●Life is a journey: a genetic look at neocortical development. Gupta, A. et al. Nature Reviews Genetics May (2002).

●Putting tubby on the MAP. Grant, S. G. N. Nature Genetics April (2002). This News and Views article discusses the identification of a modifier of the tubby mutation, associated with deafness, neuronal degeneration and obesity, which offers new insights into the molecular mechanisms of sound perception and its disorders.

●How Rab proteins link motors to membranes. Goud, B. Nature Cell Biology April (2002). A News and Views article on the recent finding that on melanosome membranes, Rab27a initiates the formation of a receptor complex that allows the recruitment of the actin-based motor myosin Va.

●Candidate gene approaches for studying complex genetic traits: practical considerations. Tabor, H. K. et al. Nature Reviews Genetics May (2002).

●Effects of psychotherapy on cancer survival. Spiegel, D. Nature Reviews Cancer May (2002).

●Stem cells and the future of regenerative medicine. Eaves, S. Nature Medicine April (2002). A review of the book by the Board on Life Sciences, the National Research Council, and the Board on Neuroscience and Behavioral Health, Institute of Medicine.

●Integrin regulation of growth factor receptors. Yamada, K. M. & Even-Ram, S. Nature Cell Biology April (2002). Recent work, discussed in this News and Views article, has identified a unique mechanism for the regulation of growth factor receptor phosphorylation by integrins, indicating ways of achieving cooperation between these signalling systems.

●Making order from chaos: the misguided frontal lobe. Ivry, R. & Knight, R. T. Nature Neuroscience May (2002). New functional imaging data indicating that a distributed network of areas within the prefrontal cortex is particularly sensitive to coherent patterns of events are discussed in this News and Views article.

●What a privilege to reside at the synapse: NMDA receptor signaling to CREB. Riccio, A. & Ginty, D. D. Nature Neuroscience May (2002). This News and Views article discusses the finding that survival-promoting signals come from synaptic NMDA receptors, whereas extrasynaptic NMDA receptors provide a cell-death signal.

●Danger — misfolding proteins. Ellis, R. J. & Pinheiro, T. J. T. Nature 4 April (2002). This News and Views article puts into context two recent papers that address how misfolding and aggregation of normally harmless proteins can cause neuronal damage.