Table of contents
Volume 458 Number 7239 pp679-796
In this issue (9 April 2009)
Also this week
(this content only available online) indicates content that is available online only
Editorials
Early warnings p679
Screening programmes for cancer detection are not always as effective at saving lives as might be hoped. Improving the situation will require a concerted effort on a broad front.
doi:10.1038/458679a
Tough climate p679
The US National Academy of Sciences faces a difficult balancing act over global warming.
doi:10.1038/458679b
Welcome, Nature Chemistry p680
doi:10.1038/458680a
Research Highlights
Evolution: Flights of fancy p682
doi:10.1038/458682a
Ecology: Equality in dirt p682
doi:10.1038/458682b
Quantum dots: Pillars progress p682
doi:10.1038/458682c
Atmospheric science: Bolt from the storm p682
doi:10.1038/458682d
Astronomy: Slow and steady p682
doi:10.1038/458682e
Biophysics: DNA made for walking p682
doi:10.1038/458682f
Immunology: Inflaming the problem p683
doi:10.1038/458683a
Development: The trouble with alcohol p683
doi:10.1038/458683b
Chemistry: Three in one p683
doi:10.1038/458683c
Geology: Flooding on the Silk Road p683
doi:10.1038/458683d
News
Obama's nuclear-weapons-free vision p684
President extends US commitment to arms reduction.
Declan Butler
doi:10.1038/458684a
Korean satellite misses orbit p685
Third time unlucky as payload plunges into the Pacific.
Geoff Brumfiel
doi:10.1038/458685a
Cutting off cancer's supply lines p686
Targeting the blood vessels that feed tumours is not the silver bullet once hoped for, but refinements to the strategy may suggest further ways to treat the disease. Erika Check Hayden reports.
Erika Check Hayden
doi:10.1038/458686b
Volcanoes ignite monitoring efforts p689
Efforts intensify after eruptions in Alaska and Chile.
Rex Dalton
doi:10.1038/458689b
Open-access policy flourishes at NIH p690
Researchers, institutions and publishers have complied with the mandate, but it still has its opponents.
Meredith Wadman
doi:10.1038/458690a
Snapshot: Gapping the bridge p690
Radar image reveals damage to ice shelf.
Quirin Schiermeier
doi:10.1038/458690b
Sagging economy clips clean tech's wings p692
doi:10.1038/458692a
Europe revises animal-research proposals p692
doi:10.1038/458692b
Skeleton transfer to Native Americans put on hold p692
doi:10.1038/458692c
Italian laboratory escapes quake damage p693
doi:10.1038/458693a
US AIDS programme 'essential and expensive' p693
doi:10.1038/458693b
Costs for airborne telescope spiral upwards p693
doi:10.1038/458693c
News Features
Evolution: Biology's next top model? p695
From Antarctic icefish to Galapagos finches, there are some interesting characters at the fringes of developmental biology. Brendan Maher explores a world of alternative model organisms.
doi:10.1038/458695a
Greek research: Feast and famine p700
While researchers in Greece starve for government support, biomedicine is thriving at a lavish new centre in Athens, finds Alison Abbott.
doi:10.1038/458700a
Correspondence
Let's not reignite an unproductive controversy p702
John Dupré & Paul E. Griffiths
doi:10.1038/458702a
What does applying 'scientific values' mean in reality? p702
Mike Hulme
doi:10.1038/458702b
Dialogue between the disciplines is thriving p702
Giovanni Frazzetto
doi:10.1038/458702c
Full Text | PDF (388K) | Supplementary information
Widen the channels of communication with society p702
Stephen Curry
doi:10.1038/458702d
For anyone who ever said there's no such thing as a poetic gene p703
Claes Gustafsson
doi:10.1038/458703a
Brain technologies raise unprecedented ethical challenges p703
Olaf Blanke & Jane E. Aspell
doi:10.1038/458703b
Books and Arts
A clash of visual cultures p704
Nick Hopwood applauds an account of how US scientists used images to counter creationism and promote public understanding of evolution in the 1920s.
