Editorials

America's fresh start p431

The next US president will lead the country back onto the world stage in many arenas, including science.

doi:10.1038/455431a

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Creation and classrooms p431

Better to confront superstition with science than to disregard the superstitious.

doi:10.1038/455431b

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Pathways to security p432

Self-regulation is a good first step — but synthetic-biology companies still need independent oversight.

doi:10.1038/455432a

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Research Highlights

Marine ecology: Seeing red p434

doi:10.1038/455434a

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Cell biology: Home-grown fat control p434

doi:10.1038/455434b

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Materials science: A rarefied insulator p434

doi:10.1038/455434c

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Nonlinear dynamics: Loading the dice p434

doi:10.1038/455434d

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Astronomy: When Triton lost its mate p434

doi:10.1038/455434e

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Ecology: Fire prevention p434

doi:10.1038/455434f

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Neuroscience: Sweet connections p435

doi:10.1038/455435a

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Palaeontology: Whale of a tail p435

doi:10.1038/455435b

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Animal behaviour: Counting bee p435

doi:10.1038/455435c

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Solar power: Light work p435

doi:10.1038/455435d

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Journal Club

Journal club p435

Francisco Azuaje

doi:10.1038/455435e

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News

LHC meltdown before first collision p436

California institute to help stem-cell biotechs p436

Monoclonal antibodies come of age p437

Gulf states plan for nuclear future p438

Brazil braced for unexpected oil wealth p438

Snapshot: Marine marvels p440

Creationism row forces out UK educator p441

Anthrax enquiry to undergo independent review p441

Researcher punished for misconduct wins NSF grant p441

Australian clinic gets permit to clone stem cells p441

Agency drops disputed chelation study p441

Arctic ice shrinks less this year than last p441

News Features

US election: The home stretch p442

US election: Questioning the candidates p446

US election: Agencies of change p451

Column

US election: Not the best advice p453

News Feature

Science prizes: Best in class p455

Correspondence

Shaping science education in just 100 words p460

Marco Prunotto

doi:10.1038/455460a

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Animal research: too much faith in models clouds judgement p460

Keith Suckling

doi:10.1038/455460b

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Animal research: raise standards to protect patients p460

Susan Green

doi:10.1038/455460c

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Energy: efficiency gains alone won't reduce emissions p460

Robin Lovelace

doi:10.1038/455461a

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Energy: time to consider heavy-metal nuclear coolants? p461

Donald E. Hirsch

doi:10.1038/455461b

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Big data: open-source format needed to aid wiki collaboration p461

Tin-Lap Lee

doi:10.1038/455461c

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Big data: teaching must evolve to keep up with advances p461

Samuel Donovan

doi:10.1038/455461d

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Commentary

A cat's cradle for policy p462

The OECD is developing a strategy for nations to measure and ultimately promote innovation. It requires knowledge of a complex system, say Fred Gault and Susanne Huttner.

doi:10.1038/455462a

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Books and Arts

Land of giants p464

Expansion of the railways across the western United States changed the face of vertebrate palaeontology, and perhaps the country itself, explains Ross MacPhee.

Ross MacPhee reviews The Legacy of the Mastodon: The Golden Age of Fossils in America by Keith Thomson

doi:10.1038/455464a

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Which science book should the next US president read? p464

Steven Shapin, Jerry Coyne, Rita Colwell, Martin Nowak, Jerry Ravetz & Kevin Padian

doi:10.1038/455464b

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A sustainable home for science p466

Erika Check Hayden reviews The California Academy of Sciences

doi:10.1038/455466a

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Saving public universities p467

John B. Clark reviews Unmaking the Public University: The Forty-Year Assault on the Middle Class by Christopher Newfield

doi:10.1038/455467a

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Q&A: Science sketched out p468

The annual UK Big Draw festival, a month of nationwide workshops and talks launched this weekend in London, teaches people how to 'see' through drawing. Terry Rosenberg, head of design at Goldsmiths, University of London, explains how gaining skills in life drawing can help scientists perceive the world and communicate their results.

Louise Whiteley

doi:10.1038/455468a

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Essay

Meetings that changed the world: Bellagio 1969: The green revolution p470

Agriculture in developing countries was transformed when scientists met aid officials and convinced them to invest in research. Lowell S. Hardin was there, and believes today's food crisis demands a similar vision.

Lowell S. Hardin

doi:10.1038/455470a

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News and Views

Structural biology: A moving story of receptors p473

Animals sense light and chemical signals through proteins called G-protein-coupled receptors. The crystal structure of one such receptor in complex with a G-protein fragment shows how these receptors are activated.

