Table of contents
Volume 453 Number 7196 pp697-822
(this content only available online) indicates content that is available online only
Editorials
This time it's personal p697
The next head of the US National Human Genome Research Institute will need to be equipped to deal with the scientific, political and societal challenges presented by the burgeoning era of personal genomics.
doi:10.1038/453697a
On the campaign trail p697
It is less specific policies and more the approach to science that will distinguish the next US president.
doi:10.1038/453697b
A flood of hard data p698
Social scientists have a new handle on group behaviour — but its causes remain a challenge.
doi:10.1038/453698a
Research Highlights
Atmospheric science: Blow by blow p700
doi:10.1038/453700a
Biotechnology: Genetic dexterity p700
doi:10.1038/453700b
Plant science: Mossy management p700
doi:10.1038/453700c
Evolution: Genetic bric-a-brac p700
doi:10.1038/453700d
Astronomy: Meal deal p700
doi:10.1038/453700e
Chemical biology: Reducing power p700
doi:10.1038/453700f
Nanotechnology: Sheet change p701
doi:10.1038/453701a
Chemical sensing: Molecular mapping p701
doi:10.1038/453701b
Zoology: Mid-ocean wanderer p701
doi:10.1038/453701c
Correction p701
doi:10.1038/453701d
News
Russian science academy rejects Putin ally p702
No change at the top as old guard keeps its grip on power.
Quirin Schiermeier
doi:10.1038/453702a
Mars reveals early mysteries p703
Planet's surface proves a puzzle for Phoenix probe.
Eric Hand
doi:10.1038/453703a
Japanese nuclear plant in quake risk p704
Reprocessing facility may be built on active fault.
David Cyranoski
doi:10.1038/453704a
UN decision puts brakes on ocean fertilization p704
Countries agree on moratorium for commercial schemes.
Jeff Tollefson
doi:10.1038/453704b
Physicists to target neutrinos p705
US switches focus from colliders.
Eric Hand
doi:10.1038/453705a
Sidelines p705
Scribbles on the margins of science.
doi:10.1038/453705b
The four-year fight for biological art p707
Steven Kurtz talks about the court battle to clear his name of bioterror links
Rachel Courtland
doi:10.1038/453707a
Here's looking at you, kid p708
Software promises to identify blockbuster scripts.
Zeeya Merali
doi:10.1038/453708a
Biological tools revamp disease classification p709
The role of gene interactions is explored.
Erika Check Hayden
doi:10.1038/453709a
US genomics leader bows out from institute p710
doi:10.1038/453710a
Merck scores victory in three Vioxx appeals p710
doi:10.1038/453710b
Indian coral islands under threat from algae p710
doi:10.1038/453710c
Donation breathes life into Fermilab's balance sheet p711
doi:10.1038/453711a
Researchers kidnapped near Atacama telescope p711
doi:10.1038/453711b
Correction p711
doi:10.1038/453711c
News Features
Planetary science: Stranger in a strange land p712
Snapshot from Mars captures Phoenix landing.
doi:10.1038/453712a
Ecological modelling: The mathematical mirror to animal nature p714
Animal behaviour is an endless challenge to mathematical modellers. Mark Buchanan looks at how a mathematical principle from physics might be able to explain patterns of movement.
doi:10.1038/453714a
Palaeobiology: The Cambrian smorgasbord p717
Arran Frood asks what current models can teach us about ecological networks half a billion years old.
doi:10.1038/453717a
Correspondence
Evolutionary theory: it's on the school syllabus in Mexico p719
Antonio Lazcano, Arturo Becerra & Juli Peretó
doi:10.1038/453719a
Evolutionary theory: don't skimp on teaching its history p719
David M. Williams & Malte C. Ebach
doi:10.1038/453719b
Learning to navigate the geography of citation indexes p719
Debbie Chaves
doi:10.1038/453719c
Vaccine failure is not a 'crisis' for HIV research p719
Richard Jefferys
doi:10.1038/453719d
Fixing hiring practices means asking the right question p720
Emilio Artacho
doi:10.1038/453720a
Germline modification carries risk of major social harm p720
Marcy Darnovsky
doi:10.1038/453720b
Global database is needed to support adaptation science p720
Elvira S. Poloczanska, Alistair J. Hobday & Anthony J. Richardson
doi:10.1038/453720c
Books and Arts
Command and control p721
A biography of botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker illustrates how science switched in the nineteenth century from being a hobby of aristocrats to a profession paid for by governments.