Nick Hopwood
doi:10.1038/458704a
Drawing from Darwin p705
Carl Zimmer reviews Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts
doi:10.1038/458705a
Shaking the tree of life p706
Ronald Jenner reviews Perspectives in Animal Phylogeny and Evolution
doi:10.1038/458706a
Q&A: The molecular master chef p707
Twenty-five years ago this week, food writer Harold McGee published a Nature paper on the science of whipping egg whites in copper bowls. Here he explains how he first developed an interest in science and cooking.
Daniel Cressey
doi:10.1038/458707a
Corrections p707
doi:10.1038/458707b
News and Views
Drug discovery: Fresh target for cancer therapy p709
The Byzantine system for degrading proteins inside cells is already the target of a successful anticancer drug. A compound that inhibits another part of this system also shows promise in models of cancer in mice.
Raymond J. Deshaies
doi:10.1038/458709a
See also: Editor's summary
Astrophysics: Hidden Universe uncovered p710
An experiment flying on a balloon at the edge of the atmosphere offers the deepest far-infrared view of the sky yet achieved, revealing previously unidentified, dust-obscured, star-forming galaxies in the early Universe.
Ian Smail
doi:10.1038/458710a
See also: Editor's summary
Cancer: When restriction is good p713
Dietary restriction can prolong life and delay the onset of cancer. Suppressing the signalling pathway that is mediated by the hormone insulin might be crucial for the anticancer effects of reduced caloric intake.
Anne Brunet
doi:10.1038/458713a
See also: Editor's summary
Biogeochemistry: Less nickel for more oxygen p714
The availability (or lack) of oceanic trace elements is providing fresh lines of explanation for turning points in Earth's history — the Great Oxidation Event being one such momentous occasion.
Mak A. Saito
doi:10.1038/458714a
See also: Editor's summary
Stem cells: Low-risk reprogramming p715
New techniques circumvent a roadblock to the production of embryonicstem-cell-like lines from adult tissue. Such reprogrammed cell lines should be much safer to use for therapy.
Martin F. Pera
doi:10.1038/458715a
See also: Editor's summary
50 & 100 years ago p716
doi:10.1038/458716a
Physical chemistry: How to improve your image p716
The technique of second harmonic generation microscopy is used to obtain pictures of living systems, but the dyes required provide only modest imaging contrast per molecule. The latest dyes give a much better picture.
Michael J. Therien
doi:10.1038/458716b
Obituary: Hidesaburo Hanafusa (1929–2009) p718
Inspiration and innovation in molecular cancer research.
David A. Foster & James E. Darnell Jr
doi:10.1038/458718a
Review
The cancer genome p719
Michael R. Stratton, Peter J. Campbell & P. Andrew Futreal
doi:10.1038/nature07943
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (360K)
See also: Editor's summary
Articles
Tumours with PI3K activation are resistant to dietary restriction p725
The authors show that mouse or human tumours in which the PI3K/Akt pathway is constitutively activated are resistant to dietary restriction whereas other tumours are sensitive. The authors also implicate the Akt target gene FOXO1 in the response to dietary restriction.
Nada Y. Kalaany & David M. Sabatini
doi:10.1038/nature07782
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,063K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Brunet
An inhibitor of NEDD8-activating enzyme as a new approach to treat cancer p732
This study has developed the first small molecule NEDD8-activating enzyme (NAE) inhibitor, which induces cancer cell death and exerts anti-tumour activity in preclinical mouse models. This work establishes NAE as an anti-cancer target and may lead to new anti-cancer therapeutics.
