Making a difference. Shettleworth, S. J. Nature 8 July (2004) Sara J. Shettleworth reviews the book Do Animals Think? by Clive D. L. Wynne.

Milestones in Development July (2004) Milestones in Development is a supplement that highlights the most important discoveries in developmental biology over the past 100 years. Neuroscience topics that are covered include neural induction, axon guidance and neural-tube patterning. The Milestones are available free online for 6 months at www.nature.com/milestones/development, along with selected articles from the Nature Publishing Group archives. Also, a digital edition of the entire supplement can be downloaded free of charge from the Milestones in Development web site.

Gate expectations. Garcia, M. L. Nature 8 July (2004) The gating of ion channels in response to specific stimuli is crucial for cell function. As this News and Views article reports, the membrane-partitioning activities of two venom toxins give insights into the mechanisms that are involved.

Making scents of olfactory adaptation. Adelman, J. P. & Herson, P. S. Nature Neuroscience July (2004) This News and Views article describes a study that reveals a novel olfactory-adaptation mechanism that involves unexpected binding sites on cyclic nucleotide-gated channels.

Automatic obstacle avoidance and parietal cortex. Humphreys, G. W. & Edwards, M. G. Nature Neuroscience July (2004) The ventral visual stream is proposed to support perception, and the dorsal stream is proposed to control action. This News and Views article discusses new findings, which show that the dorsal visual stream contributes to automatic obstacle avoidance.

Tangled NUDELs? Holzbauer, E. L. F. Nature Cell Biology July (2004) NUDEL was first identified as a protein that is required for nuclear migration in filamentous fungi. Now, as reported in this News and Views article, a study shows that it is important for normal assembly of neurofilaments in the mammalian nervous system

How does parkin ligate ubiquitin to Parkinson's disease? Kahle, P. J. & Haass, C. EMBO Reports July (2004)

Focus on cytoskeletal dynamics.Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology August (2004) Articles include: α-Catenin: at the junction of intercellular adhesion and actin dynamics. Kobielak, A. & Fuchs, E. Intermediate filaments mediate cytoskeletal crosstalk. Chang, L. & Goldman, R. D. Cell motility under the microscope: Vorsprung durch Technik. Dunn, G. A. & Jones, G. E.