Nature (Vol. 438, No. 7064, 3 November 2005)

123 Pages·2005·10.095 MB·English

Volume 438 Number 7064 pp1-128
In this issue (3 November 2005) Also this week
• Books and Arts
• Essay
• Editorials • News and Views
• Brief Communications
• Research Highlights • Brief Communications Arising
(this content only available online)
• News
• Articles
• News Features • Letters
• Naturejobs
• Business
• Futures
• Correspondence • Editor's Summary
• Authors
• Nature Podcast

Editorials
Taking a stand on animal-rights violence p1
Governments must not turn a blind eye to intimidation and violence by animal-rights activists. A more
resilient approach is needed.

Turkey's evolution p1
Admission to the European Union can benefit Turkish science.

Clamp down on copycats p2
Plagiarism is on the rise, thanks to the Internet. Universities and journals need to take action.

Research Highlights
Research highlights p4

News
Wartime tactic doubles power of scarce bird-flu drug p6
Use of common drug could stretch world stocks of Tamiflu.
Declan Butler

Drug firms donate compounds for anti-HIV gel p6
Promising results raise hopes in the battle against AIDS.
Narelle Towie

Universities scramble to assess scope of falsified results p7
MIT immunologist sacked for scientific misconduct.
Rex Dalton

Sidelines p8

Protists push animals aside in rule revamp p8
Redefined kingdoms give centre stage to single-celled organisms.
Tom Simonite

Turkish rectors rally in support of university head thrown in jail p8
Dispute highlights tension between academic system and religion.
Alison Abbott

Floods fail to save canyon beaches p10
River ecosystem might never return to normal.
Rex Dalton

Expert witness: the scientists who testified against intelligent design p11
Researchers tell the tale of defending Darwin in the dock.

Gene study raises fears for three-parent babies p12
Concern grows over mixing of mitochondrial DNA during assisted reproduction.
Erika Check

News in brief p13

News Features
Evolutionary theory: Personal effects p14
Living things from bacteria to humans change their environment, but the consequences for evolution and
ecology are only now being understood, or so the 'niche constructivists' claim. Dan Jones investigates.

Star of the south p18
This month South Africa will officially open the largest optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere.
But is the country ready to capitalize on its investment? Michael Cherry investigates.
I
Meteorology: Winds of change p21
Hurricanes can grow more intense in a matter of hours, but exactly why remains a mystery. Mark Schrope
flies into the eye of a storm to investigate.

Business
Race is on for flu vaccine p23
Drug companies are using adjuvants to boost their vaccines in a bid to be ready for a flu pandemic, as
Meredith Wadman reports.
Meredith Wadman

Correspondence
UK must go on promoting and funding science p24
David A. King

Universal fungus register offers pattern for zoology p24
David L. Hawksworth

Mapping the complexities of science and politics p24
Ying-Hen Hsieh

Books and Arts
Scientists on screen p25
Does Hollywood think we're all dangerous megalomaniacs with crazy hair?
Adam Rutherford reviews Mad, Bad and Dangerous: The Scientist and the Cinema by Christopher Frayling

Return to the fortress p26
Michael Fitzpatrick reviews The Science and Fiction of Autism by Laura Schreibman

Green in tooth and claw p27
Peter D. Moore reviews Demons in Eden: The Paradox of Plant Diversity by Jonathan Silvertown

Exhibition: In the croak room p27

Essay
Concept
Wit and wisdom p29
From pioneering xerographer to innovative teacher, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg was a physicist with many
skills, but perhaps most remembered will be his acerbic aphorisms.
John L. Heilbron

News and Views
Intelligence: A gender bender p31
The conclusion of a number-crunching exercise on various data sets is that male university students have
significantly higher IQs than their female counterparts. But the methodology used is deeply flawed.
Steve Blinkhorn

Astronomy: Light on a dark place p32
The sharpest images ever taken of matter around the probable black hole at the centre of our Galaxy bring
us within grasp of a crucial test of general relativity — a picture of the black hole's 'point of no
return'.
Christopher Reynolds

Microbiology: Algae and the vitamin mosaic p33
The requirements for vitamin B vary among algal species in a seemingly inexplicable pattern. A study
12
that exploits genomic data now provides enlightenment — and evidence of symbioses with bacteria.
Robert A. Andersen

Global change: Sea level and volcanoes p35
Large volcanic eruptions cool the world ocean. In doing so, they temporarily reduce the increase in ocean
heat content and the rise in sea level attributed to warming caused by greenhouse-gas emissions.
Anny Cazenave

50 & 100 years ago p35

Structural biology: Proteins flex to function p36
Static pictures of protein structures are so prevalent that it is easy to forget they are dynamic molecular
machines. Characterizing their intrinsic motions may be necessary to understand how they work.
Yuanpeng J. Huang and Gaetano T. Montelione

Cosmology: The infrared dawn of starlight p39
The modest-sized but successful Spitzer Space Telescope has detected fluctuations in cosmic light at
infrared frequencies. Is this the signature of the first population of stars that formed in the Universe?
Richard S. Ellis

