Subject: Nature 31 May 2007 Volume 447 Number 7144, pp507-612

From: "Nature Alert"<[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 14:51:59 -0400 (EDT)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Volume 447 Number 7144 pp 507 – 612

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Editorials
Research Highlights
News
Business
News Features
Correspondence
Commentary
Books and Arts
News and Views
Brief Communications Arising
Articles
Letters

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Four novel breast cancer susceptibility genes have been identified in a study published online in this week's Nature. These findings increase our knowledge of the genetic component of breast cancer risk, much of which has remained uncharacterised. Previously identified genes are involved in DNA repair, but the genes reported here are involved in the control of cell growth or cell signalling.

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Editorials

Top

No more hot air p507
The leaders meeting at this year's G8 summit must grasp the opportunity to assert themselves and commit to real action on climate change.
10.1038/447507a
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Time for a medical p507
The pharmaceutical industry is struggling to adapt to a harsher political environment.
10.1038/447507b
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The safety catch p508
The United States' domestic security agency has yet to make best use of science and technology.
10.1038/447508a
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Research Highlights

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Research highlights p510
10.1038/447510a
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News

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Weighing up the evidence p512
A meta-analysis of clinical trials for the diabetes drug Avandia has hinted at possible cardiovascular risks; but how clear is the study, and how should meta-analyses be viewed against clinical trials?
Heidi Ledford
10.1038/447512a
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Man on a mission p513
A look at the world of Steven Nissen, the cardiologist who raised worries about Vioxx and Avandia.
Meredith Wadman
10.1038/447513a
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Stormy opening to hurricane season p514
Infighting over money and equipment plagues US agency.
Alexandra Witze
10.1038/447514a
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See also: Editor's summary

Academics strike back at spurious rankings p514
Universities seek reform of ratings.
Declan Butler
10.1038/447514b
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Sidelines p515
10.1038/447515a
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Changing course p516
Science and technology have not always gone down well at the US Department of Homeland Security. Geoff Brumfiel reports on a retired Navy admiral trying to turn around the troubled research wing.
10.1038/447516a
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Science high on French political agenda p518
Incoming president launches superministry for ecology and sustainable development.
Declan Butler
10.1038/447518a
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Complex set of RNAs found in simple green algae p518
Single-celled organisms aren't as basic as they seem.
Lucy Odling-Smee
10.1038/447518b
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Business

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Algae bloom again p520
A handful of pioneers are trying to bring algae-based biofuels back from a near-death experience. Amanda Leigh Haag reports.
10.1038/447520a
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In brief p521
10.1038/447521a
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Market watch p521
Quirin Schiermeier
10.1038/447521b
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News Features

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Oceanography: Churn, churn, churn p522
How the oceans mix their waters is key to understanding future climate change. Yet scientists have a long way to go to unravel the mysteries of the deep. Quirin Schiermeier reports.
10.1038/447522a
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See also: Editor's summary

Obesity: The two faces of fat p525
No longer viewed as inert packets of energy, fat cells are two-faced masterminds of metabolism. Kendall Powell weighs up the differences between 'fat' fat cells and thin ones.
10.1038/447525a
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See also: Editor's summary

Correspondence

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Treating astrology's claims with all due gravity p528
Steven K. Lower
10.1038/447528a
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Conflict and cancer research in Arizona p528
John C. Knight
10.1038/447528b
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Pathologists needed to cope with mutant mice p528
Robert D. Cardiff
10.1038/447528c
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Open journals' records to give reviewers their due p528
Ariberto Fassati
10.1038/447528d
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Commentary

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Can bans stimulate wildlife trade? p529
Proactive management of trade in endangered wildlife makes more sense than last-minute bans that can themselves increase trading activity, argue Philippe Rivalan and his co-authors.
10.1038/447529a
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See also: Editor's summary

