Table of contents
Volume 434 Number 7030 pp123-256
In this issue (10 March 2005)
Also this week
Editorials
Killers on the loose p123
Across the developing world, seriously ill patients can't be sure whether they're purchasing life-saving medicines or worthless dummy pills. This scandal demands a stronger response from aid donors, governments and the drugs industry.
doi:10.1038/434123a
Bad faith at Los Alamos p123
The breakdown of an old contract threatens to leave a great national laboratory gravely weakened.
doi:10.1038/434123b
News
NASA's funding shortfall means journey's end for Voyager probes p125
Mission to the edge of the Solar System may shut down in October to save cash.
Tony Reichhardt
doi:10.1038/434125a
Senate resignations mar academy's birthday p126
European Academy of Sciences and Arts faces unrest.
Alison Abbott
doi:10.1038/434126a
Anthropologists walk tall after unearthing hominid p126
Ethiopian fossil should shed light on mankind's first upright steps.
Rex Dalton
doi:10.1038/434126b
Career charter sets out rights of Europe's young scientists p127
PhD students get leverage to be treated properly as professionals.
Quirin Schiermeier
doi:10.1038/434127a
Gene-therapy trials to restart following cancer risk review p127
US researchers to trial gene therapy on children with SCID.
Erika Check
doi:10.1038/434127b
Climatologists seek clear view of Asia's smog p128
Project to assess climate impact of massive brown clouds.
David Cyranoski and Ichiko Fuyuno
doi:10.1038/434128a
Biosafety law brings stem-cell research to Brazil p128
Extra embryos from IVF now open for research - but not for therapeutic cloning.
Laura Nelson
doi:10.1038/434128b
Police urge speedy action to clean up home drug factories p129
Illegal methamphetamine labs could turn houses to toxic dumps.
Emma Marris
doi:10.1038/434129a
Science agencies get fresh paymasters in Republican revamp p129
NSF and NASA get new funding bosses in US Congress.
Geoff Brumfiel
doi:10.1038/434129b
News Features
Counterfeit pharmaceuticals: Murder by medicine p132
Across the developing world, people are dying after being peddled fake pharmaceuticals. Peter Aldhous reports from southeast Asia, where scientists, doctors and regulators battle against organized crime.
doi:10.1038/434132a
Counterfeit pharmaceuticals: In the line of fire p134
Dora Akunyili has spent the past four years facing down corruption and tackling Nigeria's rampant problems with fake drugs. This crusade has been phenomenally successful, but has placed Akunyili's life in danger. Peter Aldhous caught up with her on a recent trip to the United States.
doi:10.1038/434134a
Correspondence
HIV drug remains unproven without placebo trial p137
Ethical concerns over use of a placebo weaken evidence for the benefits of nevirapine.
Valendar F. Turner
doi:10.1038/434137a
Concern over deep-sea reefs is widespread p137
Alex David Rogers
doi:10.1038/434137b
Brown knew particles were smaller than pollen p137
David M. Wilkinson
doi:10.1038/434137c
Books and Arts
A part of but apart from politics p139
Can scientists advise policy-makers without compromising their objectivity?
Roger Pielke, Jr reviews Nature's Experts: Science, Politics, and the Environment by Stephen Bocking
doi:10.1038/434139a
Marketing Marie p140
Susan Lindee reviews Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie by Barbara Goldsmith
doi:10.1038/434140a
Science in culture p141
The artist Joseph Beuys tried to lead his followers into a promised land of transformative imagination.
Martin Kemp reviews
doi:10.1038/434141a
Rivalry and revenge p142
Nicola Nosengo reviews Costantinopoli 1786: la congiura e la beffa (Constantinople 1786: The Conspiracy and the Hoax) by Paolo Mazzarello
doi:10.1038/434142a
Physics detective
Schrödinger's mousetrap p143
Part 8: The outcast.
Jack Cohen
doi:10.1038/434143a
Essay
ConceptEggs alone p145
Human parthenotes: an ethical source of stem cells for therapies?
Ann A. Kiessling
doi:10.1038/434145a
News and Views
Biodiversity: Fossils make waves p147
A 62-million-year cycle in biodiversity emerges from scrutiny of a marine-fossil database, but its causes remain mysterious. Thus, this discovery is likely to provoke a flurry of theoretical speculation.