Sandra Knapp reviews Imperial Nature: Joseph Hooker and the Practices of Victorian Science by Jim Endersby
doi:10.1038/453721a
Staving off the global food crisis p722
C. Peter Timmer reviews The End of Food by Paul Roberts
doi:10.1038/453722a
See also: Editor's summary
Horse power unbridled p723
Josie Glausiusz reviews The Horse
doi:10.1038/453723a
How the car became king p724
Marcial Echenique reviews Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City by Peter D. Norton
doi:10.1038/453724a
In Retrospect: The chromosome trail p725
A new translation of Theodor Boveri's 1914 monograph brings the early origins of contemporary cancer research to a wider readership, contends Robert A. Weinberg.
Robert A. Weinberg reviews Concerning the Origin of Malignant Tumours by Theodor Boveri
doi:10.1038/453725a
See also: Editor's summary
Essay
Science & Music: Talk of the tone p726
To appreciate how our species makes sense of sound we must study the brain's response to a wide variety of music, languages and musical languages, urges Aniruddh D. Patel.
Aniruddh D. Patel
doi:10.1038/453726a
News and Views
Genomics: Protein fossils live on as RNA p729
Pseudogenes constitute many of the non-coding DNA sequences that make up large parts of genomes. Once considered merely protein fossils, it now emerges that some of them have active regulatory roles.
Rajkumar Sasidharan & Mark Gerstein
doi:10.1038/453729a
See also: Editor's summary
Attosecond physics: An easier route to high harmony p731
The generation of ultrashort light pulses by atomic ionization and recombination doesn't come cheap. But by niftily exploiting the play of light on a nanostructured surface, it can be done on a table-top.
Mark I. Stockman
doi:10.1038/453731a
See also: Editor's summary
Developmental biology: Order in the lung p733
Given the lung's thousands of branching airways, its development might be expected to be a highly complex process. Yet a surprisingly simple picture now emerges of when, where and in what order these branches form.
David Warburton
doi:10.1038/453733a
See also: Editor's summary
50 & 100 years ago p734
doi:10.1038/453734a
Physical chemistry: Charge states in transition p735
Transition metals come in different oxidation states with different electric charges. So at least we are told at school. Detailed calculations lead to a heretical conclusion — those variable charge states are a myth.
Raffaele Resta
doi:10.1038/453735a
See also: Editor's summary
News and Views Q&A
Condensed-matter physics: Optical lattices p736
Optical lattices have rapidly become a favoured tool of atomic and condensed-matter physicists. These crystals made of light can be used to trap atoms at very low temperatures, creating a workshop in which to pore over and tinker with fundamental properties of matter.
