Table of contents
Volume 459 Number 7243 pp9-128
(this content only available online) indicates content that is available online only
Editorials
Between a virus and a hard place p9
Complacency, not overreaction, is the greatest danger posed by the flu pandemic. That's a message scientists would do well to help get across.
doi:10.1038/459009a
Keep to the vision p9
The United States should not try to keep its space shuttles flying beyond 2010.
doi:10.1038/459009b
Doing good, 50 years on p10
Its attack on poverty and arrogance is what makes C. P. Snow's 'two cultures' lecture relevant today.
doi:10.1038/459010a
Research Highlights
Biology: Now hear this, or not p12
doi:10.1038/459012a
Neurogenetics: Psychosis genes exposed p12
doi:10.1038/459012b
Virology: HIV at the gates p12
doi:10.1038/459012c
DNA repair: Chemo's modus operandi p12
doi:10.1038/459012d
Conservation: Reef repair p12
doi:10.1038/459012e
Materials science: Conductors with a twist p13
doi:10.1038/459013a
Cosmology: No ring or reason p13
doi:10.1038/459013b
Plant physiology: Gifts from grafts p13
doi:10.1038/459013c
Structural biology: A virus laid bare p13
doi:10.1038/459013d
Nanotechnology: The helix that delivers p13
doi:10.1038/459013e
News
How severe will the flu outbreak be? p14
Epidemiologists race to pin numbers on the global H1N1 spread.
Declan Butler
doi:10.1038/459014a
China joins world-class synchrotron club p16
Nation's costliest science facility is unveiled.
David Cyranoski
doi:10.1038/459016a
Even big societies feel the pinch p17
American Chemical Society makes cutbacks to fight financial losses.
Emma Marris
doi:10.1038/459017a
Neuroscientists claim growing pains p19
Manufacturer denies that common lab feed can cause some neuron cultures to fail.
Daniel Cressey
doi:10.1038/459019a
Geologists suffer observatory glitches p20
Flagship experiment on the San Andreas fault has been troubled since last autumn.
Richard Monastersky
doi:10.1038/459020a
UK scientists get funding ban reprieve p20
Serially unsuccessful applicants can still apply for grants.
Richard Van Noorden
doi:10.1038/459020b
Hubble: the last hurrah p21
Telescope to receive final servicing mission.
Eric Hand
doi:10.1038/459021a
Australia delays carbon reduction scheme p23
doi:10.1038/459023a
Data 'mishandling' stalls Down's syndrome test p23
doi:10.1038/459023b
Misconduct scandal hits German university p23
doi:10.1038/459023c
South Korea re-enters human stem-cell research p23
doi:10.1038/459023d
Biosecurity report cautious on strict researcher vetting p23
doi:10.1038/459023e
Obama revokes endangered species rule p23
doi:10.1038/459023f
News Features
Protein structures: Structures of desire p24
What do protein crystallographers dream of? The eukaryotic ribosome, the spliceosome, the nuclear-pore complex, the HIV trimer and almost any transmembrane protein, finds Ananyo Bhattacharya.
doi:10.1038/459024a
Materials science: Enter the oxides p28
Thin films of oxygen-bearing compounds could have myriad practical applications, finds Joerg Heber, if a few problems can be overcome.
doi:10.1038/459028a
Correspondence
The potential for water conflict is on the increase p31
Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz & Piotr Kowalczak
doi:10.1038/459031a
Increasing inequality is already making shortages worse p31
Thomas H. Meek & Laura A. Meek
doi:10.1038/459031b
Water is a source of cooperation rather than war p31
Uri Shamir, Stephen Grand & Nancy Grand
doi:10.1038/459031c
Books and Arts
Dissecting The Two Cultures p32
Fifty years ago today, Charles Percy Snow argued in an influential lecture that the failure of science and the humanities to converse, and the lack of scientists in positions of power, was disastrous for society. In the first of three essays marking this anniversary, Martin Kemp contends that the real enemy of understanding is not these 'Two Cultures' but specialization in all disciplines.
Martin Kemp
doi:10.1038/459032a
Science's new battle lines p34
In the second of three essays on the 'Two Cultures', Georgina Ferry detects that today's division lies between optimists and pessimists rather than between scientific and literary intellectuals.
Georgina Ferry
doi:10.1038/459034a
Snow's portrait of science in politics p36
Joanne Baker reviews Extract from Science and Government by C. P. Snow
doi:10.1038/459036a
News and Views
Palaeoanthropology: Homo floresiensis from head to toe p41
Fossils of tiny ancient humans, found on the island of Flores, have provoked much debate and speculation. Evidence that they are a real species comes from analyses of the foot and also — more surprisingly — of dwarf hippos.