Teresa A. Soucy, Peter G. Smith, Michael A. Milhollen, Allison J. Berger, James M. Gavin, Sharmila Adhikari, James E. Brownell, Kristine E. Burke, David P. Cardin, Stephen Critchley, Courtney A. Cullis, Amanda Doucette, James J. Garnsey, Jeffrey L. Gaulin, Rachel E. Gershman, Anna R. Lublinsky, Alice McDonald, Hirotake Mizutani, Usha Narayanan, Edward J. Olhava, Stephane Peluso, Mansoureh Rezaei, Michael D. Sintchak, Tina Talreja, Michael P. Thomas, Tary Traore, Stepan Vyskocil, Gabriel S. Weatherhead, Jie Yu, Julie Zhang, Lawrence R. Dick, Christopher F. Claiborne, Mark Rolfe, Joseph B. Bolen & Steven P. Langston
doi:10.1038/nature07884
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (528K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Deshaies
Letters
Over half of the far-infrared background light comes from galaxies at z 
1.2 p737
Submillimetre surveys have discovered a population of luminous, high-redshift, dusty starburst galaxies, which go through a phase of very rapid star formation, resulting in approximately equal extragalactic optical and far infrared backgrounds (FIRB). Devlin et al. report an extragalactic survey at 250, 350 and 500 
m; they determine that all of the FIRB comes from individual galaxies, with galaxies at redshift z 1.2 accounting for 70 per cent of it.
Mark J. Devlin, Peter A. R. Ade, Itziar Aretxaga, James J. Bock, Edward L. Chapin, Matthew Griffin, Joshua O. Gundersen, Mark Halpern, Peter C. Hargrave, David H. Hughes, Jeff Klein, Gaelen Marsden, Peter G. Martin, Philip Mauskopf, Lorenzo Moncelsi, Calvin B. Netterfield, Henry Ngo, Luca Olmi, Enzo Pascale, Guillaume Patanchon, Marie Rex, Douglas Scott, Christopher Semisch, Nicholas Thomas, Matthew D. P. Truch, Carole Tucker, Gregory S. Tucker, Marco P. Viero & Donald V. Wiebe
doi:10.1038/nature07918
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,544K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Smail
Interdimensional universality of dynamic interfaces p740
Despite the complexity and diversity of nature, universality exists in the form of critical scaling laws for dissimilar systems such as stock markets, lung inflation and earthquakes. This universality seems to depend only on the symmetry and dimension of the system. Kab-Jin Kim and co-authors demonstrate that in ferromagnetic nanowires, the magnetic domain wall dynamics are universal even when the system changes from two dimensional to one.
Kab-Jin Kim, Jae-Chul Lee, Sung-Min Ahn, Kang-Soo Lee, Chang-Won Lee, Young Jin Cho, Sunae Seo, Kyung-Ho Shin, Sug-Bong Choe & Hyun-Woo Lee
doi:10.1038/nature07874
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (260K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Enhancement of the Nernst effect by stripe order in a high-Tc superconductor p743
The Nernst effect in metals is sensitive to superconductivity and density-wave order. The large positive Nernst signal observed in hole-doped high-transition-temperature superconductors has been attributed to fluctuating superconductivity but Olivier Cyr-Choiniere and colleagues report that the Nernst signal can be caused by stripe order. In LSCO doped with Nd or Eu, the onset of stripe order causes the Nernst signal to go from small and negative to large and positive.
Olivier Cyr-Choinière, R. Daou, Francis Laliberté, David LeBoeuf, Nicolas Doiron-Leyraud, J. Chang, J.-Q. Yan, J.-G. Cheng, J.-S. Zhou, J. B. Goodenough, S. Pyon, T. Takayama, H. Takagi, Y. Tanaka & Louis Taillefer
doi:10.1038/nature07931
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (335K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Low-temperature oxidation of CO catalysed by Co3O4 nanorods p746
Tricobalt tetraoxide (Co3O4) is a potential catalyst for low-temperature oxidation of carbon monoxide (required in automotive emission control) but although it is active even at subzero temperatures, it is highly sensitive to moisture. By forming Co3O4 into nanorods, Xiaowei Xie and colleagues make it more active and also stable in the presence of water; they attribute these improvements to the high density of catalytically active Co3+ sites exposed on the nanorod surface.
