Table of contents
Volume 433 Number 7026 pp557-668
(this content only available online) indicates content that is available online only
Editorials
Taking a hard line on conflicts p557
A clampdown on conflicts of interest at the US National Institutes of Health needn't stifle quality research at the agency — and it might indicate the shape of things to come elsewhere.
doi:10.1038/433557a
Not so fast p557
Anyone thinking of collaborations with emerging biomedical powers should test the ethical waters before jumping in.
doi:10.1038/433557b
News
Main agencies hang on to funds in skimpy US science budget p559
The first budget of President Bush's second term puts tight constraints on US research spending.
Geoff Brumfiel
doi:10.1038/433559a
Gene therapy put on hold as third child develops cancer p561
Trial of treatment for rare, childhood illness is halted, again.
Erika Check
doi:10.1038/433561a
NIH open-access plans draw fire from both sides p561
Researchers will be asked to put their findings in an open-access database.
Erika Check
doi:10.1038/433561b
Past climate comes into focus but warm forecast stays put p562
A reassessment of past climate records suggests greater fluctuation than was previously thought.
Quirin Schiermeier
doi:10.1038/433562a
See also: Editor's summary
news in brief p564
doi:10.1038/433564a
Editorial note p564
doi:10.1038/433564b
News Features
Marine biology : Whale fall p566
The fatty bones of dead whales provide rich pickings for creatures on the sea floor. Amanda Haag meets the scientists who go to extreme and unpleasant lengths to study the unique ecosystems on these corpses.
doi:10.1038/433566a
Drug rehabilitation : Cold turkey, Vietnamese style p568
It was invented by a healer familiar with the horrors of opiate addiction, and refined by Vietnam's leading chemistry lab. Can this novel herbal cocktail ease withdrawal and reduce drug cravings? Peter Aldhous investigates.
doi:10.1038/433568a
Astronomy and the public : Prison talk p570
A few French scientists are bringing astronomy to captive audiences, such as the terminally ill and the incarcerated. Alison Abbott joined a group of convicted murderers to learn about gravity.
doi:10.1038/433570a
Correspondence
Nuclear nations should take the lead in disarming p571
A willingness to use 'overwhelming force' encourages other states to arm themselves.
Robert A. Hinde
doi:10.1038/433571a
Military alliances offer no nuclear security p571
Dominique Lalanne, Peter Nicholls and Joseph Rotblat
doi:10.1038/433571b
Would you accept advice from a believer in Santa? p571
D. J. Hosken
doi:10.1038/433571c
Commentary
Lessons from the past p573
Poverty and market forces combine to keep rural China unhealthy.
doi:10.1038/433573a
Books and Arts
Feet of clay p575
There's more to science than doing the research.
Walter Gratzer reviews Leaps in the Dark: The Making of Scientific Reputations by John Waller
doi:10.1038/433575a
Poison in the well p576
Roger P. Smith reviews Venomous Earth: The World's Worst Mass Poisoning by Andrew A. Meharg
doi:10.1038/433576a
The force behind the prize p577
John Ellis reviews The Quantum Quark by Andrew Watson
doi:10.1038/433577a
Physics Detective
Schrödinger's mousetrap p579
Part 4: A very public humiliation.
Laura Garwin
doi:10.1038/433579a
Essay
The onset of selection p581
Natural selection started to drive evolution as soon as molecular replication became possible.
Christian de Duve
doi:10.1038/433581a
News and Views
Agricultural biotechnology: Gene exchange by design p583
Gene transfer from bacteria to plants was thought to be limited to the bacterial genus Agrobacterium. But other bacterial groups also contain species capable of interkingdom genetic exchange.
Stanton B. Gelvin
doi:10.1038/433583a
See also: Editor's summary
Quantum optics: Cheat detection p584
Philip Ball
doi:10.1038/433584a
Cardiology: Solace for the broken-hearted? p585
The heart was thought to lack the capacity to regenerate after injury. But the identification of cells that can divide and mature into heart muscle suggests that the heart has repair mechanisms after all.
