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The bird virus binds to cells in different regions of the human airway from those favoured by human influenza viruses; Japanese researchers have found evidence of methane-bearing fluid inclusions in about 3.5-billion-year-old hydrothermal precipitates; A set of molecular pedals that is powered by light and twists another molecule is reported

WWW.NATURE.COM/NATURE This press release is copyright Nature. VOL.440 NO.7083 DATED 23 MARCH 2006 This press release contains: * Disease: Why bird flu doesn't spread between humans * Geology: The oldest evidence of methane makers * Molecular nanotechnology: Pedal power Editorial contacts: While the best contacts for stories will always be the authors themselves, in some cases the Nature editor who handled the paper will be available for comment if an author is unobtainable. Editors are contactable via Ruth Francis on +44 20 7843 4562. Feel free to get in touch with Nature's press contacts in London, Washington and Tokyo (as listed at the end of this release) with any general editorial inquiry. Warning: This document, and the Nature papers to which it refers, may contain information that is price sensitive (as legally defined, for example, in the UK Criminal Justice Act 1993 Part V) with respect to publicly quoted companies. Anyone dealing in securities using information contained in this document or in advanced copies of Nature's content may be guilty of insider trading under the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The Nature journals press site is at <http://press.nature.com> * PDFs for the Articles, Letters, Progress articles, Review articles, Insights and Brief Communications in this issue will be available on the Nature journals press site from 1400 London time / 0900 US Eastern time on the Friday before publication. * PDFs of News & Views, News Features, Correspondence and Commentaries will be available from 1400 London time / 0900 US Eastern time on the Monday before publication PICTURES: While we are happy for images from Nature to be reproduced for the purposes of contemporaneous news reporting, you must also seek permission from the copyright holder (if named) or author of the research paper in question (if not). HYPE: We take great care not to hype the papers mentioned on our press releases, but are sometimes accused of doing so. If you ever consider that a story has been hyped, please do not hesitate to contact us at press@nature.com <mailto:press@nature.com>, citing the specific example. PLEASE CITE NATURE AND OUR WEBSITE www.nature.com/nature AS THE SOURCE OF THE FOLLOWING ITEMS. IF PUBLISHING ONLINE, PLEASE CARRY A HYPERLINK TO http://www.nature.com/nature [1] Disease: Why bird flu doesn't spread between humans (pp 435-436) Human-to-human transmission of the deadly H5N1 bird influenza virus is rare, despite the fact that the virus can replicate efficiently in human lungs. Now researchers have found a useful indication as to why - the bird virus preferentially binds to cells in different regions of the human airway from those favoured by human influenza viruses. Flu viruses infecting humans and birds are known to home in on slightly different versions of the same molecule, found on the surface of cells that line the respiratory tract. Researchers led by Yoshihiro Kawaoka show in a Brief Communication in this week's Nature how this may manifest in patients. Whereas the version of the molecule preferentially bound by human viruses is more prevalent on cells higher up in the airway, the molecule that is preferentially targeted by avian viruses tends to be found on cells deep within the lungs, in structures called alveoli. This may explain why human-to-human transmission of H5N1 remains uncommon, the authors suggest. The virus may preferentially enter cells deep down inside the lungs, meaning that an infected person is less likely to spread the virus by coughing or sneezing. The researchers add, however, that acquiring the ability to infect cells higher up in the airway may be a crucial step towards realizing the threat of H5N1 causing a human pandemic. Yoshihiro Kawaoka (University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USA) Tel: +1 608 265 4925; E-mail: kawaokay@svm.vetmed.wisc.edu [5] Geology: The oldest evidence of methane makers (pp 516-519; N&V) Methanogenic microbes - methane-making micro-organisms - are thought to be among Earth's earliest life forms. Exactly when they first appeared, though, has always been uncertain. No one has been able to find direct geological evidence to support the hypothesis that they existed in the Archaean era, 3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago. But as reported in this week's Nature, Yuichiro Ueno and colleges have been busy. The Japanese researchers have found evidence of methane-bearing fluid inclusions in about 3.5-billion-year-old hydrothermal precipitates from the Pilbara craton in Western Australia. Their analyses - through carbon isotope composition - indicate the methane is of microbial origin. It is the oldest evidence of methanogen existence, pre-dating previous circumstantial geochemical evidence by about 700 million years. Microbial methane may have been important in regulating the climate on the Archaean Earth - potentially providing sufficient amounts of the greenhouse gas to mitigate the severely frozen conditions. CONTACT Yuichiro Ueno (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Yokohama, Japan) Tel: +81 45 924 5142; E-mail: yueno@depe.titech.ac.jp Don Canfield (Odense University, Odense, Denmark) Tel: +45 6550 2751; E-mail: dec@biology.sdu.dk [8] Molecular nanotechnology: Pedal power (pp 512-515) A set of molecular pedals that is powered by light and twists another molecule is reported in Nature this week by Takuzo Aida and co-workers. The molecule-sized device extends previous work on 'molecular machines' by showing how motion induced in one component can be transferred to another. Several research groups have shown that molecules that change shape when irradiated with light can be used to create molecular motors and other devices with moving parts. But in order to carry out useful tasks with such minuscule components, they will probably have to be linked up to other molecules, in much the same way as the mechanical motions of pistons in a car engine are transferred via crankshafts and gears to the wheels. Aida and colleagues have made a set of molecular pedals in which the absorption of light in one part of the molecule introduces a kink which drives the scissor-like swivelling of the pedal units around a kind of molecular ball-bearing. The challenge was then to transfer this swinging motion to another molecule, which they did by designing the pedals so that they trapped a 'guest' molecule between them. When the pedals swivelled, the guest molecule became twisted. The researchers suggest that sequences of such interlocking motions might allow remote control of molecular-scale processes. CONTACT Takuzo Aida (The University of Tokyo, School of Engineering, Tokyo, Japan) Tel: +81 3 5841 7251; E-mail: aida@macro.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp PRESS CONTACTS... For North America and Canada Katie McGoldrick, Nature Washington Tel: +1 202 737 2355; E-mail: k.mcgoldrick@naturedc.com For Japan, Korea, China, Singapore and Taiwan Rinoko Asami, Nature Tokyo Tel: +81 3 3267 8751; E-mail: r.asami@naturejpn.com For the UK/Europe/other countries not listed above Ruth Francis, Nature London Tel: +44 20 7843 4562; E-mail r.francis@nature.com Zoe Corbyn, Nature London Tel: +44 20 7843 4658; E-mail: z.corbyn@nature.com Victoria Picknell, Nature, London Tel: +44 20 7843 4502; E-mail: v.picknell@nature.com About Nature Publishing Group Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd, dedicated to serving the academic, professional scientific and medical communities. NPG's flagship title, Nature, is the world's most highly-cited weekly multidisciplinary journal and was first published in 1869. Other publications and services include Nature research journals, Nature Reviews, Nature Clinical Practice, a range of prestigious academic journals, including society-owned publications, news content from news@nature.com and scientific career information from Naturejobs. NPG is a global company, with headquarters in London and offices in New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Tokyo, Paris, Munich, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Gurgaon and Basingstoke. For more information, please go to www.nature.com <http://www.nature.com>.

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