Xiaowei Xie, Yong Li, Zhi-Quan Liu, Masatake Haruta & Wenjie Shen
doi:10.1038/nature07877
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (755K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Oceanic nickel depletion and a methanogen famine before the Great Oxidation Event p750
A decrease in atmospheric methane levels might have triggered the progressive rise of atmospheric oxygen about 2.4 billion years ago, but the cause of this methane decrease remains uncertain. Kurt Konhauser and colleagues report a decline in the oceanic nickel-to-iron ratio about 2.7 billion years ago, which they attribute to a reduced flux of nickel to the oceans; this decline would have stifled the activity of methane-producing organisms that require nickel to function.
Kurt O. Konhauser, Ernesto Pecoits, Stefan V. Lalonde, Dominic Papineau, Euan G. Nisbet, Mark E. Barley, Nicholas T. Arndt, Kevin Zahnle & Balz S. Kamber
doi:10.1038/nature07858
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (314K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Saito
Phylogenetic biome conservatism on a global scale p754
How constrained is the ecology of a species by its phylogenetic history? The authors assess the extent of biome conservatism — the tendency of a species to occupy the same niche as its ancestors — in over 11,000 Southern Hemisphere plants, 15% of the total flora of the Southern Hemisphere continents. They show that only 3.6% of the evolutionary divergences in their study involved a shift of biome, demonstrating the strong influence of biome conservatism.
Michael D. Crisp, Mary T. K. Arroyo, Lyn G. Cook, Maria A. Gandolfo, Gregory J. Jordan, Matt S. McGlone, Peter H. Weston, Mark Westoby, Peter Wilf & H. Peter Linder
doi:10.1038/nature07764
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (287K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Role of Jhdm2a in regulating metabolic gene expression and obesity resistance p757
The histone demethylase Jhdm2a (also known as Kdm3a) has an important role in nuclear hormone receptor-mediated gene activation and male germ cell development. Here the authors disrupt the Jhdm2a gene in mice to demonstrate that Jhdm2a also regulates expression of metabolic genes such as Ppara and Ucp1; the obese phenotype of the knockout mice indicates the demethylase is involved in regulation of weight control.
Keisuke Tateishi, Yuki Okada, Eric M. Kallin & Yi Zhang
doi:10.1038/nature07777
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (561K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
c-Myc suppression of miR-23a/b enhances mitochondrial glutaminase expression and glutamine metabolism p762
This paper shows that c-Myc regulates the microRNAs miR-23a and miR-23b to increase the expression of the mitochondrial enzyme glutaminase. This leads to enhanced glutamine metabolism and contributes to the metabolic changes in c-Myc-driven cancers.
Ping Gao, Irina Tchernyshyov, Tsung-Cheng Chang, Yun-Sil Lee, Kayoko Kita, Takafumi Ochi, Karen I. Zeller, Angelo M. De Marzo, Jennifer E. Van Eyk, Joshua T. Mendell & Chi V. Dang
doi:10.1038/nature07823
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (510K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
piggyBac transposition reprograms fibroblasts to induced pluripotent stem cells p766
This paper uses the piggyBac transposon to generate stable iPS cells from human and mouse fibroblasts; the individual piggyBac insertions can then be removed from established iPS cell lines. The study also demonstrates removal of reprogramming factors joined with 2A sequences (described in an accompanying paper; doi:10.1038/nature07864) delivered by a single transposon from murine iPS lines.