II
Chemical biology: Bring them back alive p40
A deep search has turned up an RNA that can carry out the chemically complex 'aldol' reaction involved
in sugar metabolism. Could this be similar to an ancestral catalyst that existed billions of years ago?
Michael Yarus

Correction p40

Obituary: Richard Doll (1912–2005) p41
Epidemiologist extraordinary.
Leo Kinlen

Brief Communications
Theoretical mechanics: Crowd synchrony on the Millennium Bridge p43
Footbridges start to sway when packed with pedestrians falling into step with their vibrations.
Steven H. Strogatz, Daniel M. Abrams, Allan McRobie, Bruno Eckhardt and Edward Ott

Nanoscale hydrodynamics: Enhanced flow in carbon nanotubes p44
Mainak Majumder, Nitin Chopra, Rodney Andrews and Bruce J. Hinds

Brief Communications Arising
Ecology: Is speciation driven by species diversity? pE1
Carlos Daniel Cadena, Robert E. Ricklefs, Iván Jiménez and Eldredge Bermingham

Ecology: Is speciation driven by species diversity? (Reply) pE2
Brent C. Emerson and Niclas Kolm

Articles
Tracing the first stars with fluctuations of the cosmic infrared background p45
A. Kashlinsky, R. G. Arendt, J. Mather and S. H. Moseley

Radiocarbon dating of interstratified Neanderthal and early modern human occupations at
the Chatelperronian type-site p51
Brad Gravina, Paul Mellars and Christopher Bronk Ramsey

The yeast Pif1p helicase removes telomerase from telomeric DNA p57
Jean-Baptiste Boulé, Leticia R. Vega and Virginia A. Zakian

Letters
A size of 1 au for the radio source Sgr A* at the centre of the Milky Way p62
Zhi-Qiang Shen, K. Y. Lo, M.-C. Liang, Paul T. P. Ho and J.-H. Zhao

Active control of slow light on a chip with photonic crystal waveguides p65
Yurii A. Vlasov, Martin O'Boyle, Hendrik F. Hamann and Sharee J. McNab

Simulating micrometre-scale crystal growth from solution p70
Stefano Piana, Manijeh Reyhani and Julian D. Gale

Significant decadal-scale impact of volcanic eruptions on sea level and ocean heat content
p74
John A. Church, Neil J. White and Julie M. Arblaster

Crustal rheology of the Himalaya and Southern Tibet inferred from magnetotelluric data
p78
M. J. Unsworth, A. G. Jones, W. Wei, G. Marquis, S. G. Gokarn, J. E. Spratt and The INDEPTH-MT team

Proteorhodopsin in the ubiquitous marine bacterium SAR11 p82
Stephen J. Giovannoni, Lisa Bibbs, Jang-Cheon Cho, Martha D. Stapels, Russell Desiderio, Kevin L. Vergin,
Michael S. Rappé, Samuel Laney, Lawrence J. Wilhelm, H. James Tripp, Eric J. Mathur and Douglas F. Barofsky

Photosynthesis genes in marine viruses yield proteins during host infection p86
Debbie Lindell, Jacob D. Jaffe, Zackary I. Johnson, George M. Church and Sallie W. Chisholm

Algae acquire vitamin B through a symbiotic relationship with bacteria p90
Martin T. Croft, Andrew D. 1BL2awrence, Evelyne Raux-Deery, Martin J. Warren and Alison G. Smith

The transcription factor Engrailed-2 guides retinal axons p94
Isabelle Brunet, Christine Weinl, Michael Piper, Alain Trembleau, Michel Volovitch, William Harris, Alain
Prochiantz and Christine Holt

Protection of macaques from vaginal SHIV challenge by vaginally delivered inhibitors of
virus–cell fusion p99
Ronald S. Veazey, Per Johan Klasse, Susan M. Schader, Qinxue Hu, Thomas J. Ketas, Min Lu, Preston A. Marx,
Jason Dufour, Richard J. Colonno, Robin J. Shattock, Martin S. Springer and John P. Moore

III
A protein interaction network of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum p103
Douglas J. LaCount, Marissa Vignali, Rakesh Chettier, Amit Phansalkar, Russell Bell, Jay R. Hesselberth,
Lori W. Schoenfeld, Irene Ota, Sudhir Sahasrabudhe, Cornelia Kurschner, Stanley Fields and Robert E.
Hughes

The Plasmodium protein network diverges from those of other eukaryotes p108
Silpa Suthram, Taylor Sittler and Trey Ideker

A putative stimulatory role for activator turnover in gene expression p113
J. Russell Lipford, Geoffrey T. Smith, Yong Chi and Raymond J. Deshaies

Intrinsic dynamics of an enzyme underlies catalysis p117
Elan Z. Eisenmesser, Oscar Millet, Wladimir Labeikovsky, Dmitry M. Korzhnev, Magnus Wolf-Watz, Daryl A.
Bosco, Jack J. Skalicky, Lewis E. Kay and Dorothee Kern

Erratum: Marine microorganisms and global nutrient cycles p122
Kevin R. Arrigo

Corrigendum: Eocene bipolar glaciation associated with global carbon cycle changes p122
Aradhna Tripati, Jan Backman, Henry Elderfield and Patrizia Ferretti

