●Sex on the brain. Benenson, J. F. Nature 10 July (2003) A review of Simon Baron-Cohen's book Essential Difference: Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain.

●Mild cognitive impairment clinical trials. Petersen, R. C. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery August (2003)

●Gli proteins and the control of spinal cord patterning. Jacob, J. & Briscoe, J. EMBO Reports August (2003)

●Probing for prions: recognizing misfolded PrP (News and Views). Caughey, B. Nature Medicine July (2003)

●The power of the 3′ UTR: translational control and development. Kuersten, S. & Goodwin, E. B. Nature Reviews Genetics August (2003) Gene expression is predominantly regulated at the level of transcription, but there are cases when translational control takes over. This review considers the emerging roles of translational control in various biological processes, including stem-cell biology, sex determination, erythropoiesis and neurogenesis.

●Mammary messages. Blass, E. M. Nature 3 July (2003) This News and Views article reports on the identification of a pheromone that induces suckling in newborn rabbits.

●Attack on amyloid. Kahle, P. J. & de Strooper, B. EMBO Reports August (2003) A meeting report from the International Titisee Conference on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease: from basic science to therapeutic treatment.

●Building up the blood–brain barrier (News and Views). Rieckmann, P. & Engelhardt, B. Nature Medicine August (2003)

●Hearing aid. Dumont, R. A. & Gillespie, P. G. Nature 3 July (2003) Mechanically controlled ion channels are a key feature of the cells that detect sound, touch and movement. As this News and Views article reports, the channels in fruitfly ears belong to a familiar class of proteins — the TRP family.

●Technicolour transgenics: imaging tools for functional genomics in the mouse. Hadjantonakis, A.-K. et al. Nature Reviews Genetics August (2003) Mice that express fluorescent reporters are providing unique insights into mammalian biology, from X-chromosome inactivation to branching morphogenesis. This review also describes how this technology is being used to explore the formation and plasticity of synapses.