Table of contents
Volume 448 Number 7150 pp105-224
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Editorials
A geographical error p105
The most suitably qualified person should secure an important post, in almost all instances. But competing interests among nations mean that this is not always the case in Europe.
doi:10.1038/448105a
Safety clause p105
US research on bioweapons has expanded rapidly, without sufficiently transparent regulation.
doi:10.1038/448105b
Hard to swallow p105
Is it possible to gauge the true potential of traditional Chinese medicine?
doi:10.1038/448106a
See also: Editor's summary
News
HIV trial doomed by design, say critics p110
Microbicide gel dosage prompts call for rethink.
Erika Check
doi:10.1038/448110a
Conserving life and livelihood p111
Does conservation really benefit the poor?
Emma Marris
doi:10.1038/448111a
Sidelines p112
doi:10.1038/448112a
Austria's science institute gathers steam p112
Plan for graduate-level facility back on track.
Carina Lenotti
doi:10.1038/448112b
Snapshot: Marks of distinction p113
Historians follow paper trail for artistic etching.
Alison Abbott
doi:10.1038/448113a
French universities to gain control p113
President Sarkozy promises freedom in his reform bill.
Declan Butler
doi:10.1038/448113b
Fly library boosts gene tool supply p115
Massive collection of transgenic Drosophila spreads its wings.
Heidi Ledford
doi:10.1038/448115a
See also: Editor's summary
Activated eggs offer route to stem cells p116
Technique could sidestep need for viable embryos.
David Cyranoski
doi:10.1038/448116a
Column
Party of OneTechnical advice p119
Scientists tend to complain that Congress rarely pays heed to what they have to say. But the issues are often as much about values as they are science, says David Goldston.
David Goldston
doi:10.1038/448119a
Business
Civil aviation faces green challenge p120
As a fast-growing emitter of greenhouse gases, the aviation industry is under intense pressure to improve its fuel efficiency. Kurt Kleiner surveys its options.
doi:10.1038/448120a
In brief p121
doi:10.1038/448121a
Market watch p121
doi:10.1038/448121b
News Features
Mass extinctions: Reading the book of death p122
Studies of mass extinctions tend to emphasize the sheer scope of the carnage. But subtle differences between the species that died and those that survived can be crucial, finds Nick Lane.
doi:10.1038/448122a
See also: Editor's summary
Traditional medicine: A culture in the balance p126
Traditional Chinese medicine and Western science face almost irreconcilable differences. Can systems biology bring them together? Jane Qiu reports.
doi:10.1038/448126a
See also: Editor's summary
Correspondence
Authors' financial interests should be made known to manuscript reviewers p129
Inmaculada de Melo-Martín & Kristen Intemann
doi:10.1038/448129a
Space-time safe — at least until the LHC switches on p129
Thomas Dent
doi:10.1038/448129b
Mentors could support a student reviewer database p129
Angelo P. Pernetta
doi:10.1038/448129c
Mentors: public lists would help students choose p129
Ben Barres
doi:10.1038/448129d
How incompatibilities may have led to eukaryotic cell p130
Yaacov Davidov & Edouard Jurkevitch
doi:10.1038/448130a
Text mining: powering the database revolution p130
Udo Hahn, Joachim Wermter, Rainer Blasczyk & Peter A. Horn
doi:10.1038/448130b
Commentary
Beyond the troubled relationship p131
If scientific culture in the Muslim world has changed since the golden era of Islamic science, so has the practice of Islam. Reintroducing knowledge and creativity requires a revival of both, argues Ziauddin Sardar.
doi:10.1038/448131a
See also: Editor's summary
Books and Arts
Imagine a better world p135
Given that humans are here to stay on Earth for some time yet, what can we do to lessen our impact?
Stuart L. Pimm reviews The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
doi:10.1038/448135a
Degrees of change p136
Stefan Rahmstorf reviews Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet by Mark Lynas
doi:10.1038/448136a
Culture costs lives p137
Michael B. A. Oldstone reviews Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver by Arthur Allen
doi:10.1038/448137a
Essay
Linnaeus and taxonomy in Japan p139
Doctors at the Dutch Trading House on Dejima were a conduit for science into and out of Europe.
His Majesty The Emperor of Japan
doi:10.1038/448139a
See also: Editor's summary
News and Views
Photonics: Light in chains p141
Diffraction places a fundamental limit on the smallest scales at which light can be controlled. A nanoscale silver array not only circumvents the barrier, but steers different-coloured light to different places.
Niek F. van Hulst
doi:10.1038/448141a
Gene transcription: Extending the message p142
During transcription, RNA polymerase catalyses the addition of nucleotides to the growing RNA chain. High-resolution structural snapshots indicate that the polymerase first identifies its substrate, and then incorporates it.
Patrick Cramer
doi:10.1038/448142a
See also: Editor's summary
Extrasolar planets: Water on distant worlds p143
Is the presence of water a feature common to all gas-giant planets? The first convincing detection of water vapour in the atmosphere of such a planet from outside our Solar System indicates that the answer is yes.
Heather A. Knutson
doi:10.1038/448143a
See also: Editor's summary
Plant ecology: Family roots p145
Experiments in which related and unrelated plants were grown together reveal the ability of roots to recognize their kin. The ecological and evolutionary implications are tantalizing topics for future studies.
Ragan M. Callaway & Bruce E. Mahall
doi:10.1038/448145a
50 & 100 Years Ago p146
doi:10.1038/448146a
Neurophysiology: Channelling cold reception p147
Perception of cold and hot is one of life's essentials. Three research teams find that, when a temperature-sensing receptor is deleted in mice, the animals lose their response to a range of cold temperatures.