Christine L. Mummery
doi:10.1038/433585a
See also: Editor's summary
Climate change: Let all the voices be heard p587
It's a tough job to excavate trustworthy records about past temperatures from the palaeoclimate archives. The application of a fresh approach, in the form of wavelet analysis of the data, is a step forward.
D. M. Anderson and C. A. Woodhouse
doi:10.1038/433587a
See also: Editor's summary
100 and 50 years ago p587
doi:10.1038/433587b
Palaeoecology: Down to the woods yesterday p588
What were European forests like following the last ice age and before the advent of agriculture? The pollen record in Ireland provides a unique perspective from which to examine ideas on the question.
Peter D. Moore
doi:10.1038/433588a
Synthetic chemistry: Making a natural fuel cell p589
The synthetic assembly of the active centre of hydrogen-producing enzymes adds to our understanding of their structure and function — and could produce new and useful materials that mimic these enzymes.
Marcetta York Darensbourg
doi:10.1038/433589a
See also: Editor's summary
Cancer: Catalyst of a catalyst p591
Breast cancers arise when the BRCA2 protein is defective, but what does the normal enzyme do? Studies of a relative of BRCA2 reveal a capacity to initiate the repair of broken DNA by loading a repair protein.
Stephen C. Kowalczykowski
doi:10.1038/433591a
Obituary: Julius Axelrod (1912–2004) p593
Solomon H. Snyder
doi:10.1038/433593a
Brief Communications
Neurobiology: Motor control of flexible octopus arms p595
The octopus borrows a jointed-vertebrate strategy to transfer an item between points.
Germán Sumbre, Graziano Fiorito, Tamar Flash and Binyamin Hochner
doi:10.1038/433595a
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (248K) | Supplementary information
Laser technology: Source of coherent kiloelectronvolt X-rays p596
J. Seres, E. Seres, A. J. Verhoef, G. Tempea, C. Streli, P. Wobrauschek, V. Yakovlev, A. Scrinzi, C. Spielmann and F. Krausz
doi:10.1038/433596a
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (103K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Top of page
Brief Communications Arising
Atmospheric science: Marine aerosols and iodine emissions pE13
Gordon McFiggans
doi:10.1038/nature03372
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (77K)
Atmospheric science: Marine aerosols and iodine emissions (Reply) pE13
Colin D. O'Dowd, Jose L. Jimenez, Roya Bahreini, Richard C. Flagan, John H. Seinfeld, Kaarle Hämeri, Liisa Pirjola, Markku Kulmala, S. Gerard Jennings and Thorsten Hoffmann
doi:10.1038/nature03373
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (82K)
Article
Functional imaging with cellular resolution reveals precise micro-architecture in visual cortex p597
Kenichi Ohki, Sooyoung Chung, Yeang H. Ch'ng, Prakash Kara and R. Clay Reid
doi:10.1038/nature03274
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (847K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Letters to Nature
Energy input from quasars regulates the growth and activity of black holes and their host galaxies p604
Tiziana Di Matteo, Volker Springel and Lars Hernquist
doi:10.1038/nature03335
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (263K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Electronically soft phases in manganites p607
G. C. Milward, M. J. Calderón and P. B. Littlewood
doi:10.1038/nature03300
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (229K) | Supplementary information
Synthesis of the H-cluster framework of iron-only hydrogenase p610
Cédric Tard, Xiaoming Liu, Saad K. Ibrahim, Maurizio Bruschi, Luca De Gioia, Siân C. Davies, Xin Yang, Lai-Sheng Wang, Gary Sawers and Christopher J. Pickett
doi:10.1038/nature03298
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (254K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Darensbourg
Highly variable Northern Hemisphere temperatures reconstructed from low- and high-resolution proxy data p613
Anders Moberg, Dmitry M. Sonechkin, Karin Holmgren, Nina M. Datsenko and Wibjörn Karlén
doi:10.1038/nature03265
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (921K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Anderson & Woodhouse
