Naturejobs

The physics imbalance p3

Paul Smaglik

doi:10.1038/nj6903-03a

Full Text | PDF (66K)

Chemistry plans a structural overhaul p4

The rising tide of data being generated by high-throughput approaches to drug screening is slowly bringing about a chemical revolution. Chemoinformatics, which marries chemistry with computer science, is becoming big business, says Eugene Russo.

Eugene Russo

doi:10.1038/nj6903-04a

Full Text | PDF (207K)

Opinion

A unified political trajectory p97

Since reunification, Germany has witnessed significant scientific development almost regardless of the party in charge. The forthcoming election offers smooth continuation and important challenges, whoever wins.

doi:10.1038/419097a

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News

Arrest of AIDS activist underlines China's impending HIV crisis p99

David Cyranoski

doi:10.1038/419099a

Full Text | PDF (63K)

Security worries stifle report on agricultural bioterror p99

Virginia Gewin

doi:10.1038/419099b

Full Text | PDF (63K)

Patent office plan to beat its backlog elicits cool response p100

Kendall Powell

doi:10.1038/419100a

Full Text | PDF (55K)

India's scientists agonize over fall in publication rate p100

K. S. Jayaraman

doi:10.1038/419100b

Full Text | PDF (55K)

NIH pledges cash for global protein database p101

Declan Butler

doi:10.1038/419101a

Full Text | PDF (89K)

EU ponders joint action on cancer p101

Sally Goodman

doi:10.1038/419101b

Full Text | PDF (89K)

Blood banks call for calm over virus scare p102

Jonathan Knight

doi:10.1038/419102a

Full Text | PDF (57K)

Universities urged to get with IT for biology p102

Kendall Powell

doi:10.1038/419102b

Full Text | PDF (57K)

Looting and vandalism threaten Afghanistan's seed distribution p103

Natasha McDowell

doi:10.1038/419103a

Full Text | PDF (67K)

Early Einstein manuscript set to make a relative fortune p103

Alison Abbott

doi:10.1038/419103b

Full Text | PDF (67K)

news in brief p104

doi:10.1038/419104a

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news feature

Artificial wombs: An out of body experience p106

Reproductive and neonatal medicine have cut the minimum time that fetuses need to spend in the womb. Are completely artificial pregnancies in the offing? Jonathan Knight investigates.

Jonathan Knight

doi:10.1038/419106a

Full Text | PDF (220K)

European Research Council: A window of opportunity p108

Enthusiasts for European scientific integration believe the time is ripe to launch a new independent research agency. Quirin Schiermeier examines the case for a European Research Council.

Quirin Schiermeier

doi:10.1038/419108a

Full Text | PDF (214K)

Correspondence

Can commercial protection be good for research? p111

It's unscientific to let market forces dictate a change in the way science is carried out.

Maureen. A. O'Malley, Andrew J. Roger and W. Ford Doolittle

doi:10.1038/419111a

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Industry scientists look for benefits, not risks p111

Maria J. Hötzel

doi:10.1038/419111b

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Public-access group supports PubMed Central p111

Michael B. Eisen, Patrick O. Brown and Harold E. Varmus

doi:10.1038/419111c

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Book Reviews

Biology on the global scale p113

All of the Earth's systems — including life — are intimately connected.

Peter Westbroek reviews The Earth's Biosphere: Evolution, Dynamics, and Change by Vaclav Smil

doi:10.1038/419113a

Full Text | PDF (222K)

Putting scientists in the picture p114

Dee Breger reviews Envisioning Science: The Design and Craft of the Science Image by Felice Frankel

doi:10.1038/419114a

Full Text | PDF (195K)

Physician, reveal thyself p115

W.F. Bynum reviews Doctors and Discoveries: Lives that Created Today's Medicine by John Galbraith Simmons

doi:10.1038/419115a

Full Text | PDF (116K)

New in paperback p115

doi:10.1038/419115b

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Science in culture p116

Martin Kemp reviews

doi:10.1038/419116a

Full Text | PDF (66K)

concepts

Quantum electrodynamics: Matter all in the mind p117

Kurt Gottfried

doi:10.1038/419117a

Full Text | PDF (53K)

News and Views

Quantum physics: Casimir force changes sign p119

This quantum attractive force induces measurable effects between ultrasmall mechanical components. New calculations indicate that systems could be engineered in which Casimir forces are repulsive.

