Juan-Carlos Lopez, Editor of Nature Medicine, writes on 'Spoonful of medicine' (http://tinyurl.com/25e2o2): “Checking the literature in preparation for our monthly News & Views meeting, my colleague Clare Thomas spotted this recent paper from PLoS Pathogens [X. Contreras et al. PLoS Pathog. 3, e146; 2007]: HMBA Releases P-TEFb from HEXIM1 and 7SK snRNA via PI3K/Akt and Activates HIV Transcription. No offense intended to the authors or the editors, but I think it's safe to say that there's one too many abbreviations in the title. Can anyone out there trump it?”

Meanwhile, there is plenty of writing advice online. The Nature Nanotechnology 'Asia Pacific and Beyond' forum on Nature Network features a tips column for technical writing (http://tinyurl.com/2kvdhu). Here, for example, the sentence “The design of the microscope incorporates aberration lenses, 3 different lasers, which are suspended above the lenses which is housed in a chamber” is simplified by associate editor Ai Lin Chun to “The microscope consists of aberration lenses and three different lasers. Each laser is suspended above the lens and housed in a chamber.”