Table of contents
Volume 447 Number 7144 pp507-612
(this content only available online) indicates content that is available online only
Editorials
No more hot air p507
The leaders meeting at this year's G8 summit must grasp the opportunity to assert themselves and commit to real action on climate change.
doi:10.1038/447507a
Time for a medical p507
The pharmaceutical industry is struggling to adapt to a harsher political environment.
doi:10.1038/447507b
The safety catch p508
The United States' domestic security agency has yet to make best use of science and technology.
doi:10.1038/447508a
News
Weighing up the evidence p512
A meta-analysis of clinical trials for the diabetes drug Avandia has hinted at possible cardiovascular risks; but how clear is the study, and how should meta-analyses be viewed against clinical trials?
Heidi Ledford
doi:10.1038/447512a
Man on a mission p513
A look at the world of Steven Nissen, the cardiologist who raised worries about Vioxx and Avandia.
Meredith Wadman
doi:10.1038/447513a
Stormy opening to hurricane season p514
Infighting over money and equipment plagues US agency.
Alexandra Witze
doi:10.1038/447514a
See also: Editor's summary
Academics strike back at spurious rankings p514
Universities seek reform of ratings.
Declan Butler
doi:10.1038/447514b
Sidelines p515
doi:10.1038/447515a
Special report
Changing course p516
Science and technology have not always gone down well at the US Department of Homeland Security. Geoff Brumfiel reports on a retired Navy admiral trying to turn around the troubled research wing.
doi:10.1038/447516a
Science high on French political agenda p518
Incoming president launches superministry for ecology and sustainable development.
Declan Butler
doi:10.1038/447518a
Complex set of RNAs found in simple green algae p518
Single-celled organisms aren't as basic as they seem.
Lucy Odling-Smee
doi:10.1038/447518b
Business
Algae bloom again p520
A handful of pioneers are trying to bring algae-based biofuels back from a near-death experience. Amanda Leigh Haag reports.
doi:10.1038/447520a
In brief p521
doi:10.1038/447521a
Market watch p521
Quirin Schiermeier
doi:10.1038/447521b
News Features
Oceanography: Churn, churn, churn p522
How the oceans mix their waters is key to understanding future climate change. Yet scientists have a long way to go to unravel the mysteries of the deep. Quirin Schiermeier reports.
doi:10.1038/447522a
See also: Editor's summary
Obesity: The two faces of fat p525
No longer viewed as inert packets of energy, fat cells are two-faced masterminds of metabolism. Kendall Powell weighs up the differences between 'fat' fat cells and thin ones.
doi:10.1038/447525a
See also: Editor's summary
Correspondence
Treating astrology's claims with all due gravity p528
Steven K. Lower
doi:10.1038/447528a
Conflict and cancer research in Arizona p528
John C. Knight
doi:10.1038/447528b
Pathologists needed to cope with mutant mice p528
Robert D. Cardiff
doi:10.1038/447528c
Open journals' records to give reviewers their due p528
Ariberto Fassati
doi:10.1038/447528d
Commentary
Can bans stimulate wildlife trade? p529
Proactive management of trade in endangered wildlife makes more sense than last-minute bans that can themselves increase trading activity, argue Philippe Rivalan and his co-authors.
doi:10.1038/447529a
Full Text | PDF (413K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Books and Arts
Time for a change? p531
Two books on the AIDS pandemic in Africa challenge assumptions at the heart of the UN's response.
Stephen Lewis & Paula Donovan review The AIDS Pandemic: The Collision of Epidemiology with Political Correctness by James Chin and The Invisible Cure: AIDS in Africa by Helen Epstein
doi:10.1038/447531a
See also: Editor's summary
Winged beauty p532
doi:10.1038/447532a
Selling evolution p533
Mark Pagel reviews Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives by David Sloan Wilson
doi:10.1038/447533a
News and Views
Astrophysics: Water worlds in the making p535
Meticulous observations of the disk of gas and dust around one young star seem to imply icy, comet-like bodies in the disk's inner regions. Could these be the building-blocks of water-rich planets like Earth?
Roy van Boekel
doi:10.1038/447535a
See also: Editor's summary
Ageing: When less is more p536
Restricting dietary intake is one way to promote longevity. The identification of two genes that specifically mediate this effect in worms provides insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying ageing.
Adam Antebi
doi:10.1038/447536a
See also: Editor's summary
High-temperature superconductivity: Local pairs and small surfaces p537
Mapping out the strange territory of high-temperature superconductors has proved a challenge. In the latest tour de force, two experiments take big steps forward, in complementary directions, to chart the lie of the land.
Stephen R. Julian & Michael R. Norman
doi:10.1038/447537a
See also: Editor's summary
Evolutionary biology: Animal personalities p539
That different people differ in their readiness to take risks is an obvious feature of human personality. Theoretical advances now help in making sense of observations of analogous behaviour in animals.
Alison M. Bell
doi:10.1038/447539a
See also: Editor's summary
50 & 100 Years Ago p539
doi:10.1038/447539b
Solid-state physics: A polariton laser p540
Polaritons — particles comprising both light and matter — can form a coherent state, just as light and matter can individually. This fact has now been exploited to make the first room-temperature polariton laser.
Leonid V. Butov
doi:10.1038/447540a
Colour vision: Seeing red p541
Tim Lincoln
doi:10.1038/447541a
Protein science: Discriminating taste of prions p541
Prions are infectious proteins that are involved in brain-wasting disorders such as mad cow disease. In yeast, specific sequences of amino acids in prions seem to mediate prion propagation and cross-species transmissibility.
