Table of contents
Volume 439 Number 7072 pp1-116
(this content only available online) indicates content that is available online only
Editorials
No new start at Los Alamos p1
A fresh contract for the management of the New Mexico nuclear-weapons laboratory offers it little prospect of a happy and prosperous new year.
doi:10.1038/439001a
Developing resistance p1
A study of opposition to a vaccine for children shows how the public can lose faith in science.
doi:10.1038/439001b
Sound science p2
Audio files downloaded from the Internet can enrich scientific communication.
doi:10.1038/439002a
News
Mashups mix data into global service p6
Is this the future for scientific analysis?
Declan Butler
doi:10.1038/439006a
Intelligent design verdict set to sway other cases p6
Failure in court sets offers evolutionary precedent.
Emma Marris
doi:10.1038/439006b
Croatian scientists call for openness over funding p7
Researchers demand transparency for grant awards.
Alison Abbott
doi:10.1038/439007a
Blow follows blow for stem-cell work p8
South Korean cloning scandal deepens.
David Cyranoski
doi:10.1038/439008a
Los Alamos bosses ditched after decade of scandals p8
US weapons lab makes a fresh start.
Emma Marris
doi:10.1038/439008b
News Features
Our Universe: Outrageous fortune p10
A growing number of cosmologists and string theorists suspect the form of our Universe is little more than a coincidence. Are these harmless thought experiments, or a challenge to science itself? Geoff Brumfiel investigates.
doi:10.1038/439010a
Ethiopia: Awash with fossils p14
The Afar region of Ethiopia is littered with traces of the earliest humans. Rex Dalton gets on the trail with a team of devoted experts who just live for the next find.
doi:10.1038/439014a
See also: Editor's summary
Business
More than just hot air? p17
With the launch of an alternative-energy division, BP is taking steps to show that it is serious about 'clean' technology. Emma Marris reports.
doi:10.1038/439017a
See also: Editor's summary
Correspondence
Power games cause sparks in physics, but biologists have learnt from evolution p18
Peter Hietz and Manuela Winkler
doi:10.1038/439018a
Power clashes limit science and reflect archaic values p18
María Uriarte, Kathleen Weathers and Valerie Eviner
doi:10.1038/439018b
Science is an adventure, not a battle p18
David Kleinfeld
doi:10.1038/439018c
Bias may be unintentional but it's still there p18
Cathy W. S. Chen and Ying-Hen Hsieh
doi:10.1038/439018d
Books and Arts
A robust approach p19
The functional overlap between different components protects biological systems.
Eörs Szathmáry reviews Robustness and Evolvability in Living Systems by Andreas Wagner
doi:10.1038/439019a
Psychology in the real world? p20
Steve Blinkhorn reviews World As Laboratory: Experiments with Mice, Mazes, and Men by Rebecca Lemov
doi:10.1038/439020a
Exhibition: Casting a long shadow p21
Laura Spinney reviews Melancholy: Genius and Insanity in the West
doi:10.1038/439021a
News and Views
Developmental neuroscience: Two gradients are better than one p23
Wiring up retinal neurons to the correct brain region during development is a feat of precision growth. A novel directional cue repels retinal neuron fibres, acting as a counterbalance to a known attractive signal.
Liqun Luo
doi:10.1038/439023a
See also: Editor's summary
Planetary science: The ferryman casts his shadow p24
The most accurate way of determining the size of some bodies in the Solar System is to observe them as they pass across the face of a star. In the case of Charon, Pluto's largest satellite, it's been a long wait.
David J. Tholen
doi:10.1038/439024a
See also: Editor's summary
Oceanography: A phosphate alternative p25
A major player among the phytoplankton can exploit a source of phosphorus previously thought to be unavailable to it. That ability may provide an ecological advantage in nutrient-depleted regions of the open ocean.
Sergio A. Sañudo-Wilhelmy
doi:10.1038/439025a
See also: Editor's summary
Volcanoes: Interpreting inclusive evidence p26
Crystallization of ascending magma may affect the style of volcanic activity. Pockets of melt incorporated into crystals provide windows on processes that occur several kilometres below Earth's surface.
Julia E. Hammer
doi:10.1038/439026a
Biological physics: Harmonies from noise p27
Do random environments make for random responses to them? Mathematical models suggest that this is not always the case — adding noise could create synchronous oscillations in cell–cell signalling systems.
Michael Springer and Johan Paulsson
doi:10.1038/439027a
50 & 100 years ago p28
doi:10.1038/439028a
Brief Communications
Fisheries: Deep-sea fishes qualify as endangered p29
A shift from shelf fisheries to the deep sea is exhausting late-maturing species that recover only slowly.
