Volume 447 Issue 7146, 14 June 2007

US universities must act to recruit and retain minority faculty members.

Everyone knows bad peer review when they come across it — but too few are nurturing good referees.

Sceptics query track record on academic freedom

Locals fear impact on endangered species and cultural identity

Houses to be built around famous research complex

Findings reveal how DNA is conserved across animals

University to re-evaluate policy on ethnic minorities

Governments decide which projects to fund

Authors say conclusions still valid

Government clears researchers accused of data manipulation

Light-emitting diodes are seen by many as the light source of the future. But as Kurt Kleiner reports, their adaptation will take time.

Is there wisdom to be found in repugnance? Or is disgust 'the nastiest of all emotions', offering nothing but support to prejudice? Dan Jones looks at the repellant side of human nature.

When two objects separated by a vacuum are barely a whisker apart, a strange attraction comes into play. Philip Ball meets the physicists who are trying to make something out of nothing.

Precious few societies have taken care of their most fundamental resource.

Anselm Kiefer builds monumental souvenirs of the night sky.

Does the extra nitrogen input from anthropogenic sources mean that more carbon from the atmosphere is being locked up in boreal and temperate forests? 'Yes' is the answer to emerge from the latest analysis.

Researchers of the ENCODE consortium have analysed 1% of the human genome. Their findings bring us a step closer to understanding the role of the vast amount of obscure DNA that does not function as genes.

There's a big problem with the idea of ancient oceans on Mars: if they were contained within the 'shoreline' visible today, sea level would not have been level. Could it be that Mars has since tipped over?

Just over 300 million years ago, a forest was dropped below sea level by an earthquake and swiftly buried. Such rapid events provide snapshots of lost ecosystems, sometimes on a huge spatial scale.

Physicist, engineer and leader in the development of nuclear power.

Having a good mentor early in your career can mean the difference between success and failure in any field. Adrian Lee, Carina Dennis and Philip Campbell look at what makes a good mentor.

The next step after sequencing a genome is to figure out how the cell actually uses it as an instruction manual. A large international consortium has examined 1% of the genome for what part is transcribed, where proteins are bound, what the chromatin structure looks like, and how the sequence compares to that of other organisms.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) can regulate gene expression is by preventing translation of a target mRNA.

This is because a complex involved in processing miRNAs, RISC, associates with the 60S ribosome subunit and the eIF6 translation initiation factor. As the eIF6 can prevent the 60S subunit from assembling into a mature 80S ribosome, interaction of eIF6 with RISC may block ribosome recycling or initiation.

The peculiar Type Ib supernova SN 2006jc is spatially coincident with a bright optical transient that occurred in 2004. An outburst (similar to that of a luminous blue variable star) of a Wolf–Rayet star could be invoked for the transient, but this would be the first observational evidence of such a phenomenon. Alternatively a massive binary system composed of an LBV which erupted in 2004, and a Wolf–Rayet star exploding as SN 2006jc, could explain the observations.

As Saturn rotates it flings cold, dense plasma outward from the inner magnetosphere by centrifugal force, where it is replaced by hotter, more tenuous plasma from the outer magnetosphere. Here, the centrifugal interchange of plasmas in rotating magnetospheres is confirmed, and also demonstrated that plasma is transported from regions near the orbits of Dione and Tethys, supporting the idea of distinct plasma tori associated with these moons.

Quantum computation requires quantum logic gates that use the interaction within pairs of quantum bits (qubits) to perform conditional operations. Superconducting qubits may offer an attractive route towards scalable quantum computing. This paper demonstrates a complete set of controlled-NOT quantum logic gates using a single pair of coupled flux qubits. These gates are now sufficiently characterized to be used in quantum algorithms.

The surface of Mars has a set of features that ring the plains for thousands of kilometres, which have been interpreted as a series of former shorelines. But topographic profiles along the putative shorelines contain long-wavelength trends in elevation that have been taken as an argument against the shoreline (and ocean) hypothesis. This paper demonstrates that true polar wander could bring the elevations of the proposed shorelines into line, reviving the ocean hypothesis.

The profound, overwhelming effects of human activities on the carbon balance of temperate and boreal forests are demonstrated. Apart from the direct effects of forest management, they show that carbon sequestration by this important component of the biosphere is driven by the imbalance in the global nitrogen cycle determined by human activities.

Sensory acuity deteriorates at cold temperatures, but pain perception persists and cold stimuli themselves can be painful. A voltage-gated sodium channel, Na_v1.8, is implicated in this perception. Unlike other channels, Na_v1.8 does not inactivate at lower temperatures and its currents are actually larger in colder conditions

There are two main pathways to rid a cell from accumulated protein misfits, the ubiquitin-proteasome system and autophagy. When the ubiquitin proteasome system breaks down, as is the case in a fly model for neurodegenerative disease, autophagy is able to compensate for this loss. HDAC6, a microtubule-associated-histone deacetlyase that interacts with polyubiquitinated proteins, seems to be the link.

The action mechanism of a RAS–RAF–MEK–pathway selective anti-tumour agent is described, this compound acts through mitochondrial voltage-dependent anion channels, a novel target for anti-cancer drugs.

This paper examines the role of lipid metabolites of arachidonic acid, docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid in the resolution of acute inflammation. The omega-3 fatty acids are shown to affect phagocytosis, phagocyte removal, and leukocyte infiltration.

A fly microRNA (miRNA) causes the formation of a super-sized miRNA/mRNA/ribosome complex (a 'pseudo-polysome'). This requires a specialized structure, called the cap, at the 5′ end of the mRNA.

John Mather to take on NASA's chief scientist position.

Australia christens the country's first synchrotron.

I want to make a difference – but what kind of difference?

With pharmaceutical companies outsourcing drug testing, jobs in clinical research are growing fast.

Broad-acting enzyme makes specific ulcer target.