James W. Kirchner and Anne Weil
doi:10.1038/434147a
See also: Editor's summary
Astronomy: Stellar mass limited p148
Is there an upper limit to the mass of a star? The answer to this long-standing question seems to be yes — and it has important consequences for our understanding of the evolution of galaxies.
Pavel Kroupa
doi:10.1038/434148a
See also: Editor's summary
100 and 50 years ago p149
doi:10.1038/434149a
Epigenetics: Surveillance team against cancer p150
Variations in the control of a phenomenon known as parental imprinting influence the likelihood of tumour development. These new findings may tie in with an earlier concept of 'two-phase' carcinogenesis.
George Klein
doi:10.1038/434150a
Semiconductor technology: Negatively successful p151
Organic semiconducting polymers are promising electronic materials, but for full versatility they need to conduct negative as well as positive charge. A step towards that goal has now been taken.
Ananth Dodabalapur
doi:10.1038/434151a
See also: Editor's summary
Structural biology: Methanol maker p151
Joshua Finkelstein
doi:10.1038/434151b
Developmental biology: Sperm–egg fusion unscrambled p152
The identity of the sperm molecules that are involved in fusion with an egg's membrane has eluded biologists. Will Izumo, a protein named after the Japanese shrine to marriage, bring harmony to the field?
Richard Schultz and Carmen Williams
doi:10.1038/434152a
Planetary sciences: A smashing pair p153
The likely origin of Pluto and its satellite Charon, like the Earth and Moon, is an impact between two planet-sized bodies. Refined simulations show that there may be two distinct modes for the birth of such twins.
Jay Melosh
doi:10.1038/434153a
Animal behaviour: Meals sized up p154
Rory Howlett
doi:10.1038/434154a
Palaeobiology: Dating earliest life p155
Claims that 3.8-billion-year-old rocks from Greenland contain carbonaceous remnants of very early life have been the subject of argument for several years. The latest analyses look like settling matters.
Stephen Moorbath
doi:10.1038/434155a
Brief Communications
Planetary science: Meteor Crater formed by low-velocity impact p157
The paucity of melted rock in this crater may be due to the striking projectile's speed.
H. J. Melosh and G. S. Collins
doi:10.1038/434157a
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (224K) | Supplementary information
Musical imagery: Sound of silence activates auditory cortex p158
David J. M. Kraemer, C. Neil Macrae, Adam E. Green and William M. Kelley
doi:10.1038/434158a
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (140K) | Supplementary information
Articles
Imaging of Titan from the Cassini spacecraft p159
Carolyn C. Porco, Emily Baker, John Barbara, Kevin Beurle, Andre Brahic, Joseph A. Burns, Sebastien Charnoz, Nick Cooper, Douglas D. Dawson, Anthony D. Del Genio, Tilmann Denk, Luke Dones, Ulyana Dyudina, Michael W. Evans, Stephanie Fussner, Bernd Giese, Kevin Grazier, Paul Helfenstein, Andrew P. Ingersoll, Robert A. Jacobson, Torrence V. Johnson, Alfred McEwen, Carl D. Murray, Gerhard Neukum, William M. Owen, Jason Perry, Thomas Roatsch, Joseph Spitale, Steven Squyres, Peter Thomas, Matthew Tiscareno, Elizabeth P. Turtle, Ashwin R. Vasavada, Joseph Veverka, Roland Wagner and Robert West
doi:10.1038/nature03436
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,465K)
See also: Editor's summary
Experimental one-way quantum computing p169
P. Walther, K. J. Resch, T. Rudolph, E. Schenck, H. Weinfurter, V. Vedral, M. Aspelmeyer and A. Zeilinger
doi:10.1038/nature03347
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (537K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Crystal structure of a membrane-bound metalloenzyme that catalyses the biological oxidation of methane p177
Raquel L. Lieberman and Amy C. Rosenzweig
doi:10.1038/nature03311
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (395K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Structural basis of HutP-mediated anti-termination and roles of the Mg2+ ion and L-histidine ligand p183
Thirumananseri Kumarevel, Hiroshi Mizuno and Penmetcha K. R. Kumar
doi:10.1038/nature03355
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (622K) | Supplementary information
Letters to Nature
An upper limit to the masses of stars p192
Donald F. Figer
doi:10.1038/nature03293
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (373K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Kroupa
