From the blogosphere

A misconduct survey stirs the pot. An Editorial and Commentary in the 19 June issue of Nature (Nature453, 957; 2008 and Nature453, 980–982; 2008) are hotly debated at Nature Network's News and Opinion forum (http://tinyurl.com/5onqpl).

Ecology: Drought and the lion

PLoS ONE3, e2545 (2008)Extreme weather can cause mass die-offs in the animal kingdom by altering host–pathogen relationships, according to researchers led by Craig Packer of the University of Minnesota in St Paul.They found that high lion mortality in Tanzania in 1994

Does the past have a future in Berlin?

Not unless a research institution's managers recognize its value.

Mercury: The incredible shrinking planet

Data from the Messenger probe suggests Mercury has a molten core that is cooling and causing the whole planet to contract

Materials science: The heart of glass

Nature Mater.7, 556–561 (2008) doi:10.1038/nmat2219A glass is caught somewhere between a liquid and a crystalline solid — its atoms move, but they do so very slowly. Theorists predicted that was because the atoms arranged themselves in

Chemical biology: Anti-Alzheimer's agent

in vivo

Natural history: Nasty, brutish and short

Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA105, 8980–8984 (2008) Doi:10.1073/pnas.0802468105The Madagascan chameleon Furcifer labordi has an annual life cycle, and spends most of its short life in the egg.Kristopher Karsten of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater

Genetics: The genetics of anarchy

Genetics doi: 10.1534/genetics.108.087270 (2008) A study of honeybee 'anarchy' has uncovered several regions of the genome that influence cheating behaviour.Honeybee (Apis mellifera; pictured right) queens emit a pheromone to 'switch off' the ovaries of female worker bees, but

Nanotechnology: Electron windmills

Phys. Rev. Lett.100, 256802 (2008) doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.256802Carbon nanotubes can be sent spinning by passing an electrical current through them, Steven Bailey and his colleagues at Lancaster University, UK, say.Their calculations show that electrons passing through a nanotube with

Acoustics: Fiddling the numbers

PLoS One3, e2554 (2008)Subtle shifts in density that occur within individual pieces of wood might help to explain why violins made in eighteenth-century Cremona, Italy, sound so special.Berend Stoel, of Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and Terry Borman, a

Reduce confusion by using 'design' more intelligently

SirFew scientists would dispute that evolution provides a far more satisfactory explanation for the workings of living organisms than does 'intelligent design'. But a much more subtle 'design' movement abounds that can distort how they approach their research.According to the Oxford English Dictionary

Solar System: A shock for Voyager 2

The Voyager 2 spacecraft has now followed Voyager 1 into the region beyond the end of the supersonic solar wind, where the influence of interstellar space is growing — so opening a new age of exploration.

Hidden Treasures: Institute of Physiology collection

A cache of beautiful nineteenth-century German scientific devices that has survived many misfortunes now needs a new home, reports Alison Abbott.

Quick-thinking ants trim foliage to fit

Faced with a restrictive obstacle in their path, leaf-cutter ants are able to tailor their trimmings to keep the production line moving

Californian wildfires claim life of rare condor chick

Natural fires that forced conservationists to evacuate a field site in California's Big Sur have killed one of the endangered birds

Making the paper: Marina Wolf

Unusual brain receptors weaken resistance to cocaine cravings.

Novel alchemy

Bonding as key to hominid origins

Primatology meets socio-cultural analysis in a controversial account of human evolution.

Perils of perversity

Research is riddled with strong characters; Walter Gratzer applauds a spirited attempt to get their measure.

Picture not quite worth 1,000 words in this case

SirIn your News story 'Top billing for platypus at end of evolution tree' (Nature453, 138–139; 2008), the graphic depicting genome status presents a shocking new phylogeny of the Vertebrates — with Archosaurs (birds and crocodilians) and Mammals forming a monophyletic

Ecology: Return of the niche

Two ideas vie for prominence in community ecology — 'niche partitioning' and 'neutral theory'. A survey of patterns of tree abundance in tropical forest prompts fresh thinking on their respective effects.

Atmospheric chemistry: Her dark materials

A glitch in the history of sulphur isotopes could imply that methane emitted by the ancient biosphere created a high-altitude photochemical smog, which governed the climate in a distinctly Gaian way.

