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Volume 449 Issue 7160, 20 September 2007

Editorial

  • Regulators must be given ways to approve follow-on 'biosimilars' when proteins fall out of patent if the fruits of molecular biology are to have the greatest possible effect on health care.

    Editorial

    Advertisement

  • Outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease have revealed unacceptable shortcomings in UK regulation.

    Editorial
  • Splice the mainbrace: the greatest scientific ocean-drilling vessel ever built is going to sea.

    Editorial
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Research Highlights

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Journal Club

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News

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News in Brief

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News

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Correction

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News in Brief

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Business

  • Although cargo vessels are currently spared emissions restrictions, the industry is planning ahead. Kurt Kleiner looks at the ideas being floated to improve energy efficiency on the high seas.

    • Kurt Kleiner
    Business
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News in Brief

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News Feature

  • As several lucrative protein-based drugs are poised to go off patent, makers of biopharmaceuticals argue that their products are too complex to be reproduced as generics. Heidi Ledford investigates how close 'biosimilar' drugs can get to the original.

    • Heidi Ledford
    News Feature
  • The world's biggest, best-equipped research drilling vessel is about to set off on its first scientific voyage. David Cyranoski previews its quest to catch a formidable earthquake in the act.

    • David Cyranoski
    News Feature
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Correspondence

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Books & Arts

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News & Views

  • As wireless communication technologies spread, so the potential for viruses to exploit them grows. Biological models of virus transmission will assume new relevance for assessing the emerging threat.

    • Jon Kleinberg
    News & Views
  • Immortality is the stuff of myth and legend, but lifespan extension is the subject of serious scientific inquiry. Exploring the causes and effects of ageing in stem cells should aid this quest.

    • Anne Brunet
    • Thomas A. Rando
    News & Views
  • Newly described fossils from Georgia in Eurasia and from Kenya shed more light on the earliest members of the genus Homo. These finds indicate that there was considerable variability in their size and shape.

    • Daniel E. Lieberman
    News & Views
  • Gold is the current star of metal catalysis, but most gold catalysts cannot control which mirror-image version of a molecule forms during a reaction. The answer lies with the positive catalyst's negative counter-ion.

    • A. Stephen K. Hashmi
    News & Views
  • Cell membranes contain channels that open to allow ions into cells. The structure of a sodium ion channel helps explain how it opens in response to protons, and settles a long-standing debate about its composition.

    • Cecilia M. Canessa
    News & Views
  • Some inert-gas isotopes in Earth's atmosphere can only have come from deep inside the planet. We thought we knew how much gas Earth gives up, and how it does it — but a challenge has emerged to the prevailing model.

    • Chris J. Ballentine
    News & Views
  • Are the rules that determine relaxation to equilibrium the same in the classical and quantum worlds? Recent experiments supported the idea that they are — but an investigation with ultracold atoms now contradicts that.

    • Ehud Altman
    • Eugene Demler
    News & Views
  • Fertilization promotes a calcium surge necessary to ensure the success of embryonic development. It seems that calcium activates apparently opposite molecular signalling pathways to achieve that end.

    • Catherine Jessus
    • Olivier Haccard
    News & Views
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Article

  • It is thought that the abundance of 40Ar in the atmosphere represents the time-integrated loss of gases from the interior through partial melting in the mantle followed by melt ascent to the surface and gas exsolution. But data now presented reveal two major difficulties with this simple magmatic degassing scenario: that argon is compatible in the major phases of the terrestrial planets and that argon diffusion in these phases is slow at upper-mantle conditions.

    • E. Bruce Watson
    • Jay B. Thomas
    • Daniele J. Cherniak
    Article
  • The primitive hominins from Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia are often thought to be akin to Homo erectus and are arguably the earliest known members of the human family outside Africa. This conclusion has come, so far, from the presentation of postcranial material: now a partial skeleton of an adolescent individual associated with a skull, and remains from three adult individuals, suggest that the Dmanisi hominids are even more primitive than that, akin to Homo habilis.

    • David Lordkipanidze
    • Tea Jashashvili
    • Lorenzo Rook
    Article
  • This paper reports the first crystal and electron microscopy structure of an individual septin and a heteromeric complex as well as linear septin filaments. The structure reveals that the G domain, which is conserved amongst all septins, serves as a universal building block for formation of a polymer. This domain interacts with other septins via conserved residues.

