Volume 464 Issue 7287, 18 March 2010

Britain's Department of Health must respond to concerns about electronic medical records.

Europe's chief science adviser must be given authority and support to deliver across the board.

The week in science

US interior department seeks ways to save species threatened by climate change.

Omission of females is skewing results.

The elusive particles, if they exist, could help solve some of the most pressing problems in astrophysics.

Stone tools reveal that hominins lived on the Indonesian island of Flores a million years ago.

Academics lobby for more autonomy, but fear losing powerful connections with government.

Rising demand for immunization programmes in developing countries could outstrip funding.

Last year, functional magnetic resonance imaging made its debut in court. Virginia Hughes asks whether the technique is ready to weigh in on the fate of murderers.

A single incriminating fingerprint can land someone in jail. But, Laura Spinney finds, there is little empirical basis for such decisions.

It may be the gold standard of forensic science, but questions are now being raised about DNA identification from ever-smaller human traces. Natasha Gilbert asks how low can you go?

Scientists must engage with the European Union's redesign of its research programmes to shore up the continent's competitive position.

The US Congress should create an office to study, standardize and certify those who apply science to crime as well as the techniques they use, urge Peter Neufeld and Barry Scheck.

Four books by prominent global-warming pundits illustrate that exhortation and authority are not enough to solve the climate crisis — it is time for some humility, concludes Roger Pielke Jr.

French chemist Hervé This is a pioneer of the field of molecular gastronomy, the science of cooking. From perfecting the boiled egg to making custards with meat proteins, he has advised top chefs worldwide. He tells Nature why he is moving on to 'note-by-note' cuisine using compounds to build taste and smells, and why turkey is best cooked in the dishwasher.

Gold nanoparticles coated with a thin layer of an oxide allow molecules adsorbed on surfaces as diverse as those of platinum, yeast cells or citrus fruits to be characterized routinely in the laboratory.

Inhibitors of RAF enzymes can suppress or activate the same signalling pathway. The details of how this happens provide a cautionary note for those targeting the pathway for anticancer drug discovery.

The discovery of two quasars in the distant Universe that apparently have no hot dust in their environments provides evidence that these systems represent the first generation of their family.

At present, only injectable drugs are available for treating multiple sclerosis. So clinical trials indicating that the drug fingolimod might be a step towards an oral treatment for the disease are exciting indeed.

The golden ratio — an exact 'magic' number often claimed to be observed when taking ratios of distances in ancient and modern architecture, sculpture and painting — has been spotted in a magnetic compound.

Cellular senescence is a physiological mechanism for thwarting the proliferation of tumour cells. Encouraging cancer-prone cells to senesce might therefore be a way to nip this disease in the bud.

Pipefish and related species provide rare examples of extreme male parental care. Controlled breeding experiments allow the resulting conflicts of interest between female, male and offspring to be explored.

The front of motile cells is thought to be pushed out by branched filaments of actin protein abutting the cell membrane. New work challenges this textbook view, showing that actin branches grow away from, or obliquely to, a surface.

Fungi from the genus Fusarium are important pathogens of animals and crop plants. Some have a wide host range, whereas others are more specific in the organisms they infect. Here, clues are provided as to how differences in specificity come about. The genomes of two Fusarium fungi with differing host ranges have been sequenced, and compared with the genome of a third species. Experiments show that transferring two whole chromosomes turns a non-pathogenic Fusarium strain into a pathogenic one.

Cellular senescence — an irreversible cell-cycle arrest — has been implicated in suppressing tumour formation or growth. A new cellular signalling pathway that drives senescence has now been identified. This pathway does not involve most known mediators of senescence, and instead signals via the proteins Atf4, p27 and p21. Inactivating the proto-oncogene Skp2 in the context of oncogenic signalling can induce senescence through this new pathway, indicating that drugs that target Skp2 might be useful in cancer treatment.

The most distant quasars known, at redshifts z ≈ 6, generally have the same properties as lower-redshift quasars, implying that although the Universe was young at z ≈ 6, such quasars are still evolved objects. One z ≈ 6 quasar was shown to have no detectable emission from hot dust, but it was not clear whether it was an outlier. Now, a second quasar without hot-dust emission has been discovered in a sample of 21 z ≈ 6 quasars. Moreover, hot-dust abundance in these quasars builds up as the central black hole grows.

Of the more than 400 known exoplanets, about 70 transit their central star, most in small orbits (with periods of around 1 day, for instance). Here, observations are reported of the transit of CoRoT-9b, which orbits with a period of 95.274 days, on a low eccentricity, around a solar-like star. Its relatively large periastron distance yields a 'temperate' photospheric temperature estimated to be between 250 and 430 K, and its interior composition is inferred to be consistent with those of Jupiter and Saturn.

Until now, quantum atomic gases and single trapped ions have been treated separately in experiments. Now a hybrid system has been investigated, involving the immersion of a single trapped ion into a Bose–Einstein condensate of neutral atoms. The two systems could be controlled independently and the fundamental interaction processes were studied. Sympathetic cooling of the single ion by the condensate was observed, hinting at the possibility of using these condensates as refrigerators for ion-trap quantum computers.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering is a powerful spectroscopy technique that can be used to study substances down to the level of single molecules. But the practical applications have been limited by the need for metal substrates with roughened surfaces or in the form of nanoparticles. Here a new approach — shell-insulated nanoparticle-enhanced Raman spectroscopy — is described, and its versatility demonstrated with numerous test substances.

