Table of contents

Nuclear-waste programme criticized by scientists p14

doi:10.1038/450014b

Lack of realism blamed for failed anthrax vaccine p14

doi:10.1038/450014c

Europe votes to legalize Afghan opium for medicine p14

doi:10.1038/450014d

Genotype data of families with autism are released p14

doi:10.1038/450014e

Sale of meteorite meets with stony silence p14

doi:10.1038/450014f

Business

Mixed scores for European research p16

A survey shows positive trends for private-sector research and development in the European Union. But as Andrea Chipman reports, there's more to the data than meets the eye.

Andrea Chipman

doi:10.1038/450016a

Full Text | PDF (409K)

Patents upheld p17

California biotech wins patent case

doi:10.1038/450017a

Steel count p17

Steelmakers plan to log emissions

doi:10.1038/450017b

Autonomy lost p17

UK biotech flagship absorbed

doi:10.1038/450017c

Market watch p17

doi:10.1038/450017d

News Features

Palaeontology: Tunnel vision p18

Is blasting into a river bluff any way to do palaeontology? Alison Abbott reports on an unusual expedition into the Alaskan wilderness in search of the bones of polar dinosaurs.

doi:10.1038/450018a

Full Text | PDF (1,672K)

Neurophysiology: A gut feeling p21

When most people look at lobsters, they see dinner. Eve Marder saw a key to the theoretical underpinnings of animal behaviour. Ishani Ganguli reports.

doi:10.1038/450021a

Full Text | PDF (546K)

Philanthropy: A country without alms p24

The Japanese make few charitable donations. David Cyranoski meets a patient advocate and scientist working to change a cultural reticence about giving.

doi:10.1038/450024a

Full Text | PDF (331K)

Correspondence

Sea-ice decline due to more than warming alone p27

Julia Slingo & Rowan Sutton

doi:10.1038/450027a

Ethics reviews can be centralized without delays p27

Jeffrey Abrams & Jacquelyn Goldberg

doi:10.1038/450027b

Missing the mark on biomedical research p27

David Korn & Stephen J. Heinig

doi:10.1038/450027c

Words of wisdom worth reading aloud p27

Vanessa S. Solomon

doi:10.1038/450027d

Books and Arts

Poetry in motion p29

Is language the key to thought? Neuroscience suggests it is probably more complicated than that.

Patricia Churchland reviews The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature by Steven Pinker

doi:10.1038/450029a

Full Text | PDF (250K)

Prions, pleasure and purple notes p30

Chris McManus reviews Proust was a Neuroscientist by Jonah Lehrer and The Hidden Sense: Synesthesia in Art and Science by Cretien van Campen

doi:10.1038/450030a

Full Text | PDF (90K)

Delving into the ancient brain p31

Dean Falk reviews On Deep History and the Brain by Daniel Lord Smail and The Origins of Meaning: Language in the Light of Evolution by James R. Hurford

doi:10.1038/450031a

Full Text | PDF (363K)

Space and time gift-wrapped p32

Andrew Jaffe reviews Very Special Relativity: An illustrated Guide by Sander Bais

doi:10.1038/450032a

Full Text | PDF (147K)

Painting: Hidden depths spotted p32

Emiliano Feresin

doi:10.1038/450032b

Full Text | PDF (147K)

Essay

Science & Politics

Technologies of humility p33

Researchers and policy-makers need ways for accommodating the partiality of scientific knowledge and for acting under the inevitable uncertainty it holds.

Sheila Jasanoff

doi:10.1038/450033a

Full Text | PDF (137K)

See also: Editor's summary

News and Views

Smell: The worm turns p35

The worm Caenorhabditis elegans has many advantages as an experimental organism. These have been exploited to investigate how, at a single-neuron level, neural circuits transform sensory signals into behaviour.

Piali Sengupta

doi:10.1038/450035a

Full Text | PDF (228K)

See also: Editor's summary

Organic chemistry: Aromatics with a twist p36

The properties of flat aromatic molecules are well known to chemists, but some non-planar aromatics remain a mystery. A molecule that can twist into a Möbius band on command might shed light on their features.

Rainer Herges

doi:10.1038/450036a

Full Text | PDF (216K)

Vision: Dynamic platforms p37

Scaffolding proteins are so named because they function as platforms for the assembly of molecular signalling complexes. But at least one such protein is more than a passive bystander and has its own signalling role.

Roger C. Hardie

doi:10.1038/450037a

Full Text | PDF (348K)

Mathematical physics: First encounters p40

The idea of 'random walks' pops up in areas from biochemical reaction pathways to animals' foraging strategies. A central question — how likely is it that a walker is somewhere for the first time? — now has a simpler answer.

Michael F. Shlesinger

doi:10.1038/450040a

Full Text | PDF (242K)

See also: Editor's summary

Plant pathology: Deadly special deliveries p41

When attacking a plant, pathogens must deliver proteins into their victim's cells. The causal agent of potato late blight uses a system that is remarkably similar to that used by the malaria parasite in red blood cells.

Nicholas J. Talbot

doi:10.1038/450041a

Full Text | PDF (296K)

See also: Editor's summary

Hearing: A fantasia on Kölliker's organ p43

In the silence that precedes the onset of hearing in the developing auditory system, it seems that the cells of a transient structure known as Kölliker's organ are capable of generating their own 'virtual' music.

