A lack of laboratory reagents is taking its toll on researchers.
David Cyranoski
doi:10.1038/456550a
Table of contents
Volume 456 Number 7222 pp545-674
(this content only available online) indicates content that is available online only
Top of page
Editorials
The cost of silence? p545
Analyses of AIDS deaths attributable to misguided policies in South Africa carry lessons for scientific leaders.
doi:10.1038/456545a
Culture clash in China p545
An online row highlights the need for Chinese universities to fix their hiring policies.
doi:10.1038/456545b
Focus on Earth p546
Europe is rightly pioneering the systematic appliance of science in space to societal needs.
doi:10.1038/456546a
Top of page
Research Highlights
Pharmacology: Silent killer p548
doi:10.1038/456548a
Astronomy: Blast from the past p548
doi:10.1038/456548b
Climate change: Mulled wine p548
doi:10.1038/456548c
Neurobiology: Mad mouse disease p548
doi:10.1038/456548d
Statistics: One size fits all p548
doi:10.1038/456548e
Evolution: Electric love p548
doi:10.1038/456548f
Pharmacology: Setting the pace p549
doi:10.1038/456549a
Quantum physics: Signature shift p549
doi:10.1038/456549b
Genomics: The baby-milk bacterium p549
doi:10.1038/456549c
Geosciences: Deep-sea mix p549
doi:10.1038/456549d
Top of page
News
Slow shipping hobbles Chinese science p550
European funding plan 'unviable' p551
Top universities shun Joint Technology Initiatives.
Natasha Gilbert
doi:10.1038/456551a
Space agency funding defies downturn p552
European ministers commit €10 billion to space missions, Earth monitoring and new facilities.
Declan Butler
doi:10.1038/456552a
Melanoma in mice casts doubt on scarcity of cancer stem cells p553
Can triniobium tin shrink accelerators? p555
Europe to pay royalties for cancer gene p556
BRCA1 patent decision may be ignored in clinics.
Alison Abbott
doi:10.1038/456556a
Austrian ethics watchdog launched p557
UK charity launches assault on deadliest cancers p558
doi:10.1038/456558a
Greenhouse gases hit modern-day highs p558
doi:10.1038/456558b
Europe's synchrotron sharpens up its X-rays p558
doi:10.1038/456558c
Europe rejects Wisconsin's key stem-cell patent p559
doi:10.1038/456559a
Hawking plans long commute to Canada p559
doi:10.1038/456559b
Chemicals firm cancels plans for biodiesel plant p559
doi:10.1038/456559c
The Sputnik fable p561
Oversimplifying the effect of the space race on US science funding could lead scientists down the wrong path, says David Goldston.
David Goldston
doi:10.1038/456561a
Top of page
News Feature
Agronomy: Five crop researchers who could change the world p563
The current crisis in worldwide food prices reinforces the need for more productive agriculture. Emma Marris meets five ambitious scientists determined to stop the world from going hungry.
Emma Marris
doi:10.1038/456563a
Top of page
Correspondence
Switch to ecological engineering would aid independence p570
Josef Settele, Jacobus Biesmeijer & Riccardo Bommarco
doi:10.1038/456570a
Offering unproven genetic tests to the public is irresponsible p570
J. R. M. Oliveira
doi:10.1038/456570b
Speaking up for economic-sciences modelling p570
Jesper Stage
doi:10.1038/456570c
Top of page
Commentary
Make secondary education universal p572
The time is right to push global learning beyond primary-school level, says Joel E. Cohen. The benefits could include a dramatically smaller increase in world population by 2050.
doi:10.1038/456572a
See also: Editor's summary
Top of page
Books and Arts
Preparing for pandemics p574
More deadly than the First World War, the global outbreak of influenza in 1918 terrified populations and tested governments. But would we fare any better today, asks Michael Sargent?
Michael Sargent reviews Living with Enza: The Forgotten Story of Britain and the Great Flu Pandemic of 1918 by Mark Honigsbaum
doi:10.1038/456574a
Crimes in the name of research p575
Benno Müller-Hill reviews Das Robert Koch-Institut im Nationalsozialismus by Annette Hinz-Wessels
doi:10.1038/456575a
Conspiracy at the bench p575
Henry Gee reviews Experimental Heart: A Novel by Jennifer L. Rohn
doi:10.1038/456575b
Q&A: Electronic music comes of age p576
The Columbia–Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York was the first institution of its kind in the United States for experimenters seeking new technology-based sounds. Fifty years after its founding, director of research Doug Repetto explains how electronic music has evolved and how the role of academic music centres is changing.
Daniel Cressey
doi:10.1038/456576a
Hidden treasures: The Jagiellonian Museum, Kraków p577
Poland's oldest university museum celebrates the Sun-centred ideas of Copernicus and the history of the nation itself, explains Alison Abbott.