Daniel E. Lieberman
doi:10.1038/459041a
See also: Editor's summary
50 & 100 years ago p43
doi:10.1038/459043a
Astrophysics: Galaxy connections p43
A combined millimetre- and visible-light view of a forming cluster of galaxies in the young Universe adds yet another piece to the puzzle of how today's Universe of galaxies formed and evolved.
James Dunlop
doi:10.1038/459043b
See also: Editor's summary
Translation: Till termination us do part p44
Translation of messenger RNA into protein is a complex and intricate process involving several steps and many step-specific protein factors. But one factor — eIF5A — seems to have a hand in every step.
William Merrick
doi:10.1038/459044a
See also: Editor's summary
Mechanochemistry: Polymers react to stress p45
The latest polymers are chameleon-like: they change colour on deformation. The transduction mechanism underpinning this effect could be used to make polymers that respond in many other ways to mechanical stress.
Christoph Weder
doi:10.1038/459045a
See also: Editor's summary
Cell biology: Arrest by ribosome p46
Impaired assembly of cells' protein-synthesis factories, the ribosomes, can cause cell-cycle arrest and disease. This finding emphasizes the close link between cell proliferation and ribosome formation.
Sébastien Ferreira-Cerca & Ed Hurt
doi:10.1038/459046a
Review
The formation of the first stars and galaxies p49
The remaining frontier in understanding the early Universe is the formation of the first stars, galaxies and massive black holes. The interplay of theory and upcoming observations promises to answer key open questions in this emerging field.
Volker Bromm, Naoki Yoshida, Lars Hernquist & Christopher F. McKee
doi:10.1038/nature07990
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (798K)
See also: Editor's summary
Article
HDAC2 negatively regulates memory formation and synaptic plasticity p55
Histone acetylation has been implicated in learning and memory. Neuron-specific overexpression of histone deacetylase 2 (HDAC2), but not HDAC1, is shown to decrease memory formation in a rodent model. This encourages development and testing of HDAC2-selective inhibitors for human diseases associated with memory impairment.
Ji-Song Guan, Stephen J. Haggarty, Emanuela Giacometti, Jan-Hermen Dannenberg, Nadine Joseph, Jun Gao, Thomas J. F. Nieland, Ying Zhou, Xinyu Wang, Ralph Mazitschek, James E. Bradner, Ronald A. DePinho, Rudolf Jaenisch & Li-Huei Tsai
doi:10.1038/nature07925
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (1,205K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Letters
Spatial correlation between submillimetre and Lyman-
galaxies in the SSA 22 protocluster p61
Young, star-forming galaxies can be characterized by their strong Lyman-
emission. An overdensity of such a population in one region of the sky is believed to mark a forming proto-cluster. An enhancement of submillimetre galaxies near the core of this proto-cluster, and a large-scale correlation between the submillimetre galaxies and the low-mass Lyman-a emitters suggests synchronous formation of the two different types of star-forming galaxies.
Yoichi Tamura, Kotaro Kohno, Kouichiro Nakanishi, Bunyo Hatsukade, Daisuke Iono, Grant W. Wilson, Min S. Yun, Tadafumi Takata, Yuichi Matsuda, Tomoka Tosaki, Hajime Ezawa, Thushara A. Perera, Kimberly S. Scott, Jason E. Austermann, David H. Hughes, Itziar Aretxaga, Aeree Chung, Tai Oshima, Nobuyuki Yamaguchi, Kunihiko Tanaka & Ryohei Kawabe
doi:10.1038/nature07947
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (331K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Dunlop
A large iron isotope effect in SmFeAsO1 - xFx and Ba1 - xKxFe2As2 p64
The recent discovery of superconductivity in oxypnictides with the critical transition temperature (TC) higher than 39 K has generated great interest in the underlying mechanism. The effects of oxygen and iron isotope substitution on the critical and spin-density wave transition temperatures indicate that electron–phonon interaction plays some role in the superconducting mechanism, but a simple electron–phonon coupling mechanism seems unlikely because a strong magnon–phonon coupling is included.
