Table of contents
Volume 454 Number 7202 pp253-366
In this issue (17 July 2008)
Also this week
(this content only available online) indicates content that is available online only
Editorials
Life after SuperBabe p253
In the 30 years since the birth of the world's first 'test tube' baby, in vitro fertilization has become commonplace. The next three decades could bring equally transformative technologies.
doi:10.1038/454253a
See also: Editor's summary
Templeton's legacy p253
The Templeton Foundation's exploration of science and faith merits tolerance, not outright rejection.
doi:10.1038/454253b
An uneasy peace p254
Britain's 'big science' funding agency is now in a position to regain much-needed credibility.
doi:10.1038/454254a
Research Highlights
Planetary science: Martian devilry p256
doi:10.1038/454256a
Materials science: All white p256
doi:10.1038/454256b
Zoology: Quick-change artists p256
doi:10.1038/454256c
Genetics: Autistic details p256
doi:10.1038/454256d
Virology: Collective calm p256
doi:10.1038/454256e
Geoscience: Carbon sinks p256
doi:10.1038/454256f
Biochemistry: Cook the catalyst p257
doi:10.1038/454257a
Molecular imaging: A gentler touch p257
doi:10.1038/454257b
Tissue engineering: To rig with oil p257
doi:10.1038/454257c
Evolution: Sea skeletons p257
doi:10.1038/454257d
News
Russia delays Lake Vostok drill p258
Antarctica's hidden water will keep its secrets for another year.
Quirin Schiermeier
doi:10.1038/454258a
Pakistan finds two radioactive containers p258
Discovery calls into question the country's ability to track its nuclear material.
Zeeya Merali
doi:10.1038/454258b
Autism study panned by critics p259
Plan to use chelating agents on children comes under fire.
Meredith Wadman
doi:10.1038/454259a
Special Report: Making babies: the next 30 years p260
Louise Brown, the first test-tube baby, was born 30 years ago this month after being conceived outside the body using in vitro fertilization (IVF). Helen Pearson asks what developments in reproductive medicine could have an equivalent impact in the next three decades.
Helen Pearson
doi:10.1038/454260a
Irrawaddy may be poisoned by arsenic p263
Geological map pinpoints fresh areas of contamination in Asia.
Heidi Ledford
doi:10.1038/454263a
Starting small but adding up: a free maths archive p263
Initiative aims to be one-stop shop for articles.
Jascha Hoffman
doi:10.1038/454263b
Sidelines p264
Scribbles on the margins of science.
doi:10.1038/454264a
Snapshot: Global wind power p264
Radar data offer clues to turbine potential.
Emma Marris
doi:10.1038/454264b
Mouse miRNA library to open p264
Biologists launch knockout resource.
Amber Dance
doi:10.1038/454264c
Court victory for subject of experimental therapy p265
doi:10.1038/454265a
Drug firms join forces to boost discovery pipeline p265
doi:10.1038/454265b
Chemical giant seeks route into speciality market p265
doi:10.1038/454265c
'Fundamentally flawed' US pollution law thrown out p265
doi:10.1038/454265d
FDA aims for neutral tone in drug-rejection letters p265
doi:10.1038/454265e
Lionfish not a roaring success for coral reefs p265
doi:10.1038/454265f
News Features
The long summer begins p266
A research vessel embedded in the thinning Arctic sea ice has a front-row seat for the cryospheric show of the century. Quirin Schiermeier reports from Darnley Bay, Canada.
doi:10.1038/454266a
From the desert to the edge of space p270
Not all NASA launches need rockets and countdowns. Eric Hand sees the alternative in Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
doi:10.1038/454270a
Correspondence
Reverse translation: clearing a path from bedside to bench p274
David R. Moore
doi:10.1038/454274a
Translational research: don't neglect basic science p274
Stephen Moss
doi:10.1038/454274b
Health science: from bench to bedside to trench and back p274
Simon J. Craddock Lee
doi:10.1038/454274c
Books and Arts
Missing links in food-chain story p275
Our actions have driven top predators from much of the world, resulting in complex consequences for many ecosystems, explains Stuart Pimm.
