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Nature press release for 5 September issue

September 05, 2002

[1] RELICS: THE PRODIGAL NEANDERTHAL (pp33-34)

The beautifully preserved and extremely rare skeleton of a newborn Neanderthal, thought to have been lost to science for almost 90 years, has been rediscovered. The finding could lead to new insights into the evolution of human development as well as the relationship between us and our long-extinct cousins.
        The fossil - a baby Neanderthal just four months old when it died - is called `Le Moustier 2` after its discovery in 1914 near Le Moustier in the Dordogne, southwest France. After the fossil was originally described in 1921 it vanished, believed to have been taken to Paris. Then in 1996 the fossil remains of a newborn Neanderthal were discovered in the archives of the National Museum of Pre-history in Les Eyzies, Dordogne.
In a Brief Communication to this week`s Nature, Bruno Maureille of the University of Bordeaux in Talence, France, confirms that the Dordogne skeleton is that of Le Moustier 2. What`s more, other bones from a newborn Neanderthal at another museum in France turn out to be from the same skeleton - they were probably removed from Le Moustier and sent away for closer analysis in the 1920s, Maureille suggests. Reunited with its missing bones, Le Moustier 2 only lacks shoulderblades and its pubic bone, making it one of the most complete Neanderthal skeletons ever found.
CONTACT:
Bruno Maureille tel +33 5 56 84 89 36, e-mail b.maureille@anthropologie.u-bordeaux.fr

[2] ECOLOGY: HUNT BAN DIDN'T DENT FOX NUMBERS (p34)

UK fox numbers did not change significantly during last year`s hunting ban, say researchers. The finding, reported in a Brief Communication in this week's Nature, suggests that a permanent ban would not lead to an explosion in the fox population.
Stephen Harris and colleagues at the University of Bristol, UK, monitored fox numbers in 160 British sites in 1999, 2000 and 2002. They estimated fox numbers by counting faeces.
This year`s count followed a year-long ban on hunting during the outbreak of foot and mouth disease. But overall there was a small, although statistically insignificant, decline in fox numbers compared with previous years.
CONTACT:
Stephen Harris tel +44 117 928 7479, e-mail s.harris@bristol.ac.uk
Katie Geary (press officer for the Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals),
tel+ 44 870 754 0187, e-mail KGEARY@rspca.org


[3] MEDICINE: NEW ANTI-COAGULANT DRUG (pp90-94; N&V)

In this week`s Nature, researchers reveal a new anti-clotting drug, along with its antidote - necessary to prevent too much bleeding. Drugs that keep the blood circulation going are used to prevent heart attacks and strokes, which are caused by clots in the wrong places - the biggest cause of serious illness and premature death in Western societies today.
                The drug is an RNA `aptamer`, a single strand of RNA that binds to a specific molecular target. Christopher P. Rusconi of Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues found its sequence by iterative in vitro selection from a large combinatorial library of RNAs, screened for binding to a protein that promotes blood coagulation. The strategy could be used to design other drugs and their corresponding antidotes.
        Animal studies of the drug are now in progress. "There is no reason to suppose that the aptamer and antidote would be toxic, or that they would affect clotting differently in vivo compared with in vitro," says Edward Tuddenham of the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, and Hammersmith Hospital, London, in an accompanying News and Views article. Nonetheless, it is impossible to predict whether other enzymes or physiological systems will be adversely affected until clinical trials are complete, Tuddenham cautions.
CONTACT:
Christopher A. Rusconi tel +1 919 668 1648, e-mail c.rusconi@cgct.duke.edu
Edward Tuddenham tel +44 208 383 8235, e-mail edward.tuddenham@csc.mrc.ac.uk


[4] ECOLOGY: ANTS MARK RIVALS FOR ARREST (pp61-65)