Jennifer A. Devine, Krista D. Baker and Richard L. Haedrich
doi:10.1038/439029a
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (178K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Top of page
Brief Communications Arising
Ecology: Mechanisms for consumer diversity pE1
Takehito Yoshida, Laura E. Jones, Stephen P. Ellner and Nelson G. Hairston, Jr
doi:10.1038/nature04526
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (179K)
Ecology: Mechanisms for consumer diversity (Reply) pE2
William A. Nelson, Edward McCauley and Frederick J. Wrona
doi:10.1038/nature04527
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (119K)
Articles
Wnt–Ryk signalling mediates medial–lateral retinotectal topographic mapping p31
Adam M. Schmitt, Jun Shi, Alex M. Wolf, Chin-Chun Lu, Leslie A. King and Yimin Zou
doi:10.1038/nature04334
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (618K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Luo
Structure of the parainfluenza virus 5 F protein in its metastable, prefusion conformation p38
Hsien-Sheng Yin, Xiaolin Wen, Reay G. Paterson, Robert A. Lamb and Theodore S. Jardetzky
doi:10.1038/nature04322
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (573K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Letters
Radioactive 26Al from massive stars in the Galaxy p45
Roland Diehl, Hubert Halloin, Karsten Kretschmer, Giselher G. Lichti, Volker Schönfelder, Andrew W. Strong, Andreas von Kienlin, Wei Wang, Pierre Jean, Jürgen Knödlseder, Jean-Pierre Roques, Georg Weidenspointner, Stephane Schanne, Dieter H. Hartmann, Christoph Winkler and Cornelia Wunderer
doi:10.1038/nature04364
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (158K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Charon's radius and atmospheric constraints from observations of a stellar occultation p48
A. A. S. Gulbis, J. L. Elliot, M. J. Person, E. R. Adams, B. A. Babcock, M. Emilio, J. W. Gangestad, S. D. Kern, E. A. Kramer, D. J. Osip, J. M. Pasachoff, S. P. Souza and T. Tuvikene
doi:10.1038/nature04276
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (274K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Tholen
Charon's size and an upper limit on its atmosphere from a stellar occultation p52
B. Sicardy, A. Bellucci, E. Gendron, F. Lacombe, S. Lacour, J. Lecacheux, E. Lellouch, S. Renner, S. Pau, F. Roques, T. Widemann, F. Colas, F. Vachier, R. Vieira Martins, N. Ageorges, O. Hainaut, O. Marco, W. Beisker, E. Hummel, C. Feinstein, H. Levato, A. Maury, E. Frappa, B. Gaillard, M. Lavayssière, M. Di Sora, F. Mallia, G. Masi, R. Behrend, F. Carrier, O. Mousis, P. Rousselot, A. Alvarez-Candal, D. Lazzaro, C. Veiga, A. H. Andrei, M. Assafin, D. N. da Silva Neto, C. Jacques, E. Pimentel, D. Weaver, J.-F. Lecampion, F. Doncel, T. Momiyama and G. Tancredi
doi:10.1038/nature04351
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (177K)
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Tholen
Structural diversity in binary nanoparticle superlattices p55
Elena V. Shevchenko, Dmitri V. Talapin, Nicholas A. Kotov, Stephen O'Brien and Christopher B. Murray
doi:10.1038/nature04414
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (590K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Abrupt reversal in ocean overturning during the Palaeocene/Eocene warm period p60
Flavia Nunes and Richard D. Norris
doi:10.1038/nature04386
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (911K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Three-dimensional brittle shear fracturing by tensile crack interaction p64
David Healy, Richard R. Jones and Robert E. Holdsworth
doi:10.1038/nature04346
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (531K)
Phosphonate utilization by the globally important marine diazotroph Trichodesmium p68
S. T. Dyhrman, P. D. Chappell, S. T. Haley, J. W. Moffett, E. D. Orchard, J. B. Waterbury and E. A. Webb
doi:10.1038/nature04203
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (339K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Sañudo-Wilhelmy
Computer optimization of a minimal biped model discovers walking and running p72
Manoj Srinivasan and Andy Ruina
doi:10.1038/nature04113
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (403K)
See also: Editor's summary
Complex social behaviour derived from maternal reproductive traits p76
Gro V. Amdam, Angela Csondes, M. Kim Fondrk and Robert E. Page, Jr
doi:10.1038/nature04340
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (173K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Rapid developmental switch in the mechanisms driving early cortical columnar networks p79
Erwan Dupont, Ileana L. Hanganu, Werner Kilb, Silke Hirsch and Heiko J. Luhmann
doi:10.1038/nature04264
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (549K) | Supplementary information
Generation of a functional mammary gland from a single stem cell p84
Mark Shackleton, François Vaillant, Kaylene J. Simpson, John Stingl, Gordon K. Smyth, Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat, Li Wu, Geoffrey J. Lindeman and Jane E. Visvader
doi:10.1038/nature04372
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (699K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
An siRNA-based microbicide protects mice from lethal herpes simplex virus 2 infection p89
Deborah Palliser, Dipanjan Chowdhury, Qing-Yin Wang, Sandra J. Lee, Roderick T. Bronson, David M. Knipe and Judy Lieberman
doi:10.1038/nature04263
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (624K)
See also: Editor's summary
Potentiation of neuroblastoma metastasis by loss of caspase-8 p95
Dwayne G. Stupack, Tal Teitz, Matthew D. Potter, David Mikolon, Peter J. Houghton, Vincent J. Kidd, Jill M. Lahti and David A. Cheresh
doi:10.1038/nature04323
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (323K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Mechanochemical analysis of DNA gyrase using rotor bead tracking p100
Jeff Gore, Zev Bryant, Michael D. Stone, Marcelo Nöllmann, Nicholas R. Cozzarelli and Carlos Bustamante
doi:10.1038/nature04319
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,635K) | Supplementary information
RNA translocation and unwinding mechanism of HCV NS3 helicase and its coordination by ATP p105
Sophie Dumont, Wei Cheng, Victor Serebrov, Rudolf K. Beran, Ignacio Tinoco, Jr, Anna Marie Pyle and Carlos Bustamante
doi:10.1038/nature04331
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (419K) | Supplementary information
Functional waters in intraprotein proton transfer monitored by FTIR difference spectroscopy p109
Florian Garczarek and Klaus Gerwert
doi:10.1038/nature04231
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (836K)
Naturejobs
ProspectA plan for the future p113
Help on steering your career.
Paul Smaglik
doi:10.1038/nj7072-113a
Highlights
Highlight: The National Institutes of Health
doi:10.1038/nj0107
Futures
Gathering of the clans p116
Get in touch with your past.
Reinaldo José Lopes
doi:10.1038/439116a