Table of contents
Volume 430 Number 7000 pp593-707
Editorials
On the campaign trail p593
The use and abuse of science is emerging as an issue in the US presidential election. Researchers should seize an opportunity to make their voices heard, whatever their political persuasion.
doi:10.1038/430593a
Weak at the centre p593
Germany's obsessive federalism has become an anachronism that is holding back the nation's science.
doi:10.1038/430593b
News
Nobel laureates spearhead effort to put Kerry in the White House p595
Researchers hit the campaign trail for the US presidential election
Geoff Brumfiel and Emma Marris
doi:10.1038/430595a
Lab closure sparks fears that US prion research is waning p596
Scientists call for renewed effort in studying proteins that cause brain disease
Helen Pearson
doi:10.1038/430596a
Reform of land use urged as floodwaters rise across Asia p596
Heavy rains and land mismanagement have led to deadly floods
David Cyranoski
doi:10.1038/430596b
From DNA to consciousness — Crick's legacy p597
Francis Crick passes away at the age of 88
Jonathan Knight
doi:10.1038/430597a
'Militant' animal activists trigger British law change p597
UK makes it illegal to gather outside homes or harass lab employees
Jim Giles
doi:10.1038/430597b
Review of tenure refusal uncovers conflicts of interest p598
Ignacio Chapela gets good news on his appeal
Rex Dalton
doi:10.1038/430598a
Biotech funding deal judged to be 'a mistake' for Berkeley p598
Universities should avoid large-scale partnerships with industry, says report
Rex Dalton
doi:10.1038/430598b
Court ruling upsets hopes for career reforms p599
Scheme for young German researchers ruled unconstitutional
Alison Abbott
doi:10.1038/430599a
Size matters when it comes to safety, report warns p599
Royal Society recommends precautionary approach to nanotechnology
Jim Giles
doi:10.1038/430599b
News Features
Athens Olympics special: To the edge... and over p602
Special report on the Olympics
doi:10.1038/430602a
A breed apart p603
Olympic athletes are on the edge of normal physiology, finds Alison Abbott.
doi:10.1038/430603a
The medals and the damage done p604
Athletes' punishing schedules push their bodies to the limit. But what happens if they go too far? Jim Giles finds out.
doi:10.1038/430604a
Heart-stopping action p606
Some athletes diagnosed with a genetic heart condition are banned from competitive sport. Laura Spinney discovers how they are fighting for the right to run the risk of death.
doi:10.1038/430606a
Gasping for victory p608
This year's Olympics will take place in Athens, a city renowned for its hot, humid summers and stifling air pollution. Martin Leeb discovers how the athletes plan to overcome the hurdle of these tough conditions.
doi:10.1038/430608a
Correspondence
Traumatic events take their toll on mental health p611
Results of violence and natural disasters could overwhelm services in developing world.
Menachem Ben-Ezra
doi:10.1038/430611a
OvaCheck: let's not dismiss the concept p611
Josep Villanueva and Paul Tempst
doi:10.1038/430611b
OvaCheck: doubts voiced soon after publication p611
Eleftherios P. Diamandis
doi:10.1038/430611c
Editing for posterity gets red card in Real world p611
Derek Partridge
doi:10.1038/430611d
Books and Arts
Sex under pressure p613
If sex is so important for evolution, why don't we have more of it?
Robert Foley reviews Why We Do It: Rethinking Sex and the Selfish Gene by Niles Eldredge
doi:10.1038/430613a
The birth of modern science? p614
Mott Greene reviews The Forgotten Revolution: How Science Was Born in 300BC and Why It Had To Be Reborn by Lucio Russo
doi:10.1038/430614a
Into the unknown p615
Diana Kormos Buchwald reviews The Invisible Century: Einstein, Freud, and the Search for Hidden Universes by Richard Panek
doi:10.1038/430615a
Science in culture p616
Geometry lies at the heart of sculptures from the Temple of Zeus.
Stefano Grillo reviews
doi:10.1038/430616a
Essay
Turning pointsThe pleasure of learning p617
How an Italian visitor rekindled the joy of science in a war veteran.