Ponerine ants are `queenless`. Rather than being raised to do the job, the reproductive `alpha` female fights her way to the top. Other females can overthrow the alpha; however, Thibaud Monnin of the University of Sheffield, UK, and colleagues have now discovered a remarkable mechanism by which she sees off her rivals. The researchers report their discovery in this week's Nature.
        Like a gang boss marking a rival for elimination, a challenged alpha female Dinoponera quadriceps ant can daub a pretender with a substance that prompts low-ranking worker ants to immobilize her, suppressing the pretender`s challenge and often killing her. This is a new way by which reproductive and worker social insects cooperate to maintain order in the nest. Selfish individuals are prevented from reproducing to the detriment of the majority. Worker ants and bees also destroy eggs if it is in their interest for one individual, rather than another, to reproduce.
CONTACT:
Thibaud Monnin (currently at CNRS, University of Paris 6)
tel +33 1 44 27 32 94, e-mail Thibaud.Monnin@snv.jussieu.fr


[5] EARTH: SHOCK REVELATIONS (pp58-61; N&V)

The Earth's crust can deform catastrophically in earthquakes, but it's difficult to predict exactly what causes such failure. In this week`s Nature, Ross S. Stein of the US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California, and colleagues present a new approach, analysing thousands of small shocks, that might help us better understand how earthquakes occur.
One of the biggest problems is working out what conditions trigger failure - the slip history and the initial stress field around a fault are rarely known with certainty.
Rather than relying on estimates of the absolute stress state, Stein`s group makes use of large changes in the rate of stressing to study earthquake nucleation and seismic deformation. They find that regions stressed at higher rates experience more earthquakes in a given period, in agreement with fault friction theory.
They used a dense network of seismometers in the Izu Islands volcanic chain, south of Tokyo, and a seismic catalogue extending back to 1980, to measure changes in the rate of earthquake occurrence around one of the most seismically energetic magma intrusions in history - for example, in 2000, the region was hit by a 'swarm' of more than 7,000 shocks.
The correlation between stressing rate and seismicity may help in forecasting swarm or aftershock damage. There is still the problem of rupture size and understanding how earthquakes stop. Because large earthquakes appear to be seismically identical to small shocks, forecasts and damage predictions will remain limited, at least for the moment, to minimum estimates.
Nonetheless this method presents an opportunity to test earthquake theories "that could lead the way to fundamental breakthroughs," says Chris Marone of Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, in an accompanying News and Views article.
CONTACT:
Ross S. Stein tel +1 650 329 4840, e-mail rstein@usgs.gov
Chris Marone tel +1 814 865 7964, e-mail cjm@essc.psu.edu


[6] CHEMISTRY: SCRATCHING THE SURFACE (pp54-58; N&V)

Until now we have had little idea of the real structure of most crystal surfaces, despite their enormous chemical importance. But in this week`s Nature, Natasha Erdman and colleagues at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, report the detailed surface structure of strontium titanate, SrTiO3 . The group determined this by direct-methods electron crystallography and electronic structure calculations from first principles.
In bulk SrTiO3, there are alternating layers of SrO and TiO2. So one might expect a surface to terminate either with a TiO2 layer or a SrO layer. In fact, the crystal terminates with two TiO2 layers, and with substantial reorganization in the outermost layer.
Surface structures are vital in understanding processes such as catalysis, in which chemical reactions occur at the interface between a solid and a liquid or gas phase.
"A new era of surface crystallography is beginning," says Michael O'Keeffe of Arizona State University, Tempe, in an accompanying News and Views article. "The work under discussion is the beginning of a long and surely very interesting story," he says.
CONTACT:
Natasha Erdman tel +1 847 491 3267, e-mail n-erdman@nwu.edu
Michael O'Keeffe tel +1 480 965 3670/3461, e-mail mokeeffe@asu.edu


[7] LIFELINES: GENE SETS CRESS CLOCK (pp74-77)