Thue W. Schwartz & Wayne L. Hubbell

doi:10.1038/455473a

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Solid-state physics: New order for magnetism p474

Physicists have come up with an innovative way of manipulating the direction of magnetization in a solid. The approach might be used to make low-power-consumption computer memory devices.

Eiji Saitoh

doi:10.1038/455474a

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Hearing: Route to authentic hair cells p475

Existing therapies for hearing defects are generally ineffective in severe forms of deafness. A technical feat that generates sound-sensing hair cells in the inner ear of mice might have long-term potential.

Mats Ulfendahl

doi:10.1038/455475a

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Astrophysics: How fast can you blink? p477

Serendipitous observations have revealed fast optical flaring after the onset of X-ray-burst activity from a source in our Milky Way galaxy. It could be the first time this has been observed in a rare kind of neutron star.

Chryssa Kouveliotou

doi:10.1038/455477a

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Neuroscience: An ageing view of myelin repair p478

When the myelin layer that covers neuronal processes is lost through disease, neural stem cells recapitulate the developmental program of 'myelination'. The underlying molecular mechanisms often fail in the ageing brain.

Klaus-Armin Nave

doi:10.1038/455478a

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Cancer: Entangled pathways p479

A medley of molecules, and the interactions between them, mediate cancer. The latest news is that the enzyme CDK8 orchestrates cross-talk between two signalling pathways that are frequently deregulated in human cancers.

René Bernards

doi:10.1038/455479a

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News and Views Q&A

Microbiology: Metagenomics p481

Ten years after the term metagenomics was coined, the approach continues to gather momentum. This culture-independent, molecular way of analysing environmental samples of cohabiting microbial populations has opened up fresh perspectives on microbiology.

Philip Hugenholtz & Gene W. Tyson

doi:10.1038/455481a

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Articles

Frequency-modulated nuclear localization bursts coordinate gene regulation p485

Long Cai, Chiraj K. Dalal & Michael B. Elowitz

doi:10.1038/nature07292

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (560K) | Supplementary information

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Trans-splicing in C. elegans generates the negative RNAi regulator ERI-6/7 p491

Sylvia E. J. Fischer, Maurice D. Butler, Qi Pan & Gary Ruvkun

doi:10.1038/nature07274

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (442K) | Supplementary information

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Crystal structure of opsin in its G-protein-interacting conformation p497

Patrick Scheerer, Jung Hee Park, Peter W. Hildebrand, Yong Ju Kim, Norbert Krau, Hui-Woog Choe, Klaus Peter Hofmann & Oliver P. Ernst

doi:10.1038/nature07330

• PDB code

  • 1U19
  • 3CAP
  • 1GOT
  • 3DQB

• 3D view

  • 1U19
  • 3CAP
  • 1GOT
  • 3DQB

Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,088K) | Supplementary information

See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Schwartz & Hubbell

Letters

Very fast optical flaring from a possible new Galactic magnetar p503

A. Stefanescu, G. Kanbach, A. Sowikowska, J. Greiner, S. McBreen & G. Sala

doi:10.1038/nature07308

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Flares from a candidate Galactic magnetar suggest a missing link to dim isolated neutron stars p506

A. J. Castro-Tirado, A. de Ugarte Postigo, J. Gorosabel, M. Jelínek, T. A. Fatkhullin, V. V. Sokolov, P. Ferrero, D. A. Kann, S. Klose, D. Sluse, M. Bremer, J. M. Winters, D. Nuernberger, D. Pérez-Ramírez, M. A. Guerrero, J. French, G. Melady, L. Hanlon, B. McBreen, K. Leventis, S. B. Markoff, S. Leon, A. Kraus, F. J. Aceituno, R. Cunniffe, P. Kubánek, S. Vítek, S. Schulze, A. C. Wilson, R. Hudec, M. Durant, J. M. González-Pérez, T. Shahbaz, S. Guziy, S. B. Pandey, L. Pavlenko, E. Sonbas, S. A. Trushkin, N. N. Bursov, N. A. Nizhelskij, C. Sánchez-Fernández & L. Sabau-Graziati

doi:10.1038/nature07328

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (544K) | Supplementary information

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Reconstruction of non-classical cavity field states with snapshots of their decoherence p510

Samuel Deléglise, Igor Dotsenko, Clément Sayrin, Julien Bernu, Michel Brune, Jean-Michel Raimond & Serge Haroche

doi:10.1038/nature07288

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Magnetization vector manipulation by electric fields p515

D. Chiba, M. Sawicki, Y. Nishitani, Y. Nakatani, F. Matsukura & H. Ohno

doi:10.1038/nature07318

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (444K) | Supplementary information

