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Volume 431 Issue 7008, 30 September 2004

Editorial

  • Space-based astronomy in the United States is under threat thanks to a misplaced sense of priorities within government. Researchers should take every opportunity to resist and to make the most of support from Congress.

    Editorial

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  • Researchers and entrepreneurs alike should welcome a move to develop a new commons in technological innovation.

    Editorial
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News

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News in Brief

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News Feature

  • Testosterone therapy jacks up vigour, sex drive and mental acuity — or so proponents claim. But are those who experiment with this potent sex hormone gambling with their health? Helen Pearson investigates.

    • Helen Pearson
    News Feature
  • Plans to push tuna farms out into open waters off the coast of the United States are raising an environmental alarm. Rex Dalton discovers the kind of problems these offshore ranches might cause.

    • Rex Dalton
    News Feature
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Correspondence

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Commentary

  • Funds must be forthcoming for an effective EU Centre for Disease Control.

    • S. Ragnar Norrby
    Commentary
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Books & Arts

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Turning Points

  • When taking a risk proved a wise choice for one postdoc.

    • Jamshed Tata
    Turning Points
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News & Views

  • Electrons can be accelerated by making them surf a laser-driven plasma wave. High acceleration rates, and now the production of well-populated, high-quality beams, signal the potential of this table-top technology.

    • Thomas Katsouleas
    News & Views
  • We still have much to learn about the world's chief disease of rice — rice blast. That's clear from the finding that the culprit not only infects aerial plant tissues but can also invade roots like a typical root pathogen.

    • Barbara Valent
    News & Views
  • Simulations based on a model of human population history and geography find that an individual that is the genealogical ancestor of all living humans existed just a few thousand years ago.

    • Jotun Hein
    News & Views
  • It seems that the rate of expansion of the Universe is accelerating, driven by the so-called dark energy. Is Einstein's cosmological constant behind it? There might be a way to find out.

    • Lawrence M. Krauss
    News & Views
  • A chaperone molecule called trigger factor binds new polypeptide chains as they emerge from the protein-synthesis machinery. Crystal structures suggest that this molecule forms a hydrophobic ‘cradle’.

    • Arthur Horwich
    News & Views
  • Reconstruction of an ancient marine environment from 3,400-million-year-old rocks in South Africa strengthens the case for the existence of photosynthetic microbes at that time — but adds a fresh twist.

    • Nicolas Beukes
    News & Views
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Research Highlights

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Brief Communication

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Article

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Letter

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Technology Feature

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Prospects

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Career View

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