The physics of thermal diffusion — mass diffusion driven by a temperature gradient — is poorly understood. One obstacle has been that the Soret coefficient (S_T, which describes the steady-state result of thermal diffusion) is sensitive to many factors. It is now shown that the difference in S_T between isotopes of diffusing elements that are network modifiers is independent of composition and temperature. The findings suggest a theoretical approach for describing thermal diffusion in silicate melts and other complex solutions.

Male pregnancy is restricted to seahorses, pipefishes and their relatives, in which young are nurtured in the male's brood pouch. It is now clear that the brood pouch has a further function. Studies of Gulf pipefish show that males can selectively abort embryos from females perceived as less attractive, saving resources for more hopeful prospects later. This is the only known example of post-copulatory sexual conflict in a sex-reversed species.

Worldwide, 170 million people are infected with the hepatitis C virus, which is a significant cause of liver-related illnesses and deaths. Standard treatment combines pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin (RBV), but has some negative effects, notably RBV-induced haemolytic anaemia. Here, a genome-wide study shows that a deficiency in the enzyme inosine triphosphatase protects against haemolytic anaemia in patients receiving RBV.

Sequence variations in a 58-kilobase interval on human chromosome 9p21 have been associated with an increased risk of coronary artery disease. However, this interval contains no protein-coding genes and the mechanism underlying the increased risk has been unclear. Here, the corresponding interval has been deleted from mouse chromosome 4, revealing that this part of the chromosome regulates the cardiac expression of two nearby genes, Cdkn2a and Cdkn2b, and the proliferation dynamics of vascular cells.

Peptide hormones such as oxytocin and vasopressin influence social behaviour in several mammalian species. Here it is shown that a population of interneurons in the rat olfactory bulb releases vasopressin, and that vasopressin signalling is required in the olfactory system for proper social recognition in rats. Although vasopressin may not work in exactly the same way in humans, social recognition mediated by experience-dependent vasopressin release may be common.

Plants and animals sense intruding pathogens by using proteins that recognize diverse microbe-associated molecular patterns (MAMPs) and initiate innate immune responses. Early signalling responses in the host include calcium influx, an oxidative burst and transcriptional reprogramming. Here, four calcium-dependent protein kinases are described that function as calcium sensors, act as convergence points for various MAMPs, and are crucial for transcriptional reprogramming and oxidative burst in plants.

During development in Arabidopsis plants, populations of shoot stem cells and root stem cells are established at the embryo's apical and basal poles, respectively. PLETHORA genes are master regulators of root fate, but the regulators of shoot fate were unknown. Here, CLASS III HOMEODOMAIN-LEUCINE ZIPPER genes are identified as master regulators of apical/shoot fate, and are shown to be sufficient to convert the embryonic root pole into a second shoot pole.

The RAS–RAF signalling pathway is an attractive target for drug development in oncology, and several RAF inhibitors are being tested in clinical trials. Here and in an accompanying paper, RAF inhibitors are shown to have opposing roles, functioning as either inhibitors or activators of RAF depending on the cellular context and mutational status of RAF. The mechanistic basis for these opposing roles is dissected. The results have implications for the clinical use of these inhibitors and for the design of kinase inhibitors.

The RAS–RAF signalling pathway is an attractive target for drug development in oncology, and several RAF inhibitors are being tested in clinical trials. Here and in an accompanying paper, RAF inhibitors are shown to have opposing roles, functioning as either inhibitors or activators of RAF depending on the cellular context and mutational status of RAF. The mechanistic basis for these opposing roles is dissected. The results have implications for the clinical use of these inhibitors and for the design of kinase inhibitors.

Genomic instability has been implicated in tumour development. Here, a new mouse model of Kras-driven lung tumours has been developed, in which genomic instability is caused by overexpression of the mitotic checkpoint protein Mad2. In this model, inhibiting Kras leads to tumour regression, as shown previously. But tumours recur at a much higher rate.

Although new amino acids with desirable properties can be devised, only a few have been successfully introduced into proteins by the cellular machinery. Even then, only one type of unnatural amino acid can be added to a given protein. Here, a new system has been designed that could allow the incorporation of up to 200 novel amino acids. The system involves an orthogonal ribosome that uses quadruplet — rather than triplet — codons, as well as orthogonal tRNA synthetase–tRNA pairs.

Vitamin B₁₂ (cobalamin) is an essential coenzyme in mammals, and is taken up from the diet. The proteins required for its uptake are the gastric intrinsic factor (IF) and the ileal endocytic cubam receptor, which is in turn formed from the proteins cubilin and amnionless. Here, the crystal structure is presented of the complex between IF–cobalamin and the IF–cobalamin-binding region (CUB) of cubilin. The structure illustrates how numerous CUB domains function together as modular ligand-binding regions.

Mara Mather, associate professor of gerontology and psychology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, has received the American Psychological Association's award for early-career contributions.

Virginia research institute aims to recruit six to eight neuroscience research groups.

Universities and governments need better policies to help European students work and study abroad.

Recession has meant significant pay cuts for US faculty members and researchers.

For those who don't mind researching the tints, smells, sheens and softeners that contribute to everyday cosmetic products, the industry can offer a rewarding career path. Alaina Levine reports.

Wishful thinking.