Table of contents
Volume 454 Number 7204 pp551-666
(this content only available online) indicates content that is available online only
Editorials
A chorus of disapproval p551
The fight against AIDS is losing ground, but the current spate of mud-slinging is far from helpful.
doi:10.1038/454551a
The greener grid p551
Governments need to back an overhaul to get the electricity grid ready for renewable energy.
doi:10.1038/454551b
Europe's science forum p552
Although the Euroscience Open Forum is a meeting to be proud of, its organizers should aim even higher.
doi:10.1038/454552a
Research Highlights
Planetary physics: Storm warning p554
doi:10.1038/454554a
Molecular biology: Telling time p554
doi:10.1038/454554b
Environmental sciences: Fresh data p554
doi:10.1038/454554c
Physical chemistry: Over ice p554
doi:10.1038/454554d
Nanotechnology: Weighing options p554
doi:10.1038/454554e
Quantum computing: Cloudy computing p554
doi:10.1038/454554f
Molecular biology: Senior signals p555
doi:10.1038/454555a
Photonics: Telescopic TV p555
doi:10.1038/454555b
Immunology: Green vaccines p555
doi:10.1038/454555c
Zoology: Bigmouth strikes again p555
doi:10.1038/454555d
News
Consent issues restrict stem-cell use p556
Some human embryonic cell lines may not be eligible for research.
Monya Baker
doi:10.1038/454556a
Italy picks businessman to head space agency p557
Move seen as shift from research to commerce and defence.Geoff Brumfiel
doi:10.1038/454557a
School chemistry off-limits to terrorism suspect p557
UK judge blocks access to high-school-level courses.
Geoff Brumfiel
doi:10.1038/454557b
Thin films: ready for their close-up? p558
New types of solar cell that can be mass-produced cheaply, and integrated into building materials, are popular with venture capitalists and market analysts. But scientists are less gung ho, reports Declan Butler.
Declan Butler
doi:10.1038/454558a
Complex clock combines calendars p561
Antikythera Mechanism may have timetabled ancient Olympic Games.
Philip Ball
doi:10.1038/454561a
Sidelines p562
Scribbles on the margins of science.
doi:10.1038/454562a
Thousands of proteins affected by miRNAs p562
Far from being junk, these snippets of the genome exert wide-ranging influence.
doi:10.1038/454562b
Snapshot: The hidden van Gogh p563
X-ray reveals mystery portrait.
doi:10.1038/454563a
Pier Oddone p563
The director of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, talks to Eric Hand about the uncertain future of particle colliders in the United States.
Eric Hand
doi:10.1038/454563b
Italy launches clinical trial for HIV vaccine p564
doi:10.1038/454564a
Nations pool resources to study lunar seismic activity p564
doi:10.1038/454564b
GlaxoSmithKline cements interest in stem cells p564
doi:10.1038/454564c
Statistics show hint of bias in NIH grant reviews p564
doi:10.1038/454564d
Bail for entomologists held for illegal insect collection p564
doi:10.1038/454564e
Voyage to the bottom of the world's deepest lake p564
doi:10.1038/454564f
News Features
HIV: The next shot p565
Researchers trying to develop an HIV vaccine have endured two decades of setbacks. Erika Check Hayden meets a veteran still engaged in the fight — and a rookie willing to join in anyway.
doi:10.1038/454565a
Energy: Upgrading the grid p570
Electricity grids must cope with rising demand and complexity in a changing world. Emma Marris explores the intricacies involved in controlling the power supply.
doi:10.1038/454570a
Correspondence
Integrity: Croatia's standards unusual in much of Europe p574
Xavier Bosch
doi:10.1038/454574a
Integrity: juniors see leaders gain from calculated dishonesty p574
Ned Feder & Walter W. Stewart
doi:10.1038/454574b
Integrity: misconduct by a few damages credibility for many p574
Paulo A. Nussenzveig & Renata Zukanovich Funchal
doi:10.1038/454574c
Integrity: how to measure breaches effectively p575
Judith P. Swazey
doi:10.1038/454575a
Titus et al. reply: p575
Sandra L. Titus, James A. Wells & Lawrence J. Rhoades
doi:10.1038/454575b
Digital identifiers could keep up with authors' moves p575
Raf Aerts
doi:10.1038/454575c
Schools in a third of Spain teach only in minority languages p575
Jose M. Rojo
doi:10.1038/454575d
Books and Arts
Grand tour with a geologist guide p576
A field guide to the formation of Italy's Apennine mountains mixes the science behind the dinosaur extinction with accounts of travel and Italian history, explains Ted Nield.
