Table of contents
Volume 455 Number 7209 pp1-136
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Editorials
Community cleverness required p1
Researchers need to adapt their institutions and practices in response to torrents of new data — and need to complement smart science with smart searching.
doi:10.1038/455001a
See also: Editor's summary
Cool philosophies p2
High-energy physicists should not gloss over fundamental conundrums.
doi:10.1038/455002a
The hour of diplomacy p2
Scientific collaboration between East and West must survive the crisis in Georgia.
doi:10.1038/455002b
Research Highlights
Cell biology: Cause of death p4
doi:10.1038/455004a
Geosciences: Clubmoss clues p4
doi:10.1038/455004b
Physics: A bolt from the blue p4
doi:10.1038/455004c
Molecular biology: Precision dumping p4
doi:10.1038/455004d
Chemistry: Silicon pulls it off p4
doi:10.1038/455004e
Immunology: Hitting 'pause' p4
doi:10.1038/455004f
Geosciences: Goodbye April showers p5
doi:10.1038/455005a
Neuroscience: Coke heads p5
doi:10.1038/455005b
Archaeology: Amazonian urbanites p5
doi:10.1038/455005c
Astrophysics: Far off fly-by p5
doi:10.1038/455005d
News
Russia's international research ties under threat p6
Responses to Russia's military action in Georgia have implications for non-proliferation, space exploration, climate negotiation and the European Union's framework programme.
doi:10.1038/455006a
Physicists aflutter about data photographed at conference p7
Digital cameras snap slides ahead of publication.
Geoff Brumfiel
doi:10.1038/455007a
Big data: The next Google p8
Ten years ago this month, Google's first employee turned up at the garage where the search engine was originally housed. What technology at a similar early stage today will have changed our world as much by 2018? Nature asked some researchers and business people to speculate — or lay out their wares. Their responses are wide ranging, but one common theme emerges: the integration of the worlds of matter and information, whether it be by the blurring of boundaries between online and real environments, touchy-feely feedback from a phone or chromosomes tucked away on databases.
doi:10.1038/455008a
Mathematical biology centre launched p11
Tennessee institute will focus on dynamics of animal disease.
John Whitfield
doi:10.1038/455011a
Republicans at odds over human embryo research p12
Stem cells divide McCain's camp.
Meredith Wadman
doi:10.1038/455012a
The energy election p12
In the first of a special series of election podcasts starting this week, Nature gathered an expert panel to discuss how energy and climate issues will play out in the US presidential election.
doi:10.1038/455012b
DNA databases shut after identities compromised p13
doi:10.1038/455013a
Bubble-fusion researcher loses misconduct appeal p13
doi:10.1038/455013b
'No pollution effects' from Chinese chemical explosion p13
doi:10.1038/455013c
Alaska's polar bears trigger lawsuit from industry p13
doi:10.1038/455013d
'YouTube for test tubes' to be listed on PubMed p13
doi:10.1038/455013e
Mars rover climbs out of crater to focus on plains p13
doi:10.1038/455013f
Column
Big data: Data wrangling p15
Collecting and releasing environmental data have stirred up controversy in Washington, says David Goldston, and will continue to do so.
David Goldston
doi:10.1038/455015a
News Features
Big data: Welcome to the petacentre p16
What does it take to store bytes by the tens of thousands of trillions? Cory Doctorow meets the people and machines for which it's all in a day's work.
doi:10.1038/455016a
Big data: Wikiomics p22
Pioneering biologists are trying to use wiki-type web pages to manage and interpret data, reports Mitch Waldrop. But will the wider research community go along with the experiment?
doi:10.1038/455022a
Correspondence
Better writing and more space needed online p26
Linda Cooper
doi:10.1038/455026a
Languages: Catalan speakers learn a wider range p26
Antoni Rosell-Melé
doi:10.1038/455026b
Languages: Spain's minority-language speakers are bilingual p26
Jesús Purroy
doi:10.1038/455026c
Religion: science is partially based on faith p26
Jonathan Cowie
doi:10.1038/455026d
Vavilov's vision for genetics was among Stalin's many victims p27
Victor Fet & Michael D. Golubovsky
doi:10.1038/455027a
Message from the heavens may be that there is no message p27
Bernardo A. Huberman
doi:10.1038/455027b
Senior staff of Mexican institute speak up p27
Carlos Barajas-López & senior staff members
doi:10.1038/455027c
Commentary
Big data: How do your data grow? p28
Scientists need to ensure that their results will be managed for the long haul. Maintaining data takes big organization, says Clifford Lynch.
doi:10.1038/455028a
See also: Editor's summary
Books and Arts
Big data: Distilling meaning from data p30
Buried in vast streams of data are clues to new science. But we may need to craft new lenses to see them, explain Felice Frankel and Rosalind Reid.