Witold K. Surewicz
doi:10.1038/447541b
See also: Editor's summary
Obituary: Frank H. Westheimer (1912–2007) p543
Pioneering chemist at the interface with biology.
John A. Gerlt
doi:10.1038/447543a
Brief Communications Arising
Ecology: Global warming and amphibian losses pE3
Ross A. Alford, Kay S. Bradfield & Stephen J. Richards
doi:10.1038/nature05940
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (482K)
Ecology: The proximate cause of frog declines? pE4
Ines Di Rosa, Francesca Simoncelli, Anna Fagotti & Rita Pascolini
doi:10.1038/nature05941
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (482K)
Global warming and amphibian losses; The proximate cause of frog declines? (Reply) pE5
J. Alan Pounds, Martín R. Bustamante, Luis A. Coloma, Jamie A. Consuegra, Michael P. L. Fogden, Pru N. Foster, Enrique La Marca, Karen L. Masters, Andrés Merino-Viteri, Robert Puschendorf, Santiago R. Ron, G. Arturo Sánchez-Azofeifa, Christopher J. Still & Bruce E. Young
doi:10.1038/nature05942
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (482K)
Articles
Two neurons mediate diet-restriction-induced longevity in C. elegans p545
Nicholas A. Bishop & Leonard Guarente
doi:10.1038/nature05904
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (874K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Antebi
PHA-4/Foxa mediates diet-restriction-induced longevity of C. elegans p550
Siler H. Panowski, Suzanne Wolff, Hugo Aguilaniu, Jenni Durieux & Andrew Dillin
doi:10.1038/nature05837
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (580K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Antebi
Prion recognition elements govern nucleation, strain specificity and species barriers p556
Peter M. Tessier & Susan Lindquist
doi:10.1038/nature05848
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (386K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Surewicz
Letters
Water vapour and hydrogen in the terrestrial-planet-forming region of a protoplanetary disk p562
J. A. Eisner
doi:10.1038/nature05867
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (229K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by van Boekel
Quantum oscillations and the Fermi surface in an underdoped high-Tc superconductor p565
Nicolas Doiron-Leyraud, Cyril Proust, David LeBoeuf, Julien Levallois, Jean-Baptiste Bonnemaison, Ruixing Liang, D. A. Bonn, W. N. Hardy & Louis Taillefer
doi:10.1038/nature05872
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (472K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Julian & Norman
Visualizing pair formation on the atomic scale in the high-Tc superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+
p569
Kenjiro K. Gomes, Abhay N. Pasupathy, Aakash Pushp, Shimpei Ono, Yoichi Ando & Ali Yazdani
doi:10.1038/nature05881
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (776K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Julian & Norman
Spin-based logic in semiconductors for reconfigurable large-scale circuits p573
H. Dery,
P. Dalal,
. Cywi
ski
&
L. J. Sham
doi:10.1038/nature05833
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (284K) | Supplementary information
Observational evidence for an ocean heat pump induced by tropical cyclones p577
Ryan L. Sriver & Matthew Huber
doi:10.1038/nature05785
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (723K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Life-history trade-offs favour the evolution of animal personalities p581
Max Wolf, G. Sander van Doorn, Olof Leimar & Franz J. Weissing
doi:10.1038/nature05835
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (310K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Bell
Incipient speciation by divergent adaptation and antagonistic epistasis in yeast p585
Jeremy R. Dettman, Caroline Sirjusingh, Linda M. Kohn & James B. Anderson
doi:10.1038/nature05856
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (236K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Symbolic arithmetic knowledge without instruction p589
Camilla K. Gilmore, Shannon E. McCarthy & Elizabeth S. Spelke
doi:10.1038/nature05850
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (350K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Universal physical responses to stretch in the living cell p592
Xavier Trepat, Linhong Deng, Steven S. An, Daniel Navajas, Daniel J. Tschumperlin, William T. Gerthoffer, James P. Butler & Jeffrey J. Fredberg
doi:10.1038/nature05824
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (527K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Rewiring cellular morphology pathways with synthetic guanine nucleotide exchange factors p596
Brian J. Yeh, Robert J. Rutigliano, Anrica Deb, Dafna Bar-Sagi & Wendell A. Lim
doi:10.1038/nature05851
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (406K) | Supplementary information
The histone H3K4 demethylase SMCX links REST target genes to X-linked mental retardation p601
Mamta Tahiliani, Pinchao Mei, Rui Fang, Thiago Leonor, Michael Rutenberg, Fumiko Shimizu, Jing Li, Anjana Rao & Yujiang Shi
doi:10.1038/nature05823
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (676K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
8-oxo-guanine bypass by human DNA polymerases in the presence of auxiliary proteins p606
Giovanni Maga, Giuseppe Villani, Emmanuele Crespan, Ursula Wimmer, Elena Ferrari, Barbara Bertocci & Ulrich Hübscher
doi:10.1038/nature05843
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (324K) | Supplementary information
Naturejobs
ProspectSometimes careers can be both accidental and planned p609
Paul Smaglik
doi:10.1038/nj7144-609a
Career Views
Carla Shatz, director, BioX, Stanford University, Stanford, California p610
Virginia Gewin
doi:10.1038/nj7144-610a
Award-winning commitment p610
Ron VanNimwegen
doi:10.1038/nj7144-610b
Loose ends p610
Chris Rowan
doi:10.1038/nj7144-610c
Recruiters
System-ready scientists p612
Government and industry must do their bit to ensure that universities provide the workforce they want.
Michael Alvarez
doi:10.1038/nj7144-612a