Editorials

In defence of DARPA p599

The Pentagon's boldest research agency is in trouble; its unique character is in real danger. DARPA's officials and those who have benefited from its largesse must engage in open debate about the agency's value.

doi:10.1038/424599a

Full Text | PDF (56K)

Hubble versus the future p599

NASA's science managers should be cut some financial slack to prevent the sacrifice of a prized research asset.

doi:10.1038/424599b

Full Text | PDF (56K)

News

Terrorist betting leaves defence agency fighting for autonomy p601

Geoff Brumfiel

doi:10.1038/424601a

Full Text | PDF (119K)

Fast vaccine offers hope in battle with Ebola p602

Tom Clarke and Jonathan Knight

doi:10.1038/424602a

Full Text | PDF (106K)

Czech stem-cell work heightens calls for EU ruling p602

Alison Abbott

doi:10.1038/424602b

Full Text | PDF (106K)

NASA under pressure to extend Hubble's life p603

Tony Reichhardt

doi:10.1038/424603a

Full Text | PDF (128K)

Ecological advice sparks sea change in judicial opinion p603

Rex Dalton

doi:10.1038/424603b

Full Text | PDF (128K)

Piglets add some colour to transgenic story p604

Nicola Nosengo

doi:10.1038/424604a

Full Text | PDF (85K)

WHO prepares for final push to rid the world of polio p604

Declan Butler

doi:10.1038/424604b

Full Text | PDF (85K)

Red tape frustrates Europe's fund-seekers p605

Ralf Jox

doi:10.1038/424605a

Full Text | PDF (103K)

Companies vie to put all your genes on a chip p605

Carina Dennis

doi:10.1038/424605b

Full Text | PDF (103K)

News in brief p606

doi:10.1038/424606a

Full Text | PDF (107K)

News Features

Venice floods: SAVE OUR CITY! p608

The Italian government is building a series of massive barriers to protect Venice from flooding. But scientists are still arguing over whether the plan will work, says Nicola Nosengo.

doi:10.1038/424608a

Full Text | PDF (231K)

DNA microarrays: Vital statistics p610

DNA microarrays have given geneticists and molecular biologists access to more data than ever before. But do these researchers have the statistical know-how to cope? Claire Tilstone investigates.

doi:10.1038/424610a

Full Text | PDF (1,460K)

Correspondence

Flawed science underlies laws on transgenic crops p613

United States needs a firm basis for commercialization, not a trade war with Europe.

H. Sandermann, Jr

doi:10.1038/424613a

Full Text | PDF (58K)

Getting to the heart of transpiration in plants p613

Widmar Tanner

doi:10.1038/424613b

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Natural decaf could brew trouble for farmers p613

P. S. Baker

doi:10.1038/424613c

Full Text | PDF (58K)

Books and Arts

Beyond the skin-bag p615

The brain extends its reach outside the body, so are we all cyborgs?

Don Ihde reviews Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human Intelligence by Andy Clark

doi:10.1038/424615a

Full Text | PDF (93K)

Tea, cake and computers p616

Anthony Ralston reviews A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Teashops and the World's First Office Computer by Georgina Ferry

doi:10.1038/424616a

Full Text | PDF (141K)

The struggle for sexual inequality p616

Göran Arnqvist reviews Sex Wars: Genes, Bacteria, and Biased Sex Ratios by Michael E. N. Majerus

doi:10.1038/424616b

Full Text | PDF (141K)

The next happy pill p617

Les Iversen reviews Better Than Prozac: Creating the New Generation of Psychiatric Drugs by Samuel Barondes

doi:10.1038/424617a

Full Text | PDF (160K)

New in paperback p617

doi:10.1038/424617b

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Science in culture p618

Martin Kemp reviews

doi:10.1038/424618a

Full Text | PDF (130K)

Concepts

Genetic engineering: Unnatural selection p619

Allison Snow

doi:10.1038/424619a

Full Text | PDF (51K)

News and Views

Animal locomotion: How to walk on water p621

How the short legs of juvenile water striders propel the insects across water has perplexed researchers. It now appears that walking on water shares features with the locomotion of birds, insects and fish.