Books and Arts

Top

Time for a change? p531
Two books on the AIDS pandemic in Africa challenge assumptions at the heart of the UN's response.
Stephen LewisPaula Donovan reviews The AIDS Pandemic: The Collision of Epidemiology with Political Correctness
The Invisible Cure: AIDS in Africa
10.1038/447531a
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See also: Editor's summary

Winged beauty p532
100 Butterflies and Moths
10.1038/447532a
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Selling evolution p533
Mark Pagel reviews Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives by David Sloan Wilson
10.1038/447533a
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News and Views

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Astrophysics: Water worlds in the making p535
Meticulous observations of the disk of gas and dust around one young star seem to imply icy, comet-like bodies in the disk's inner regions. Could these be the building-blocks of water-rich planets like Earth?
Roy van Boekel
10.1038/447535a
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See also: Editor's summary

Ageing: When less is more p536
Restricting dietary intake is one way to promote longevity. The identification of two genes that specifically mediate this effect in worms provides insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying ageing.
Adam Antebi
10.1038/447536a
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See also: Editor's summary

High-temperature superconductivity: Local pairs and small surfaces p537
Mapping out the strange territory of high-temperature superconductors has proved a challenge. In the latest tour de force, two experiments take big steps forward, in complementary directions, to chart the lie of the land.
Stephen R. Julian and Michael R. Norman
10.1038/447537a
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See also: Editor's summary

Evolutionary biology: Animal personalities p539
That different people differ in their readiness to take risks is an obvious feature of human personality. Theoretical advances now help in making sense of observations of analogous behaviour in animals.
Alison M. Bell
10.1038/447539a
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See also: Editor's summary

50 & 100 Years Ago p539
10.1038/447539b
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Solid-state physics: A polariton laser p540
Polaritons — particles comprising both light and matter — can form a coherent state, just as light and matter can individually. This fact has now been exploited to make the first room-temperature polariton laser.
Leonid V. Butov
10.1038/447540a
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Colour vision: Seeing red p541
Tim Lincoln
10.1038/447541a
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Protein science: Discriminating taste of prions p541
Prions are infectious proteins that are involved in brain-wasting disorders such as mad cow disease. In yeast, specific sequences of amino acids in prions seem to mediate prion propagation and cross-species transmissibility.
Witold K. Surewicz
10.1038/447541b
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See also: Editor's summary

Obituary: Frank H. Westheimer (1912–2007) p543
Pioneering chemist at the interface with biology.
John A. Gerlt
10.1038/447543a
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Brief Communications Arising

Top

Ecology: Global warming and amphibian losses pE3
Ross A. Alford, Kay S. Bradfield and Stephen J. Richards
10.1038/nature05940
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF

Ecology: The proximate cause of frog declines? pE4
Ines Di Rosa, Francesca Simoncelli, Anna Fagotti and Rita Pascolini
10.1038/nature05941
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF

Global warming and amphibian losses; The proximate cause of frog declines? (Reply) pE5
J. Alan Pounds et al.
10.1038/nature05942
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF

Articles

Top

Two neurons mediate diet-restriction-induced longevity in C. elegans p545
Increased longevity of diet-restricted Caenorhabditis elegans requires the transcription factor gene skn-1 acting in the ASIs, a pair of neurons in the head. Dietary restriction activates skn-1 in the ASIs, which signals peripheral tissues to increase metabolic activity. These findings demonstrate that increased lifespan in a diet-restricted nematode depends on signalling from central neuronal cells to non-neuronal body tissues, and suggest that the ASIs mediate dietary restriction-induced longevity by an endocrine mechanism.
Nicholas A. Bishop and Leonard Guarente
10.1038/nature05904
Abstract | Full Text | PDF
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Antebi

PHA-4/Foxa mediates diet-restriction-induced longevity of C. elegans p550
Siler H. Panowski et al.
10.1038/nature05837
Abstract | Full Text | PDF
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Antebi