R. H. Liu, T. Wu, G. Wu, H. Chen, X. F. Wang, Y. L. Xie, J. J. Ying, Y. J. Yan, Q. J. Li, B. C. Shi, W. S. Chu, Z. Y. Wu & X. H. Chen
doi:10.1038/nature07981
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (293K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Force-induced activation of covalent bonds in mechanoresponsive polymeric materials p68
Exposing synthetic materials to large stresses tends to result in simple failure, unlike many biological systems, which respond by enabling physiological processes such as hearing and balance. But by incorporating a chemical group that responds to mechanical stress by changing its colour, it is possible to monitor the accumulation of plastic deformation directly in a synthetic polymer. This principle could be used to design synthetic materials with desirable functionalities ranging from damage sensing to fully regenerative self-healing.
Douglas A. Davis, Andrew Hamilton, Jinglei Yang, Lee D. Cremar, Dara Van Gough, Stephanie L. Potisek, Mitchell T. Ong, Paul V. Braun, Todd J. Martínez, Scott R. White, Jeffrey S. Moore & Nancy R. Sottos
doi:10.1038/nature07970
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (723K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Weder
Self-assembly of a nanoscale DNA box with a controllable lid p73
By exploiting the unique structural motifs and self-recognition properties of DNA, it is possible to generate self-assembled DNA nanostructures of specific shapes. Here, a previously described DNA 'origami' method has been extended into three dimensions to create an addressable DNA box on the nanometre scale that can be opened by an externally supplied DNA key'.
Ebbe S. Andersen, Mingdong Dong, Morten M. Nielsen, Kasper Jahn, Ramesh Subramani, Wael Mamdouh, Monika M. Golas, Bjoern Sander, Holger Stark, Cristiano L. P. Oliveira, Jan Skov Pedersen, Victoria Birkedal, Flemming Besenbacher, Kurt V. Gothelf & Jørgen Kjems
doi:10.1038/nature07971
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (994K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Upper-mantle volatile chemistry at Oldoinyo Lengai volcano and the origin of carbonatites p77
Carbonatite lavas are unusual because they contain over 50%carbonate minerals and almost no silicate. Volcanic gases captured from Oldoinyo Lengai in northern Tanzania, which is the only currently active volcano to produce such lavas, are shown to be indistinguishable from those emitted along mid-ocean ridges. Oldoinyo Lengai is far removed from oceanic spreading centres, so this suggests that a globally homogeneous reservoir exists in the upper mantle and supplies volatiles to both mid-ocean ridges and continental rifts.
T. P. Fischer, P. Burnard, B. Marty, D. R. Hilton, E. Füri, F. Palhol, Z. D. Sharp & F. Mangasini
doi:10.1038/nature07977
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (206K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
The foot of Homo floresiensis p81
The 'hobbit', Homo floresiensis, was a species of diminutive hominin that lived on the island of Flores in Indonesia until around 14,000 years ago. Analysis of the legs and feet of the partial skeleton of the type specimen (LB1) shows some ape-like features which suggest an origin not from Homo erectus but rather some other, more primitive, hominin whose dispersal into southeast Asia is still undocumented.
W. L. Jungers, W. E. H. Harcourt-Smith, R. E. Wunderlich, M. W. Tocheri, S. G. Larson, T. Sutikna, Rhokus Awe Due & M. J. Morwood
doi:10.1038/nature07989
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (636K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Lieberman
Insular dwarfism in hippos and a model for brain size reduction in Homo floresiensis p85
Body size reduction in mammals is accompanied by only a moderate reduction in brain size, so that the brains of dwarfs are proportionately larger than those of giants. Here, the brains of extinct dwarf hippos from the island of Madagascar are shown to be disproportionately very much smaller than those of their closest mainland relatives. If this trend no longer holds true on islands, it may explain the exceptionally small brain size of the diminutive hominin, Homo floresiensis.
Eleanor M. Weston & Adrian M. Lister
doi:10.1038/nature07922
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (190K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Lieberman
Decision-related activity in sensory neurons reflects more than a neuron's causal effect p89
The ability of sensory neurons to predict an animal's upcoming decision has generated enormous interest over the last 10 years, with the proposal being that the activity of these neurons causes the appropriate decision to be made. Measuring neuronal tuning curves and perceptual decisions in a visual discrimination task in macaque monkeys, decision making was found to change the responses in sensory neurons in a 'top-down' manner, consistent with the effects of attention, thus indicating that this model is too simplistic.
Hendrikje Nienborg & Bruce G. Cumming
doi:10.1038/nature07821
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (452K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Compound vesicle fusion increases quantal size and potentiates synaptic transmission p93
Synaptic transmission is believed to function through the fusion of one synaptic vesicle with the plasma membrane at a time, but here the fusion of synaptic vesicles with themselves before release of giant vesicles at a central synapse is described.