The gene EARLY FLOWERING 4 (ELF4) helps the model plant thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) to sense the length of the day, and to alter its growth accordingly, reports Richard M. Amasino of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and colleagues in this week`s Nature. Mutations in the gene result in early flowering - hence its name.
        Experiments suggest that either ELF4 itself functions as a circadian oscillator, or that it sets and maintains a separate circadian oscillator. "Further characterization of the plants with ELF4 mutations will hopefully elucidate how components of the circadian machinery collectively control rhythmic processes throughout the day/night cycle, including the ability of plants to respond to photoperiod," Amasino`s team concludes.
CONTACT:
Richard M. Amasino tel +1 608 262 4704, e-mail amasino@biochem.wisc.edu


[8] SPACE: ASTEROID FAMILY VALUES (pp49-51)

The Koronis family of asteroids is a group of some 200 bodies of the many thousands that make up the main asteroid belt, orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. The family members are all remnants of a single, large body that was broken into a group of smaller asteroids by a collision.
        In this week`s Nature, Stephen Slivan of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reveals that, surprisingly, the brightness of individual Koronis asteroids fall into two distinct groups, according to their rotation rates and obliquities. This may reflect a complex collisional history - including perhaps secondary collisions between family members.
CONTACT:
Stephen Slivan tel +1 617 253 1946, e-mail slivan@mit.edu


POLICY: RESEARCH IN DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (pp10-11)

"Our scientific community is serving on the front lines of this war," President Bush told researchers in a speech at the Argonne National Laboratory in July. This followed the announcement of a new Department of Homeland Security, which is to be given the task of defending the United States against terrorist attack.
A News Feature in this week`s Nature outlines the challenges facing the new department's research wing.


[9] AND FINALLY: GENES FOR PHEROMONE RESPONSE? (pp70-74)

Researchers may have pinpointed some of the genes encoding the receptors with which mammals sense pheromones - the chemical signals that modulate social and reproductive behaviours. Otherwise normal male mice lacking 16 genes of the V1r family have a lower sex drive than usual. Nursing females without these genes are far less aggressive than usual towards nest intruders. So report Peter Mombaerts and Karina Del Punta of The Rockefeller University, New York, and colleagues in this week`s Nature.
        Vr1 genes are normally expressed in the vomeronasal organ, part of the olfactory system that detects pheromones. But there had been no functional evidence for the role of these genes in pheromone responses - until now.
CONTACT:
Peter Mombaerts tel +1 212 327 7300, e-mail peter@rockefeller.edu


ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

[10]        The voltage-gated potassium channels and their relatives (pp35-42)

[11]        Collapse and revival of the matter wave field of a Bose-Einsten condensate (pp51-54)

[12]        A sparse code underlies the generation of neural sequences in a songbird (pp65-70)

[13]         Protective role of phospholipid oxidation products in endotoxin-induced tissue damage (pp77-81)

[14]         Actin dynamics in the contractile ring during cytokinesis (pp82-86)

[15]         The U1 snRNP protein U1C recognizes the 5' splice site in the absence of base pairing (pp86-90)


GEOGRAPHICAL LISTING OF AUTHORS

The following list of places refers to the whereabouts of authors on the papers numbered in this release. The listing may be for an author`s main affiliation, or for a place where they are working temporarily. Please see the PDF of the paper for full details.

AUSTRIA
        Vienna: 13

FRANCE
        Paris: 4
        Talence: 1

GERMANY
        Garching: 11
        Munich: 11

HUNGARY
        Szeged: 7

JAPAN
        Tsukuba: 5

SWITZERLAND
        Geneva: 9

UNITED KINGDOM
        Bristol: 2
        Coventry: 7
        Keele: 4
        Norwich: 7
        Sheffield: 4

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
California
        Menlo Park: 5
Illinois
        Evanston: 6
Maryland
        Baltimore: 9
Massachusetts
        Boston: 10
        Cambridge: 8, 12
        Waltham: 15
New Jersey
        Murray Hill: 12
New York State
        New York: 9, 14
North Carolina
        Chapel Hill: 3
        Durham: 3
Pennsylvania
        Philadelphia: 9
Wisconsin
        Madison: 7

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