Table of contents
Volume 452 Number 7190 pp913-1032
In this issue (24 April 2008)
Also this week
(this content only available online) indicates content that is available online only
Editorials
New sources of sex cells p913
Within the next decade or so, it will become possible to derive sperm and eggs from skin cells. The ethical and technical hurdles need to be addressed with the scientific and therapeutic benefits in mind.
doi:10.1038/452913a
The big ome p913
It's time to make the case for proteins.
doi:10.1038/452913b
Superconductors redux p914
Yet another surprise has been uncovered in the complex oxides.
doi:10.1038/452914a
News
Data show extent of sexism in physics p918
Experiment at Fermilab gave women fewer opportunities to present at conferences.
Geoff Brumfiel
doi:10.1038/452918a
Italian group claims to see dark matter — again p918
Gran Sasso detector picks up unusual signal.
Geoff Brumfiel
doi:10.1038/452918b
Swiss 'dignity' law is threat to plant biology p919
Government ethics committee guidelines could halt techniques such as hybridization of roses.
Alison Abbott
doi:10.1038/452919a
Biologists initiate plan to map human proteome p920
Project aims to characterize all human proteins.
Helen Pearson
doi:10.1038/452920a
Buckyballs give flash a boost p921
Eric Hand
doi:10.1038/452921a
Arsenic heats up iron superconductors p922
Eric Hand
doi:10.1038/452922a
Politically correct names given to flu viruses p923
World Health Organization standardizes nomenclature, but experts say GPS sample locations should be given.
Declan Butler
doi:10.1038/452923a
Sidelines p923
Scribbles on the margins of science.
doi:10.1038/452923b
Fake drugs: lessons for the world p924
Dora Akunyili is director-general of Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). Since her appointment in 2001, she has led a successful crusade against counterfeit pharmaceuticals, which are responsible for millions of deaths worldwide each year. Nature caught up with her last week in Washington DC.
Meredith Wadman
doi:10.1038/452924a
Bubble-fusion engineer sues other scientists p925
doi:10.1038/452925a
US biodefence agency appoints first director p925
doi:10.1038/452925b
Research assessment panel advised to destroy all notes p925
doi:10.1038/452925c
GlaxoSmithKline does deal to develop microRNA drugs p925
doi:10.1038/452925d
UN ruling makes Australia an even bigger country p925
doi:10.1038/452925e
Botanical art gallery opens in London p925
doi:10.1038/452925f
News Features
Biomedical science: Betting the bank p926
Lyle Palmer has plans for a "ludicrously ambitious" gene–disease research project. Bijal Trivedi reports on the trials at Joondalup.
doi:10.1038/452926a
Atmospheric physics: Heating up the heavens p930
Battling rumours of death beams and mind control, an ionosphere research facility in Alaska finally brings science to the fore. Sharon Weinberger reports.
doi:10.1038/452930a
Correspondence
Media right to report small value of antidepressants p934
Olavo B. Amaral
doi:10.1038/452934a
Tropical farmers need productive alternatives p934
Thomas Knoke, Bernd Stimm & Michael Weber
doi:10.1038/452934b
Researchers should explain why they use animals p934
doi:10.1038/452934c
Truth about a plant with many names p934
Marko Kreft & Robert Zorec
doi:10.1038/452934d
Commentary
Europe's research system must change p935
Science funding in the European Union needs to be revised to better serve economic, social and environmental goals, Luke Georghiou argues.
doi:10.1038/452935a
See also: Editor's summary
Books and Arts
Orange revolution p937
Stories of seventeeth-century scientists and aristocrats show how Dutch ingenuity benefited England.
Harold Cook reviews Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland's Glory by Lisa Jardine.
doi:10.1038/452937a
Biased brains, messy memories p938
Sandra Aamodt reviews Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind by Gary Marcus and A Portrait of the Brain by Adam Zeman.
doi:10.1038/452938a
Technological twist on taxonomy p939
Kevin Kelly reviews Systematics as Cyberscience: Computers, Change, and Continuity in Science by Christine Hine.
doi:10.1038/452939a
Hidden treasures: the Cajal collection in Madrid p940
The perceptive drawings, paintings, photographs and slides of Spain's neuroanatomy pioneer record a tale of ambition and rivalry, reports Alison Abbott.
doi:10.1038/452940a
News and Views
Metabolism: Food alert p941
The gut prevents nutrient overload during a meal by promoting satiety and enhancing insulin secretion. New findings show that nutrients in the gut also activate a neural circuit that increases insulin sensitivity.