Leon Lederman
doi:10.1038/430617a
News and Views
Palaeontology: Inside the oldest bird brain p619
Did Archaeopteryx, the most primitive known bird, have 'the right stuff'? Looking into its skull with advanced technology provides insight into the dinosaurian transition to birds, and the evolution of flight.
Lawrence M. Witmer
doi:10.1038/430619a
Semiconductor physics: The value of seeing nothing p620
Adding atoms to a semiconductor can improve its electronic properties. In an oxide, taking atoms away can have a similar electronic effect — one that could, it seems, be exploited in device applications.
Jochen Mannhart and Darrell G. Schlom
doi:10.1038/430620a
Fisheries science: Why mothers matter p621
Fish population growth depends on older mothers, which in some species produce more and 'better' offspring than younger fish. When fisheries remove the most productive females, the whole population suffers.
Stephen R. Palumbi
doi:10.1038/430621a
Astronomy: A faint population of bursts? p623
An unusual 
-ray burst has been detected, much less energetic than expected. But its similarity to an earlier anomalous event suggests that lower-energy bursts might be more plentiful than had been thought.
Stan Woosley
doi:10.1038/430623a
Ultrafast physics: Quantum control with a twist p624
Laser pulses can be generated such that their shape and state of polarization change on the scale of a few femtoseconds, adding a new twist to the control and manipulation of molecules.
Yaron Silberberg
doi:10.1038/430624a
Genomes: Worming into genetic instability p625
A study of roundworms shows that genomic mutations occur surprisingly frequently, and that the kinds of changes involved differ from those predicted. Are genomes inherently less stable than previously suspected?
Susan M. Rosenberg and P. J. Hastings
doi:10.1038/430625a
100 and 50 years ago p625
doi:10.1038/430625b
Brief Communications
Biotechnology: Surrogate broodstock produces salmonids p629
Trout offspring can be created from trout-donor germ cells transplanted into salmon.
Yutaka Takeuchi, Goro Yoshizaki and Toshio Takeuchi
doi:10.1038/430629a
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (296K) | Supplementary information
Thin films: Unexpected magnetism in a dielectric oxide p630
M. Venkatesan, C. B. Fitzgerald and J. M. D. Coey
doi:10.1038/430630a
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (107K)
Review
Pathways towards and away from Alzheimer's disease p631
Mark P. Mattson
doi:10.1038/nature02621
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (4,855K)
Article
Mechanism of transfer RNA maturation by CCA-adding enzyme without using an oligonucleotide template p640
Yong Xiong and Thomas A. Steitz
doi:10.1038/nature02711
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (421K) | Supplementary information
Letters to Nature
An apparently normal 
-ray burst with an unusually low luminosity p646
S. Yu. Sazonov, A. A. Lutovinov and R. A. Sunyaev
doi:10.1038/nature02748
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (200K)
See also: News and Views by Woosley
The sub-energetic 
-ray burst GRB 031203 as a cosmic analogue to the nearby GRB 980425 p648
A. M. Soderberg, S. R. Kulkarni, E. Berger, D. W. Fox, M. Sako, D. A. Frail, A. Gal-Yam, D. S. Moon, S. B. Cenko, S. A. Yost, M. M. Phillips, S. E. Persson, W. L. Freedman, P. Wyatt, R. Jayawardhana and D. Paulson
doi:10.1038/nature02757
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (216K)
Two-dimensional geometry of spin excitations in the high-transition-temperature superconductor YBa2Cu3O6+x p650
V. Hinkov, S. Pailhès, P. Bourges, Y. Sidis, A. Ivanov, A. Kulakov, C. T. Lin, D. P. Chen, C. Bernhard and B. Keimer
doi:10.1038/nature02774
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (296K) | Supplementary information
Controlling the dynamics of spontaneous emission from quantum dots by photonic crystals p654
Peter Lodahl, A. Floris van Driel, Ivan S. Nikolaev, Arie Irman, Karin Overgaag, Daniël Vanmaekelbergh and Willem L. Vos
doi:10.1038/nature02772
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (244K)