Alison Abbott
doi:10.1038/456577a
See also: Editor's summary
Top of page
Essay
Generosity: A winner's advice p579
Mathematical models can reveal how prosocial human behaviour — and even social intelligence and language — have evolved, argues Martin A. Nowak.
Martin A. Nowak
doi:10.1038/456579a
See also: Editor's summary
Top of page
News and Views
Cancer stem cells: Here, there, everywhere? p581
Can every tumour cell propagate human cancers or is this property exclusive to an elite subset? Findings are divided. The latest set shows that — depending on circumstances — both perspectives can be correct.
Connie J. Eaves
doi:10.1038/456581a
See also: Editor's summary
Materials science: Clear leap for superconductors p582
Electric fields offer an innovative means of controlling condensed-matter systems. The approach has been applied to nanoscale oxide interfaces, for studying the physics of two-dimensional superconductors.
Darrell G. Schlom & Charles H. Ahn
doi:10.1038/456582a
See also: Editor's summary
Stem cells: Makeshift sperm production p583
Early middle age is a difficult time, not least for male fruitflies when sperm production falls. The unexpected reason for this decline seems to be that, as tissues age, maintaining functional stem cells becomes difficult.
Allan C. Spradling
doi:10.1038/456583a
See also: Editor's summary
50 & 100 years ago p585
doi:10.1038/456585a
Fertilization: Welcome to the fold p586
The mammalian egg coat participates in fertilization and prevents more than one sperm from entering the egg. Structural data pinpoint a region common to egg-coat proteins that might mediate these functions.
Paul M. Wassarman
doi:10.1038/456586a
See also: Editor's summary
Astrophysics: Echo from an ancient supernova p587
Light reflected off a dust cloud in the vicinity of the relic of Tycho Brahe's supernova, whose light first swept past Earth more than four centuries ago, literally sheds light on the nature of this cosmic explosion.
Andrea Pastorello & Ferdinando Patat
doi:10.1038/456587a
See also: Editor's summary
Behavioural ecology: The social side of wild yeast p589
The workhorse of cell biology, yeast, is a surprisingly cooperative organism. It uses an unusual means of identifying partners — a 'green-beard gene', which encodes a tag that must match among cooperating cells.
David C. Queller
doi:10.1038/456589a
Neuroscience: Along memory lane p590
Memories are encoded by efficient signalling between neurons. The myosin V proteins help this process by shuttling receptors and membranes to make synaptic junctions better detectors of incoming signals.
Yukiko Goda
doi:10.1038/456590a
Top of page
Brief Communications Arising
Pleiotropic scaling and QTL data pE3
Joachim Hermisson & Alistair P. McGregor
doi:10.1038/nature07452
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (130K)
Wagner et al. reply pE4
Günter P. Wagner, Jane P. Kenney-Hunt, Mihaela Pavlicev, Joel R. Peck, David Waxman & James M. Cheverud
doi:10.1038/nature07453
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (130K)
Top of page
Articles
Efficient tumour formation by single human melanoma cells p593
Elsa Quintana, Mark Shackleton, Michael S. Sabel, Douglas R. Fullen, Timothy M. Johnson & Sean J. Morrison
doi:10.1038/nature07567
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (608K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Eaves
Centrosome misorientation reduces stem cell division during ageing p599
Jun Cheng, Nezaket Türkel, Nahid Hemati, Margaret T. Fuller, Alan J. Hunt & Yukiko M. Yamashita
doi:10.1038/nature07386
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,078K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Spradling
Mitofusin 2 tethers endoplasmic reticulum to mitochondria p605
Olga Martins de Brito & Luca Scorrano
doi:10.1038/nature07534
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (909K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Ktu/PF13 is required for cytoplasmic pre-assembly of axonemal dyneins p611
Heymut Omran, Daisuke Kobayashi, Heike Olbrich, Tatsuya Tsukahara, Niki T. Loges, Haruo Hagiwara, Qi Zhang, Gerard Leblond, Eileen O'Toole, Chikako Hara, Hideaki Mizuno, Hiroyuki Kawano, Manfred Fliegauf, Toshiki Yagi, Sumito Koshida, Atsushi Miyawaki, Hanswalter Zentgraf, Horst Seithe, Richard Reinhardt, Yoshinori Watanabe, Ritsu Kamiya, David R. Mitchell & Hiroyuki Takeda
doi:10.1038/nature07471
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,522K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Top of page
Letters
Tycho Brahe's 1572 supernova as a standard type Ia as revealed by its light-echo spectrum p617
Oliver Krause, Masaomi Tanaka, Tomonori Usuda, Takashi Hattori, Miwa Goto, Stephan Birkmann & Ken'ichi Nomoto
doi:10.1038/nature07608
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,114K)
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Pastorello & Patat
