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Volume 455 Issue 7212, 25 September 2008

Choosing a future: Why science matters This week's US election special begins with a look at what's at stake in this campaign and beyond for science. We ask how the candidates have developed their stances on science over time, who is advising them, and where they might take the country [page 442]. The parties' stances on science and technology matters are summarized [page 446], and we ponder the prospects of key science agencies such as NASA, EPA and NIH, under a McCain or Obama administration [page 451]. David Goldston adds a personal viewpoint from Washington D.C. [Party of One p. 453] See also the introductory editorial [page 431], advice to a potential president on what books to read [Books & Arts p. 464] and the expanded on-line elections special on www.nature.com/uselection. Listen also to the series of election podcasts, on www.nature.com/nature/podcast. Images: Xinhua News Agency/eyevine & Sipa Press/Rex Features

Editorial

  • The next US president will lead the country back onto the world stage in many arenas, including science.

    Editorial

    Advertisement

  • Better to confront superstition with science than to disregard the superstitious.

    Editorial
  • Self-regulation is a good first step — but synthetic-biology companies still need independent oversight.

    Editorial
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Research Highlights

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Journal Club

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News

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News in Brief

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News Feature

  • The leading US presidential candidates are not trying to woo voters with science issues. But the senator who wins will help shape the world's most influential research agenda. Alexandra Witze looks at how John McCain and Barack Obama have developed their thoughts on science and technology, and where each of them might take the country if elected.

    • Alexandra Witze
    News Feature
  • Barack Obama accepted Nature's invitation to answer 18 science-related questions in writing; John McCain's campaign declined. Obama's answers to many of the questions are printed here; answers to additional questions (on topics including biosecurity, the nuclear weapons laboratories and US participation in international projects) can be found at http://www.nature.com/uselection. Wherever possible, Nature has noted what McCain has said at other times on these topics.

    • Alexandra Witze
    News Feature
  • A new president could bring radical shifts to America's major research entities. Nature profiles some of the agencies in need of a makeover.

    • Jeff Tollefson
    News Feature
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Column

  • Concerns about the next president's science adviser miss the real issues, says David Goldston.

    • David Goldston
    Column
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News Feature

  • What is it like to be labelled a genius? Kendall Powell follows the paths of four MacArthur Fellows — and finds they lead to rutting elephant bulls, climate-change champions, hybrid sunflowers and robotic hands.

    • Kendall Powell
    News Feature
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Correspondence

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Commentary

  • The OECD is developing a strategy for nations to measure and ultimately promote innovation. It requires knowledge of a complex system, say Fred Gault and Susanne Huttner.

    • Fred Gault
    • Susanne Huttner
    Commentary
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Books & Arts

  • Expansion of the railways across the western United States changed the face of vertebrate palaeontology, and perhaps the country itself, explains Ross MacPhee.

    • Ross MacPhee
    Books & Arts
  • The annual UK Big Draw festival, a month of nationwide workshops and talks launched this weekend in London, teaches people how to 'see' through drawing. Terry Rosenberg, head of design at Goldsmiths, University of London, explains how gaining skills in life drawing can help scientists perceive the world and communicate their results.

    • Louise Whiteley
    Books & Arts
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Essay

  • Agriculture in developing countries was transformed when scientists met aid officials and convinced them to invest in research. Lowell S. Hardin was there, and believes today's food crisis demands a similar vision.

    • Lowell S. Hardin
    Essay
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News & Views

  • Animals sense light and chemical signals through proteins called G-protein-coupled receptors. The crystal structure of one such receptor in complex with a G-protein fragment shows how these receptors are activated.

    • Thue W. Schwartz
    • Wayne L. Hubbell
    News & Views
  • Physicists have come up with an innovative way of manipulating the direction of magnetization in a solid. The approach might be used to make low-power-consumption computer memory devices.

    • Eiji Saitoh
    News & Views
  • Existing therapies for hearing defects are generally ineffective in severe forms of deafness. A technical feat that generates sound-sensing hair cells in the inner ear of mice might have long-term potential.

    • Mats Ulfendahl
    News & Views
  • Serendipitous observations have revealed fast optical flaring after the onset of X-ray-burst activity from a source in our Milky Way galaxy. It could be the first time this has been observed in a rare kind of neutron star.

    • Chryssa Kouveliotou
    News & Views
  • When the myelin layer that covers neuronal processes is lost through disease, neural stem cells recapitulate the developmental program of 'myelination'. The underlying molecular mechanisms often fail in the ageing brain.

    • Klaus-Armin Nave
    News & Views
  • A medley of molecules, and the interactions between them, mediate cancer. The latest news is that the enzyme CDK8 orchestrates cross-talk between two signalling pathways that are frequently deregulated in human cancers.

    • René Bernards
    News & Views
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News and Views Q&A

  • Ten years after the term metagenomics was coined, the approach continues to gather momentum. This culture-independent, molecular way of analysing environmental samples of cohabiting microbial populations has opened up fresh perspectives on microbiology.

    • Philip Hugenholtz
    • Gene W. Tyson
    News and Views Q&A
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Article

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Letter

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Prospects

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Movers

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Networks and Support

  • Study suggests an upside to the 'two-body problem'.

    • Virginia Gewin
    Networks and Support
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Career View

  • Interacting with my scientist peers can make me nervous.

    • Aliza le Roux
    Career View
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Futures

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Authors

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