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Volume 417 Issue 6885, 9 May 2002

Prospects

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Special Report

  • Every year, thousands of researchers head for the US National Institutes of Health. But what draws them there? Karen Kreeger finds out.

    • Karen Kreeger
    Special Report
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Opinion

  • The US Senate is expected to vote on legislation that would ban cloning by the end of this month. Supporting cloning for research is both right and in the national interests of the United States.

    Opinion
  • A controversial change to the peer-review process of Germany's principal funding agency is long overdue.

    Opinion
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News

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News in Brief

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News Feature

  • More than 2,000 experts will be involved in a four-year effort to survey the health of the world's ecosystems and threats posed by human activities. Virginia Gewin profiles the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.

    • Virginia Gewin
    News Feature
  • Using short magnetic pulses, neuroscientists are reaching into the human skull and temporarily altering volunteers' brain activity. Marina Chicurel takes an induction course.

    • Marina Chicurel
    News Feature
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Correspondence

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Commentary

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Book Review

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Concepts

  • Despite the ubiquity of astrophysical jets, there is no generally accepted theory for the mechanism of their formation.

    • Mario Livio
    Concepts
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News & Views

  • We can hope that the term 'palaeophosphatometry' won't catch on. The approach it describes has nonetheless delivered a plausible — if partial — answer to one of the main questions about Earth's history.

    • John M. Hayes
    News & Views
  • As plant life diversified during evolution there would have been intense competition for light, making the ability to twist and climb advantageous. A subcellular filamentous network can create the twist seen in climbing plants.

    • Patrick J. Hussey
    News & Views
  • The conundrum of how an animal's metabolic rate is related to its size continues to exercise biologists. A possible solution that takes into account differences during rest and exercise deserves attention.

    • Ewald R. Weibel
    News & Views
  • A device has been invented that produces radiation in the terahertz range. It is a considerable feat of semiconductor fabrication, and could be used in a wide range of applications.

    • Carlo Sirtori
    News & Views
  • Pollen analysis is a valuable tool in helping to reconstruct past climatic conditions. Such studies can be informative on local as well as regional scales, as findings with fossil spruce pollen in Maine show.

    • Peter D. Moore
    News & Views
  • Chromosomes adopt their well-known form only at a certain phase in the cell-division cycle, just before they separate. But the proteins that help shape chromosomes also seem to be at work earlier on.

    • Frank Uhlmann
    News & Views
  • Daedalus proposes to counteract global warming by creating an artificial layer of gas bubbles above the Earth's natural cloud cover.

    • David Jones
    News & Views
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Brief Communication

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Article

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Letter

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Corrigendum

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Erratum

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New on the Market

  • From antibodies and assays to simple separations.

    New on the Market
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