Naturejobs
Prospect
A transparent process p123
European recruitment would benefit from greater transparency.
Paul Smaglik

Career Views
Hendricus Hoogenboom, chief scientific officer, Ablynx, Ghent, Belgium p126
Dutch scientist pursues nanobiotechnology.
Janet Wright

Scientists & Societies p126
Dutch postdocs retreat to discuss career development.
Erik van Beers, Anke Klerkx and Andrea Thiele

Graduate journal: Endurance test p126
New PhD prepares for fresh endurance test.
Anne Margaret Lee

Futures
Shopping p128
Scott Seller-Mason
IV
3.11 Editorials MH 1/11/05 3:11 PM Page 1
www.nature.com/nature Vol 438 |Issue no. 7064 |3 November 2005
Taking a stand on animal-rights violence
Governments must not turn a blind eye to intimidation and violence by animal-rights activists. A more
resilient approach is needed.
T
wo months ago, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was set says are confidential — or about any information that HLS could
to list the shares of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), a British now provide to help it secure a listing.
research company whose bankers and advisers have been But the inclination to blame NYSE and its president, Catherine
constantly hounded by animal-rights activists. When the NYSE Kinney — who withdrew from testifying before the Senate, letting
announced at the last minute that the listing had been shelved, her top lawyer take the heat instead — should be resisted. Like other
HLS executives weren’t the only ones to be dismayed. clients and advisers who have shunned HLS, in both Britain and the
At a hearing of the US Senate Committee on Environment and United States, the NYSE is in a tough position, having had its own
Public Works last week, the NYSE failed to shed much light on the staff threatened on the Internet and elsewhere.
reasons for the withdrawal. Senators James Inhofe (Republican, Even so, the public mood in
“In the United States there
Oklahoma) and Frank Lautenberg (Democrat, New Jersey) the United States could support
is less latent sympathy for
expressed exasperation that a major national institution could leave a more resilient stance by the
animal-rights activists
itself exposed to allegations that it folded in the face of intimidation. NYSE and other institutions.
The committee is supporting legislation that would close several There is less latent sympathy for than in Britain, and more
loopholes in an existing law that was designed to protect animal animal-rights activists than in appetite for a clampdown
researchers. The changes would, among other things, make it easier Britain, and more appetite for a
on their criminal activities.”
to prosecute those who encourage violent attacks on employees vigorous clampdown on their
of companies that don’t do animal research themselves, but have criminal activities. Inhofe and Lautenberg should be applauded for
business links with firms, such as HLS, that do. their robust public stance on this issue. It contrasts with an occasional
This legislative approach is likely to prove more fruitful than the tendency in the United States to wish away hundreds of documented
aggressive pursuit of precisely what happened when the NYSE instances of animal-rights-related violence.
pulled the plug on the listing. Inhofe had previously written to the But the issue isn’t going away. The intellectual leadership of the
exchange and begged it to show some moral backbone. “It seems animal-rights movement is shifting to the United States, and the
to me unimaginable that this country’s worldwide symbol of the committee took testimony from Jerry Vlasak, a California-based
integrity of the capital markets, the NYSE, would capitulate to threats, surgeon, who declined to repudiate previous statements defending
or even the mere threat of threats, from a single-issue extremist violence, and even murder, against researchers. Again, the senators
group,” the senator said last week. “Appeasing these groups only did well to confront the thinking behind animal-rights violence.
validates the effectiveness of their tactics and inspires them to repli- The committee is now pursuing legal remedies. There is some pub-
cate this model of activism in some other venue.” lic fatigue with new laws specific to the motivation of particular
Few would disagree with that, and it is appropriate that the Senate crimes, but in this case such laws are needed. Animal-rights activists
are exploiting loopholes that, for example, prevent the use of extor-
committee should try to shed light on a decision that has received
tion law unless the extorter seeks personal gain. British laws specifi-
very little play in the US press.
cally designed to protect animal research were introduced this sum-
HLS is understandably frustrated. Its lawyer, Mark Bibi, described
mer and have had a positive effect. Scientists and national
the NYSE’s decision as “perhaps the most shameful apparent
institutions must stand united against animal-rights violence, and
capitulation to date”. He added that the company has received no legislators should support them by passing Inhofe’s proposal. ■
feedback from the NYSE about the reasons for it — which the NYSE
Turkey’s evolution Party. They say the government is, by stealth, allowing Islamic influ-
ences to infiltrate the constitutionally secular academic system.
When the Turkish Republic was founded by national hero Kemal
Admission to the European Union can benefit Atatürk in 1923, it could boast only a few dozen trained physicians
Turkish science. and engineers. Its citizens were dirt-poor, and education available to
but a few. This legacy of the sultan-caliphs was put into sharp reverse
T
urkey is engaged in negotiations for membership of the Euro- by Atatürk. His modernization programme was unmistakably
pean Union (EU), and the first such talks, which opened on 18 Western, and could almost have been conceived with membership
