Using maths to map the ocean's carbon sink through time.

Last authorBiologists have wondered for more than a century why separate sexes exist when many plant and animal species reproduce through self-fertilization (selfing). Two theories had emerged to explain why cross-fertilization, or outcrossing, might be beneficial to species despite the cost of a separate

Published research articles are now available to rent, writes Frank Norman on his Nature Network blog, Trading Knowledge (http://go.nature.com/GKNUa8). Norman, head of library services at the Medical Research Council's National Institute for Medical Research in London, reviews a new business model for publishing.

This third special issue in Nature's year-long celebration of Charles Darwin focuses on the dire challenges to Earth's biodiversity — and finds some reason for hope.

Information-sharing resources are essential to biologists and deserve international support.

BMC Biol.7, 74 (2009) 10.1186/1741-7007-7-74Feeding off whale bones at the bottom of the ocean, the Osedax genus of marine worms was first described by scientists in 2004. In these creatures, harems of tiny males are wholly encased in

Geology37, 1011–1014 (2009) 10.1130/G30259A.1A huge meteorite or comet that smashed into North America 1.85 billion years ago was responsible for the abrupt end of certain iron deposits in the rocks around Lake Superior, say John Slack and

PLoS Genet.5, e1000719 (2009) 10.1371/journal.pgen.1000719A large-scale survey of gene loss or gain in cervical cancer has flagged more than 50 potential genetic drivers of the disease.Heidi Lyng and her colleagues at the Norwegian Radium Hospital in Oslo screened

Phys. Rev. Lett.103, 198101 (2009); 10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.198101Phys. Rev. Lett.103, 198102 (2009)10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.198102Researchers have taken the first X-ray diffraction images of intact, hydrated cells.Because of their short wavelengths, X-rays can penetrate deep into specimens

PLoS ONE4, e7783 (2009) 10.1371/journal.pone.0007783Two methods for estimating animal metabolic rates have been applied to extinct dinosaurs to show which of the bipedal species may have been warm- or cold-blooded. Herman Pontzer of Washington University in St Louis, Missouri,

In vivo

J. Exp. Biol.212, 3892–3900 (2009) 10.1242/jeb.034561The marine sponge Halisarca caerulea takes up about two-thirds of its body weight in dissolved carbon each day by filtering massive amounts of water, but it barely grows in size.To

Geophys. Res. Lett.36, L21203 doi:10.1029/2009GL040634 (2009)After nearly six months of scraping at the polar regions of Mars, NASA's Phoenix lander in 2008 discovered both ice-cemented soil and slabs of pure ice below the surface. It also found

Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA106, 19150–19155 (2009) 10.1073/pnas.0909293106Patients undergoing irradiation for brain tumours often display signs of cognitive dysfunction, owing in part to the loss of healthy neural stem and precursor cells. To investigate possible treatments, Charles

A palaeontologist ponders how biodiversity is spread across the vertebrate tree of life.Why do some biological groups burst at the seams with many different species, whereas others, despite their deep evolutionary heritage, contain only a handful of members? Many of my old vertebrate-biology textbooks

In the run-up to next month's climate-change treaty negotiations in Copenhagen, there is a pressing need to inform policy discussions about the importance of carbon management of northern boreal forests, as well as of tropical forests.Boreal carbon pools account for more of the overall

Authors of research papers should use and cite online patent databases more frequently, according to a recent Correspondence (

Political agreement on water rights and usage should be at the heart of climate-change conference discussions (see http://www.nature.com/roadtocopenhagen). Policy-makers, whose real agenda may be their standing with their electorates, should recognize that water is an ideal vehicle for reaching a useful aggregate agreement.Water

Satellite-based estimates of groundwater depletion in northwestern India reported by Matthew Rodell and colleagues (Nature460, 999–1002; 2009) should be backed up with precise ground-based information for the whole of India, taking into account regional variations in rock types,

The value of biodiversity must be accounted for, says Pavan Sukhdev. It is time for governments to invest to secure the flow of nature's 'public goods'.

Natural ecosystems and biodiversity must be made a bulwark against climate change, not a casualty of it, argue Will R. Turner, Michael Oppenheimer and David S. Wilcove.

To save biodiversity, on-the-ground agencies need to set the conservation research agenda, not distant academics and non-governmental organizations, argue Robert J. Smith and colleagues.

Palaeontologists must model the causes of biodiversity rather than simply cataloguing fossils, says Douglas Erwin, as they curate the only record of ecosystems undamaged by humans.

Latin Americans first saw evolution as a reason to 'whiten' their societies, then as a reason to take pride in their mixed lineage, says Jürgen Buchenau in the last of four pieces on Darwin's global influence.

Shared experiences on global voyages linked Darwin and his fellow naturalists, explains Alistair Sponsel.

Begun in 2000, the first global marine census is due to be completed next year. In anticipation of the official release of these results, a beautifully illustrated book highlights the findings to date of this massive project. World Ocean Census also hints at the

Nicky Clayton, a biologist and psychologist who studies the behaviour of birds, and who is also a salsa and tango dancer, collaborated with Rambert Dance Company to create a work commemorating Charles Darwin. As The Comedy of Change tours the United Kingdom, she explains how communicating via motion is common to both dance and the natural world.

Ideas about the mutability of species may have been part of Enlightenment imagery before Lamarck.

In the Book Review 'Amphibian mystery misread' by Alan Pounds and Karen Masters (Nature462, 38–39; 2009) the sentence “Collins and Crump's selection of published work and quoted opinions downplays such links” should have read “Collins and Crump's assessment

Light from a distant γ-ray burst backs up a key prediction of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity — that photon speed is the same regardless of energy. But it might set the stage for evolution of the theory.

A structure for the enzyme RNA polymerase II in combination with the transcription factor TFIIB changes our view of how the polymerase and its helper proteins initiate transcription.

On the face of it, self-fertilization is the efficient way to breed: compared with outcrossing, there's usually much less fuss, for a start. So why isn't reproduction by selfing far more prevalent than it is?

50 Years agoIt has often been suggested that the dark areas of Mars consist partly of vegetation, particularly in view of the seasonal variation of the intensity of the dark regions. Tests for the high near-infra-red reflectivity characteristic of many plants have all given

Temperature estimates derived from isotopes in polar ice cores reveal much about Earth's past climate. According to the latest analysis, interglacial periods were rather warmer than previously thought.

Genome-wide maps of methylated cytosine bases at single-base-pair resolution in human cells reveal distinct differences between cell types. These maps provide a starting point to decode the function of this enigmatic mark.

Each week some 20,000 people die from malaria. There will be no magic ways of reducing this dreadful toll, not least because the mosquito vector and the parasite itself have formidable abilities to resist control measures. Angles of attack that rest on evolutionary principles are being explored.

Exoplanets are distant worlds that orbit stars other than our Sun. More than 370 such planets are known, and a growing fraction of them are discovered because they transit their star as seen from Earth. The special transit geometry enables us to measure masses and radii for dozens of planets, and we have identified gases in the atmospheres of several giant ones. Within the next decade, we expect to find and study a ‘habitable’ rocky planet transiting a cool red dwarf star close to our Sun. Eventually, we will be able to image the light from an Earth-like world orbiting a nearby solar-type star.

Metabolic diseases represent a growing threat to world-wide public health. In general, these disorders result from the interaction of heritable factors with environmental influences. Here, I will focus on two important metabolic disorders, namely type 2 diabetes and obesity, and explore the extent to which human molecular genetic research has illuminated our understanding of their underlying pathophysiological mechanisms.