●From gene to identified neuron to behaviour in Caenorhabditis elegans. Rankin, C. H. Nature Reviews Genetics August (2002)Photograph courtesy of Monica Driscoll.

●Genetic approaches to studying energy balance: perception and integration. Barsh, G. S. & Schwartz, M. W. Nature Reviews Genetics August (2002).

●The molecular and genetic basis of neurological tumours. Zhu, Y. & Parada, L. F. Nature Reviews Cancer August (2002).

●Endogenous kynurenines as targets for drug discovery and development. Stone, T. W. & Darlington, L. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery August (2002). The kynurenine pathway generates compounds that can modulate activity at glutamate and possibly nicotinic receptors. The pathway is in a unique position to regulate aspects of the metabolism of tryptophan to neuroactive compounds, and also seems to be a key factor in the communication between the nervous and immune systems. As a result, it presents a multitude of potential sites for drug discovery in neuroscience and other areas.

●Synapses, scaling and homeostasis in vivo. Feldman, D. E. Nature Neuroscience August (2002). This News and Views article discusses the finding that synaptic scaling operates in vivo to promote the stability of network function in the face of changing input activity.

●Digitized neural networks: long-term stability from forgetful neurons. Pouget, A. & Latham, P. Nature Neuroscience August (2002). A News and Views article discussing a model, described by Koulakov et al . in Nature Neuroscience , that might explain how bistable neurons can integrate inputs over many seconds.

●The use of constitutively active GPCRs in drug discovery and functional genomics. Chalmers, D. T. & Behan, D. P. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery August (2002).

●Stem-cell competition. Orkin, S. H. & Morrison, S. J. Nature 4 July (2002). This News and Views article discusses two papers in the same issue of Nature : the demonstration that cultured embryonic stem cells can be encouraged to differentiate into dopaminergic cells and can alleviate symptoms in a rat model of Parkinson's disease; and the finding that adult bone marrow cells can generate a wide range of cell types. These articles are freely available, together with related material, including an Insight supplement on stem cells, as part of a Stem Cell Focus on the Nature web site.

●Signal transduction and endocytosis: close encounters of many kinds. Sorkin, A. & von Zastrow, M. Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology August (2002).

●Human embryonic stem cells — the German debate. Engels, E.-M. Nature Reviews Genetics August (2002).