Fractures as the main pathways of water flow in temperate glaciers p618
Andrew G. Fountain, Robert W. Jacobel, Robert Schlichting and Peter Jansson
doi:10.1038/nature03296
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (322K)
See also: Editor's summary
Abrupt rise in atmospheric CO2 overestimates community response in a model plant–soil system p621
John N. Klironomos, Michael F. Allen, Matthias C. Rillig, Jeff Piotrowski, Shokouh Makvandi-Nejad, Benjamin E. Wolfe and Jeff R. Powell
doi:10.1038/nature03268
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (203K)
See also: Editor's summary
Directed aerial descent in canopy ants p624
Stephen. P. Yanoviak, Robert Dudley and Michael Kaspari
doi:10.1038/nature03254
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (154K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Photoperiodic induction of synchronous flowering near the Equator p627
Rolf Borchert, Susanne S. Renner, Zoraida Calle, Diego Navarrete, Alan Tye, Laurent Gautier, Rodolphe Spichiger and Patricio von Hildebrand
doi:10.1038/nature03259
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (395K) | Supplementary information
Gene transfer to plants by diverse species of bacteria p629
Wim Broothaerts, Heidi J. Mitchell, Brian Weir, Sarah Kaines, Leon M. A. Smith, Wei Yang, Jorge E. Mayer, Carolina Roa-Rodríguez and Richard A. Jefferson
doi:10.1038/nature03309
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (389K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Gelvin
A universal trend of amino acid gain and loss in protein evolution p633
I. King Jordan, Fyodor A. Kondrashov, Ivan A. Adzhubei, Yuri I. Wolf, Eugene V. Koonin, Alexey S. Kondrashov and Shamil Sunyaev
doi:10.1038/nature03306
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (242K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Contributions of an avian basal ganglia–forebrain circuit to real-time modulation of song p638
Mimi H. Kao, Allison J. Doupe and Michael S. Brainard
doi:10.1038/nature03127
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (914K) | Supplementary information
Ultrabithorax is required for membranous wing identity in the beetle Tribolium castaneum p643
Yoshinori Tomoyasu, Scott R. Wheeler and Robin E. Denell
doi:10.1038/nature03272
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (263K) | Supplementary information
Postnatal isl1+ cardioblasts enter fully differentiated cardiomyocyte lineages p647
Karl-Ludwig Laugwitz, Alessandra Moretti, Jason Lam, Peter Gruber, Yinhong Chen, Sarah Woodard, Li-Zhu Lin, Chen-Leng Cai, Min Min Lu, Michael Reth, Oleksandr Platoshyn, Jason X.-J. Yuan, Sylvia Evans and Kenneth R. Chien
doi:10.1038/nature03215
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,361K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Mummery
The BRCA2 homologue Brh2 nucleates RAD51 filament formation at a dsDNA–ssDNA junction p653
Haijuan Yang, Qiubai Li, Jie Fan, William K. Holloman and Nikola P. Pavletich
doi:10.1038/nature03234
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (384K) | Supplementary information
See also: News and Views by Kowalczykowski
Structural basis for substrate binding, cleavage and allostery in the tRNA maturase RNase Z p657
Inés Li de la Sierra-Gallay, Olivier Pellegrini and Ciarán Condon
doi:10.1038/nature03284
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (422K) | Supplementary information
corrigendum: The yeast Rat1 exonuclease promotes transcription termination by RNA polymerase II p661
Minkyu Kim, Nevan J. Krogan, Lidia Vasiljeva, Oliver J. Rando, Eduard Nedea, Jack F. Greenblatt and Stephen Buratowski
doi:10.1038/nature03307
Naturejobs
ProspectsReversal of fortune p663
Paul Smaglik
doi:10.1038/nj7026-663a
Regions
Capital collaboration Washington DC p664
Eugene Russo
doi:10.1038/nj7026-664a
Career View
Graduate Journal: A rewarding journey p666
Karolina Tkaczuk
doi:10.1038/nj7026-666a
Bricks & Mortar p666
Paul Smaglik
doi:10.1038/nj7026-666b
Movers p666
doi:10.1038/nj7026-666c
Futures
Under martian ice p668
Cold ... and never more alone.
Stephen Baxter
doi:10.1038/433668a