Joshua P. Thaler & David E. Cummings
doi:10.1038/452941a
See also: Editor's summary
Optics: Light reined in p942
Light always travels at the same speed in a vacuum, no more, no less. But in materials, there's room for manoeuvre: tweak the right material in the right way, and exciting optoelectronic properties result.
Diederik Sybolt Wiersma
doi:10.1038/452942a
50 & 100 Years Ago p943
doi:10.1038/452943a
Neuroscience: Current views on odour receptors p944
Insects possess refined olfactory systems that use specific receptors on their antennae. It emerges that these receptors not only detect odour molecules but, unexpectedly, can also act as ion channels.
Alexander Chesler & Stuart Firestein
doi:10.1038/452944a
See also: Editor's summary
Oceanography: Bottom of the top of the world p945
Tim Lincoln
doi:10.1038/452945a
Astrophysics: Exhaust inspection p945
What do you see if you peer into the exhaust of a jet engine larger than our Solar System? Only astronomers with the largest radio telescopes can see the full picture — and definitive observations are beginning to filter through.
David L. Meier
doi:10.1038/452945b
See also: Editor's summary
Gene transcription: Two worlds merged p946
Why would two distant genes — on separate chromosomes and from different nuclear locations — unite in response to signals for gene expression? They might be seeds for the formation of transcriptional hubs.
David M. Lonard & Bert W. O'Malley
doi:10.1038/452946a
Plant biology: Scent of a rose p947
Sadaf Shadan
doi:10.1038/452947a
Articles
The genome of the model beetle and pest Tribolium castaneum p949
Tribolium Genome Sequencing Consortium
doi:10.1038/nature06784
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (793K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Lateral presynaptic inhibition mediates gain control in an olfactory circuit p956
Shawn R. Olsen & Rachel I. Wilson
doi:10.1038/nature06864
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (606K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Crystal structures of DNA/RNA repair enzymes AlkB and ABH2 bound to dsDNA p961
Cai-Guang Yang, Chengqi Yi, Erica M. Duguid, Christopher T. Sullivan, Xing Jian, Phoebe A. Rice & Chuan He
doi:10.1038/nature06889
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (982K) | Supplementary information
Letters
The inner jet of an active galactic nucleus as revealed by a radio-to-
-ray outburst p966
Alan P. Marscher, Svetlana G. Jorstad, Francesca D. D'Arcangelo, Paul S. Smith, G. Grant Williams, Valeri M. Larionov, Haruki Oh, Alice R. Olmstead, Margo F. Aller, Hugh D. Aller, Ian M. McHardy, Anne Lähteenmäki, Merja Tornikoski, Esko Valtaoja, Vladimir A. Hagen-Thorn, Eugenia N. Kopatskaya, Walter K. Gear, Gino Tosti, Omar Kurtanidze, Maria Nikolashvili, Lorand Sigua, H. Richard Miller & Wesley T. Ryle
doi:10.1038/nature06895
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (758K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Meier
A topological Dirac insulator in a quantum spin Hall phase p970
D. Hsieh, D. Qian, L. Wray, Y. Xia, Y. S. Hor, R. J. Cava & M. Z. Hasan
doi:10.1038/nature06843
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (680K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Small phonon contribution to the photoemission kink in the copper oxide superconductors p975
Feliciano Giustino, Marvin L. Cohen & Steven G. Louie
doi:10.1038/nature06874
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (430K) | Supplementary information
Eocene/Oligocene ocean de-acidification linked to Antarctic glaciation by sea-level fall p979
Agostino Merico, Toby Tyrrell & Paul A. Wilson
doi:10.1038/nature06853
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (738K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Hydrous silicate melt at high pressure p983
Mainak Mookherjee, Lars Stixrude & Bijaya Karki
doi:10.1038/nature06918
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (439K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Mountain pine beetle and forest carbon feedback to climate change p987
W. A. Kurz, C. C. Dymond, G. Stinson, G. J. Rampley, E. T. Neilson, A. L. Carroll, T. Ebata & L. Safranyik
doi:10.1038/nature06777
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (917K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
The draft genome of the transgenic tropical fruit tree papaya (Carica papaya Linnaeus) p991