Eyal Buks and Michael L. Roukes

doi:10.1038/419119a

Full Text | PDF (121K)

DNA repair: Right on target with ubiquitin p120

Cellular DNA-repair mechanisms prevent mutations from accumulating, thereby averting defects in cell function. A molecule best known for its role in protein degradation is now shown to have a specific task in DNA repair.

Cecile M. Pickart

doi:10.1038/419120a

Full Text | PDF (139K)

Astronomy: The missing link p121

Some stars might be 'magnetars', powered by magnetism instead of fusion. The discovery of an X-ray burst from an anomalous X-ray pulsar suggests that this type of star can be added to the list.

Shri Kulkarni

doi:10.1038/419121a

Full Text | PDF (134K)

Global change: Oceanic action at a distance p123

Glacial intervals are characterized by low levels of atmospheric CO₂. A new explanation for that connection invokes nutrient export from the Southern Ocean to warmer waters at such times.

Raja S. Ganeshram

doi:10.1038/419123a

Full Text | PDF (132K)

100 and 50 years ago p124

doi:10.1038/419124a

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Optics: The light fantastic p125

Optical tweezers use light to manipulate tiny particles — but only one at a time. If the light in the tweezers is a 'Bessel beam', this problem can be overcome, creating some interesting experimental possibilities.

Martin Hegner

doi:10.1038/419125a

Full Text | PDF (375K)

Cancer: Stuck at first base p127

People with the genetic disease Peutz–Jeghers syndrome have many intestinal polyps — benign tissue outgrowths. These seldom become malignant, and the reason may lie in the properties of the affected gene.

Louise van der Weyden, Jos Jonkers and Allan Bradley

doi:10.1038/419127a

Full Text | PDF (368K)

Ecology: Oceans under the macroscope p128

Phytoplankton are marine algae that support all ocean life, so it is important to understand the processes that control their distribution, abundance and diversity. Macroecology offers a way to do so.

Andrea Belgrano and James H. Brown

doi:10.1038/419128a

Full Text | PDF (123K)

Earth science: Baked Alaska p129

The warming of the Earth's climate more than 50 million years ago is as yet unexplained. Now the finger points to the heating of sediment in the Gulf of Alaska as an important source of the greenhouse gas methane.

Peter Clift and Karen Bice

doi:10.1038/419129a

Full Text | PDF (150K)

Brief Communications

Social behaviour: Mexican waves in an excitable medium p131

The stimulation of this concerted motion among expectant spectators is explained.

I. Farkas, D. Helbing and T. Vicsek

doi:10.1038/419131a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (130K)

Metallurgy: High nickel release from 1- and 2-euro coins p132

Frank O. Nestle, Hannes Speidel and Markus O. Speidel

doi:10.1038/419132a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (109K)

Gene therapy: Biological pacemaker created by gene transfer p132

Junichiro Miake, Eduardo Marbán and H. Bradley Nuss

doi:10.1038/419132b

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (109K)

Radionuclide contamination: Nanometre-size products of uranium bioreduction p134

Yohey Suzuki, Shelly D. Kelly, Kenneth M. Kemner and Jillian F. Banfield

doi:10.1038/419134a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (101K)

Article

RAD6-dependent DNA repair is linked to modification of PCNA by ubiquitin and SUMO p135

Carsten Hoege, Boris Pfander, George-Lucian Moldovan, George Pyrowolakis and Stefan Jentsch

doi:10.1038/nature00991

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (598K) | Supplementary information

See also: News and Views by Pickart

Letters to Nature

Magnetar-like X-ray bursts from an anomalous X-ray pulsar p142

F. P. Gavriil, V. M. Kaspi and P. M. Woods

doi:10.1038/nature01011

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (154K)

See also: News and Views by Kulkarni

Simultaneous micromanipulation in multiple planes using a self-reconstructing light beam p145