Michael Dickinson

doi:10.1038/424621a

Full Text | PDF (252K)

Nanotechnology: A barrier falls p622

Electronic devices based on carbon nanotubes have a bright future — even more so now that a way has been found to eliminate the 'Schottky barrier' that hinders the injection of electrons into them.

J. Tersoff

doi:10.1038/424622a

Full Text | PDF (383K)

Atmospheric science: African dust in Florida clouds p623

Satellites and numerical models now track the intercontinental transport of airborne particles. Better knowledge of cloud physics will be necessary to gauge the effects on clouds and rainfall patterns.

Owen B. Toon

doi:10.1038/424623a

Full Text | PDF (352K)

Signal transduction: Life on Mars, cellularly speaking p624

A key molecular switch, known as the Ha-Ras protein, is active not only at a cell's outer membrane but also on intracellular membranes. This surprising discovery hints at unsuspected complexity in cellular signalling.

Pier Paolo Di Fiore

doi:10.1038/424624a

Full Text | PDF (107K)

Superconductivity: Lifting the gossamer veil p625

Copper oxides become superconductors at much higher temperatures than conventional metals. This transition might involve a state of 'gossamer' superconductivity, and new work shows how.

Piers Coleman

doi:10.1038/424625a

Full Text | PDF (136K)

Neurobiology: A thorny issue p627

A protein has been identified that makes spines grow on nerve cells. Unexpectedly, it also turns out to be part of an ion channel that is responsible for transmitting signals between neurons.

Peter H. Seeburg and Pavel Osten

doi:10.1038/424627a

Full Text | PDF (144K)

100 and 50 years ago p627

doi:10.1038/424627b

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Astronomy: An elementary puzzle p628

A type Ia supernova has no hydrogen around it. But hydrogen gas has now been found in the vicinity of a supernova that otherwise fits the type Ia classification. Might this offer clues to the origin of these objects?

Eddie Baron

doi:10.1038/424628a

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News and views in brief p630

doi:10.1038/424630a

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News and Views Feature

Particle physics: Antimatter matters p631

Matter dominates antimatter, at least in our corner of the Universe. Part of the explanation could be an imbalance between the two at the level of fundamental interactions, encapsulated in the phenomenon of CP violation.

John Ellis

doi:10.1038/424631a

Full Text | PDF (272K)

Brief Communications

Pregnancy: A cloned horse born to its dam twin p635

A birth announcement calls for a rethink on the immunological demands of pregnancy.

Cesare Galli, Irina Lagutina, Gabriella Crotti, Silvia Colleoni, Paola Turini, Nunzia Ponderato, Roberto Duchi and Giovanna Lazzari

doi:10.1038/424635a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (663K) | Supplementary information

Lithium-ion batteries: Runaway risk of forming toxic compounds p635

Amer Hammami, Nathalie Raymond and Michel Armand

doi:10.1038/424635b

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (663K)

Palaeontology: Spider-web silk from the Early Cretaceous p636

Samuel Zschokke

doi:10.1038/424636a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (126K)

Insect signalling: Components of giant hornet alarm pheromone p637

Masato Ono, Hirokazu Terabe, Hiroshi Hori and Masami Sasaki

doi:10.1038/424637a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (143K)

Optics (communication arising): Mechanism for 'superluminal' tunnelling p638

Herbert G. Winful

doi:10.1038/424638a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (192K)

Optics (communication arising): Mechanism for 'superluminal' tunnelling p638

Markus Büttiker and Sean Washburn

doi:10.1038/424638b

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (192K)

Progress

The evolution of comets in the Oort cloud and Kuiper belt p639

S. Alan Stern

doi:10.1038/nature01725

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (159K)

Article

Complete atomic model of the bacterial flagellar filament by electron cryomicroscopy p643

Koji Yonekura, Saori Maki-Yonekura and Keiichi Namba

doi:10.1038/nature01830

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (931K) | Supplementary information

Letters to Nature

An asymptotic-giant-branch star in the progenitor system of a type Ia supernova p651