Bernd Nilius & Thomas Voets
doi:10.1038/448147a
See also: Editor's summary
Toxicology: Danger in the diet p148
Tim Lincoln
doi:10.1038/448148a
Obituary: Pierre-Gilles de Gennes (1932–2007) p149
Pioneer of soft-matter physics.
Françoise Brochard-Wyart
doi:10.1038/448149a
Articles
A genome-wide transgenic RNAi library for conditional gene inactivation in Drosophila p151
Georg Dietzl, Doris Chen, Frank Schnorrer, Kuan-Chung Su, Yulia Barinova, Michaela Fellner, Beate Gasser, Kaolin Kinsey, Silvia Oppel, Susanne Scheiblauer, Africa Couto, Vincent Marra, Krystyna Keleman & Barry J. Dickson
doi:10.1038/nature05954
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (650K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Structural basis for transcription elongation by bacterial RNA polymerase p157
Dmitry G. Vassylyev, Marina N. Vassylyeva, Anna Perederina, Tahir H. Tahirov & Irina Artsimovitch
doi:10.1038/nature05932
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,568K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Cramer
Structural basis for substrate loading in bacterial RNA polymerase p163
Dmitry G. Vassylyev, Marina N. Vassylyeva, Jinwei Zhang, Murali Palangat, Irina Artsimovitch & Robert Landick
doi:10.1038/nature05931
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (3,090K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Cramer
Letters
Water vapour in the atmosphere of a transiting extrasolar planet p169
Giovanna Tinetti, Alfred Vidal-Madjar, Mao-Chang Liang, Jean-Philippe Beaulieu, Yuk Yung, Sean Carey, Robert J. Barber, Jonathan Tennyson, Ignasi Ribas, Nicole Allard, Gilda E. Ballester, David K. Sing & Franck Selsis
doi:10.1038/nature06002
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (790K)
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Knutson
Compositional homogeneity in the fragmented comet 73P/Schwassmann–Wachmann 3 p172
N. Dello Russo, R. J. Vervack, H. A. Weaver, N. Biver, D. Bockelée-Morvan, J. Crovisier & C. M. Lisse
doi:10.1038/nature05908
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (250K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
High-resolution spectroscopy of two-dimensional electron systems p176
O. E. Dial, R. C. Ashoori, L. N. Pfeiffer & K. W. West
doi:10.1038/nature05982
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (564K) | Supplementary information
Reversal of the net dinitrogen gas flux in coastal marine sediments p180
R. W. Fulweiler, S. W. Nixon, B. A. Buckley & S. L. Granger
doi:10.1038/nature05963
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (201K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Spreading rate dependence of gravity anomalies along oceanic transform faults p183
Patricia M. Gregg, Jian Lin, Mark D. Behn & Laurent G. J. Montési
doi:10.1038/nature05962
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,205K) | Supplementary information
Biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality p188
Andy Hector & Robert Bagchi
doi:10.1038/nature05947
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (240K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Derivation of pluripotent epiblast stem cells from mammalian embryos p191
I. Gabrielle M. Brons, Lucy E. Smithers, Matthew W. B. Trotter, Peter Rugg-Gunn, Bowen Sun, Susana M. Chuva de Sousa Lopes, Sarah K. Howlett, Amanda Clarkson, Lars Ahrlund-Richter, Roger A. Pedersen & Ludovic Vallier
doi:10.1038/nature05950
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (666K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
New cell lines from mouse epiblast share defining features with human embryonic stem cells p196
Paul J. Tesar, Josh G. Chenoweth, Frances A. Brook, Timothy J. Davies, Edward P. Evans, David L. Mack, Richard L. Gardner & Ronald D. G. McKay
doi:10.1038/nature05972
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (589K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
An intracellular P2X receptor required for osmoregulation in Dictyostelium discoideum p200
Samuel J. Fountain, Katie Parkinson, Mark T. Young, Lishuang Cao, Christopher R. L. Thompson & R. Alan North
doi:10.1038/nature05926
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,228K) | Supplementary information
The menthol receptor TRPM8 is the principal detector of environmental cold p204
Diana M. Bautista, Jan Siemens, Joshua M. Glazer, Pamela R. Tsuruda, Allan I. Basbaum, Cheryl L. Stucky, Sven-Eric Jordt & David Julius
doi:10.1038/nature05910
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (684K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Nilius & Voets
An efflux transporter of silicon in rice p209
Jian Feng Ma, Naoki Yamaji, Namiki Mitani, Kazunori Tamai, Saeko Konishi, Toru Fujiwara, Maki Katsuhara & Masahiro Yano
doi:10.1038/nature05964
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (369K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Antitumour drugs impede DNA uncoiling by topoisomerase I p213
Daniel A. Koster, Komaraiah Palle, Elisa S. M. Bot, Mary-Ann Bjornsti & Nynke H. Dekker
doi:10.1038/nature05938
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,301K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Naturejobs
ProspectGovernment-funded labs have their perks, and their challenges p219
Gene Russo
doi:10.1038/nj7150-219a
Special Report
Fighting Back p220
Emerging from scandal and reorganization, Los Alamos National Laboratory hopes to retain talent and remain at the cutting edge. Karen Fox reports.
Karen Fox
doi:10.1038/nj7150-220a
Career Views
France Córdova, president, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana p222
France Córdova becomes Purdue University's president.
Virginia Gewin
doi:10.1038/nj7150-222a
Engineering a place for women p222
Everyday workplace culture might be keeping women out of science, engineering and technology fields in Britain.
Roger Livesey
doi:10.1038/nj7150-222b
(Almost) in press p222
Composing a manuscript is a laborious task. Could there be a better way some day?
Peter Jordan
doi:10.1038/nj7150-222c
Futures
A piratical sabbatical p224
It's just too good to be true.
Ian Whates
doi:10.1038/448224a