Ray Ming, Shaobin Hou, Yun Feng, Qingyi Yu, Alexandre Dionne-Laporte, Jimmy H. Saw, Pavel Senin, Wei Wang, Benjamin V. Ly, Kanako L. T. Lewis, Steven L. Salzberg, Lu Feng, Meghan R. Jones, Rachel L. Skelton, Jan E. Murray, Cuixia Chen, Wubin Qian, Junguo Shen, Peng Du, Moriah Eustice, Eric Tong, Haibao Tang, Eric Lyons, Robert E. Paull, Todd P. Michael, Kerr Wall, Danny W. Rice, Henrik Albert, Ming-Li Wang, Yun J. Zhu, Michael Schatz, Niranjan Nagarajan, Ricelle A. Acob, Peizhu Guan, Andrea Blas, Ching Man Wai, Christine M. Ackerman, Yan Ren, Chao Liu, Jianmei Wang, Jianping Wang, Jong-Kuk Na, Eugene V. Shakirov, Brian Haas, Jyothi Thimmapuram, David Nelson, Xiyin Wang, John E. Bowers, Andrea R. Gschwend, Arthur L. Delcher, Ratnesh Singh, Jon Y. Suzuki, Savarni Tripathi, Kabi Neupane, Hairong Wei, Beth Irikura, Maya Paidi, Ning Jiang, Wenli Zhang, Gernot Presting, Aaron Windsor, Rafael Navajas-Pérez, Manuel J. Torres, F. Alex Feltus, Brad Porter, Yingjun Li, A. Max Burroughs, Ming-Cheng Luo, Lei Liu, David A. Christopher, Stephen M. Mount, Paul H. Moore, Tak Sugimura, Jiming Jiang, Mary A. Schuler, Vikki Friedman, Thomas Mitchell-Olds, Dorothy E. Shippen, Claude W. dePamphilis, Jeffrey D. Palmer, Michael Freeling, Andrew H. Paterson, Dennis Gonsalves, Lei Wang & Maqsudul Alam
doi:10.1038/nature06856
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (363K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Genetic variation in human NPY expression affects stress response and emotion p997
Zhifeng Zhou, Guanshan Zhu, Ahmad R. Hariri, Mary-Anne Enoch, David Scott, Rajita Sinha, Matti Virkkunen, Deborah C. Mash, Robert H. Lipsky, Xian-Zhang Hu, Colin A. Hodgkinson, Ke Xu, Beata Buzas, Qiaoping Yuan, Pei-Hong Shen, Robert E. Ferrell, Stephen B. Manuck, Sarah M. Brown, Richard L. Hauger, Christian S. Stohler, Jon-Kar Zubieta & David Goldman
doi:10.1038/nature06858
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (405K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Insect olfactory receptors are heteromeric ligand-gated ion channels p1002
Koji Sato, Maurizio Pellegrino, Takao Nakagawa, Tatsuro Nakagawa, Leslie B. Vosshall & Kazushige Touhara
doi:10.1038/nature06850
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (2,481K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Chesler & Firestein
Drosophila odorant receptors are both ligand-gated and cyclic-nucleotide-activated cation channels p1007
Dieter Wicher, Ronny Schäfer, René Bauernfeind, Marcus C. Stensmyr, Regine Heller, Stefan H. Heinemann & Bill S. Hansson
doi:10.1038/nature06861
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (2,475K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Chesler & Firestein
Upper intestinal lipids trigger a gut–brain–liver axis to regulate glucose production p1012
Penny Y. T. Wang, Liora Caspi, Carol K. L. Lam, Madhu Chari, Xiaosong Li, Peter E. Light, Roger Gutierrez-Juarez, Michelle Ang, Gary J. Schwartz & Tony K. T. Lam
doi:10.1038/nature06852
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (286K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Thaler & Cummings
A deadenylation negative feedback mechanism governs meiotic metaphase arrest p1017
Eulàlia Belloc & Raúl Méndez
doi:10.1038/nature06809
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (753K) | Supplementary information
Crystal structure of the 
repressor and a model for pairwise cooperative operator binding p1022
Steven Stayrook, Peera Jaru-Ampornpan, Jenny Ni, Ann Hochschild & Mitchell Lewis
doi:10.1038/nature06831
PDB code
3D view
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (3,186K) | Supplementary information
Naturejobs
ProspectProspects p1027
Even as science and engineering in China ascends, its graduate students and postdocs often struggle.
Gene Russo
doi:10.1038/nj7190-1027a
Special Report
China's challenge p1028
Young researchers in China face stiff competition as they strive to establish labs or find other scientific careers. Wei Zeng explores what it takes to succeed as a Chinese scientist.
Wei Zeng
doi:10.1038/nj7190-1028a
Career View
Marja Makarow, chief executive, European Science Foundation, Strasbourg, France p1030
New European Science Foundation chief executive brings varied experience.
Jill U. Adams
doi:10.1038/nj7190-1030a
A guiding COMPASS p1030
From a student's struggles, a new mentor programme for minority students blossoms.
Betty Mbom
doi:10.1038/nj7190-1030b
In the name of science p1030
I sacrifice an awful lot in the name of science.
Aliza le Roux
doi:10.1038/nj7190-1030c