Prion recognition elements govern nucleation, strain specificity and species barriers p556
A Sup35 chimaera that traverses the transmission barrier between two yeast species possesses the critical sequence elements from both. This chimaera is used to show that the influence of environment and mutations on the formation of species-specific strains is driven by selective recognition of either sequence element. Thus, critical aspects of prion conversion are enciphered by subtle differences between small, highly specific recognition elements.
Peter M. Tessier and Susan Lindquist
10.1038/nature05848
Abstract | Full Text | PDF
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Surewicz

Letters

Top

Water vapour and hydrogen in the terrestrial-planet-forming region of a protoplanetary disk p562
This paper reports spectrally dispersed near-infrared interferometric observations that probe the gas (which dominates the mass and dynamics of the inner disk) and dust within one astronomical unit (Sun–Earth distance) of the young star MWC 480. Water vapour and atomic hydrogen exist interior to the edge of the dust disk. The water vapor is likely produced by the sublimation of migrating icy bodies.
J. A. Eisner
10.1038/nature05867
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by van Boekel

Quantum oscillations and the Fermi surface in an underdoped high-T c superconductor p565
The observation of quantum oscillations in the electrical resistance of YBa2Cu3O6.5, is reported, establishing the existence of a well-defined Fermi surface in the ground state of underdoped copper oxides (once superconductivity is suppressed by a magnetic field). The low oscillation frequency reveals a Fermi surface made of small pockets, in contrast to the large cylinder characteristic of the overdoped regime.
Nicolas Doiron-Leyraud et al.
10.1038/nature05872
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Julian Norman

Visualizing pair formation on the atomic scale in the high-T c superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ p569
The first spatially resolved measurements of gap formation in a high-Tc superconductor are reported. Over a wide range of doping (0.16 to 0.22), it is found that pairing gaps nucleate in nanoscale regions above Tc. These regions proliferate as the temperature is lowered, resulting in a spatial distribution of gap sizes in the superconducting state.
Kenjiro K. Gomes et al.
10.1038/nature05881
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Julian Norman

Spin-based logic in semiconductors for reconfigurable large-scale circuits p573
This paper reports a theoretical design that is a conceptual step forward; spin accumulation is used as the basis of a semiconductor computer circuit rather than flow of spin. A logic gate in this design consists of five magnetic leads on top of a semiconductor layer and is found to perform fast logic operations. The idea is further developed by demonstrating the capability to interconnect a large number of gates.
H. Dery, P. Dalal, Ł. Cywiński and L. J. Sham
10.1038/nature05833
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF

Observational evidence for an ocean heat pump induced by tropical cyclones p577
Tropical cyclones mix the upper layers of the ocean on local scales, and it has been proposed that they are important in ocean mixing at the global scale. This paper reports a calculation of how much tropical cyclones cool the surface of the ocean and the amount of mixing they induce, and finds that they are responsible for significant cooling and vertical mixing of the surface ocean in tropical regions, and that approximately 15 per cent of the total peak ocean heat transport may be associated with tropical cyclone-induced mixing.
Ryan L. Sriver and Matthew Huber
10.1038/nature05785
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF
See also: Editor's summary

Life-history trade-offs favour the evolution of animal personalities p581
The evolution of animal 'personalities' (consistent sets of behaviours shown in a variety of contexts) is shown to be related to an adaptive response to life-history trade-offs. Decisions on trade-offs between current and future reproduction condition the response of individuals to risky situations.
Max Wolf, G. Sander van Doorn, Olof Leimar and Franz J. Weissing
10.1038/nature05835
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF
See also: Editor's summary | News and Views by Bell

Incipient speciation by divergent adaptation and antagonistic epistasis in yeast p585
An experimental test involving two yeast strains validates a model for the formation of new species. The formation of new species might begin with the ecological separation of populations, which then diverge such that hybrids between members of the two populations are less 'fit' than their pure-bred colleagues. This is established with strains of yeast raised on different media, and explores the genetic reasons why hybrids between the two strains are less good at both sexual and asexual reproduction.
Jeremy R. Dettman, Caroline Sirjusingh, Linda M. Kohn and James B. Anderson
10.1038/nature05856
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF
See also: Editor's summary