Atomic-scale imaging of nanoengineered oxygen vacancy profiles in SrTiO3 p657
David A. Muller, Naoyuki Nakagawa, Akira Ohtomo, John L. Grazul and Harold Y. Hwang
doi:10.1038/nature02756
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (358K) | Supplementary information
See also: News and Views by Mannhart & Schlom
Vigorous exchange between the Indian and Atlantic oceans at the end of the past five glacial periods p661
Frank J. C. Peeters, Ruth Acheson, Geert-Jan A. Brummer, Wilhelmus P. M. de Ruijter, Ralph R. Schneider, Gerald M. Ganssen, Els Ufkes and Dick Kroon
doi:10.1038/nature02785
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (547K) | Supplementary information
The avian nature of the brain and inner ear of Archaeopteryx p666
Patricio Domínguez Alonso, Angela C. Milner, Richard A. Ketcham, M. John Cookson and Timothy B. Rowe
doi:10.1038/nature02706
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (343K) | Supplementary information
See also: News and Views by Witmer
Processing of wild cereal grains in the Upper Palaeolithic revealed by starch grain analysis p670
Dolores R. Piperno, Ehud Weiss, Irene Holst and Dani Nadel
doi:10.1038/nature02734
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (202K) | Supplementary information
Effect of trace metal availability on coccolithophorid calcification p673
K. G. Schulz, I. Zondervan, L. J. A. Gerringa, K. R. Timmermans, M. J. W. Veldhuis and U. Riebesell
doi:10.1038/nature02631
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (246K)
Aggression by polyembryonic wasp soldiers correlates with kinship but not resource competition p676
David Giron, Derek W. Dunn, Ian C. W. Hardy and Michael R. Strand
doi:10.1038/nature02721
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (184K)
High mutation rate and predominance of insertions in the Caenorhabditis elegans nuclear genome p679
Dee R. Denver, Krystalynne Morris, Michael Lynch and W. Kelley Thomas
doi:10.1038/nature02697
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (142K) | Supplementary information
See also: News and Views by Rosenberg & Hastings
Optimal neural population coding of an auditory spatial cue p682
Nicol S. Harper and David McAlpine
doi:10.1038/nature02768
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (427K)
Sirtuin activators mimic caloric restriction and delay ageing in metazoans p686
Jason G. Wood, Blanka Rogina, Siva Lavu, Konrad Howitz, Stephen L. Helfand, Marc Tatar and David Sinclair
doi:10.1038/nature02789
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (500K) | Supplementary information
Planar cell polarity signalling controls cell division orientation during zebrafish gastrulation p689
Ying Gong, Chunhui Mo and Scott E. Fraser
doi:10.1038/nature02796
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (697K) | Supplementary information
De-ubiquitination and ubiquitin ligase domains of A20 downregulate NF-
B signalling p694
Ingrid E. Wertz, Karen M. O'Rourke, Honglin Zhou, Michael Eby, L. Aravind, Somasekar Seshagiri, Ping Wu, Christian Wiesmann, Rohan Baker, David L. Boone, Averil Ma, Eugene V. Koonin and Vishva M. Dixit
doi:10.1038/nature02794
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (598K) | Supplementary information
Structural basis for template-independent RNA polymerization p700
Kozo Tomita, Shuya Fukai, Ryuichiro Ishitani, Takuya Ueda, Nono Takeuchi, Dmitry G. Vassylyev and Osamu Nureki
doi:10.1038/nature02712
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (491K) | Supplementary information
Erratum: Single-crystal metallic nanowires and metal/semiconductor nanowire heterostructures p704
Yue Wu, Jie Xiang, Chen Yang, Wei Lu and Charles M. Lieber
doi:10.1038/nature02811
Naturejobs
ProspectsThe accidental science writer p705
Paul Smaglik
doi:10.1038/nj7000-705a
Special Report
Back to basics: from industry to academia p706
Scientists are returning from industry to academia with an eye on efficiency and applied science. Kendall Powell explores the attitude adjustments.
Kendall Powell
doi:10.1038/nj7000-706a
