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Volume 454 Issue 7207, 21 August 2008

Editorial

  • The FBI says it has evidence showing that Bruce Ivins was behind the 2001 anthrax attacks — but with his death, this will not be tested in court. A full enquiry into the case is needed if justice is to be done.

    Editorial

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  • Austria's most serious report of scientific misconduct in recent memory must be handled properly.

    Editorial
  • Innovation is a complex ecosystem that requires careful cultivation.

    Editorial
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Research Highlights

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Journal Club

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News

  • Shipping is one of the most fuel-efficient ways to move freight, but the industry still produces significant greenhouse-gas emissions, including more than a quarter of the world's nitrogen oxides emissions. And it also produces more sulphur dioxide emissions than all land transportation combined. In the latest of our Future Transport series, Duncan Graham-Rowe looks at the new wave in shipping.

    • Duncan Graham-Rowe
    News
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News in Brief

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Correction

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News Feature

  • Recent eruptions and field expeditions may herald a return to glory for the Son of Krakatau. Jerry Guo explores what the 78-year-old island has to offer.

    • Jerry Guo
    News Feature
  • When jumbo Humboldt squid disappeared from Chilean waters, it led to the demise of a world-class electrophysiology laboratory. Now the creatures are back, finds Tony Scully, and so are the scientists.

    • Tony Scully
    News Feature
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Correspondence

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Commentary

  • Policies that predict and direct innovative research might seem to be a practical impossibility, says David H. Guston, but social sciences point to a solution.

    • David H. Guston
    Commentary
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Books & Arts

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News & Views

  • In mammals, white adipose tissue stores fat, whereas brown adipose tissue burns fat. Brown adipocytes have a common origin with muscle cells, which could help explain their unusual function.

    • Barbara Cannon
    • Jan Nedergaard
    News & Views
  • In gold catalysis, less is more. Bulk gold is an inert metal, but tiny particles containing as few as 55 gold atoms are effective at catalysing the targeted oxidation of hydrocarbons.

    • D. Wayne Goodman
    News & Views
  • It seems that fruitflies can detect magnetic fields, but only if they are illuminated with blue light. Mutant flies reveal that a light-responsive receptor underpins this peculiar behaviour.

    • François Rouyer
    News & Views
  • Conductors and semiconductors usually behave like conduits for fluids of electrons. But sometimes the electrons' spins conspire to produce unconventional behaviours that can be turned off and on with magnets.

    • Zachary Fisk
    • Stephan von Molnár
    News & Views
  • The sediments that blanket the sea floor contain tremendous numbers of microorganisms. This deep marine biosphere, which is probed by deep-sea drilling, is a new frontier for microbiologists and geochemists.

    • Ann Pearson
    News & Views
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Article

  • The genome sequence for Trichoplax adhaerens is analysed, and it is reported that the organism retains many features of the last common ancestor with cnidarians and bilaterians, estimated to be over 600 million years ago. However, T. adhaerens also contains genes for developmental patterns and cell types which have never been seen in this animal, suggesting that we might still not know the full story.

    • Mansi Srivastava
    • Emina Begovic
    • Daniel S. Rokhsar
    Article Open Access
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Letter

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Prospects

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Special Report

  • Graduate programmes are rated by various organizations using different criteria. How much use are these rankings? Genevive Bjorn surveys the options.

    • Genevive Bjorn
    Special Report
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Futures

  • A man walks into a bar ...

    • Ed Rybicki
    Futures
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Authors

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