Table of contents
Volume 431 Number 7008 pp491-612
(this content only available online) indicates content that is available online only
Editorials
Holding the line at NASA p491
Space-based astronomy in the United States is under threat thanks to a misplaced sense of priorities within government. Researchers should take every opportunity to resist and to make the most of support from Congress.
doi:10.1038/431491a
Open-source biology p491
Researchers and entrepreneurs alike should welcome a move to develop a new commons in technological innovation.
doi:10.1038/431491b
News
Global AIDS trial denied patients as US balks at generic drug use p493
Tests of antiretrovirals stalled.
Erika Check
doi:10.1038/431493a
Biologists launch 'open-source movement' p494
Research tools and technologies to be made freely available.
Carina Dennis
doi:10.1038/431494a
Support sought to investigate sluggish Pioneers p494
Physicists study mystery of slow-moving spacecraft.
Jim Giles
doi:10.1038/431494b
Monkey virus may be cleared of cancer link p495
Plasmid contamination may exonerate virus.
Helen Pearson
doi:10.1038/431495a
Ancient ships lifted from Naples' railway tunnels p496
Construction workers stumble on archaeological treasure.
Federica Castellani
doi:10.1038/431496a
Feathers fly as China cracks down on illegal fossil sales p496
Valuable dinosaur fossil may have been crushed in fracas.
Rex Dalton
doi:10.1038/431496b
Beagle cash dogged by dissent over wording p497
Does Britain owe 
16 million for Mars mission 'loan'?
Mark Peplow
doi:10.1038/431497a
NIH researchers face blanket consulting ban p497
Plans in place to stop scientists taking extra paid work.
Emma Marris
doi:10.1038/431497b
News Features
Hormone therapy: A dangerous elixir? p500
Testosterone therapy jacks up vigour, sex drive and mental acuity — or so proponents claim. But are those who experiment with this potent sex hormone gambling with their health? Helen Pearson investigates.
doi:10.1038/431500a
Aquaculture: Fishing for trouble p502
Plans to push tuna farms out into open waters off the coast of the United States are raising an environmental alarm. Rex Dalton discovers the kind of problems these offshore ranches might cause.
doi:10.1038/431502a
Correspondence
Consumer group replies to attack on organic food p505
In a true scientific debate, both sides are allowed to put their cases and answer criticism.
Urvashi Rangan & Jennifer Shecter
doi:10.1038/431505a
Meyer case poses a challenge to the system p505
doi:10.1038/431505b
Meyer: disagreements but no misconduct p505
doi:10.1038/431505c
Commentary
Alert to a European epidemic p507
Funds must be forthcoming for an effective EU Centre for Disease Control.
doi:10.1038/431507a
Books and Arts
Play it again, John p509
A look back at the birth of game theory some 60 years ago.
Karl Sigmund reviews Theory of Games and Economic Behavior: Sixtieth-Anniversary Edition by John von Neumann & Oskar Morgenstern
doi:10.1038/431509a
Life on the edge p510
Mike Stroud reviews The Biology of Human Survival: Life and Death in Extreme Environments by Claude A. Piantadosi
doi:10.1038/431510a
Science in culture p511
Pat York's photographs of dissected humans represent a fine body of work.
Martin Kemp
doi:10.1038/431511a
Uncovering chromosomes p512
Rena Selya reviews The Man Who Invented the Chromosome: A Life of Cyril Darlington by Oren Solomon Harman
doi:10.1038/431512a
Essay
Turning pointsThe domino effect p513
When taking a risk proved a wise choice for one postdoc.
Jamshed Tata
doi:10.1038/431513a
News and Views
Accelerator physics: Electrons hang ten on laser wake p515
Electrons can be accelerated by making them surf a laser-driven plasma wave. High acceleration rates, and now the production of well-populated, high-quality beams, signal the potential of this table-top technology.
Thomas Katsouleas
doi:10.1038/431515a
Plant disease: Underground life for rice foe p516
We still have much to learn about the world's chief disease of rice — rice blast. That's clear from the finding that the culprit not only infects aerial plant tissues but can also invade roots like a typical root pathogen.
Barbara Valent
doi:10.1038/431516a
Human evolution: Pedigrees for all humanity p518
Simulations based on a model of human population history and geography find that an individual that is the genealogical ancestor of all living humans existed just a few thousand years ago.