Arise 'cliodynamics'

If we are to learn how to develop a healthy society, we must transform history into an analytical, predictive science, argues Peter Turchin. He has identified intriguing patterns across vastly different times and places.

Science and Music: The ear of the beholder

In the last of nine Essays on science and music, John Sloboda argues that researchers must study music as people actually experience it, if they are to understand how it affects thoughts and feelings.

Reality lags behind rhetoric in building interdisciplinary work

SirAs a PhD student in archaeology and genetics, I am all too aware of the difficulties in crossing a gaping discipline divide, as well as of their effect on academic career prospects, as discussed in the Naturejobs article 'Assembly work' (Nature453

Amateurs as an outreach of HAARP's lunar-echo study

SirYour News Feature 'Heating up the heavens' (Nature452, 930–932; 10.1038/452930a2008) discusses experiments using the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) facility. I would like to clarify the goal of the lunar-echo experiments.The high power

Journal club

doi:10.1088/1478-3975/5/2/026001A network scientist highlights active sites of enzymes, cells, brains and society.For proteins, chemical binding is a tricky business. Special signals must be sent across a sea of water molecules to the desired partner, and complex mutual structural adjustments (a fluctuation fit)

Origins of life: How leaky were primitive cells?

If the first cells were simple vesicles, how did nutrients cross their membranes without help from transport proteins? A model of a primitive cell suggests that early membranes were surprisingly permeable.

Neuroscience: Predicting psychosis

J. Neurosci.28, 6295–6303 (2008) doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0910-08.2008Scientists have found a way of predicting how an individual will respond to the party drug ketamine — and it might help us understand why symptoms of schizophrenia vary so much between

Why continents split up and get back together

A simulation of processes deep in the Earth shows how an insulating effect may help drive the formation of supercontinents

Why satnavs are a detective's best friend

The location records routinely stored by in-car GPS units are a treasure trove of personal data, police investigators say

Wine chemical improves health but not longevity

Two studies find ways to improve the health of mice, but fail to find any life-extending effect with either the chemical or a key ageing protein

Tiny scanner may monitor astronauts' mental health

A portable brain scanner may one day monitor astronauts for signs of brain injury or stress but space crews might oppose its use

Guiding internet traffic beats throttling it

Growth in bandwidth-heavy P2P downloads has led some internet providers to limit connection speeds, but "P4P" cooperation might be a better tactic

Are humans to blame for Arctic meltdown?

With just weeks to go before the Arctic ice reaches its summer minimum, we take a look at the reasons behind its dramatic melt

The future of photography

New Scientist focuses on the future

'Ant from Mars' found in Amazon jungle

A unique and strange subterranean ant has been fortuitously rediscovered specimens found previously had crumbled into dust

Chemistry: Flipping brilliant

Organic Lett. doi: 10.1021/ol801135g (2008A super-fast colour-changing chemical has been synthesized by Jiro Abe and his colleagues at Aoyama Gakuin University in Sagamihara, Japan. The molecule is a ring system containing naphthalene groups.When the colourless version of the molecule is

Counting monkeys tick off yet another 'human' ability

Rhesus macaques that can add dots and sounds at the same time suggest that some mathematical abilities could be a boon in the wild

Spatial cooperativity in soft glassy flows

Amorphous glassy materials of diverse nature—concentrated emulsions, granular materials, pastes, molecular glasses—display complex flow properties, intermediate between solid and liquid, which are at the root of their use in many applications. A general feature of such systems, well documented yet not really understood, is the strongly nonlinear nature of the flow rule relating stresses and strain

Solar sail gets another chance for launch

As early as the end of July 2008, NASA plans to test solar sail technology in orbit with a tiny spacecraft called NanoSail-D

New bug ferments green fuel on the cheap

Genetically engineered bacteria that ferment plant pulp at higher temperatures could make cellulosic ethanol using less costly enzymes

Lack of cracks may explain Peru meteorite mystery

A meteorite that hit the town of Carancas last year may not have fragmented in the atmosphere because it was unusually tough (full text available to subscribers)

Global treaty promises hard times for file sharers

Distributing or downloading copyrighted material will become a criminal offence if a new G8 treaty comes into force (full text available to subscribers)

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