A numerical perspective on Nature authors.

Gerard Cagney is a member of the large team that this week describes the protein machines needed for a simple yeast cell to work (see page 637). During the experimental work, Cagney was living and working in Canada. But he recently moved to the Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research in Dublin, Ireland, as the principal investigator of a proteomics lab.

The government is doing all it can to make Ireland research-friendly, says Cagney — through agencies such as Science Foundation Ireland, which works closely with the Industrial Development Agency to attract industrial investment. But ultimately, Cagney says, what makes the lab successful is the talented and hard-working group of researchers who all, like himself, enjoy their work and love science.

4 manuscripts submitted to Nature in 2006 have come from Ireland (<1% of total submissions).

16 papers published in Nature this year have focused on protein work (7% of total papers published).

53 authors, including Cagney, collaborated on the yeast paper published on page 637 this week.

4,562 is the number of tagged proteins that Cagney and his colleagues processed.