitic cuckoos p687

These days, investigations of evolutionary events in groups of organisms can be taken well beyond the just-so story. Analysis of how members of the cuckoo family became 'brood parasites' provides a wonderful example.

Arie J. van Noordwijk

doi:10.1038/416687a

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Climate change: The 20-year forecast p690

Policy-makers need short-term climate predictions to develop strategies for coping with climate change over the typical two-decade planning horizon. Two new studies increase our confidence in these predictions.

Francis W. Zwiers

doi:10.1038/416690a

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DNA repair: Breaking the seal p691

The diversity of the receptors on our immune cells that recognize 'foreign' material is ensured by combining a set of gene segments to form the final receptor genes. A crucial player in that process has now been found.

Sebastian D. Fugmann

doi:10.1038/416691a

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100 and 50 years ago p693

doi:10.1038/416693a

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Astronomy: Worlds of mutual motion p694

Two asteroids beyond Neptune have been found to orbit one another. This binary system in the Kuiper belt shows marked differences from binary objects elsewhere in the Solar System.

Jean-Luc Margot

doi:10.1038/416694a

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Microbiology: A resistance switch p695

Cystic-fibrosis patients often have drug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacterial communities in their lungs. It seems that the bacterium's antibiotic resistance and ability to form communities are turned on together.

George A. O'Toole

doi:10.1038/416695a

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Daedalus: Very slow vacuum p696

David Jones

doi:10.1038/416696a

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News and Views Feature

Biodiversity: Microbial genomes multiply p697

It is seven years since the first bacterial genome was completely sequenced, and more than 60 others have now been determined. What has been the impact of these projects on pure science and public welfare?

Russell F. Doolittle

doi:10.1038/416697a

Full Text | PDF (210K)

Brief Communications

Green revolution: A mutant gibberellin-synthesis gene in rice p701

New insight into the rice variant that helped to avert famine over thirty years ago.

A. Sasaki, M. Ashikari, M. Ueguchi-Tanaka, H. Itoh, A. Nishimura, D. Swapan, K. Ishiyama, T. Saito, M. Kobayashi, G. S. Khush, H. Kitano and M. Matsuoka

doi:10.1038/416701a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (107K)

Materials chemistry: Macroporous crystalline vanadium oxide foam p702

G. T. Chandrappa, Nathalie Steunou and Jacques Livage

doi:10.1038/416702a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (80K)

Article

Structure of the Cul1–Rbx1–Skp1–F box^Skp2 SCF ubiquitin ligase complex p703

Ning Zheng, Brenda A. Schulman, Langzhou Song, Julie J. Miller, Philip D. Jeffrey, Ping Wang, Claire Chu, Deanna M. Koepp, Stephen J. Elledge, Michele Pagano, Ronald C. Conaway, Joan W. Conaway, J. Wade Harper and Nikola P. Pavletich

doi:10.1038/416703a

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (551K) | Supplementary information

Letters to Nature

The binary Kuiper-belt object 1998 WW31 p711

Christian Veillet, Joel Wm. Parker, Ian Griffin, Brian Marsden, Alain Doressoundiram, Marc Buie, David J. Tholen, Michael Connelley and Matthew J. Holman

doi:10.1038/416711a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (218K)

See also: News and Views by Margot

Electrical detection of spin precession in a metallic mesoscopic spin valve p713

F. J. Jedema, H. B. Heersche, A. T. Filip, J. J. A. Baselmans and B. J. van Wees

doi:10.1038/416713a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (268K)

Rapid electroplating of insulators p716

Vincent Fleury, Wesley A. Watters, Levy Allam and Thierry Devers

doi:10.1038/416716a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (502K)

Constraints on radiative forcing and future climate change from observations and climate model ensembles p719

Reto Knutti, Thomas F. Stocker, Fortunat Joos and Gian-Kasper Plattner

doi:10.1038/416719a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (205K) | Supplementary information

See also: News and Views by Zwiers

Origins and estimates of uncertainty in predictions of twenty-first century temperature rise p723

Peter A. Stott and J. A. Kettleborough

doi:10.1038/416723a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (213K)

See also: News and Views by Zwiers

Using the fossil record to estimate the age of the last common ancestor of extant primates p726

Simon Tavaré, Charles R. Marshall, Oliver Will, Christophe Soligo and Robert D. Martin

doi:10.1038/416726a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (483K) | Supplementary information

Fisheries productivity in the northeastern Pacific Ocean over the past 2,200 years p729

Bruce P. Finney, Irene Gregory-Eaves, Marianne S. V. Douglas and John P. Smol

doi:10.1038/416729a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (380K)

Sexual conflict reduces offspring fitness in zebra finches p733

Nick J. Royle, Ian R. Hartley and Geoff A. Parker

doi:10.1038/416733a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (175K)

Direct cortical input modulates plasticity and spiking in CA1 pyramidal neurons p736

Miguel Remondes and Erin M. Schuman

doi:10.1038/416736a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (545K) | Supplementary information

Pseudomonas biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance are linked to phenotypic variation p740

Eliana Drenkard and Frederick M. Ausubel

doi:10.1038/416740a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (327K)

See also: News and Views by O'Toole

RANKL maintains bone homeostasis through c-Fos-dependent induction of interferon- p744

Hiroshi Takayanagi, Sunhwa Kim, Koichi Matsuo, Hiroshi Suzuki, Tomohiko Suzuki, Kojiro Sato, Taeko Yokochi, Hiromi Oda, Kozo Nakamura, Nobutaka Ida, Erwin F. Wagner and Tadatsugu Taniguchi

doi:10.1038/416744a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (579K) | Supplementary information

See also: News and Views by Alliston & Derynck

Severe impairment of interleukin-1 and Toll-like receptor signalling in mice lacking IRAK-4 p750

Nobutaka Suzuki, Shinobu Suzuki, Gordon S. Duncan, Douglas G. Millar, Teiji Wada, Christine Mirtsos, Hidetoshi Takada, Andrew Wakeham, Annick Itie, Shyun Li, Josef M. Penninger, Holger Wesche, Pamela S. Ohashi, Tak W. Mak and Wen-Chen Yeh

doi:10.1038/nature736

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (217K)

Cells compete for Decapentaplegic survival factor to prevent apoptosis in Drosophila wing development p755

Eduardo Moreno, Konrad Basler and Ginés Morata

doi:10.1038/416755a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (525K)

SWAP-70 is a guanine-nucleotide-exchange factor that mediates signalling of membrane ruffling p759

Masahiro Shinohara, Yoh Terada, Akihiro Iwamatsu, Azusa Shinohara, Naoki Mochizuki, Maiko Higuchi, Yukiko Gotoh, Sayoko Ihara, Satoshi Nagata, Hiroshi Itoh, Yasuhisa Fukui and Rolf Jessberger

doi:10.1038/416759a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (355K) | Supplementary information

A proteasomal ATPase subunit recognizes the polyubiquitin degradation signal p763

Y. Amy Lam, T. Glen Lawson, Murugesan Velayutham, Jay L. Zweier and Cecile M. Pickart

doi:10.1038/416763a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (376K)

Geobacter metallireducens accesses insoluble Fe(iii) oxide by chemotaxis p767

Susan E. Childers, Stacy Ciufo and Derek R. Lovley

doi:10.1038/416767a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (197K)

New on the Market

Time for analysis p770

Magnesium, oxygen and hydrogen are elements in this week's selection.

doi:10.1038/416770a

Full Text | PDF (64K)