Jotun Hein
doi:10.1038/431518a
Global change: Glacial pace picks up p519
Tim Lincoln
doi:10.1038/431519a
Cosmology: What is dark energy? p519
It seems that the rate of expansion of the Universe is accelerating, driven by the so-called dark energy. Is Einstein's cosmological constant behind it? There might be a way to find out.
Lawrence M. Krauss
doi:10.1038/431519b
Cell biology: Sight at the end of the tunnel p520
A chaperone molecule called trigger factor binds new polypeptide chains as they emerge from the protein-synthesis machinery. Crystal structures suggest that this molecule forms a hydrophobic 'cradle'.
Arthur Horwich
doi:10.1038/431520a
100 and 50 years ago p522
doi:10.1038/431522a
Biogeochemistry: Early options in photosynthesis p522
Reconstruction of an ancient marine environment from 3,400-million-year-old rocks in South Africa strengthens the case for the existence of photosynthetic microbes at that time — but adds a fresh twist.
Nicolas Beukes
doi:10.1038/431522b
Brief Communications
Athletics: Momentous sprint at the 2156 Olympics? p525
Women sprinters are closing the gap on men and may one day overtake them.
Andrew J. Tatem, Carlos A. Guerra, Peter M. Atkinson & Simon I. Hay
doi:10.1038/431525a
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (194K) | Supplementary information
Lung cancer: Intragenic ERBB2 kinase mutations in tumours p525
Philip Stephens, Chris Hunter, Graham Bignell, Sarah Edkins, Helen Davies, Jon Teague, Claire Stevens, Sarah O'Meara, Raffaella Smith, Adrian Parker, Andy Barthorpe, Matthew Blow, Lisa Brackenbury, Adam Butler, Oliver Clarke, Jennifer Cole, Ed Dicks, Angus Dike, Anja Drozd, Ken Edwards, Simon Forbes, Rebecca Foster, Kristian Gray, Chris Greenman, Kelly Halliday, Katy Hills, Vivienne Kosmidou, Richard Lugg, Andy Menzies, Janet Perry, Robert Petty, Keiran Raine, Lewis Ratford, Rebecca Shepherd, Alexandra Small, Yvonne Stephens, Calli Tofts, Jennifer Varian, Sofie West, Sara Widaa, Andrew Yates, Francis Brasseur, Colin S. Cooper, Adrienne M. Flanagan, Margaret Knowles, Suet Y. Leung, David N. Louis, Leendert H. J. Looijenga, Bruce Malkowicz, Marco A. Pierotti, Bin Teh, Georgia Chenevix-Trench, Barbara L. Weber, Siu T. Yuen, Grace Harris, Peter Goldstraw, Andrew G. Nicholson, P. Andrew Futreal, Richard Wooster & Michael R. Stratton
doi:10.1038/431525b
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (194K) | Supplementary information
Article
A role for the immunological synapse in lineage commitment of CD4 lymphocytes p527
Roberto A. Maldonado, Darrell J. Irvine, Robert Schreiber & Laurie H. Glimcher
doi:10.1038/nature02916
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (437K) | Supplementary information
Letters to Nature
A supernova origin for dust in a high-redshift quasar p533
R. Maiolino, R. Schneider, E. Oliva, S. Bianchi, A. Ferrara, F. Mannucci, M. Pedani & M. Roca Sogorb
doi:10.1038/nature02930
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (215K)
Monoenergetic beams of relativistic electrons from intense laser–plasma interactions p535
S. P. D. Mangles, C. D. Murphy, Z. Najmudin, A. G. R. Thomas, J. L. Collier, A. E. Dangor, E. J. Divall, P. S. Foster, J. G. Gallacher, C. J. Hooker, D. A. Jaroszynski, A. J. Langley, W. B. Mori, P. A. Norreys, F. S. Tsung, R. Viskup, B. R. Walton & K. Krushelnick
doi:10.1038/nature02939
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (451K)
See also: News and Views by Katsouleas
High-quality electron beams from a laser wakefield accelerator using plasma-channel guiding p538
C. G. R. Geddes, Cs. Toth, J. van Tilborg, E. Esarey, C. B. Schroeder, D. Bruhwiler, C. Nieter, J. Cary & W. P. Leemans
doi:10.1038/nature02900
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (211K)
A laser–plasma accelerator producing monoenergetic electron beams p541
J. Faure, Y. Glinec, A. Pukhov, S. Kiselev, S. Gordienko, E. Lefebvre, J.-P. Rousseau, F. Burgy & V. Malka
doi:10.1038/nature02963
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (213K)
