The recent 41st annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience provided a stimulating environment for the discussion of diverse topics. Several lectures emphasized how the relationship between neuroscience and society changes as a result of continuing developments in the field. Many new neuroscientific findings have ethical and policy implications, and it seems inevitable that the link between neurobiology and society will become ever closer in the future.

This months issue features two articles about fundamental aspects of the molecular correlates of memory. On page 17, Redondo and Morris update the synaptic tagging and capture hypothesis — a model that was first proposed over a decade ago, marking a groundbreaking advance in our understanding of key molecular aspects of memory formation and persistence. Although this model has largely passed the test of experimental validation, new findings — such as the dissociation of structural and functional plasticity — have called for an expansion of the original hypothesis.

Over the past few years, molecular correlates of the model have been discovered, perhaps most notably protein kinase Mζ (PKMζ), the constitutively active neuronal isoform of protein kinase C. In a Progress article on page 9, Sacktor draws together recent data showing a central role for PKMζ in the persistence of long-term memory through the maintenance of memory-associated synaptic changes.

Finally, we thank our authors and referees for their valuable contributions to Nature Reviews Neuroscience during 2010, and our readers for their continuing support. We invite you to take part in our reader survey. By completing this, you can help to shape the future content of Nature Reviews journals and have the chance to win an iPad.