Ted Nield reviews The Mountains of St Francis: Discovering the Geologic Events That Shaped Our Earth by Walter Alvarez
doi:10.1038/454576a
See also: Editor's summary
New in Paperback p576
doi:10.1038/454576b
Stalin's war on genetic science p577
Jan Witkowski reviews The Murder of Nikolai Vavilov: The Story of Stalin's Persecution of One of the Great Scientists of the Twentieth Century by Peter Pringle
doi:10.1038/454577a
Betting on black holes p579
Paul Davies reviews The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics by Leonard Susskind
doi:10.1038/454579a
Maths and mad hatters p580
Jascha Hoffman reviews Lewis Carroll in Numberland: His Fantastical Mathematical Logical Life by Robin Wilson
doi:10.1038/454580a
The creationist controversy p581
PZ Myers reviews Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul by Kenneth R. Miller
doi:10.1038/454581a
Fictional quantum conspiracy p582
Jennifer Rohn reviews Final Theory: A Novel by Mark Alpert
doi:10.1038/454582a
Inside the mind of a marathon runner p583
Andy Miah reviews What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami.
doi:10.1038/454583a
News and Views
Nanotechnology: Patterns from molecular corrals p585
Many nanotechnology devices will require components that consist of arrays of molecules positioned on surfaces with nanometre precision. One way to make these is to let the molecules organize themselves.
Michael Grunze
doi:10.1038/454585a
See also: Editor's summary
Cancer: Ins and outs of tumour control p586
When a potentially dangerous cell can't be repaired, it must be either stopped or killed. Premature senescence of cancerous cells is one such 'stop' mechanism, in which immune mediators play an unexpected part.
Maria S. Soengas
doi:10.1038/454586a
Planetary science: Organic lakes on Titan p587
While orbiting Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft has spotted lakes containing ethane on Titan, the planet's largest moon. Titan is so far the only planetary object other than Earth that is known to have liquid bodies on its surface.
François Raulin
doi:10.1038/454587a
Behavioural neuroscience: The circuit of fear p589
Do you find it difficult to overcome an irrational fear? Blame it on the specific neural circuits hardwired in the brain that control fear recognition, and fear renewal even when fear has seemingly been overcome.
Pankaj Sah & R. Frederick Westbrook
doi:10.1038/454589a
See also: Editor's summary
Materials science: A desirable wind up p591
Multiferroic materials have complex domain structures that make precise interpretation of their behaviours difficult. The creation and study of a single-domain multiferroic crystal is thus an exciting development.
Neil Mathur
doi:10.1038/454591a
Developmental biology: Our fly cousins' gut p592
What do we humans have in common with flies? Quite a lot, at least at the cellular and molecular levels. Our intestine, for instance, is similar to that of the fly, not only in function but also in its development and maintenance.
Chrysoula Pitsouli & Norbert Perrimon
doi:10.1038/454592a
See also: Editor's summary
Structural biology: It's not all in the family p593
There are no sequential snapshots of a transporter protein as it mediates the simultaneous passage of ions and solutes into a cell. Comparing different snapshots of structurally related transporters offers fascinating insights.
Baruch I. Kanner
doi:10.1038/454593a
50 & 100 Years Ago p594
doi:10.1038/454594a
Brief Communications Arising
Does Rft1 flip an N-glycan lipid precursor? pE3
Christian G. Frank, Sumana Sanyal, Jeffrey S. Rush, Charles J. Waechter & Anant K. Menon
doi:10.1038/nature07165
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (197K)
Helenius et al. reply pE4
Jonne Helenius, Davis T. W. Ng, Cristina L. Marolda, Peter Walter, Miguel A. Valvano & Markus Aebi
doi:10.1038/nature07164
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (197K)
Articles
A new class of homoserine lactone quorum-sensing signals p595
Amy L. Schaefer, E. P. Greenberg, Colin M. Oliver, Yasuhiro Oda, Jean J. Huang, Gili Bittan-Banin, Caroline M. Peres, Silke Schmidt, Katarina Juhaszova, Janice R. Sufrin & Caroline S. Harwood
doi:10.1038/nature07088
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (322K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Switching on and off fear by distinct neuronal circuits p600
Cyril Herry, Stephane Ciocchi, Verena Senn, Lynda Demmou, Christian Müller & Andreas Lüthi
doi:10.1038/nature07166
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (598K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Sah & Westbrook
Letters
The identification of liquid ethane in Titan's Ontario Lacus p607
R. H. Brown, L. A. Soderblom, J. M. Soderblom, R. N. Clark, R. Jaumann, J. W. Barnes, C. Sotin, B. Buratti, K. H. Baines & P. D. Nicholson
doi:10.1038/nature07100
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (626K)