October, were centred on science and technology. But they took of the EU in mind.
place at a time when many Turkish scientists are at loggerheads with He changed the alphabet to Latin script that would be readable by
their government, led by the mildly Islamic Justice and Development Europeans. He introduced education for all, forcing the literacy rate
1
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3.11 Editorials MH 1/11/05 3:11 PM Page 2
EDITORIALS NATURE|Vol 438|3 November 2005
up from less than 10% to 33% within 15 years. Now 86.5% of Turks board of TÜBITAK, Turkey’s main research agency, which is a major
are literate. He also abolished the wearing of the veil by women (but player in the current EU talks. Critics say that subsequent appoint-
not the headscarf), and introduced a constitution solidly anchored ments have been politically inspired, and charge that aspects of the
in secularism. agency’s current set-up are unconstitutional. A second law requires
At Turkey’s western edge, it borders the EU; at the east it borders government approval of university appointments. The government
Iran. As religiosity has grown in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolu- says this is aimed at ending cronyism in the academic world, but
tion, political tensions in Turkey have grown too. While pragmati- critics fear that it will damage academic freedom.
cally aiming for EU membership, Turkey has also had to deal with Given this delicate situation, the opening of negotiations for
the rising confidence of Islamic groups and their growing numbers. EU membership offers the best
“The opening of
The academic élite — proud adherents to Atatürk’s vision — fear hope for the continuing devel-
negotiations for EU
this confidence, and their response has been defensive. When head- opment of science in Turkey.
scarves became more common in the 1980s, the Council of Higher Turkish scientists have little membership offers the
Education banned the wearing of them in universities. As the num- choice but to place their trust in best hope for the
ber of special secondary schools for training imams (religious lead- these negotiations. continuing development
ers) grew, the council raised the university entrance qualification The government has, to its
of science in Turkey.”
requirements for students attending these schools above those for credit, doubled the science bud-
normal state schools. The storm over the arrest of the rector of the get in anticipation of the EU talks, and it already pays for Turks to
100th Year University in Van (see page 8) reflects the bitterness of take part in EU Framework programmes as equal partners. Under
the struggle within universities to keep Islamic influence at bay. the watchful eye of EU negotiators, Turkish science will have to be
The academic élite also resents recent government interference in seen to be open, competitive and democratic.
academic appointments. Since his election in 2003, Prime Minister The negotiations will no doubt be protracted, but if they are suc-
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has passed two contentious laws that affect cessful, science in Turkey will be a winner — and part of Atatürk’s
universities. One allows the government to appoint members of the dream will also have won through. ■
Clamp down on copycats Although the development of web-based tools that can recognize
text-based plagiarism will eventually help detection, more can be
done before that point. Some common-sense guidelines need
Plagiarism is on the rise, thanks to the Internet. stressing at the bench, long before the data or grant application are
Universities and journals need to take action. written up. Copying text, even when supplying new data, is not
acceptable without clear reference to the process. One duplicate
J
ust how prevalent is plagiarism? At a meeting devoted to the figure in a paper is one too many, if attribution to the original paper
topic at New York University last month, Alan Price of the Office or grant is not noted. Oblique reference to a method in a previous
of Research Integrity (ORI), which primarily handles complaints publication in an attempt to hide the paper’s intellectual precedents
in biomedicine, reported that in the past 16 years, only 5–12% of its is still deceitful and a form of plagiarism.
misconduct cases each year involved plagiarism. This is defined by Editors have an obligation to act if concerns are raised about
the ORI as “the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, improper attribution. If authors do not supply satisfactory expla-
results, or words without giving appropriate credit”. nations, their employers and fundingagencies must be notified. It
On the other hand, James Kroll, head of administrative investiga- is the responsibility of institu-
tions at the US National Science Foundation, revealed that more than tions, who have a legal mandate, “Editors are obliged to act if
60% of its misconduct findings concern plagiarism. And earlierthis to initiate a formal investigation. concerns are raised about
year, the National Natural Science Foundation of China reported Timeliness can be difficult if improper attribution.”
that plagiarism accounted for about one-third of its misconduct institutes are reluctant to taint
cases in the past six years. their reputations with negative findings, or if international bound-
Human nature hasn’t changed recently, but reusing with the intent aries are crossed. Editors should nudge investigations that drag, and
to deceive seems to be on the rise, both in the literature and in grant draw attention to incidents where no satisfactory progress is made.
proposals. The replacement of pen and paper with software makes Where plagiarism is found, the author’s previous publications
it far easier to slip in large sections of text. Internet connectivity, must be examined. The evidence shows that an act of misconduct is