Atmospheric structure and dynamics as the cause of ultraviolet markings in the clouds of Venus p620
Dmitry V. Titov, Fredric W. Taylor, Håkan Svedhem, Nikolay I. Ignatiev, Wojciech J. Markiewicz, Giuseppe Piccioni & Pierre Drossart
doi:10.1038/nature07466
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (2,674K)
See also: Editor's summary
Electric field control of the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface ground state p624
A. D. Caviglia, S. Gariglio, N. Reyren, D. Jaccard, T. Schneider, M. Gabay, S. Thiel, G. Hammerl, J. Mannhart & J.-M. Triscone
doi:10.1038/nature07576
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (595K)
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Schlom & Ahn
Large tundra methane burst during onset of freezing p628
Mikhail Mastepanov, Charlotte Sigsgaard, Edward J. Dlugokencky, Sander Houweling, Lena Ström, Mikkel P. Tamstorf & Torben R. Christensen
doi:10.1038/nature07464
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (350K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Partial rupture of a locked patch of the Sumatra megathrust during the 2007 earthquake sequence p631
A. Ozgun Konca, Jean-Philippe Avouac, Anthony Sladen, Aron J. Meltzner, Kerry Sieh, Peng Fang, Zhenhong Li, John Galetzka, Jeff Genrich, Mohamed Chlieh, Danny H. Natawidjaja, Yehuda Bock, Eric J. Fielding, Chen Ji & Don V. Helmberger
doi:10.1038/nature07572
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (2,035K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
The pectoral fin of Panderichthys and the origin of digits p636
Catherine A. Boisvert, Elga Mark-Kurik & Per E. Ahlberg
doi:10.1038/nature07339
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (634K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Direct control of paralysed muscles by cortical neurons p639
Chet T. Moritz, Steve I. Perlmutter & Eberhard E. Fetz
doi:10.1038/nature07418
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (532K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Sox18 induces development of the lymphatic vasculature in mice p643
Mathias François, Andrea Caprini, Brett Hosking, Fabrizio Orsenigo, Dagmar Wilhelm, Catherine Browne, Karri Paavonen, Tara Karnezis, Ramin Shayan, Meredith Downes, Tara Davidson, Desmond Tutt, Kathryn S. E. Cheah, Steven A. Stacker, George E. O. Muscat, Marc G. Achen, Elisabetta Dejana & Peter Koopman
doi:10.1038/nature07391
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,215K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Incorporation of a non-human glycan mediates human susceptibility to a bacterial toxin p648
Emma Byres, Adrienne W. Paton, James C. Paton, Jonas C. Löfling, David F. Smith, Matthew C. J. Wilce, Ursula M. Talbot, Damien C. Chong, Hai Yu, Shengshu Huang, Xi Chen, Nissi M. Varki, Ajit Varki, Jamie Rossjohn & Travis Beddoe
doi:10.1038/nature07428
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (741K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Crystal structure of the ZP-N domain of ZP3 reveals the core fold of animal egg coats p653
Magnus Monné, Ling Han, Thomas Schwend, Sofia Burendahl & Luca Jovine
doi:10.1038/nature07599
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (747K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Wassarman
The ectodomain of Toll-like receptor 9 is cleaved to generate a functional receptor p658
Sarah E. Ewald, Bettina L. Lee, Laura Lau, Katherine E. Wickliffe, Guo-Ping Shi, Harold A. Chapman & Gregory M. Barton
doi:10.1038/nature07405
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (501K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Regulation of ERBB2 by oestrogen receptor–PAX2 determines response to tamoxifen p663
Antoni Hurtado, Kelly A. Holmes, Timothy R. Geistlinger, Iain R. Hutcheson, Robert I. Nicholson, Myles Brown, Jie Jiang, William J. Howat, Simak Ali & Jason S. Carroll
doi:10.1038/nature07483
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (484K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Role for perinuclear chromosome tethering in maintenance of genome stability p667
Karim Mekhail, Jan Seebacher, Steven P. Gygi & Danesh Moazed
doi:10.1038/nature07460
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (575K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Top of page
Career View
Naturejobs
ProspectProspects p671
A disclaimer for graduate school.
Gene Russo
doi:10.1038/nj7222-671a
Career View
Exequiel Ezcurra, director, University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States, Riverside, California p672
Political upheaval opens up an avenue for a scientific career.
Virginia Gewin
doi:10.1038/nj7222-672a
Just cure it p672
Major donation fuels big plans for cancer-research institute in Oregon.
Virginia Gewin
doi:10.1038/nj7222-672b
All work and no play p672
Is my career taking over my life, one baboon at a time?
Aliza le Roux
doi:10.1038/nj7222-672c
