Sunday, June 1, 2008

Nature Magazine: 29 May 2008

Have a look at selected topics from Nature Magazine: 29 May 2008,Vol. 453, Number 7195, p563-696
* Editorial
- Linking up development p564
An initiative to link scientists in the poorest nations with colleagues around the world deserves support.
PDF (87K)
* Research Highlights
- Zoology: Pretty good p566
- Cell biology: Bean counting p566
- Theoretical physics: Better out than in p566
- Nanotechnology: Nanozapped p566
- Physical chemistry: Growing up bigger p567
- Microbiology: Inner lives p567
* News
- Climate anomaly is an artefact p569
Glitch in the twentieth-century climate record is explained.
Full Text PDF (396K)
- France's research agency splits up p573
CNRS is being carved up into separate institutes.
Full Text PDF (124K)
-Sidelines p575
Scribbles on the margins of science.
- Funding boost for B-cell-based HIV vaccine research p577
* News Features
- Microbiology: The inside story p578
The human body teems with microbes. Asher Mullard looks at the global efforts to catalogue this vast 'microbiome'.
- Origins of Death p583
Programmed cell death is usually seen as the unique prerogative of plants and animals. So how is it that photosynthetic plankton have been killing themselves by uncannily similar methods for billions of years? Nick Lane investigates.
* Correspondence
- A prime problem that even quantum computing can't solve p586
- Analyses support theory of stochastic regulation of fisheries p586
* Books
- Moralist, meet scientist p593
Nick Bostrom reviews "Experiments in Ethics" by Kwame Anthony Appiah Full Text PDF (264K)
- Music grown from garden weeds p594
Colin Martin reviews "Umbel Ballits: Dylan Martorell" Full Text PDF (198K)
- Seeing the smaller picture p596
Advances in imaging techniques are transforming microbiology into a science that is rich in visual imagery, harking back to biology's pre-darwinian origins. Full Text PDF (305K)
* News and Views
- Climate change: Hot questions of temperature bias p601
An unseen measurement bias has been identified in global records of sea surface temperature. The discrepancy will need correction, but will not affect conclusions about an overall warming trend.
- Immunology: Soothing intestinal sugars p602
The gut is a new frontier in microbiology, offering many opportunities for innovative investigation. The finding of one such study is that intestinal inflammation in mice can be tamed by bacterial sugars.
- Cancer: Whispering sweet somethings p604
That genetic mutations contribute to cancer is undisputed. What now emerges is that a cancer cell's microenvironment has a much stronger hand in the course a cancer takes than previously thought.
- Mathematical physics: Packings close and loose p606
What determines how grains such as sand pack together to fill a space? A thoroughgoing investigation of how geometry and friction interact in such systems is a step towards a more general understanding.
* Articles
- The genomic and epidemiological dynamics of human influenza A virus p615
- A microbial symbiosis factor prevents intestinal inflammatory disease p620
* Career View
- The softer side of science p694
Success in science is about more than mastering lab techniques. It also depends on 'soft' skills such as motivation, personality, research strategy and communication. Mastering soft skills helps master one's career. Full Text PDF (81K)

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