Felice Frankel & Rosalind Reid
doi:10.1038/455030a
See also: Editor's summary
A shared digital future? p31
Will the possibilities for mass creativity on the Internet be realized or squandered, asks Tony Hey.
Tony Hey reviews The Future of the Internet: And How to Stop It by Jonathan Zittrain and Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky and We-think: The Power of Mass Creativity by Charles Leadbeater
doi:10.1038/455031a
Virtual similarities p32
David Robson reviews Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human by Tom Boellstorff
doi:10.1038/455032a
Q&A: Museum's metamorphosis is nearly complete p34
On the unveiling of the second phase of the Darwin Centre at London's Natural History Museum, Anna Maria Indrio, partner at the Scandinavian architectural firm C. F. Møller, explains how the new £78 million (US$145 million) wing will reveal 20 million of the museum's insect and plant specimens to the public when it opens in September 2009.
Joanne Baker
doi:10.1038/455034a
In Retrospect: Leibniz's Protogaea p35
The first English translation of Gottfried Leibniz's earth science treatise records the difficulties of understanding our planet before geologists appreciated deep time, Richard Fortey discovers.
Richard Fortey reviews Protogaea by Gottfreid Wilhelm Leibniz
doi:10.1038/455035a
Essay
Big data: The Harvard computers p36
The first mass data crunchers were people, not machines. Sue Nelson looks at the discoveries and legacy of the remarkable women of Harvard's Observatory.
Sue Nelson
doi:10.1038/455036a
See also: Editor's summary
News and Views
Astrophysics: Bringing black holes into focus p39
Do black holes exist? Observations at the finest resolution so far indicate that only gross deviations in the behaviour of gravity from that predicted by general relativity can invalidate the case that they do.
Christopher S. Reynolds
doi:10.1038/455039a
See also: Editor's summary
Immunology: Oxysterols hold T cells in check p40
The oxysterol-dependent gene transcription factor LXR
restricts premature expansion of T cells by limiting cellular cholesterol levels. This pathway might be a pharmacological target for regulating immune responses.
Christopher K. Glass & Kaoru Saijo
doi:10.1038/455040a
Experimental physics: A shift in spectroscopy p41
Spectroscopic measurement of the energy absorbed or emitted by an object is an invaluable experimental technique. An innovative approach opens the door to the acquisition of previously inaccessible data.
Frank K. Wilhelm
doi:10.1038/455041a
See also: Editor's summary
Medical imaging: Less is more p43
The magnetic resonance imagers used in medicine fill rooms with their large-field magnets. But developments in ultra-low-field devices may give the doctor of tomorrow a more portable version.
Klaas P. Pruessmann
doi:10.1038/455043a
Small RNAs: The seeds of silence p44
Individual microRNA sequences can suppress the production of hundreds of proteins. Reduction of protein levels in this way is often modest, however, and many such RNAs probably collectively fine-tune gene expression.
Zissimos Mourelatos
doi:10.1038/455044a
See also: Editor's summary
Obituary: Victor Almon McKusick (1921–2008) p46
Quiet revolutionary in genetic medicine.
Aravinda Chakravarti
doi:10.1038/455046a
Feature
Big data: The future of biocuration p47
To thrive, the field that links biologists and their data urgently needs structure, recognition and support.
Doug Howe, Maria Costanzo, Petra Fey, Takashi Gojobori, Linda Hannick, Winston Hide, David P. Hill, Renate Kania, Mary Schaeffer, Susan St Pierre, Simon Twigger, Owen White & Seung Yon Rhee
doi:10.1038/455047a
See also: Editor's summary
Articles
Amplitude spectroscopy of a solid-state artificial atom p51
David M. Berns, Mark S. Rudner, Sergio O. Valenzuela, Karl K. Berggren, William D. Oliver, Leonid S. Levitov & Terry P. Orlando
doi:10.1038/nature07262
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,560K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Wilhelm
Widespread changes in protein synthesis induced by microRNAs p58
Matthias Selbach, Björn Schwanhäusser, Nadine Thierfelder, Zhuo Fang, Raya Khanin & Nikolaus Rajewsky
doi:10.1038/nature07228
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,217K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Mourelatos
The impact of microRNAs on protein output p64
Daehyun Baek, Judit Villén, Chanseok Shin, Fernando D. Camargo, Steven P. Gygi & David P. Bartel
doi:10.1038/nature07242
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (528K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Mourelatos
Type IV collagens regulate BMP signalling in Drosophila p72
Xiaomeng Wang, Robin E. Harris, Laura J. Bayston & Hilary L. Ashe
doi:10.1038/nature07214
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,362K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Letters
Event-horizon-scale structure in the supermassive black hole candidate at the Galactic Centre p78