Symbolic arithmetic knowledge without instruction p589
Contrary to the assumption that young children must master the logic of number systems before learning symbolic arithmetic, this paper shows that children are capable of solving symbolic addition and subtraction problems with large numbers before they begin arithmetic instruction, provided that only approximate sums and differences must be computed.
Camilla K. Gilmore, Shannon E. McCarthy and Elizabeth S. Spelke
10.1038/nature05850
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF
See also: Editor's summary

Universal physical responses to stretch in the living cell p592
How the cell goes about its routine mechanical business of stretching, contracting, and remodelling has implications for understanding excessive airway narrowing in asthma, cell invasion in cancer and vessel constriction in vascular disease. Surprisingly, the cell is an intermediate form of matter, neither solid nor fluid but retaining features of both - that responds to stretch by fluidizing, much as do common pastes, foams, clays, and colloids.
Xavier Trepat et al.
10.1038/nature05824
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF
See also: Editor's summary

Rewiring cellular morphology pathways with synthetic guanine nucleotide exchange factors p596
In a synthetic biology approach, GEF domains from Rho GTPases are combined with novel regulatory domains to link cytoskeletal responses to normally unrelated upstream signalling pathways.
Brian J. Yeh et al.
10.1038/nature05851
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF

The histone H3K4 demethylase SMCX links REST target genes to X-linked mental retardation p601
The JmjC domain-containing protein SMCX (or JARID1C), implicated in X-linked mental retardation, has histone H3K4 tri-demethylase activity and functions as a transcriptional repressor.
Mamta Tahiliani et al.
10.1038/nature05823
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF
See also: Editor's summary

8-oxo-guanine bypass by human DNA polymerases in the presence of auxiliary proteins p606
The replication accessory proteins PCNA and RPA are unexpectedly able to stimulate the activity of some of the polymerases that catalyse DNA synthesis. It is speculated that the ability of some polymerases to have their activity enhanced in this way sets up a hierarchy of polymerase utilization at DNA lesions.
Giovanni Maga et al.
10.1038/nature05843
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF

Naturejobs

Top

Prospect
Sometime careers can be both accidental and planned. p609
Paul Smaglik
10.1038/nj7144-609a
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Carla Shatz, director, BioX, Stanford University, Stanford, California p610
Virginia Gewin
10.1038/nj7144-610a
Full Text | PDF

Award-winning commitment p610
Ron VanNimwegen
10.1038/nj7144-610b
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Loose ends p610
Chris Rowan
10.1038/nj7144-610c
Full Text | PDF

Recruiters
The inside track from academia and industry: System-ready scientists p612
Government and industry must do their bit to ensure that universities provide the workforce they want.
Michael Alvarez
10.1038/nj7144-612a
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Advance Online Publication

Top

30 May 2007
ARTICLE
Gene-specific control of inflammation by TLR-induced chromatin modifications
Simmie L. Foster, Diana C. Hargreaves & Ruslan Medzhitov
doi:10.1038/nature05836
First Paragraph | Full Text | PDF | Supplementary information

LETTERS
The menthol receptor TRPM8 is the principal detector of environmental cold
Diana M. Bautista et al.
doi:10.1038/nature05910
First Paragraph | Full Text | PDF | Supplementary information

miRNAs control gene expression in the single-cell alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
Attila Molnár, Frank Schwach, David J. Studholme, Eva C. Thuenemann & David C. Baulcombe
doi:10.1038/nature05903
First Paragraph | Full Text | PDF | Supplementary information

27 May 2007
ARTICLE
Genome-wide association study identifies novel breast cancer susceptibility loci
Douglas F. Easton et al.
doi:10.1038/nature05887
First Paragraph | Full Text | PDF | Supplementary information

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