Reaction discovery enabled by DNA-templated synthesis and in vitro selection p545
Matthew W. Kanan, Mary M. Rozenman, Kaori Sakurai, Thomas M. Snyder & David R. Liu
doi:10.1038/nature02920
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (522K) | Supplementary information
Photosynthetic microbial mats in the 3,416-Myr-old ocean p549
Michael M. Tice & Donald R. Lowe
doi:10.1038/nature02888
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (281K)
See also: News and Views by Beukes
Excitation of Earth's continuous free oscillations by atmosphere–ocean–seafloor coupling p552
Junkee Rhie & Barbara Romanowicz
doi:10.1038/nature02942
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,079K) | Supplementary information
Two new carnivores from an unusual late Tertiary forest biota in eastern North America p556
Steven C. Wallace & Xiaoming Wang
doi:10.1038/nature02819
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (304K) | Supplementary information
New evidence on the earliest human presence at high northern latitudes in northeast Asia p559
R. X. Zhu, R. Potts, F. Xie, K. A. Hoffman, C. L. Deng, C. D. Shi, Y. X. Pan, H. Q. Wang, R. P. Shi, Y. C. Wang, G. H. Shi & N. Q. Wu
doi:10.1038/nature02829
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (335K) | Supplementary information
Modelling the recent common ancestry of all living humans p562
Douglas L. T. Rohde, Steve Olson & Joseph T. Chang
doi:10.1038/nature02842
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (244K) | Supplementary information
See also: News and Views by Hein
Phenotypic consequences of 1,000 generations of selection at elevated CO2 in a green alga p566
Sinéad Collins & Graham Bell
doi:10.1038/nature02945
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (312K)
Pack-MULE transposable elements mediate gene evolution in plants p569
Ning Jiang, Zhirong Bao, Xiaoyu Zhang, Sean R. Eddy & Susan R. Wessler
doi:10.1038/nature02953
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (262K) | Supplementary information
Small modulation of ongoing cortical dynamics by sensory input during natural vision p573
József Fiser, Chiayu Chiu & Michael Weliky
doi:10.1038/nature02907
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (449K) | Supplementary information
A transmembrane protein required for acetylcholine receptor clustering in Caenorhabditis elegans p578
Christelle Gally, Stefan Eimer, Janet E. Richmond & Jean-Louis Bessereau
doi:10.1038/nature02893
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (315K) | Supplementary information
The rice leaf blast pathogen undergoes developmental processes typical of root-infecting fungi p582
Ane Sesma & Anne E. Osbourn
doi:10.1038/nature02880
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (411K)
See also: News and Views by Valent
Structural basis for packaging the dimeric genome of Moloney murine leukaemia virus p586
Victoria D'Souza & Michael F. Summers
doi:10.1038/nature02944
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (337K) | Supplementary information
Trigger factor in complex with the ribosome forms a molecular cradle for nascent proteins p590
Lars Ferbitz, Timm Maier, Holger Patzelt, Bernd Bukau, Elke Deuerling & Nenad Ban
doi:10.1038/nature02899
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (422K) | Supplementary information
See also: News and Views by Horwich
Technology Features
RNA interference: The silent treatment p599
Biotech firms are vying to harness the potential of RNA interference. But will its impact be in finding new disease targets, or in RNA-based drugs? Julie Clayton investigates.
Julie Clayton
doi:10.1038/431599a
RNAi options p599
doi:10.1038/431599b
Express delivery p601
doi:10.1038/431601a
A rival to antisense? p603
doi:10.1038/431603a
Table of suppliers p607
doi:10.1038/431607a
Naturejobs
ProspectsTwo-way traffic p611
Paul Smaglik
doi:10.1038/nj7008-611a
Career View
Graduate Journal: Changing directions p612
Philipp Angerer
doi:10.1038/nj7008-612a
Industry & Interns p612
Rosemary Clyne
doi:10.1038/nj7008-612b
Movers p612
doi:10.1038/nj7008-612c
