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Volume 439 Issue 7079, 23 February 2006

Volume 439 Issue 7079

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Editorial

  • Researchers are increasingly upset with the Bush administration, not for its tactics but for its entire operational philosophy.

    Editorial

    Advertisement

  • Nature's new guidelines for digital images encourage openness about the way data are manipulated.

    Editorial

  • Japan has fumbled its row with North Korea over tests to identify abductees.

    Editorial
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Research Highlights

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News

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News in Brief

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Correction

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News Feature

  • Teams of researchers are finding vents in ocean floors around the globe. Christina Reed follows the hunt for these extreme ecosystems.

    • Christina Reed
    News Feature

  • Europe pumps large quantities of cash into schemes that encourage less-intensive farming. But, finds John Whitfield, some researchers are not sure what benefits they deliver.

    • John Whitfield
    News Feature
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Business

  • The European Patent Office could fall victim of its own success, as threatened national offices attempt to claw back some influence. Alison Abbott reports.

    • Alison Abbott
    Business
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Correspondence

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Books & Arts

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Essay

  • The sexual behaviour of penguins, although fascinating, does not offer the moral lessons that some popular commentators would have us believe.

    • Marlene Zuk
    Essay
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News & Views

  • Quantum physics aims another blow at common sense: a simple quantum computer gives the right answer, even when it is not run. (Traditionalists be comforted: the computer must be turned on.)

    • Jonathan P. Dowling
    News & Views

  • The nervous system translates sensory information into electrical impulses. The neural ‘code’ involved seems to represent natural sounds and images efficiently, using the smallest number of impulses.

    • Michael R. DeWeese
    • Anthony Zador
    News & Views

  • Quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the strong nuclear force, is notoriously intractable. An alternative approach brings gravity to bear, and produces fairly accurate predictions of some physical quantities.

    • Nick Evans
    News & Views

  • The textbook tale of vertebrate origins is brought into question by phylogenetic analyses of new genomic data. But the amphioxus, long viewed as a precursor to fish, remains a central character in events.

    • Henry Gee
    News & Views

  • Pluto is no lone ranger in the farthest expanses of the Solar System — its travelling companions now number three. And if Pluto can have so many, why shouldn't other objects in the distant, icy Kuiper belt?

    • Richard P. Binzel
    News & Views

  • To remain hidden from its host's immune system, the malaria parasite must vary the proteins on the surface of the infected cell. The genes encoding these proteins are very similar, so how does the parasite express just one at a time?

    • Piet Borst
    • Paul-André Genest

    Focus:

    News & Views
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Correction

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News & Views

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Brief Communication

  • Tiny transparent larvae of the Japanese eel collected in the open ocean reveal a strategic spawning site.

    • Katsumi Tsukamoto
    Brief Communication
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Review Article

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Article

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Letter

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Corrigendum

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Technology Feature

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Prospects

  • A former researcher's career path shows how one can stay connected to academic science.

    • Paul Smaglik
    Prospects
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Regions

  • The Pacific Northwest of North America doesn't just mean Microsoft, Intel and some big trees. Already noted for the quality of its biological research, the biotechnology base in cities such as Vancouver is set to grow too, as Virginia Gewin finds out.

    • Virginia Gewin
    Regions
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Movers

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Scientists and Societies

  • Oxford centre looks at whether improving teaching skills enhances research.

    • Keith Trigwell
    • Richard Arnold
    Scientists and Societies
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Graduate Journal

  • After a disappointing first attempt at a PhD, one grad student gets a new start.

    • Mhairi Dupre
    Graduate Journal
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Futures

  • Wait for the real thing.

    • Gilles Amon
    Futures
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Authors

  • A quantum computer can solve problems without running a program.

    Authors
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