Editorials

Think harder about ecstasy p113

Advocates of therapeutic uses of the drug ecstasy have won the right to research its performance, but opponents continue to snipe. Both sides need to look more deeply into their research agendas.

doi:10.1038/429113a

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South Africa's new voice p113

The recent appointment of research minister Mosibudi Mangena bodes well for science, provided that people listen to him.

doi:10.1038/429113b

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News

Iraqi killings prompt calls for US to evacuate weapons scientists p115

Jim Giles

doi:10.1038/429115a

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Bush pressured as Nancy Reagan pleads for stem-cell research p116

Erika Check

doi:10.1038/429116a

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US intelligence exposed as student decodes Iraq memo p116

Declan Butler

doi:10.1038/429116b

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South Africa names head of science ministry p117

Michael Cherry

doi:10.1038/429117a

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Researchers fear break-up of UK medical institute p117

Laura Nelson

doi:10.1038/429117b

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Scientists complain government cash is no rise in real terms p118

Carina Dennis

doi:10.1038/429118a

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Icelandic database shelved as court judges privacy in peril p118

Alison Abbott

doi:10.1038/429118b

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NIH urged to rewrite rules on consultancies p119

Erika Check

doi:10.1038/429119a

Full Text | PDF (191K)

Vaccine targets gut reaction to calm livestock wind p119

Carina Dennis

doi:10.1038/429119b

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news in brief p120

doi:10.1038/429120a

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news feature

Geology:  Time lords p124

Geologists have come to an international agreement about the timeline of Earth's history. But the results are not quite set in stone, as John Whitfield discovers.

John Whitefield

doi:10.1038/429124a

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Psychedelic drugs:  The ups and downs of ecstasy p126

The clubbers' drug is now being studied as a treatment for anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Erika Check charts its rocky road from the psychedelic underground to the psychiatric clinic.

Erika Check

doi:10.1038/429126a

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Correspondence

Biodiversity law has had some unintended effects p129

Moves to prevent unfair exploitation of resources could restrict conservation research.

Rohan Pethiyagoda

doi:10.1038/429129a

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Putting Norway on the gene-therapy map p129

Ola Myklebost

doi:10.1038/429129b

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Gene therapy needs both trials and new strategies p129

David Williams and Christopher Baum

doi:10.1038/429129c

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Books and Arts

Making waves p131

The voyage of HMS Challenger launched the science of oceanography.

Charles Langmuir reviews The Silent Landscape by Richard Corfield

doi:10.1038/429131a

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Exhibition:  A window on the past p132

Alison Abbott

doi:10.1038/429132a

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Exponent of the exponential p132

Steve Blinkhorn reviews The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram by Thomas Blass

doi:10.1038/429132b

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Studying form p133

Andrew Berry reviews Jacob's Ladder: The History of the Human Genome by Henry Gee

doi:10.1038/429133a

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Essay

Heads and Tails p135

How a visit to the home of structural biology inspired a young scientist.

Mitsuhiro Yanagida

doi:10.1038/429135a

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News and Views

Geophysics:  A fuel-efficient geodynamo? p137

The hunt has been on for a source of extra power to account for the dynamo that generates the Earth's magnetic field. A synthesis of computation and experiment now suggests that the search may not be necessary after all.

Richard Holme

doi:10.1038/429137a

Full Text | PDF (223K)

Signal transduction:  Thumbs up for inactivation p138

Cellular signalling pathways depend on the proper activation and inactivation of mediators. New structural information reveals an unusual mechanism by which one such mediator, Rap1, is switched off.

Holger Rehmann and Johannes L. Bos

doi:10.1038/429138a

Full Text | PDF (316K)

Quantum physics:  High NOON for photons p139

Entangled photons conspire to create interference patterns that would normally be associated with a wavelength much smaller than that of the individual photons — beating the diffraction limit.

Dirk Bouwmeester

doi:10.1038/429139a

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Membrane trafficking:  Dual-key strategy p141

Traffic flow between cellular compartments is controlled by recruitment of cytoplasmic proteins. New work exemplifies a dual-key mechanism, involving membrane lipids and proteins, that coordinates this control.

Toshiki Itoh and Pietro De Camilli

doi:10.1038/429141a

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100 and 50 years ago p141

doi:10.1038/429141b

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Physiology:  Orphan detectors of metabolism p143

There are myriad G-protein-coupled receptor proteins in living organisms, but the functions of many are unknown. Two of them are now shown to provide a link between metabolism and blood pressure.

Steven C. Hebert

doi:10.1038/429143a

Full Text | PDF (366K)

Muscle:  The sliding filament at 50 p145

Maxine Clarke

doi:10.1038/429145a

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news and views in brief p147

doi:10.1038/429147a

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News and Views Feature

Ageing and the mystery at Arles p149

What determines how long we will live? Studies of simple organisms, single cells and mammals hint that certain shared principles underlie ageing, and raise the possibility of devising ways to extend life — if we want to.

Shino Nemoto and Toren Finkel

doi:10.1038/429149a

Full Text | PDF (1,638K)

Brief Communications

Hyperactive antifreeze protein in a fish p153

This plasma protein offers the winter flounder extra protection against icy polar waters.

