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Volume 440 Issue 7086, 13 April 2006

Editorial

  • While pottering away in a garden near you, botanists are playing an increasingly sophisticated role in studying plant diversity. They should continue to broaden their scientific reach.

    Editorial

    Advertisement

  • Technology-transfer offices are learning from their mistakes. So should the academics that they serve.

    Editorial
  • Venus Express will go some way towards correcting a strange disparity.

    Editorial
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Research Highlights

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News

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News in Brief

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News Feature

  • In a world of declining biodiversity, botanical gardens are coming into their own — both as storehouses of rare plants and skills, and increasingly as centres of molecular research. Emma Marris reports.

    • Emma Marris
    News Feature
  • In 1906, a great earthquake destroyed San Francisco, and galvanized US seismologists. Naomi Lubick looks back at the event that changed the country's geological scene.

    • Naomi Lubick
    News Feature
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Business

  • Cambridge is revamping its approach to technology transfer — but will it work? Colin Macilwain reports.

    Business
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Correspondence

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Books & Arts

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News & Views

  • Vega is a fundamental reference star for astronomers. But it seems that our perceptions of it have been misconceived — rather than spinning slowly, the star is a rapid rotator seen pole-on.

    • Richard Gray
    News & Views
  • Sir2 proteins slow ageing in yeast by locking chromatin — the DNA and proteins in chromosomes — into a stable, silent state. Inactivating a Sir2 family protein in mice causes premature ageing and genome instability.

    • Jan Vijg
    • Yousin Suh
    News & Views
  • The Ventura Freeway slices through wildlife habitat near Los Angeles. A case study shows how large highways such as this can seriously impede genetic exchange in large vertebrates.

    • Jared L. Strasburg
    News & Views
  • Startlingly, two atomic clouds confined to one dimension can be made to pass through each other repeatedly without ever coming to rest. Such non-equilibrium phenomena are fundamental, but experimentally elusive.

    • Henk T. C. Stoof
    News & Views
  • Microorganisms can carry out a wonderful range of chemical transformations. The anaerobic oxidation of methane seemed not to be among them. But it is — both with sulphate, and now it turns out, with nitrate.

    • Rudolf K. Thauer
    • Seigo Shima
    News & Views
  • The conventional optical limitations of fluorescence microscopy have been defied, to achieve nanoscale resolution of individual vesicle organelles at the junctions of neuronal cells.

    • Garth J. Simpson
    News & Views
  • When about to be eaten by frogs, certain grasshoppers assume a static, unwieldy pose that means they cannot be swallowed. Similar behaviours, interpreted as feigning death, may also be open to alternative explanations.

    • Graeme Ruxton
    News & Views
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Brief Communication

  • This denizen of tropical swamps may shed light on how ancient fish were able to survive out of water.

    • Sam Van Wassenbergh
    • Anthony Herrel
    • Peter Aerts
    Brief Communication
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Article

  • Newly recovered Ethiopian fossils of Australopithecus anamensis show how Australopithecus might have evolved from the earlier and more primitive genus Ardipithecus, and might have been a harbinger of Australopithecus afarensis, better known as ‘Lucy’.

    • Tim D. White
    • Giday WoldeGabriel
    • Gen Suwa

    Collection:

    Article
  • Dendritic cells that interact in a pathogen-specific manner with CD4+ T cells produce chemical signals that actively attract naive CD8+ T cells. Interference with these guidance signals promoting CD8+ T-cell association with this select dendritic cell subpopulation prevents the development of optimal immunological memory responses.

    • Flora Castellino
    • Alex Y. Huang
    • Ronald N. Germain
    Article
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Letter

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Prospects

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Postdocs and Students

  • Is your adviser not the role model or mentor of your dreams? Then take charge of the situation and find the right people. Kendall Powell plays matchmaker. More than one mentor may be necessary for postdocs and graduate students.

    • Kendall Powell
    Postdocs and Students
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Movers

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Scientists and Societies

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Graduate Journal

  • Graduate student steps outside comfort zone.

    • Katja Bargum
    Graduate Journal
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Futures

  • More than just a flash in the pan.

    • Jeff Hecht
    Futures
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Authors

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Brief Communications Arising

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