Liming He, Lei Xue, Jianhua Xu, Benjamin D. McNeil, Li Bai, Ernestina Melicoff, Roberto Adachi & Ling-Gang Wu
doi:10.1038/nature07860
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (921K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Fused has evolved divergent roles in vertebrate Hedgehog signalling and motile ciliogenesis p98
Hedgehog signalling is important in development and disease; Fused is required for Hedgehog signalling in Drosophila but not in mice. Here it is shown how the function of Fused has evolved by studying its role in zebrafish relative to mice, providing insight into the evolution of the Hedgehog signalling cascade.
Christopher W. Wilson, Catherine T. Nguyen, Miao-Hsueh Chen, Jehn-Hsiahn Yang, Rhodora Gacayan, Jie Huang, Jau-Nian Chen & Pao-Tien Chuang
doi:10.1038/nature07883
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,627K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Haematopoietic stem cells depend on Gs-mediated signalling to engraft bone marrow p103
The guanine-nucleotide-binding protein stimulatory subunit (Gs) is necessary for the homing and engraftment of haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells to bone marrow, as demonstrated by its disruption in adult mice deficient in Gs. Conversely, pharmacological activators of Gs enhance homing and engraftment in vivo, suggesting a potential pharmacological target to improve transplantation efficiency.
Gregor B. Adams, Ian R. Alley, Ung-il Chung, Karissa T. Chabner, Nathaniel T. Jeanson, Cristina Lo Celso, Emily S. Marsters, Min Chen, Lee S. Weinstein, Charles P. Lin, Henry M. Kronenberg & David T. Scadden
doi:10.1038/nature07859
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (796K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Histone modifications at human enhancers reflect global cell-type-specific gene expression p108
By generating maps of histone modifications at promoters and enhancers in several different human cell lines, it has been possible to determine that although modification patterns at promoters are largely invariant between cell types, the patterns at most enhancers are specific to a single cell type and correlate well with cell-type-specific gene expression.
Nathaniel D. Heintzman, Gary C. Hon, R. David Hawkins, Pouya Kheradpour, Alexander Stark, Lindsey F. Harp, Zhen Ye, Leonard K. Lee, Rhona K. Stuart, Christina W. Ching, Keith A. Ching, Jessica E. Antosiewicz-Bourget, Hui Liu, Xinmin Zhang, Roland D. Green, Victor V. Lobanenkov, Ron Stewart, James A. Thomson, Gregory E. Crawford, Manolis Kellis & Bing Ren
doi:10.1038/nature07829
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (1,025K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
CBP/p300-mediated acetylation of histone H3 on lysine 56 p113
Acetylation within the globular core domain of histone H3 on lysine 56 (H3K56) has been shown to have a critical role in packaging DNA into chromatin during DNA replication and repair in budding yeast, but has not been studied in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, the identification of multiple proteins regulating the levels of H3K56 acetylation in Drosophila and human cells allows future studies of this critical histone modulation which is implicated in cancer.
Chandrima Das, M. Scott Lucia, Kirk C. Hansen & Jessica K. Tyler
doi:10.1038/nature07861
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (891K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary
Hypusine-containing protein eIF5A promotes translation elongation p118
Various factors associate with the ribosome to assist in initiation, elongation and termination of translation. Only two universal factors for elongation have previously been identified; here, a factor previously thought to be associated with the initiation process, eIF5A, and which contains a rare amino acid, hypusine, is found to have a central role in elongation.
Preeti Saini, Daniel E. Eyler, Rachel Green & Thomas E. Dever
doi:10.1038/nature08034
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (473K) | Supplementary information
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Merrick
Corrigenda
Temperature-dependent thermal diffusivity of the Earth's crust and implications for magmatism p122
Alan G. Whittington, Anne M. Hofmeister & Peter I. Nabelek
doi:10.1038/nature08037
New role of bone morphogenetic protein 7 in brown adipogenesis and energy expenditure p122
Yu-Hua Tseng, Efi Kokkotou, Tim J. Schulz, Tian Lian Huang, Jonathon N. Winnay, Cullen M. Taniguchi, Thien T. Tran, Ryo Suzuki, Daniel O. Espinoza, Yuji Yamamoto, Molly J. Ahrens, Andrew T. Dudley, Andrew W. Norris, Rohit N. Kulkarni & C. Ronald Kahn
doi:10.1038/nature08038
Naturejobs
Careers and RecruitmentGoing nuclear p124
Workforce shortages could slow the growth of an industry poised for a comeback. Quirin Schiermeier reports.
Quirin Schiermeier
doi:10.1038/nj7243-124a