General observation of n-type field-effect behaviour in organic semiconductors p194
Lay-Lay Chua, Jana Zaumseil, Jui-Fen Chang, Eric C.-W. Ou, Peter K.-H. Ho, Henning Sirringhaus and Richard H. Friend
doi:10.1038/nature03376
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (453K) | Supplementary information
See also: News and Views by Dodabalapur
Ultrafast memory loss and energy redistribution in the hydrogen bond network of liquid H2O p199
M. L. Cowan, B. D. Bruner, N. Huse, J. R. Dwyer, B. Chugh, E. T. J. Nibbering, T. Elsaesser and R. J. D. Miller
doi:10.1038/nature03383
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (352K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
The formation of cubic ice under conditions relevant to Earth's atmosphere p202
Benjamin J. Murray, Daniel A. Knopf and Allan K. Bertram
doi:10.1038/nature03403
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (232K)
Measuring the onset of locking in the Peru–Chile trench with GPS and acoustic measurements p205
Katie Gagnon, C. David Chadwell and Edmundo Norabuena
doi:10.1038/nature03412
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (351K) | Supplementary information
Cycles in fossil diversity p208
Robert A. Rohde and Richard A. Muller
doi:10.1038/nature03339
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (205K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Kirchner & Weil
Agricultural runoff fuels large phytoplankton blooms in vulnerable areas of the ocean p211
J. Michael Beman, Kevin R. Arrigo and Pamela A. Matson
doi:10.1038/nature03370
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (398K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
The global distribution of clinical episodes of Plasmodium falciparum malaria p214
Robert W. Snow, Carlos A. Guerra, Abdisalan M. Noor, Hla Y. Myint and Simon I. Hay
doi:10.1038/nature03342
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (205K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Mediation of pathogen resistance by exudation of antimicrobials from roots p217
Harsh P. Bais, Balakrishnan Prithiviraj, Ajay K. Jha, Frederick M. Ausubel and Jorge M. Vivanco
doi:10.1038/nature03356
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (297K) | Supplementary information
Spike-timing-dependent synaptic plasticity depends on dendritic location p221
Robert C. Froemke, Mu-ming Poo and Yang Dan
doi:10.1038/nature03366
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (666K) | Supplementary information
The receptors and coding logic for bitter taste p225
Ken L. Mueller, Mark A. Hoon, Isolde Erlenbach, Jayaram Chandrashekar, Charles S. Zuker and Nicholas J. P. Ryba
doi:10.1038/nature03352
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (273K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Spatial bistability of Dpp–receptor interactions during Drosophila dorsal–ventral patterning p229
Yu-Chiun Wang and Edwin L. Ferguson
doi:10.1038/nature03318
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (328K) | Supplementary information
The immunoglobulin superfamily protein Izumo is required for sperm to fuse with eggs p234
Naokazu Inoue, Masahito Ikawa, Ayako Isotani and Masaru Okabe
doi:10.1038/nature03362
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (409K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Schultz & Williams
Agonist/endogenous peptide–MHC heterodimers drive T cell activation and sensitivity p238
Michelle Krogsgaard, Qi-jing Li, Cenk Sumen, Johannes B. Huppa, Morgan Huse and Mark M. Davis
doi:10.1038/nature03391
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (655K) | Supplementary information
Integral role of IRF-5 in the gene induction programme activated by Toll-like receptors p243
Akinori Takaoka, Hideyuki Yanai, Seiji Kondo, Gordon Duncan, Hideo Negishi, Tatsuaki Mizutani, Shin-ichi Kano, Kenya Honda, Yusuke Ohba, Tak W. Mak and Tadatsugu Taniguchi
doi:10.1038/nature03308
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (559K) | Supplementary information
Naturejobs
ProspectsIn the picture p251
Paul Smaglik
doi:10.1038/nj7030-251a
Careers and Recruitment
Come together p252
The addition of molecular biology to the existing range of imaging technologies is creating opportunities for scientists of many disciplines. Paul Smaglik lines up the pieces.
Paul Smaglik
doi:10.1038/nj7030-252a
Futures
A man of the theatre p256
All the world's a stage.
Norman Spinrad
doi:10.1038/434256a