Mario Hamuy, M. M. Phillips, Nicholas B. Suntzeff, José Maza, L. E. González, Miguel Roth, Kevin Krisciunas, Nidia Morrell, E. M. Green, S. E. Persson and P. J. McCarthy

doi:10.1038/nature01854

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (544K) | Supplementary information

See also: News and Views by Baron

Ballistic carbon nanotube field-effect transistors p654

Ali Javey, Jing Guo, Qian Wang, Mark Lundstrom and Hongjie Dai

doi:10.1038/nature01797

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (577K)

See also: News and Views by Tersoff

Low-loss hollow-core silica/air photonic bandgap fibre p657

Charlene M. Smith, Natesan Venkataraman, Michael T. Gallagher, Dirk Müller, James A. West, Nicholas F. Borrelli, Douglas C. Allan and Karl W. Koch

doi:10.1038/nature01849

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (2,595K)

Unusually large earthquakes inferred from tsunami deposits along the Kuril trench p660

Futoshi Nanayama, Kenji Satake, Ryuta Furukawa, Koichi Shimokawa, Brian F. Atwater, Kiyoyuki Shigeno and Shigeru Yamaki

doi:10.1038/nature01864

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (602K) | Supplementary information

The hydrodynamics of water strider locomotion p663

David L. Hu, Brian Chan and John W. M. Bush

doi:10.1038/nature01793

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (477K)

See also: News and Views by Dickinson

Bottlenose dolphins perceive object features through echolocation p667

Heidi E. Harley, Erika A. Putman and Herbert L. Roitblat

doi:10.1038/nature01846

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (149K) | Supplementary information

Neuronal populations and single cells representing learned auditory objects p669

Timothy Q. Gentner and Daniel Margoliash

doi:10.1038/nature01731

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (661K) | Supplementary information

Neural correlates of implied motion p674

Bart Krekelberg, Sabine Dannenberg, Klaus-Peter Hoffmann, Frank Bremmer and John Ross

doi:10.1038/nature01852

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (272K) | Supplementary information

Induction of dendritic spines by an extracellular domain of AMPA receptor subunit GluR2 p677

Maria Passafaro, Terunaga Nakagawa, Carlo Sala and Morgan Sheng

doi:10.1038/nature01781

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (514K) | Supplementary information

See also: News and Views by Seeburg & Osten

Accelerated vaccination for Ebola virus haemorrhagic fever in non-human primates p681

Nancy J. Sullivan, Thomas W. Geisbert, Joan B. Geisbert, Ling Xu, Zhi-yong Yang, Mario Roederer, Richard A. Koup, Peter B. Jahrling and Gary J. Nabel

doi:10.1038/nature01876

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (248K) | Supplementary information

Exclusion of germ plasm proteins from somatic lineages by cullin-dependent degradation p685

Cynthia DeRenzo, Kimberly J. Reese and Geraldine Seydoux

doi:10.1038/nature01887

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (473K) | Supplementary information

RanGTP mediates nuclear pore complex assembly p689

Tobias C. Walther, Peter Askjaer, Marc Gentzel, Anja Habermann, Gareth Griffiths, Matthias Wilm, Iain W. Mattaj and Martin Hetzer

doi:10.1038/nature01898

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (559K) | Supplementary information

Phospholipase C activates Ras on the Golgi apparatus by means of RasGRP1 p694

Trever G. Bivona, Ignacio Pérez de Castro, Ian M. Ahearn, Theresa M. Grana, Vi K. Chiu, Peter J. Lockyer, Peter J. Cullen, Angel Pellicer, Adrienne D. Cox and Mark R. Philips

doi:10.1038/nature01806

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (666K) | Supplementary information

See also: News and Views by Di Fiore

Crystal structure of the transfer-RNA domain of transfer-messenger RNA in complex with SmpB p699

Sascha Gutmann, Peter W. Haebel, Laurent Metzinger, Markus Sutter, Brice Felden and Nenad Ban

doi:10.1038/nature01831

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (530K) | Supplementary information

Naturejobs

Physical paradoxes p705

Paul Smaglik

doi:10.1038/nj6949-705a

Full Text | PDF (93K)

First for physics Chicago p706

Paul Smaglik

doi:10.1038/nj6949-706a

Full Text | PDF (194K)