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Volume 446 Issue 7136, 5 April 2007

Corrigendum

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Editorial

  • The resignation of the head of the Smithsonian Institution highlights a misguided tendency for museums to focus on communication at the expense of research. It also offers the chance of a fresh start.

    Editorial
  • A biodiversity conservation project needs support, a watchful eye, and maybe even a long-snouted ally.

    Editorial
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Research Highlights

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News

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News in Brief

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Business

  • The head of China's drug-safety agency is under investigation for alleged corruption. David Cyranoski looks at how the inquiry might affect the country's fast-growing pharmaceutical industry.

    Business
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News Feature

  • Vast stellar nurseries, clouds that dwarf the Solar System and lurking swarms of black holes. Jeff Kanipe probes the unfolding mysteries at the heart of the Milky Way.

    • Jeff Kanipe
    News Feature
  • Philadelphia's venerable natural history museum is teetering on the brink of financial disaster. A new president recently took the helm, but can he save one of America's great institutions? Rex Dalton reports.

    • Rex Dalton
    News Feature
  • Can a vast monoculture plantation be at the forefront of biodiversity protection? David Cyranoski meets conservation biologists who hope to save species by making peace with the enemy.

    • David Cyranoski
    News Feature
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Correspondence

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Books & Arts

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Connections

  • Could the evolution of multicellular life have been fuelled by conflict among selective forces acting at different levels of organization?

    • Paul B. Rainey
    Connections
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News & Views

  • Two light-sensitive proteins from unicellular organisms have been harnessed to rapidly activate or silence neurons. This optical remote control allows precise, millisecond control of neural circuits.

    • Michael Häusser
    • Spencer L. Smith
    News & Views
  • The tunnelling of a bound electron out of an atom in a laser field is a well-known quantum-mechanical process. But it happens very quickly, and it takes some fast work with X-rays and lasers to see it in action.

    • Jonathan P. Marangos
    News & Views
  • Auxin is one of the main agents that regulate plant growth and development. Intricate crystallographic studies reveal how this hormone acts as a 'molecular glue' in mediating substrate–receptor interactions.

    • Tom Guilfoyle
    News & Views
  • The strange, slimy creatures called hagfishes are of abiding interest to students of vertebrate evolution: just where do they fit in? Investigations of hagfish development take the story forward.

    • Philippe Janvier
    News & Views
  • Earth's magnetic field has protected our atmosphere from erosion by the solar wind ever since it started up. Silicate crystals from some of Earth's oldest rocks date that event to more than 3 billion years ago.

    • David J. Dunlop
    News & Views
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Article

  • A time-resolved observation of electron tunnelling and the short-lived electronic states that subsequently appear is useful as a new approach to obtain insights in multi-electron dynamics inside atoms and molecules. This technique of 'attosecond tunnelling' is applied to study the cascade of electronic transitions that occur in xenon atoms as a result of their ionization.

    • M. Uiberacker
    • Th. Uphues
    • F. Krausz
    Article
  • A light-activated chloride pump that occurs naturally in bacteria can be transfected into neurons, thereby permitting inhibition of neural activity on a millisecond timescale. This complements an existing tool for activating neurons through a photoactivatable algal channel.

    • Feng Zhang
    • Li-Ping Wang
    • Karl Deisseroth
    Article
  • Study of the crystal structures of three different auxin compounds in complex with the receptor transport inhibitor response 1, as well as an Aux/IAA peptide, reveals that auxin acts as 'molecular glue' to promote interactions between the receptor and protein substrates targeted for degradation.

    • Xu Tan
    • Luz Irina A. Calderon-Villalobos
    • Ning Zheng
    Article
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Letter

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Prospects

  • Taiwan is taking a determined approach to science R&D.

    • Paul Smaglik
    Prospects
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Regions

  • This small but inventive island is putting transgenics and nanotechnology to novel uses. A pay rise might be all it needs to lure its expatriate scientists home, says Paul Smaglik.

    • Paul Smaglik
    Regions
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Movers

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Networks and Support

  • Minority groups are striving to reap rewards from science careers.

    • Jose Rodriguez
    Networks and Support
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Career View

  • I need a benefactor to pursue my research – and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

    • Maria Ocampo-Hafalla
    Career View
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Recruitment

  • For those who wish to marry research with clinical applications, finding the right environment can be hard.

    • David Shaywitz
    • Hayes Dansky
    Recruitment
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Authors

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Brief Communications Arising

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