●Creating the American junkie: Addiction research in the classic era of narcotic control. Koob, G. F. Nature Medicine December (2002). George Koob reviews the book of the same name by Caroline Jean Acker.

●The mouse genome.Nature 5 December (2002) This issue of Nature includes the publication of the initial sequencing and comparative analysis of the mouse genome, along with Commentary and News and Views articles from leaders in the field.

●The evolution of signalling pathways in animal development. Pires-daSilva, A. & Sommer, R. J. Nature Reviews Genetics January (2002)

●The many faces of tumor necrosis factor in stroke. Hallenbeck, J. M. Nature Medicine December (2002)

●Nongenomic actions of steroid hormones. Lösel, R. & Wehling, M. Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology January (2002) Steroids modulate a vast number of physiological functions. This review discusses those that occur rapidly, within seconds or minutes, and that are mediated through nongenomic pathways.

●Is proteomics heading in the wrong direction? Huber, L. A. Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology January (2002)

●Signposts on the neural path. Gottlieb, D. Nature Biotechnology December (2002) In this News and Views article, Gottlieb discusses new studies that are elucidating the genetic pathways that control the in vitro differentiation of embryonic stem cells into neural cells.

●Knockouts model the 100 best-selling drugs — will they model the next 100? Zambrowicz, B. P. & Sands, A. T. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery January (2002)

●Target selection in drug discovery. Knowles, J. & Gromo, G. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery January (2002)

●How neurons compute direction. Sterling, P. Nature 28 November (2002) A News and Views article on direction sensitivity in retinal ganglion cells.