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Raulin
Scaling the Kondo lattice p611
Yi-feng Yang, Zachary Fisk, Han-Oh Lee, J. D. Thompson & David Pines
doi:10.1038/nature07157
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (210K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Calendars with Olympiad display and eclipse prediction on the Antikythera Mechanism p614
Tony Freeth, Alexander Jones, John M. Steele & Yanis Bitsakis
doi:10.1038/nature07130
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,205K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Functionalizing hydrogen-bonded surface networks with self-assembled monolayers p618
Rafael Madueno, Minna T. Räisänen, Christophe Silien & Manfred Buck
doi:10.1038/nature07096
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,281K)
See also: Editor's summary
Primary carbonatite melt from deeply subducted oceanic crust p622
M. J. Walter, G. P. Bulanova, L. S. Armstrong, S. Keshav, J. D. Blundy, G. Gudfinnsson, O. T. Lord, A. R. Lennie, S. M. Clark, C. B. Smith & L. Gobbo
doi:10.1038/nature07132
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (449K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Environmental determinants of extinction selectivity in the fossil record p626
Shanan E. Peters
doi:10.1038/nature07032
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (601K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Evolutionary origin and development of snake fangs p630
Freek J. Vonk, Jeroen F. Admiraal, Kate Jackson, Ram Reshef, Merijn A. G. de Bakker, Kim Vanderschoot, Iris van den Berge, Marit van Atten, Erik Burgerhout, Andrew Beck, Peter J. Mirtschin, Elazar Kochva, Frans Witte, Bryan G. Fry, Anthony E. Woods & Michael K. Richardson
doi:10.1038/nature07178
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,004K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
The abundance threshold for plague as a critical percolation phenomenon p634
S. Davis, P. Trapman, H. Leirs, M. Begon & J. A. P. Heesterbeek
doi:10.1038/nature07053
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (666K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
An Fgf/Gremlin inhibitory feedback loop triggers termination of limb bud outgrowth p638
Jamie M. Verheyden & Xin Sun
doi:10.1038/nature07085
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (428K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Amygdala intercalated neurons are required for expression of fear extinction p642
Ekaterina Likhtik, Daniela Popa, John Apergis-Schoute, George A. Fidacaro & Denis Paré
doi:10.1038/nature07167
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,829K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Sah & Westbrook
Pluripotent stem cells induced from adult neural stem cells by reprogramming with two factors p646
Jeong Beom Kim, Holm Zaehres, Guangming Wu, Luca Gentile, Kinarm Ko, Vittorio Sebastiano, Marcos J. Araúzo-Bravo, David Ruau, Dong Wook Han, Martin Zenke & Hans R. Schöler
doi:10.1038/nature07061
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,550K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
The behaviour of Drosophila adult hindgut stem cells is controlled by Wnt and Hh signalling p651
Shigeo Takashima, Marianna Mkrtchyan, Amelia Younossi-Hartenstein, John R. Merriam & Volker Hartenstein
doi:10.1038/nature07156
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (3,264K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Pitsouli & Perrimon
Blocking VEGFR-3 suppresses angiogenic sprouting and vascular network formation p656
Tuomas Tammela, Georgia Zarkada, Elisabet Wallgard, Aino Murtomäki, Steven Suchting, Maria Wirzenius, Marika Waltari, Mats Hellström, Tibor Schomber, Reetta Peltonen, Catarina Freitas, Antonio Duarte, Helena Isoniemi, Pirjo Laakkonen, Gerhard Christofori, Seppo Ylä-Herttuala, Masabumi Shibuya, Bronislaw Pytowski, Anne Eichmann, Christer Betsholtz & Kari Alitalo
doi:10.1038/nature07083
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (978K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Naturejobs
ProspectProspects p661
The issues of translation and tough choices in science careers.
Gene Russo
doi:10.1038/nj7204-661a
Careers and Recruitment
Political will p662
Scientists who enter the world of political advocacy stand to gain perspective but could face a culture shock. Gene Russo reports.
Gene Russo
doi:10.1038/nj7204-662a
Career View
Joyce DeLeo, chair, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire p664
Neuroanatomist takes multidisciplinary approach at Dartmouth.
Virginia Gewin
doi:10.1038/nj7204-664a
The gender imbalance p664
NIH announces grants for investigating gender disparity.
Paul Smaglik
doi:10.1038/nj7204-664b
'Force'-full wisdom p664
New animal model, new challenges
Amanda Goh
doi:10.1038/nj7204-664c
Futures
The pair-bond imperative p666
What's love got to do with it?
Jennifer Rohn
doi:10.1038/454666a