online repositories and sophisticated search tools provide almost usually part of a pattern of behaviour rather than an isolated incident,
irresistible accessibility to the polished thoughts of others. says Richard Smith, former editor of the British Medical Journal.
Students trained today have grown up in an environment where Journals should proceed promptly to correct the literature where
access is taken for granted and attribution only loosely enforced. discovery of misconduct necessitates it. Plagiarized text or figures
So they need more rigorous instruction than their predecessors should be clearly indicated as such within the original content.
regarding the ethical standards expected of them. Mentors must Naturewill play its part where necessary, as will other Naturetitles.
counter the ever-rising promotion and funding pressures that One might hope that such public humiliation will act as a deterrent
reward prolific publication rather than support creative quests. to those inclined to pass off another’s work as their own. ■
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Vol 438|3 November 2005
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Mouthing off R/SPL
GE
TE
J. Virol. 79,13587–13593 (2005) V. S
Some plant viruses are transmitted only by
a particular insect. However, they retain the
ability to evolve quickly into a form that can
be passed on by a different species,
suggests work by Stéphane Blanc, of the
Montpellier INRA Centre in France, and
his colleagues.
The cauliflower mosaic virus has a protein
that binds it to the mouth parts of an aphid
(pictured). It hitches a ride on the aphid’s
stylet, which pierces the plant when the
insect feeds.
The researchers identify the region of the
protein that binds to the stylet, and pinpoint a
single amino-acid residue that determines the
protein’s affinity for different aphid species.
The virus can swap vectors by changing just
this one residue.
GEOPHYSICS up to 18kilometres beneath the ridge were to trace the lineage of cells in a newborn baby
Intruders from the deep lifted up and mixed into crust forming at the back to the fertilized egg.
crest of the ridge. Shapiro and colleagues performed a
Science310,654–657 (2005) mathematical study of the frequency of
Slow-spreading ridges on the ocean floor DEVELOPMENT mutations in stretches of the genome known
may incorporate older rocks from deep down Extra strong eggs as microsatellites. They found that mutations
into newly formed crust, say Joshua occur often enough to track a cell’s history
Schwartz, of the University of Wyoming in Ecol. Lett.8, 1105–1113 (2005) back through 40 cell divisions.
Laramie, and his colleagues. Support for the idea that the speckles on Although genome sequencing technology
The team performed radiometric dating eggshells provide structural support, rather is not yet advanced enough for the technique
on samples of the mineral zircon, collected than camouflage, comes from a study of great to be applied to whole people or even mice,
from Atlantis Bank through submersible tits’ eggs. the team hopes it will soon help to discover
dives and dredging. This region is some The great tit (Parus major), like many how cells in cancers grow and spread.
100kilometres south of the ridge that other passerine species, lays white eggs with
separates the African and Antarctic plates. red speckles (pictured). Researchers led by NEURODEGENERATION
Around one-quarter of the samples turned Andrew Gosler of the University of Oxford, Enzyme goes awry
out to be far older than is calculated by UK, collected more than 100 such eggs.
looking at the sea floor’s magnetism — by up They found that the pigment appears in Cell123,277–289 (2005)
to 2.5million years.The discrepancy can be regions where the shell is thinner, providing Mitochondria, the tiny bacterium-like
explained if gabbroic rocks that crystallized additional reinforcement — the thinner the structures that help to produce energy in our
shell, the more dense the pigment. What’s cells, have long been linked to a range of
more, egg clutches produced in regions hereditary diseases. Now researchers in
naturally high in calcium tend to have Germany and Italy have uncovered the role of
thicker shells and fewer spots. The pigment one mitochondrial enzyme that is associated
compounds, known as protoporphyrins, with progressive neurodegeneration.
may act as lubricants between the calcite A team led by Thomas Langer at the
crystals that make up the eggshells, University of Cologne studied an enzyme
reducing brittleness. called paraplegin, known to be faulty in
patients with hereditary spastic paraplegia
GENETICS (HSP). Working in yeast and mouse cells, MS
Tracing a cell’s family tree Langer and colleagues found that C FIL
paraplegin controls the final step in the TIFI
N
PLoS Comput. Biol. 1,e50 (2005) assembly of the mitochondrion’s CIE
It is theoretically possible to construct the ribosomes, the molecular machines that D S
R
family tree of each cell in the human body, make proteins. XFO
O
according to researchers in Israel. The team, In those suffering from HSP, the loss of D/
O
led by Ehud Shapiro at the Weizmann axons, which carry nerve impulses, could be O
W
Institute of Science in Rehovot, says that linked to faulty protein synthesis in their CK
A
naturally occurring mutations could be used mitochondria. R. P
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NATURE|Vol 438|3 November 2005 RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
Y
M
A
AL
CHEMISTRY DYSLEXIA
Laundromaths Reading the genome
Langmuir21,10106–10111 (2005) Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA
For most people, doing laundry is a chore; doi:10.1073/pnas.0508591102 (2005)
but for chemists it’s an absorbing problem. Researchers are homing in on the genetic
Dinesh Shah and colleagues of the causes of dyslexia, a complex reading