Sheperd S. Doeleman, Jonathan Weintroub, Alan E. E. Rogers, Richard Plambeck, Robert Freund, Remo P. J. Tilanus, Per Friberg, Lucy M. Ziurys, James M. Moran, Brian Corey, Ken H. Young, Daniel L. Smythe, Michael Titus, Daniel P. Marrone, Roger J. Cappallo, Douglas C.-J. Bock, Geoffrey C. Bower, Richard Chamberlin, Gary R. Davis, Thomas P. Krichbaum, James Lamb, Holly Maness, Arthur E. Niell, Alan Roy, Peter Strittmatter, Daniel Werthimer, Alan R. Whitney & David Woody
doi:10.1038/nature07245
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (218K)
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Reynolds
Electronic structure of the iron-based superconductor LaOFeP p81
D. H. Lu, M. Yi, S.-K. Mo, A. S. Erickson, J. Analytis, J.-H. Chu, D. J. Singh, Z. Hussain, T. H. Geballe, I. R. Fisher & Z.-X. Shen
doi:10.1038/nature07263
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (555K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Nanoscale double emulsions stabilized by single-component block copolypeptides p85
Jarrod A. Hanson, Connie B. Chang, Sara M. Graves, Zhibo Li, Thomas G. Mason & Timothy J. Deming
doi:10.1038/nature07197
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (553K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Interaction between liquid water and hydroxide revealed by core-hole de-excitation p89
Emad F. Aziz, Niklas Ottosson, Manfred Faubel, Ingolf V. Hertel & Bernd Winter
doi:10.1038/nature07252
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (456K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
The increasing intensity of the strongest tropical cyclones p92
James B. Elsner, James P. Kossin & Thomas H. Jagger
doi:10.1038/nature07234
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (232K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Multimodal warning signals for a multiple predator world p96
John M. Ratcliffe & Marie L. Nydam
doi:10.1038/nature07087
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (731K)
See also: Editor's summary
The virophage as a unique parasite of the giant mimivirus p100
Bernard La Scola, Christelle Desnues, Isabelle Pagnier, Catherine Robert, Lina Barrassi, Ghislain Fournous, Michèle Merchat, Marie Suzan-Monti, Patrick Forterre, Eugene Koonin & Didier Raoult
doi:10.1038/nature07218
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (663K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Single-nucleotide mutation rate increases close to insertions/deletions in eukaryotes p105
Dacheng Tian, Qiang Wang, Pengfei Zhang, Hitoshi Araki, Sihai Yang, Martin Kreitman, Thomas Nagylaki, Richard Hudson, Joy Bergelson & Jian-Qun Chen
doi:10.1038/nature07175
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (296K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Molecular architecture of native HIV-1 gp120 trimers p109
Jun Liu, Alberto Bartesaghi, Mario J. Borgnia, Guillermo Sapiro & Sriram Subramaniam
doi:10.1038/nature07159
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (843K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Neurogenin 2 controls cortical neuron migration through regulation of Rnd2 p114
Julian Ik-Tsen Heng, Laurent Nguyen, Diogo S. Castro, Céline Zimmer, Hendrik Wildner, Olivier Armant, Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk, Francesco Bedogni, Jean-Marc Matter, Robert Hevner & François Guillemot
doi:10.1038/nature07198
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (736K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Polo-like kinase-1 is activated by aurora A to promote checkpoint recovery p119
Libor Mac
rek,
Arne Lindqvist,
Dan Lim,
Michael A. Lampson,
Rob Klompmaker,
Raimundo Freire,
Christophe Clouin,
Stephen S. Taylor,
Michael B. Yaffe
&
René H. Medema
doi:10.1038/nature07185
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (867K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Structure of Epac2 in complex with a cyclic AMP analogue and RAP1B p124
Holger Rehmann, Ernesto Arias-Palomo, Michael A. Hadders, Frank Schwede, Oscar Llorca & Johannes L. Bos
doi:10.1038/nature07187
PDB code
3D view
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (641K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Direct observation of the mechanochemical coupling in myosin Va during processive movement p128
Takeshi Sakamoto, Martin R. Webb, Eva Forgacs, Howard D. White & James R. Sellers
doi:10.1038/nature07188
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (710K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Naturejobs
ProspectProspects p133
Online professor ratings provoke outrage but garner some support.
Gene Russo
doi:10.1038/nj7209-133a
Career View
Edward Seidel, director, Office of Cyberinfrastructure, National Science Foundation, Arlington, Virginia p134
From dreams of space to designs on cyberinfrastructure.
Maria Rossbauer
doi:10.1038/nj7209-134a
Boosting Brazilian bioenergy p134
Brazil strives to remain among the world's biofuels leaders.
Virginia Gewin
doi:10.1038/nj7209-134b
Diagnosing mysteries p134
A trip to the hospital made me forget my research - and then realize its limitations.
Zachary Lippman
doi:10.1038/nj7209-134c