V. Garcés-Chávez, D. McGloin, H. Melville, W. Sibbett and K. Dholakia

doi:10.1038/nature01007

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (237K)

See also: News and Views by Hegner

Mechanical milling assisted by electrical discharge p147

A. Calka and D. Wexler

doi:10.1038/nature00985

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (480K)

Acceleration of rain initiation by cloud turbulence p151

G. Falkovich, A. Fouxon and M. G. Stepanov

doi:10.1038/nature00983

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (210K)

Macroecological patterns of phytoplankton in the northwestern North Atlantic Ocean p154

W. K. W. Li

doi:10.1038/nature00994

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,520K)

See also: News and Views by Belgrano & Brown

Coding of smooth eye movements in three-dimensional space by frontal cortex p157

Kikuro Fukushima, Takanobu Yamanobe, Yasuhiro Shinmei, Junko Fukushima, Sergei Kurkin and Barry W. Peterson

doi:10.1038/nature00953

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (417K)

Loss of the Lkb1 tumour suppressor provokes intestinal polyposis but resistance to transformation p162

Nabeel Bardeesy, Manisha Sinha, Aram F. Hezel, Sabina Signoretti, Nathaniel A. Hathaway, Norman E. Sharpless, Massimo Loda, Daniel R. Carrasco and Ronald A. DePinho

doi:10.1038/nature01045

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (586K) | Supplementary information

See also: News and Views by van der Weyden et al.

SINAT5 promotes ubiquitin-related degradation of NAC1 to attenuate auxin signals p167

Qi Xie, Hui-Shan Guo, Geza Dallman, Shengyun Fang, Allan M. Weissman and Nam-Hai Chua

doi:10.1038/nature00998

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (737K)

L23 protein functions as a chaperone docking site on the ribosome p171

Günter Kramer, Thomas Rauch, Wolfgang Rist, Sonja Vorderwülbecke, Holger Patzelt, Agnes Schulze-Specking, Nenad Ban, Elke Deuerling and Bernd Bukau

doi:10.1038/nature01047

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (379K) | Supplementary information

Oxidative demethylation by Escherichia coli AlkB directly reverts DNA base damage p174

Sarah C. Trewick, Timothy F. Henshaw, Robert P. Hausinger, Tomas Lindahl and Barbara Sedgwick

doi:10.1038/nature00908

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (325K)

AlkB-mediated oxidative demethylation reverses DNA damage in Escherichia coli p178

Pål Ø. Falnes, Rune F. Johansen and Erling Seeberg

doi:10.1038/nature01048

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (338K) | Supplementary information

Comprehensive proteomic analysis of the human spliceosome p182

Zhaolan Zhou, Lawrence J. Licklider, Steven P. Gygi and Robin Reed

doi:10.1038/nature01031

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (236K) | Supplementary information

New on the Market

Out of sequence p186

Synthesis, sequencing and other DNA-related matters

doi:10.1038/419186a

Full Text | PDF (79K)

insight

climate & water p187

Heike Langenberg

doi:10.1038/nature01086

Full Text | PDF (87K)

Reducing uncertainty about carbon dioxide as a climate driver p188

Lee R. Kump

doi:10.1038/nature01087

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (119K)

The hydrologic cycle in deep-time climate problems p191

Raymond T. Pierrehumbert

doi:10.1038/nature01088

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (218K)

Links between climate and sea levels for the past three million years p199

Kurt Lambeck, Tezer M. Esat and Emma-Kate Potter

doi:10.1038/nature01089

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (219K)

Ocean circulation and climate during the past 120,000 years p207

Stefan Rahmstorf

doi:10.1038/nature01090

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (332K)

A satellite view of aerosols in the climate system p215

Yoram J. Kaufman, Didier Tanré and Olivier Boucher

doi:10.1038/nature01091

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (904K)

Constraints on future changes in climate and the hydrologic cycle p224

Myles R. Allen and William J. Ingram

doi:10.1038/nature01092

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (215K)

Towards objective probabalistic climate forecasting p228

Myles R. Allen and David A. Stainforth

doi:10.1038/nature01092a

Full Text | PDF (45K)