    • Minhajuddin Sirajuddin
    • Marian Farkasovsky
    • Alfred Wittinghofer
    Article
  • Acid-sensing ion channels belong to a large family of ion channels, the diverse functions of which range from sodium absorption to mechanosensitivity; however, the structure of this class of proteins is unknown. Here, the high-resolution crystal structure of chicken ASIC1 in the closed state is reported, and of note is the trimeric architecture and the appealing mechanism of proton-gating proposed.

    • Jayasankar Jasti
    • Hiroyasu Furukawa
    • Eric Gouaux
    Article
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Letter

  • This paper reports a direct experimental study of the coherence dynamics in both isolated and coupled degenerate one-dimensional (1D) Bose gases. Completely isolated 1D Bose gases exhibit coherence decay in excellent agreement with recent predictions. The coherence of two coupled 1D Bose gases decays to a finite value, analogous to the phase locking of two lasers by injection.

    • S. Hofferberth
    • I. Lesanovsky
    • J. Schmiedmayer
    Letter
  • An on-chip, on-demand efficient source of single microwave photons that can be used for processing quantum information in a circuit of superconducting qubits is demonstrated. The single photon source is an important addition to a rapidly growing toolbox for quantum optics on a chip.

    • A. A. Houck
    • D. I. Schuster
    • R. J. Schoelkopf
    Letter
  • It has been suggested that high-latitude methane emissions from terrestrial environments could have enhanced a period of global warming about 55 million years ago. A decrease in the carbon isotope values of hopanoids (a biomarker derived from bacteria) at the onset of the warm period is reported, which suggests an increase in methanotroph populations . This could reflect an increase in methane production and release from the terrestrial biosphere, which could have acted as a positive feedback mechanism in global warming.

    • Richard D. Pancost
    • David S. Steart
    • Ian J. Glasspool
    Letter
  • One of two papers that identify a new pathway by which calcium triggers oocyte fertilization. Previous work has shown a critical role for the calcium-regulated kinase CaMKII. But new work from the Ohsumi and Hunt laboratories shows that, in parallel, calcium-mediated transient activation of a phosphatase, calcineurin, is needed to release oocytes from a cell cycle arrest after fertilization. The Hunt group also identifies a second wave of phosphatase activity that acts in mitosis.

    • Satoru Mochida
    • Tim Hunt
    Letter
  • One of two papers that identify a new pathway by which calcium triggers oocyte fertilization. Previous work has shown a critical role for the calcium-regulated kinase CaMKII. But new work from the Ohsumi and Hunt laboratories shows that in parallel, calcium-mediated transient activation of a phosphatase, calcineurin, is needed to release oocytes from a cell cycle arrest after fertilization.

    • Tomoko Nishiyama
    • Norio Yoshizaki
    • Keita Ohsumi
    Letter
  • Adult stem cells are an ethically attractive alternative to embryonic stem cells for obtaining tissues for therapeutic purposes. However, no standardized methods exist to obtain such cells reliably from adults, and then convert them into different tissues. However, a system has been developed to generate large numbers of stem cells from the adult testicle, based on the presence of a novel marker (GPR125), specifically on the stem cell surface.

    • Marco Seandel
    • Daylon James
    • Shahin Rafii
    Letter
  • In Aradopsis, rhythmic expression of the F–box protein, ZEITLUPE (ZTL), is necessary to sustain a normal circadian period, but the mechanism of this oscillation is unknown. GIGANTEA (GI), a protein previously implicated in the circadian clock, but with unknown molecular function, is essential to establish and sustain oscillations of ZTL by direct protein–protein interactions. Furthermore, this stabilization is modulated by light through the N–terminal flavin–binding LIGHT, OXYGEN OR VOLTAGE (LOV) domain of ZTL.

    • Woe-Yeon Kim
    • Sumire Fujiwara
    • David E. Somers
    Letter
  • It is shown that mice deficient for β8 integrin develop colitis, and that β8 needs to be expressed by dendritic cells rather than T cells for colitis to develop. In addition, a decrease of T cells in the gut but not adjacent lymph nodes in diseased animals is shown. It is concluded that αVβ8-mediated integrin activation of dendritic cells is essential for prevention of colitis-inducing immune dysfunction.

    • Mark A. Travis
    • Boris Reizis
    • Dean Sheppard
    Letter
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Prospects

  • Starter hubs Florida and Arizona try to play catch-up with more established science hotspots.

    • Gene Russo
    Prospects
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Regions

  • Local governments aim to build a scientific oasis in the Arizona desert.

    • Gene Russo
    Regions
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Movers

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Networks and Support

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Career View

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Futures

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Authors

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