Markus Greiner & Simon Fölling
doi:10.1038/453736a
See also: Editor's summary
Articles
The determination of the structure of Saturn's F ring by nearby moonlets p739
Carl D. Murray, Kevin Beurle, Nicholas J. Cooper, Michael W. Evans, Gareth A. Williams & Sébastien Charnoz
doi:10.1038/nature06999
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,169K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
The branching programme of mouse lung development p745
Ross J. Metzger, Ophir D. Klein, Gail R. Martin & Mark A. Krasnow
doi:10.1038/nature07005
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,422K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Warburton
A two-tiered mechanism for stabilization and immobilization of E-cadherin p751
Matthieu Cavey, Matteo Rauzi, Pierre-François Lenne & Thomas Lecuit
doi:10.1038/nature06953
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (5,506K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Letters
High-harmonic generation by resonant plasmon field enhancement p757
Seungchul Kim, Jonghan Jin, Young-Jin Kim, In-Yong Park, Yunseok Kim & Seung-Woo Kim
doi:10.1038/nature07012
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (745K)
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Stockman
Superconductivity at 43 K in SmFeAsO1-xFx p761
X. H. Chen, T. Wu, G. Wu, R. H. Liu, H. Chen & D. F. Fang
doi:10.1038/nature07045
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (295K)
See also: Editor's summary
Charge self-regulation upon changing the oxidation state of transition metals in insulators p763
Hannes Raebiger, Stephan Lany & Alex Zunger
doi:10.1038/nature07009
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (587K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Resta
Hydrogen sulphide release to surface waters at the Precambrian/Cambrian boundary p767
Martin Wille, Thomas F. Nägler, Bernd Lehmann, Stefan Schröder & Jan D. Kramers
doi:10.1038/nature07072
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (279K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Simultaneous teleseismic and geodetic observations of the stick–slip motion of an Antarctic ice stream p770
Douglas A. Wiens, Sridhar Anandakrishnan, J. Paul Winberry & Matt A. King
doi:10.1038/nature06990
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (778K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Cladistic analysis of continuous modularized traits provides phylogenetic signals in Homo evolution p775
Rolando González-José, Ignacio Escapa, Walter A. Neves, Rubén Cúneo & Héctor M. Pucciarelli
doi:10.1038/nature06891
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (561K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Understanding individual human mobility patterns p779
Marta C. González, César A. Hidalgo & Albert-László Barabási
doi:10.1038/nature06958
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (547K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Dynamics of fat cell turnover in humans p783
Kirsty L. Spalding, Erik Arner, Pål O. Westermark, Samuel Bernard, Bruce A. Buchholz, Olaf Bergmann, Lennart Blomqvist, Johan Hoffstedt, Erik Näslund, Tom Britton, Hernan Concha, Moustapha Hassan, Mikael Rydén, Jonas Frisén & Peter Arner
doi:10.1038/nature06902
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (533K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
The Cl-/H+ antiporter ClC-7 is the primary chloride permeation pathway in lysosomes p788
Austin R. Graves, Patricia K. Curran, Carolyn L. Smith & Joseph A. Mindell
doi:10.1038/nature06907
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (445K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Drosophila endogenous small RNAs bind to Argonaute 2 in somatic cells p793
Yoshinori Kawamura, Kuniaki Saito, Taishin Kin, Yukiteru Ono, Kiyoshi Asai, Takafumi Sunohara, Tomoko N. Okada, Mikiko C. Siomi & Haruhiko Siomi
doi:10.1038/nature06938
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (749K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Sasidharan & Gerstein
An endogenous small interfering RNA pathway in Drosophila p798
Benjamin Czech, Colin D. Malone, Rui Zhou, Alexander Stark, Catherine Schlingeheyde, Monica Dus, Norbert Perrimon, Manolis Kellis, James A. Wohlschlegel, Ravi Sachidanandam, Gregory J. Hannon & Julius Brennecke
doi:10.1038/nature07007
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (566K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Sasidharan & Gerstein
The Drosophila hairpin RNA pathway generates endogenous short interfering RNAs p803
Katsutomo Okamura, Wei-Jen Chung, J. Graham Ruby, Huili Guo, David P. Bartel & Eric C. Lai
doi:10.1038/nature07015
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (418K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Sasidharan & Gerstein
NF-
B links innate immunity to the hypoxic response through transcriptional regulation of HIF-1
p807
Jordi Rius, Monica Guma, Christian Schachtrup, Katerina Akassoglou, Annelies S. Zinkernagel, Victor Nizet, Randall S. Johnson, Gabriel G. Haddad & Michael Karin
doi:10.1038/nature06905
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (470K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Chemically ubiquitylated histone H2B stimulates hDot1L-mediated intranucleosomal methylation p812
Robert K. McGinty, Jaehoon Kim, Champak Chatterjee, Robert G. Roeder & Tom W. Muir
doi:10.1038/nature06906
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (676K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Naturejobs
ProspectProspects p817
Europe aims for more flexibility and job security for researchers.
Paul Smaglik
doi:10.1038/nj7196-817a
Region
Beyond rocket science p818
Huntsville, Alabama, the original home of NASA and of military weapons development, makes a move into biology. Paul Smaglik reports from Rocket City.
Paul Smaglik
doi:10.1038/nj7196-818a