University of Florida in Gainesville are disorder that affects 5–17% of the population
tackling the spin-drying cycle. and that seems to be highly heritable.
Detergents contain surfactants that lower Previous studies have linked a region of
the surface tension of water, reducing how chromosome 6 with a predisposition to
strongly moisture is sucked between cloth dyslexia. Jeffrey Gruen, of the Yale Child
fibres. Simple reasoning therefore suggests Health Research Center in New Haven,
that you will get drier clothes if you increase Connecticut, and his colleagues examined
the concentration of detergent in the water. this region in 153 families affected by reading
Unexpectedly, Shah and his team find that disability. They all possessed the same deletion
the water content of fabrics after a spin cycle in the DCDC2gene. The exact function of the
actually rises when surfactant concentration gene remains unknown, but when the
is increased beyond a certain level. They process called reionization that makes the gas researchers decreased levels of the DCDC2
attribute this behaviour to the adsorption of transparent to light. If so, this discovery will gene product in rats, some neurons in the
surfactant molecules on to the fibres, which help to pin down the timing of the era of rodents’ brains failed to develop properly.
reduces the concentration of the molecules in reionization — the end of what is known as
the water. This provides a clue to how the cosmic dark ages. CELL BIOLOGY
detergents could be designed to make clothes Building site
dry faster. NEUROBIOLOGY
The nose knows Sciencedoi:10.1126/science.1119969 (2005)
ASTRONOMY Just as cells must replicate their
When darkness lifted Nature Neurosci. doi:10.1038/nn1589 (2005) chromosomes when they divide, so too must
It was thought that rodents detect they duplicate bodies in the cytoplasm. A
Astrophys. J.633,L1–L4 (2005) pheromones — chemicals that influence their chance observation now provides insight into
In the early Universe, the fog cleared quickly. sexual and social behaviour — primarily how the cytoplasm’s Golgi apparatus, which
That’s the implication of an ancient galaxy through a specialized structure called the processes and distributes proteins,is copied.
detected by researchers using the Hubble and vomeronasal organ. But experiments in mice Graham Warren and colleagues from Yale
Spitzer Space Telescopes. now show that the main olfactory system also University in New Haven, Connecticut, used
Bahram Mobasher of the Space Telescope plays a crucial role in picking up the signals antibodies to label centrin proteins in the
Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, and that drive mating and aggression. single-celled parasite Trypanosoma brucei.
his co-workers say that HUDF-JD2 is a Male mice enigneered to lack a gene This revealed a structure near the Golgi that
massive galaxy that formed only a few that underlies odour detection in the main contained centrin2. This protein had
hundred million years after the Big Bang, olfactory tissue showed no interest in female previously been seen only in the centrosome
or as astronomers describe it, at a redshift of mice, report Nirao Shah and his colleagues at — which coordinates the growth of some of
around 15. The light from the stars in this the University of California, San Francisco. the cell’s skeletal elements. The structure
galaxy could have stripped electrons from The mutants also showed reduced aggression may provide the site at which the new Golgi
the surrounding primordial gas, starting a when confronted by other male mice. is assembled.
JOURNAL CLUB nucleation — the way that spontaneously rather than at the Ontario, Canada, instead used the
crystallization starts. It is elegantly site of a defect or impurity, as process of dewetting — where a
Anthony Ryan simple compared with the brute- happens in large volumes. My team thin liquid film breaks up into
University of Sheffield, UK force method that my team has has been investigating how droplets — to create an array of
been using. crystallization proceeds in finely thousands of microdroplets with a
Britain’s ICI professor of
Crystallization defines the divided matter using block range of sizes.
physical chemistry gives praise
properties, both mechanical and copolymers that create nanometre- The researchers go on to show
to his competitors.
aesthetic, of most plastics we use sized spheresof polymer. that the theory of spontaneous
Don’t you just hate it when you every day. And as polymers find But our progress in studying nucleation is valid right down even
read a paper and wonder "Why more and more uses in nanoscale spontaneous nucleation has been at the molecular scale.
didn’t I think of that?". electronic devices and flexible laborious, because each time we Although disappointed that we
This was my reaction on reading displays, controlling polymer wanted to change the volume of the didn’t think to combine dewetting
Michael Massa and Kari Dalnoki- crystallization will become ever spheres we had to synthesize new and crystallization (we study both), I
Veress’s work in Physical Review more important. block copolymer molecules. am consoled by the fact that the
Letters(92,255509; 2004). They In small volumes of polymer, Massa and Dalnoki-Veress, authors quote some of our work as
present a technique to study crystallization will start both of McMaster University in their inspiration.Thanks!
5
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Vol 438|3 November 2005
NEWS
Wartime tactic doubles
power of scarce bird-flu drug
Doctors think they have hit on a way to effec- BLOOD LEVELS OF TAMIFLU of probenecid and antibiotic combinations. 02)