Stuart Pimm reviews Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death and Ecological Wreckage of Vanishing Predators By William Stolzenburg
doi:10.1038/454275a
Science wars revisited p276
N. David Mermin reviews Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy, and Culture by Alan Sokal
doi:10.1038/454276a
To know or not to know? p277
Sarah Franklin reviews Blood Matters: From Inherited Illness to Designer Babies, How the World and I Found Ourselves in the Future of the Gene by Masha Gessen
doi:10.1038/454277a
See also: Editor's summary
Science artists draw together p278
Nick Thomas reviews
doi:10.1038/454278a
Climate comedy falls flat p279
Emma Marris reviews Sizzle
doi:10.1038/454279a
Culture dish p279
doi:10.1038/454279b
Essay
30 years: from IVF to stem cells p280
Ruth Deech, former chair of Britain's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, reflects on how the science that gave an infertile couple a baby has been extended to saving lives.
Ruth Deech
doi:10.1038/454280a
See also: Editor's summary
News and Views
Developmental biology: Serpent clocks tick faster p282
Snakes have graceful, elongated bodies containing hundreds of vertebrae. This extreme of morphology stems from evolutionary changes in a developmental clock that regulates body patterning.
Freek J. Vonk & Michael K. Richardson
doi:10.1038/454282a
See also: Editor's summary
Microscopy: Spot the atom p283
Heavy atoms can be detected by electron microscopy, but lighter atoms, such as carbon or hydrogen, are more elusive. These bashful atoms can now be pinpointed if they are adsorbed to a single layer of graphite.
John Silcox
doi:10.1038/454283a
See also: Editor's summary
Motor neuron disease: The curious ways of ALS p284
That mutations in the SOD1 enzyme underlie inherited forms of a motor neuron disease known as ALS is clear. But the question of what the consequences of such mutations are seems to have more than one answer.
Magdalini Polymenidou & Don W. Cleveland
doi:10.1038/454284a
Earth science: Volcanic cause of catastrophe p285
From the timing, it looks as if an episode of marked oceanic oxygen deficiency during the Cretaceous was the result of undersea volcanism. Studies of such events are relevant to the warming world of today.
Timothy J. Bralower
doi:10.1038/454285a
See also: Editor's summary
Signal transduction: Linking nutrients to growth p287
How cells sense nutrients to control growth is largely unknown. One missing link involved in conveying the nutrient signal to the TOR protein, which regulates growth, seems to be the Rag proteins.
Vittoria Zinzalla & Michael N. Hall
doi:10.1038/454287a
Systems biology: On the cell cycle and its switches p288
For the cell-division cycle to progress, hundreds of genes and proteins must be coordinately regulated. Systems-level studies of this cycle show that positive-feedback loops help to keep events in sync.
Silvia D. M. Santos & James E. Ferrell
doi:10.1038/454288a
See also: Editor's summary
Obituary: John Templeton (1912–2008) p290
Philanthropist at the interface of religion and science.
Andrew Brown
doi:10.1038/454290a
Articles
Positive feedback of G1 cyclins ensures coherent cell cycle entry p291
Jan M. Skotheim, Stefano Di Talia, Eric D. Siggia & Frederick R. Cross
doi:10.1038/nature07118
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (720K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
The cohesin ring concatenates sister DNA molecules p297
Christian H. Haering, Ana-Maria Farcas, Prakash Arumugam, Jean Metson & Kim Nasmyth
doi:10.1038/nature07098
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,204K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Letters
Strong magnetic fields in normal galaxies at high redshift p302
Martin L. Bernet, Francesco Miniati, Simon J. Lilly, Philipp P. Kronberg & Miroslava Dessauges–Zavadsky
doi:10.1038/nature07105
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (195K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Hydrated silicate minerals on Mars observed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter CRISM instrument p305
John F. Mustard, S. L. Murchie, S. M. Pelkey, B. L. Ehlmann, R. E. Milliken, J. A. Grant, J.-P. Bibring, F. Poulet, J. Bishop, E. Noe Dobrea, L. Roach, F. Seelos, R. E. Arvidson, S. Wiseman, R. Green, C. Hash, D. Humm, E. Malaret, J. A. McGovern, K. Seelos, T. Clancy, R. Clark, D. D. Marais, N. Izenberg, A. Knudson, Y. Langevin, T. Martin, P. McGuire, R. Morris, M. Robinson, T. Roush, M. Smith, G. Swayze, H. Taylor, T. Titus & M. Wolff