Knut Woltjen, Iacovos P. Michael, Paria Mohseni, Ridham Desai, Maria Mileikovsky, Riikka Hämäläinen, Rebecca Cowling, Wei Wang, Pentao Liu, Marina Gertsenstein, Keisuke Kaji, Hoon-Ki Sung & Andras Nagy
doi:10.1038/nature07863
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (731K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Pera
Virus-free induction of pluripotency and subsequent excision of reprogramming factors p771
This paper presents a technique to reprogram mouse and human fibroblasts to induce pluripotency. The authors show that the transgene can be removed once reprogramming has been achieved with a piggyBac transposon (described in an accompanying paper; doi:10.1038/nature07863). This system minimizes genome modification in induced pluripotent stem cells and enables complete elimination of exogenous reprogramming factors.
Keisuke Kaji, Katherine Norrby, Agnieszka Paca, Maria Mileikovsky, Paria Mohseni & Knut Woltjen
doi:10.1038/nature07864
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (918K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Pera
Hedgehog signalling is essential for maintenance of cancer stem cells in myeloid leukaemia p776
Here it is shown that Hedgehog signalling is important in chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), where it acts to maintain leukaemia stem cells by regulating the expression of Numb. CML stem cells can be depleted when Hedgehog signalling is inhibited, including cells that are resistant to the drug imatinib that is used to treat CML.
Chen Zhao, Alan Chen, Catriona H. Jamieson, Mark Fereshteh, Annelie Abrahamsson, Jordan Blum, Hyog Young Kwon, Jynho Kim, John P. Chute, David Rizzieri, Michael Munchhof, Todd VanArsdale, Philip A. Beachy & Tannishtha Reya
doi:10.1038/nature07737
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (460K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Association of reactive oxygen species levels and radioresistance in cancer stem cells p780
This study shows that cancer stem cell in breast tumours have lower levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) than the rest of the tumour cells. This property renders cancer stem cells less sensitive to radiation therapy, which may cause radioresistance in breast cancer.
Maximilian Diehn, Robert W. Cho, Neethan A. Lobo, Tomer Kalisky, Mary Jo Dorie, Angela N. Kulp, Dalong Qian, Jessica S. Lam, Laurie E. Ailles, Manzhi Wong, Benzion Joshua, Michael J. Kaplan, Irene Wapnir, Frederick M. Dirbas, George Somlo, Carlos Garberoglio, Benjamin Paz, Jeannie Shen, Sean K. Lau, Stephen R. Quake, J. Martin Brown, Irving L. Weissman & Michael F. Clarke
doi:10.1038/nature07733
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (381K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Structure and function of the 5'
3' exoribonuclease Rat1 and its activating partner Rai1 p784
This study reports the structures of the Rat1-Rai1 complex and Rai1 and Dom3Z (the mouse Rai1 homologue) alone. These structures reveal the mechanism of exonuclease activity and define the catalytic differences with another class of nucleases containing a PIN domain. The work also reveals that Rai1 has pyrophosphohydrolase activity, the first such activity found in eukaryotes.
Song Xiang, Amalene Cooper-Morgan, Xinfu Jiao, Megerditch Kiledjian, James L. Manley & Liang Tong
doi:10.1038/nature07731
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (810K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Naturejobs
NewsEarly intervention p791
Awards allow young scientists to pursue risky research.
Karen Kaplan
doi:10.1038/nj7239-791a
Postdoc journal
Kidding around p791
Bryan Venters
doi:10.1038/nj7239-791b
In Brief
Vietnam pay complaints p791
Vietnamese science struggles.
doi:10.1038/nj7239-791c
Bioscience park launched p791
Research park planned in Minnesota.
doi:10.1038/nj7239-791d
BP Solar cuts 620 jobs p791
Solar power firm downsizing.
doi:10.1038/nj7239-791e
Careers and Recruitment
Prevention by numbers p792
Researchers who study environmental influences on cancer tend to receive a fraction of the funds available to those researching cancer cures. But career opportunities exist — and may even be expanding. Heidi Ledford reports.
Heidi Ledford
doi:10.1038/nj7239-792a