tfdmwaHgcaSilon weruvoeqesTuute.iautiau slaAngfslynlsatlm dtud htsrdrdt h mtbi ihomrOtfeeaeuahlusriutr etn g an,bsg do(tmiihelsaso neifetoonct sao esdtinuaeikuhnrpzelnllietpaeesyddnatrt i p . irg mirshiRcole t tiTiap conoiepvlabosocc fa(im mekhoprWtdi ipefupinoom f,iaHhl nlglsta uedeohe tO onseeirsaeo pufnxld) oso n.hcgaoe ofnTr. a d ult fegtehthB lghetbs ueasehu)ieyu td dWpt i ffptste oaihr a ptgiHanerlnhehl t asdi aeO hWtetet eusmomr c lm,sorbuoe uheiariangnirngialscnhdddes-tt, Concentration of Tamiflu’s active ingredient in the blood (ng ml)–1 1,04862000000000000 10 Tim2e0 (h) 30 40 “ptipaoct“nerlaT prrearf pooMCtlhau fuibbaMtoemon ic eejrrcppcuiinne ihtnhIiassy eennwatntnicc i negif7dceiionel ddg% a eucO t pemwatawlh iodsso lowieiottif ttleciub nihhntomrs.hes e hr,eT H e aDlnxwoada tMgetolem iwi ms lflt oplieiphii vno,nbdfaoa ieldfnnsaoeiun neiyle gt,rdM”T tpesR eb sueahoaoce aemmnretotp nsasso iuseuiui q,hrgcaf atlf ula yi oarfucvtteictsfhatw cei . htaouaiasphie nbn ttaleren il-on.onto tlUhudid notrketo SuuesPe u qcmgCa opstutvhlieihroieion cnotrarsnogye--ttt CE: G. HILL ET AL. DRUG METAB. DISPOS.13–19 (2030,
R
quadrupled its production capacity over the Tamiflu and probenecid ject for drug production, packaging and distri- OU
past two years, the current supply is thought to Tamiflu alone bution today”, Osterholm says. “It’s not just S
cover just 2% of the world population. about having a magic bullet; it’s whether you
Last week, Joe Howton, medical director at there are insufficient data. The WHO and the can make it and find enough guns from which
the Adventist Medical Center in Portland, US Food and Drug Administration declined to shoot it.” Still, doubling the doses available
Oregon, suggested a way to double supplies, to comment when Natureasked them about could be crucial for treating people quickly
after browsing basic safety data from Roche for the idea. after an outbreak, and Osterholm says the idea
a talk on avian flu. Studies are being proposed that will look at definitely merits investigation.
The technique was invented during the Sec- safety issues relating to proben- “This is wonderful,” agrees
ond World War to extend precious penicillin ecid and Tamiflu, although “It’s not just about David Fedson, formerly a
supplies. Scientists found that a simple benzoic doctors argue that there are having a magic bullet; medical director of the vaccine
acid derivative called probenecid stops many already enough data for the company Aventis Pasteur,
it’s whether you can
drugs, including antibiotics, being removed drug combination to be used, based in Lyons, France. “It is
from the blood by the kidneys. Probenecid even without specific approval find enough guns from extremely important for global
is readily available and is still widely used from regulatory agencies. Grat- which to shoot it.” public health because it implies
alongside antibiotics to treat gonorrhoea and tan Woodson of the Atlanta that the stockpiles now being
syphilis, and in emergency rooms, where doc- Research Center in Decatur, Georgia, has pre- ordered by more than 40 countries could be
tors need their patients to have high, sustained scribed probenecid for more than 25years and extended, perhaps in dramatic fashion.” He
levels of antibiotics in their blood. says he prescribes drugs for such off-label pur- suggests that capsules containing both Tamiflu
Howton noticed from Roche’s data that poses every day. “This is a perfectly acceptable and probenecid should be developed.
Tamiflu, like penicillin, is actively secreted by and established practice,” he says. Like many scientists, Fedson is stumped by
the kidneys, and that the process is inhibited Peter Zed, a specialist in emergency medi- the apparent lack of interest from Roche, and the
by probenecid. Giving the flu drug together cine at Vancouver General Hospital in Canada, relevant authorities. “It’s stupefying,” he says. ■
with probenecid doubles the time that Tami- agrees. He has published studies of the safety Declan Butler
flu’s active ingredient stays in the blood, dou-
bles its maximum blood concentration, and
multiplies 2.5-fold the patient’s total exposure
Drug firms donate compounds for anti-HIV gel
to the drug (see graph, and G. Hill et al. Drug
Metab. Dispos.30,13–19; 2002).
In other words, you could get away with Motivated by positive results particularly in the developing disastrous results — the women
using half as much Tamiflu to get the same reported in this week’s Nature, world, where men may became more susceptible to
therapeutic effect. “It dawned on me that the two drug companies have given disapprove of the practice. HIV because the gel, essentially
data potentially represented a tremendous away rights to two key Experts say that a microbicide a detergent that destroys the
therapeutic benefit,” Howton told Nature. compounds, so that they applied to the vagina before sex virus, damaged their vaginal
Given that Roche published the probenecid can be developed into gels could save 2.5 million lives in tissue. Five other microbicides
data in 2002, has it considered this option? that protect against HIV. just three years. are in clinical trials in Africa
“It doesn’t seem so,” says Martina Rupp, a Such a gel could help many But progress to develop such after proving moderately
spokeswoman at Roche’s headquarters in women to protect themselves, gels has been slow. Only one successful in monkeys, but
Basel. “It is an interesting idea, but we can’t as they often find it difficult to microbicide trial has been critics point out that the virus
really say anything,” she adds, claiming that get partners to use condoms — completed in humans, with used in those animal tests
6
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3.11 News 6-7 MH 1/11/05 3:08 PM Page 7
NATURE|Vol 438|3 November 2005 NEWS
SMALL SPARKS PACK
A BIG PUNCH
Sparks made in the lab
offer clues to how
lightning works
www.nature.com/news
Universities scramble to assess scope of falsified results
Biologists are rushing to quantify the fallout and denied falsifying data in more than one N