doi:10.1038/nature07097
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (952K)
See also: Editor's summary
Generation of Fock states in a superconducting quantum circuit p310
Max Hofheinz, E. M. Weig, M. Ansmann, Radoslaw C. Bialczak, Erik Lucero, M. Neeley, A. D. O'Connell, H. Wang, John M. Martinis & A. N. Cleland
doi:10.1038/nature07136
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (772K)
See also: Editor's summary
Climbing the Jaynes–Cummings ladder and observing its 
nonlinearity in a cavity QED system p315
J. M. Fink, M. Göppl, M. Baur, R. Bianchetti, P. J. Leek, A. Blais & A. Wallraff
doi:10.1038/nature07112
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,610K)
See also: Editor's summary
Imaging and dynamics of light atoms and molecules on graphene p319
Jannik C. Meyer, C. O. Girit, M. F. Crommie & A. Zettl
doi:10.1038/nature07094
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,093K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Silcox
Cretaceous oceanic anoxic event 2 triggered by a massive magmatic episode p323
Steven C. Turgeon & Robert A. Creaser
doi:10.1038/nature07076
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (208K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Bralower
A unifying framework for dinitrogen fixation in the terrestrial biosphere p327
Benjamin Z. Houlton, Ying-Ping Wang, Peter M. Vitousek & Christopher B. Field
doi:10.1038/nature07028
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (385K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Coherent ecological dynamics induced by large-scale disturbance p331
Timothy H. Keitt
doi:10.1038/nature06935
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (2,102K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Control of segment number in vertebrate embryos p335
Céline Gomez,
Ertu
rul M. Özbudak,
Joshua Wunderlich,
Diana Baumann,
Julian Lewis
&
Olivier Pourquié
doi:10.1038/nature07020
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (979K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Vonk & Richardson
The role of the orbitofrontal cortex in the pursuit of happiness and more specific rewards p340
Kathryn A. Burke, Theresa M. Franz, Danielle N. Miller & Geoffrey Schoenbaum
doi:10.1038/nature06993
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (276K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
IGFBP-4 is an inhibitor of canonical Wnt signalling required for cardiogenesis p345
Weidong Zhu, Ichiro Shiojima, Yuzuru Ito, Zhi Li, Hiroyuki Ikeda, Masashi Yoshida, Atsuhiko T. Naito, Jun-ichiro Nishi, Hiroo Ueno, Akihiro Umezawa, Tohru Minamino, Toshio Nagai, Akira Kikuchi, Makoto Asashima & Issei Komuro
doi:10.1038/nature07027
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (638K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
IL-21 and TGF-
are required for differentiation of human TH17 cells p350
Li Yang, David E. Anderson, Clare Baecher-Allan, William D. Hastings, Estelle Bettelli, Mohamed Oukka, Vijay K. Kuchroo & David A. Hafler
doi:10.1038/nature07021
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (271K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Positive feedback sharpens the anaphase switch p353
Liam J. Holt, Andrew N. Krutchinsky & David O. Morgan
doi:10.1038/nature07050
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (789K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Structural basis of specific tRNA aminoacylation by a small in vitro selected ribozyme p358
Hong Xiao, Hiroshi Murakami, Hiroaki Suga & Adrian R. Ferré-D'Amaré
doi:10.1038/nature07033
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (831K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Naturejobs
ProspectProspects p363
On being and becoming a maverick scientist.
Gene Russo
doi:10.1038/nj7202-363a
Career View
Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, secretary-general, Human Frontier Science Program Organization, Strasbourg, France p364
New leadership coming to Human Frontier Science Program Organization.
Virginia Gewin
doi:10.1038/nj7202-364a
Recruiting by rail p364
Max Planck Society hits the rails in India in search of talent.
Paul Smaglik
doi:10.1038/nj7202-364b
Taking steps p364
The random walk of my career.
Jon Yearsley
doi:10.1038/nj7202-364c
Futures
Ignorantia juris p366
Beware the long arm of the law.
Gareth Owens
doi:10.1038/454366a