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Observed and modelled stability of overflow across the Greenland–Scotland ridge p519

Steffen M. Olsen, Bogi Hansen, Detlef Quadfasel & Svein Østerhus

doi:10.1038/nature07302

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (633K) | Supplementary information

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Intraseasonal interaction between the Madden–Julian Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation p523

Christophe Cassou

doi:10.1038/nature07286

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Earliest date for milk use in the Near East and southeastern Europe linked to cattle herding p528

Richard P. Evershed, Sebastian Payne, Andrew G. Sherratt, Mark S. Copley, Jennifer Coolidge, Duska Urem-Kotsu, Kostas Kotsakis, Mehmet Özdoan, Aslý E. Özdoan, Olivier Nieuwenhuyse, Peter M. M. G. Akkermans, Douglass Bailey, Radian-Romus Andeescu, Stuart Campbell, Shahina Farid, Ian Hodder, Nurcan Yalman, Mihriban Özbaaran, Erhan Bçakc, Yossef Garfinkel, Thomas Levy & Margie M. Burton

doi:10.1038/nature07180

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Neutralizing antibodies derived from the B cells of 1918 influenza pandemic survivors p532

Xiaocong Yu, Tshidi Tsibane, Patricia A. McGraw, Frances S. House, Christopher J. Keefer, Mark D. Hicar, Terrence M. Tumpey, Claudia Pappas, Lucy A. Perrone, Osvaldo Martinez, James Stevens, Ian A. Wilson, Patricia V. Aguilar, Eric L. Altschuler, Christopher F. Basler & James E. Crowe Jr

doi:10.1038/nature07231

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (227K) | Supplementary information

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Functional auditory hair cells produced in the mammalian cochlea by in utero gene transfer p537

Samuel P. Gubbels, David W. Woessner, John C. Mitchell, Anthony J. Ricci & John V. Brigande

doi:10.1038/nature07265

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,202K) | Supplementary information

See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Ulfendahl

FcRn-mediated antibody transport across epithelial cells revealed by electron tomography p542

Wanzhong He, Mark S. Ladinsky, Kathryn E. Huey-Tubman, Grant J. Jensen, J. Richard McIntosh & Pamela J. Björkman

doi:10.1038/nature07255

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CDK8 is a colorectal cancer oncogene that regulates -catenin activity p547

Ron Firestein, Adam J. Bass, So Young Kim, Ian F. Dunn, Serena J. Silver, Isil Guney, Ellen Freed, Azra H. Ligon, Natalie Vena, Shuji Ogino, Milan G. Chheda, Pablo Tamayo, Stephen Finn, Yashaswi Shrestha, Jesse S. Boehm, Supriya Jain, Emeric Bojarski, Craig Mermel, Jordi Barretina, Jennifer A. Chan, Jose Baselga, Josep Tabernero, David E. Root, Charles S. Fuchs, Massimo Loda, Ramesh A. Shivdasani, Matthew Meyerson & William C. Hahn

doi:10.1038/nature07179

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (769K) | Supplementary information

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E2F1 represses -catenin transcription and is antagonized by both pRB and CDK8 p552

Erick J. Morris, Jun-Yuan Ji, Fajun Yang, Luisa Di Stefano, Anabel Herr, Nam-Sung Moon, Eun-Jeong Kwon, Kevin M. Haigis, Anders M. Näär & Nicholas J. Dyson

doi:10.1038/nature07310

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (822K) | Supplementary information

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Replication fork movement sets chromatin loop size and origin choice in mammalian cells p557

Sylvain Courbet, Sophie Gay, Nausica Arnoult, Gerd Wronka, Mauro Anglana, Olivier Brison & Michelle Debatisse

doi:10.1038/nature07233

First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (745K) | Supplementary information

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Naturejobs

Prospects p561

China as both an exporter and an importer of science talent.

Gene Russo

doi:10.1038/nj7212-561a

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Stephen Simpson, director of life sciences, Science Foundation Ireland, Dublin, Ireland p562

Immunologist takes circuitous path to Science Foundation Ireland.

Virginia Gewin

doi:10.1038/nj7212-562a

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Two-body solution p562

Study suggests an upside to the 'two-body problem'.

Virginia Gewin

doi:10.1038/nj7212-562b

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Professional encounters p562

Interacting with my scientist peers can make me nervous.

Aliza le Roux

doi:10.1038/nj7212-562c

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Futures

The Brown Revolution p564

No longer number two.

Norman Spinrad

doi:10.1038/455564a

Full Text | PDF (133K)