N
from a case of scientific misconduct unmasked paper. “He apologized for the disappointment UI
Q
last week. The Massachusetts Institute of Tech- he has caused,” Abbas says. E.
nology (MIT) confirmed on 27 October that it MIT officials say that they will submit the
had fired immunologist Luk Van Parijs for fab- results of their investigation to the Office of
ricating and falsifying data. Research Integrity, the federal agency that
The institute said that Van Parijs, an associ- monitors research conduct for the US National
ate professor of biology, had acknowledged to Institutes of Health. It has been at least a
its officials that he altered data in one pub- decade since the institute has uncovered a case
lished article, in unpublished manuscripts and of misconduct, the officials say.
in grant applications. The California Institute MIT has not publicly identified the paper that
of Technology (Caltech) and Harvard Univer- contains the falsified results. But in May, Cur-
sity have both now opened inquiries into some rent Opinion in Molecular Therapeuticspub-
of Van Parijs’s other published work. lished a correction to a 2004 review3,4on which
Authorities at all three universities say they Van Parijs was the lead author. The note said
have found no evidence that anyone else was that unpublished experiments cited in the paper
involved in the misconduct. Van Parijs previ- — involving genetically controlling tumour
ously worked in the labs of Caltech’s president, growth in mice — could not be documented.
David Baltimore, and physician Abul Abbas, Investigators are now probing several of Van
head of pathology at the University of Califor- Parijs’s older publications. Caltech is looking at
nia, San Francisco. two articles published in Immunity, including
Van Parijs, a 35-year-old native of Belgium one co-authored by Baltimore5,6. And Harvard
who lives in Falmouth, Massachusetts, did not is looking into a 1997 paper in the Journal of
respond to interview requests. His primary Experimental Medicine7.
studies involved using short pieces of RNA to The Immunity work dealt with a cell sig-
silence genes that have gone awry in auto- nalling pathway that governs the processes by
immune diseases. Early indications suggest Sacked: Luk Van Parijs, seen as a rising star in which cells in the immune system live and die.
that his misconduct will not affect his field as biology, was found to have falsified data. An expert in the field, who asked not to be
dramatically as semiconductor research was named, said that Van Parijs’s experiments had
affected by Bell Laboratories physicist Jan Hen- Because of such work, Van Parijs was con- never directly been replicated. “We really would
drik Schön1. Colleagues spent years following sidered a rising star. “He had incredible poten- like to know if the work is reproducible, so the
Schön’s line of research until in 2002 it was dis- tial,” says Abbas, who worked with him in 1997 field can move forward,” the immunologist said,
covered that he had falsified some of his data. and 1998 at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in “or whether we have to do an about-face.” ■
Van Parijs co-authored a heavily cited paper Boston. “He was a superstar in the making.” Rex Dalton
for Nature Geneticsin 2003 describing how to But in August 2004, MIT put Van Parijs on Additional reporting by Erika Check
use a stripped-down virus, called a lentivirus, as administrative leave after some of his lab col-
a delivery system for genes that can silence leagues made allegations of misconduct to the 1. Brumfiel, G. Nature419,419–421 (2002).
2. Rubinson, D. A. et al. Nature Genet.33,401–406 (2003).
other genes2. The paper has not been called into institute’s authorities. After the lab was closed,
3. Nencioni, A. et al. Curr. Opin. Mol. Ther.6,136–140 (2004).
question, and other researchers have shown that his students and postdocs scrambled to get 4. Curr. Opin. Mol. Ther.7,282 (2005).
the approach works, at least in animal models jobs elsewhere, and MIT began the inquiry 5. Van Parijs, L., Peterson, D. A. & Abbas, A. K. Immunity8,
265–274 (1998).
and cell cultures. Clinical trials in human that culminated in his sacking.
6. Van Parijs, L. et al. Immunity11,281–288 (1999).
patients are now being planned. Abbas says that Van Parijs has e-mailed him 7. Van Parijs, L. et al. J. Exp. Med.186,1119–1128 (1997).
infects cells in a different way from receptors inside the vagina. Bristol- against a virus closely resembling Microbicides, the non-profit group
the one that causes AIDS. Myers Squibb’s BMS-378806 HIV. But three animals that received that will develop the gel.
John Moore from Cornell interacts with the virus itself, the three compounds together were Partners including the Bill and
University in New York and his stopping it binding to cells. And a all protected against infection. These Melinda Gates Foundation and the
colleagues tried a different peptide developed by Moore’s team results were enough to persuade the US National Institutes of Health are
approach (see page 99). They inhibits the process used by the drug firms to give away rights to the helping to fund a clinical trial, set to
combined three compounds that virus to enter a cell. compounds, says Moore. “This is the start in 2007. This is estimated to
each uses a different mechanism to When the researchers tested first time there has been a joint cost between US$150 million and
block the virus’s entry into cells. combinations of the compounds in announcement like this,” adds Mark $200 million and will involve about
Merck’s compound CMPD167 macaques, they found that they Mitchnick, chief scientific officer of 10,000 women in Africa. ■
competes with the virus for cell offered at least partial protection the International Partnership for Narelle Towie
7
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©2005 Nature Publishing Group