Christopher B. Marshall, Garth L. Fletcher and Peter L. Davies

doi:10.1038/429153a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (112K)

Reproductive biology:  Delivering spermatozoan RNA to the oocyte p154

G. Charles Ostermeier, David Miller, John D. Huntriss, Michael P. Diamond and Stephen A. Krawetz

doi:10.1038/429154a

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (111K) | Supplementary information

corrigendum: Sex differences in learning in chimpanzees p154

doi:10.1038/429154b

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Brief Communications Arising

Photonics:  Tuning holes in photonic-crystal nanocavities

Christophe Sauvan, Philippe Lalanne and Jean-Paul Hugonin

doi:10.1038/nature02602

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (59K)

Photonics:  Tuning holes in photonic-crystal nanocavities (reply)

Takashi Asano and Susumu Noda

doi:10.1038/nature02603

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (63K)

Letters to Nature

The formation of a massive protostar through the disk accretion of gas p155

Rolf Chini, Vera Hoffmeister, Stefan Kimeswenger, Markus Nielbock, Dieter Nürnberger, Linda Schmidtobreick and Michael Sterzik

doi:10.1038/nature02507

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (312K)

De Broglie wavelength of a non-local four-photon state p158

Philip Walther, Jian-Wei Pan, Markus Aspelmeyer, Rupert Ursin, Sara Gasparoni and Anton Zeilinger

doi:10.1038/nature02552

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (265K)

See also: News and Views by Bouwmeester

Super-resolving phase measurements with a multiphoton entangled state p161

M. W. Mitchell, J. S. Lundeen and A. M. Steinberg

doi:10.1038/nature02493

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (217K)

Increased seasonality in Middle East temperatures during the last interglacial period p164

Thomas Felis, Gerrit Lohmann, Henning Kuhnert, Stephan J. Lorenz, Denis Scholz, Jürgen Pätzold, Saber A. Al-Rousan and Salim M. Al-Moghrabi

doi:10.1038/nature02546

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (979K) | Supplementary information

Power requirement of the geodynamo from ohmic losses in numerical and laboratory dynamos p169

Ulrich R. Christensen and Andreas Tilgner

doi:10.1038/nature02508

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (145K)

See also: News and Views by Holme

Optimal nitrogen-to-phosphorus stoichiometry of phytoplankton p171

Christopher A. Klausmeier, Elena Litchman, Tanguy Daufresne and Simon A. Levin

doi:10.1038/nature02454

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (628K) | Supplementary information

Food-web interactions govern the resistance of communities after non-random extinctions p174

Anthony R. Ives and Bradley J. Cardinale

doi:10.1038/nature02515

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (209K) | Supplementary information

Resonance effects indicate a radical-pair mechanism for avian magnetic compass p177

Thorsten Ritz, Peter Thalau, John B. Phillips, Roswitha Wiltschko and Wolfgang Wiltschko

doi:10.1038/nature02534

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (172K)

Modelling disease outbreaks in realistic urban social networks p180

Stephen Eubank, Hasan Guclu, V. S. Anil Kumar, Madhav V. Marathe, Aravind Srinivasan, Zoltán Toroczkai and Nan Wang

doi:10.1038/nature02541

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (377K) | Supplementary information

Enhanced synaptic plasticity in newly generated granule cells of the adult hippocampus p184

Christoph Schmidt-Hieber, Peter Jonas and Josef Bischofberger

doi:10.1038/nature02553

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (835K)

Citric acid cycle intermediates as ligands for orphan G-protein-coupled receptors p188

Weihai He, Frederick J.-P. Miao, Daniel C.-H. Lin, Ralf T. Schwandner, Zhulun Wang, Jinhai Gao, Jin-Long Chen, Hui Tian and Lei Ling

doi:10.1038/nature02488

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (826K) | Supplementary information

See also: News and Views by Hebert

Aquaporin-0 membrane junctions reveal the structure of a closed water pore p193

Tamir Gonen, Piotr Sliz, Joerg Kistler, Yifan Cheng and Thomas Walz

doi:10.1038/nature02503

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (357K) | Supplementary information

The GTPase-activating protein Rap1GAP uses a catalytic asparagine p197

Oliver Daumke, Michael Weyand, Partha P. Chakrabarti, Ingrid R. Vetter and Alfred Wittinghofer

doi:10.1038/nature02505

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (498K) | Supplementary information

See also: News and Views by Rehmann & Bos

A conformational switch controls hepatitis delta virus ribozyme catalysis p201

Ailong Ke, Kaihong Zhou, Fang Ding, Jamie H. D. Cate and Jennifer A. Doudna

doi:10.1038/nature02522

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (348K) | Supplementary information

corrigendum: Characterization of a common precursor population for dendritic cells p205

Gloria Martínez del Hoyo, Pilar Martín, Héctor Hernández Vargas, Sara Ruiz, Cristina Fernández Arias and Carlos Ardavín

doi:10.1038/nature02479

Full Text | PDF (72K)

outlook

Japan p207

David Cyranoski

doi:10.1038/429207a

Full Text | PDF (385K)

Winds of change blow away the cobwebs on campus p210

Japan's hidebound university system is being reformed.

David Cyranoski and I-han Chou

doi:10.1038/429210a

Full Text | PDF (1,217K)

Curiosity makes way for capitalism p216

Universities can now profit from their creativity, but not all academics are pleased.

David Cyranoski

doi:10.1038/429216a

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Will creativity thrive in an island paradise? p220

Okinawa is the unlikely setting for an ambitious institute.

David Cyranoski

doi:10.1038/429220a

Full Text | PDF (585K)

Naturejobs

Aerospace meets biotech p223

Paul Smaglik

doi:10.1038/nj6988-223a

Full Text | PDF (128K)

The yeast is rising p224

Makers of beer, wine and cheese need microbiologists to keep fermented products at their peak. Kendall Powell gets a taste of the career offerings.

Kendall Powell

doi:10.1038/nj6988-224a

Full Text | PDF (308K)

Graduate Journal:  Future echoes p226

Philipp Angerer

doi:10.1038/nj6988-226a

Full Text | PDF (70K)

Scientists & Societies p226

Simon Mooijaart

doi:10.1038/nj6988-226b

Full Text | PDF (70K)

Movers p226

doi:10.1038/nj6988-226c

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