Ian D. Forsythe

doi:10.1038/450043a

Full Text | PDF (816K)

See also: Editor's summary

Correction p44

doi:10.1038/450044a

Full Text | PDF (633K)

Articles

Patterns of relative species abundance in rainforests and coral reefs p45

Igor Volkov, Jayanth R. Banavar, Stephen P. Hubbell & Amos Maritan

doi:10.1038/nature06197

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (313K) | Supplementary information

The origin of spontaneous activity in the developing auditory system p50

Nicolas X. Tritsch, Eunyoung Yi, Jonathan E. Gale, Elisabeth Glowatzki & Dwight E. Bergles

doi:10.1038/nature06233

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (4,118K) | Supplementary information

Transgenic strategies for combinatorial expression of fluorescent proteins in the nervous system p56

Jean Livet, Tamily A. Weissman, Hyuno Kang, Ryan W. Draft, Ju Lu, Robyn A. Bennis, Joshua R. Sanes & Jeff W. Lichtman

doi:10.1038/nature06293

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,870K) | Supplementary information

See also: Editor's summary

Dissecting a circuit for olfactory behaviour in Caenorhabditis elegans p63

Sreekanth H. Chalasani, Nikos Chronis, Makoto Tsunozaki, Jesse M. Gray, Daniel Ramot, Miriam B. Goodman & Cornelia I. Bargmann

doi:10.1038/nature06292

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,857K) | Supplementary information

Letters

Circular polarimetry reveals helical magnetic fields in the young stellar object HH 135–136 p71

Antonio Chrysostomou, Philip W. Lucas & James H. Hough

doi:10.1038/nature06220

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (909K) | Supplementary information

The rotating wind of the quasar PG 1700+518 p74

S. Young, D. J. Axon, A. Robinson, J. H. Hough & J. E. Smith

doi:10.1038/nature06319

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (430K) | Supplementary information

See also: Editor's summary

First-passage times in complex scale-invariant media p77

S. Condamin, O. Bénichou, V. Tejedor, R. Voituriez & J. Klafter

doi:10.1038/nature06201

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (608K) | Supplementary information

Abrupt onset of a second energy gap at the superconducting transition of underdoped Bi2212 p81

W. S. Lee, I. M. Vishik, K. Tanaka, D. H. Lu, T. Sasagawa, N. Nagaosa, T. P. Devereaux, Z. Hussain & Z.-X. Shen

doi:10.1038/nature06219

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (808K) | Supplementary information

Radio-frequency scanning tunnelling microscopy p85

U. Kemiktarak, T. Ndukum, K. C. Schwab & K. L. Ekinci

doi:10.1038/nature06238

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (376K) | Supplementary information

See also: Editor's summary

Fire as the dominant driver of central Canadian boreal forest carbon balance p89

Ben Bond-Lamberty, Scott D. Peckham, Douglas E. Ahl & Stith T. Gower

doi:10.1038/nature06272

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,037K) | Supplementary information

See also: Editor's summary

Convergent dental adaptations in pseudo-tribosphenic and tribosphenic mammals p93

Zhe-Xi Luo, Qiang Ji & Chong-Xi Yuan

doi:10.1038/nature06221

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,413K) | Supplementary information

See also: Editor's summary

Thresholds and the resilience of Caribbean coral reefs p98

Peter J. Mumby, Alan Hastings & Helen J. Edwards

doi:10.1038/nature06252

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (409K) | Supplementary information

See also: Editor's summary

Neural mechanisms mediating optimism bias p102

Tali Sharot, Alison M. Riccardi, Candace M. Raio & Elizabeth A. Phelps

doi:10.1038/nature06280

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (417K) | Supplementary information

See also: Editor's summary

PYY modulation of cortical and hypothalamic brain areas predicts feeding behaviour in humans p106

Rachel L. Batterham, Dominic H. ffytche, J. Miranda Rosenthal, Fernando O. Zelaya, Gareth J. Barker, Dominic J. Withers & Steven C. R. Williams

doi:10.1038/nature06212

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (419K) | Supplementary information

Subcapsular sinus macrophages in lymph nodes clear lymph-borne viruses and present them to antiviral B cells p110

Tobias Junt, E. Ashley Moseman, Matteo Iannacone, Steffen Massberg, Philipp A. Lang, Marianne Boes, Katja Fink, Sarah E. Henrickson, Dmitry M. Shayakhmetov, Nelson C. Di Paolo, Nico van Rooijen, Thorsten R. Mempel, Sean P. Whelan & Ulrich H. von Andrian

doi:10.1038/nature06287

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (961K) | Supplementary information

A translocation signal for delivery of oomycete effector proteins into host plant cells p115

Stephen C. Whisson, Petra C. Boevink, Lucy Moleleki, Anna O. Avrova, Juan G. Morales, Eleanor M. Gilroy, Miles R. Armstrong, Severine Grouffaud, Pieter van West, Sean Chapman, Ingo Hein, Ian K. Toth, Leighton Pritchard & Paul R. J. Birch

doi:10.1038/nature06203

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (654K) | Supplementary information

Histone demethylase JHDM2A is critical for Tnp1 and Prm1 transcription and spermatogenesis p119

Yuki Okada, Greg Scott, Manas K. Ray, Yuji Mishina & Yi Zhang

doi:10.1038/nature06236

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (921K) | Supplementary information

See also: Editor's summary

Probing the chemistry of thioredoxin catalysis with force p124

Arun P. Wiita, Raul Perez-Jimenez, Kirstin A. Walther, Frauke Gräter, B. J. Berne, Arne Holmgren, Jose M. Sanchez-Ruiz & Julio M. Fernandez

doi:10.1038/nature06231

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (799K) | Supplementary information

Erratum

Insight foreword: Food and the future p128

H. Gee

doi:10.1038/nature06362

Full Text | PDF (58K)