In honour of the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, Nature is publishing a series on the global and astounding variety of reactions to the theory of evolution. People from Egypt to Japan used Darwin’s ideas to reinvent and reignite their core philosophies and religions, says Marwa Elshakry in the first of these four weekly pieces on how evolution was received around the world (Nature 461, 1200-1201; 2009). The start of the series is marked by an Editorial (Nature 461, 1173-1174; 2009) on the importance of cultural influences on science. "The lesson for today’s scientists and policy-makers is simple: they cannot assume that a public presented with ‘the facts’ will come to the same conclusion as themselves. They must take value systems, cultural backdrops and local knowledge gaps into account and frame their arguments accordingly. Such approaches will be crucial in facing current global challenges, from recessions to pandemics and climate change. These issues will be perceived and dealt with differently by different nations — not because they misunderstand, but because their understanding is in part locally dependent.

Darwin once said: “But then with me the horrid doubt always arises whether the convictions of man’s mind, which has been developed from the mind of the lower animals, are of any value or at all trustworthy.” Researchers and policy-makers would do well to mimic his humility when presenting science, and remember how people’s minds truly work."

Nature ’s collection of all Darwin anniversary content.

The grand finale will come later this month (November), marking the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species. (Watch this space.)

More resources on Darwin 200 from Nature.

Nature Publishing Group celebrates Darwin 200: a round-up of commissioned content from the Nature journals.

Nature Reviews Genetics presents a free poster, ‘The pervasive and interlinked transcriptome’, in its November 2009 issue. Our knowledge of the eukaryotic transcriptome is being transformed as we come to realize that the proportion of the genome that is transcribed is far greater than expected. New insights into the diversity of transcriptional products are rapidly emerging. Technological advances, such as RNA deep sequencing, are driving an increased knowledge of how transcripts are encoded in intricate and overlapping ways and are processed into myriad RNAs.

Using snapshots at different levels of resolution – from chromosomes down to a few nucleotides – this poster provides a window into the layers of complexity and introduces transcriptional phenomena and types of RNA that are key topics in current research.

More about Nature Reviews Genetics.

Featured articles on genetics from across the Nature Publishing Group journals.

NPG ‘-omics’ gateway.

The flow of human genetic information is growing into a deluge: from high throughput sequencing to genome wide association studies to copy number variation to personal genetic tests. In today’s (8 October 2009) issue, Nature assesses their biological and medical value so far and asks – where should the field go next?

Nature ’s special issue on human genetics can be found here.

Selected content is free to access online for one month from date of issue:

Opinion: An agenda for personalized medicine

Nature 461, 724-726 (2009).

Pauline C. Ng, Sarah S. Murray, Samuel Levy and J. Craig Venter find differences in results from two direct-toconsumer genetics-testing companies. They therefore give nine recommendations to improve predictions.

News Feature: Human genetics: Hit or miss?

Nature 461, 712-714 (2009).

Genome-wide association studies have identified hundreds of genetic clues to disease. Kelly Rae Chi looks at three to see just how on-target the approach seems to be.

Review Article: Finding the missing heritability of complex diseases

Teri A. Manolio et al. Nature 461, 747-753 (2009).

An examination of the potential sources of missing heritability and possible research strategies to enhance the potential of genetics of complex diseases for effective prevention or treatment.

And this week’s Nature podcast features an interview with Pauline Ng in which she discusses personal genomics and other highlights from the special issue.

More from Nature’s human genomics special issue.

Join Nature at the American Society of Human Genetics, 20-24 October 2009 in Honolulu. Visit booth #803 to pick up your free copy of the special human genetics themed issue and ask a representitive at the booth about our special 30% conference discount rate.

Other Nature news special collections.

Nature web focuses.

Nature Methods is five years old. To celebrate this anniversary, the journal looks at methodological development and its role in scientific inquiry in its October Editorial, In celebration of methods (Nat. Meth. 6, 687; 2009) and a special focus of commentaries discussing the impact and progress of methodological developments in the life sciences. The focus also includes a fun selection of papers and covers from the past five years.

Nature Methods’ Chief Editor, Daniel Evanko, writes on Methagora, the journal’s blog: "It’s hard to believe that five years have gone by since Veronique Kiermer, Nicole Rusk and myself saw the first issue of Nature Methods go out the door. In some ways it doesn’t feel like it was that long ago while in others it feels like much, much longer. But it has certainly been a rewarding and stimulating five years and we are thrilled with the success that Nature Methods has enjoyed. To help celebrate, Veronique asked a local pastry shop run her friend called “How Sweet It Is” to bake a cake using the cover image of our inaugural issue. It turned out spectacularly and tasted just as good. I’m hoping to convince Veronique to post a blog entry describing the undertaking with accompanying pictures." Check out Methagora for the mouth-watering cover images and updates about the anniversary celebrations.

Nature Milestones in Light Microscopy is published today, 1 October 2009. Nature Milestones in Light Microscopy is a collaboration from Nature Methods, Nature Cell Biology and Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, focusing on ground-breaking advances in light microscopy research. The field of light microscopy has revolutionized our understanding of cell biology and is continuing as new imaging tools and techniques are developed. The Nature Milestones in Light Microscopy supplement contains a series of short articles, called Milestones, presenting key developments in the field, written by editors from the Nature Publishing Group. In addition, selected content from Nature Milestones in Light Microscopy are freely available online.

Print copies of the supplement will be available at the NPG stand at the Society for Neuroscience (SFN) conference in October 2009 and the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) conference in December 2009.

Also of interest is Nature‘s recent News special on microscopy, consisting of a slideshow, News Features, opinion and various other articles. Microscopes are biologists’ window to life — and advances in microscopy over recent years are revealing some breathtaking new views. The Nature special profiles five microscopes that are changing the ways that researchers see the world, and examines the challenges involved in collecting and interpreting the microscopic image.

Individual genomes vary, not only in sequence, but in both their structural organization and in the number of sequence copies they contain. The technology now exists to understand the mechanisms by which genomes diverge, so we can investigate the consequences of copy number variation for gene expression and clinical phenotypes. This month (September), Nature Genetics presents a Focus of articles published in Nature and Nature Genetics, free to read online, on copy number variation, which highlights the complementary roles of paired-end sequencing and oligonucleotide array technology in research discovery.

As well as an Editorial (‘Making diversity count’) and an NPG library of relevant past articles, the Focus consists of the following research articles:

A highly annotated whole-genome sequence of a Korean individual

Jong-Il Kim et al.

The DNA replication FoSTeS/MMBIR mechanism can generate genomic, genic and exonic complex rearrangements in humans

Feng Zhang et al.

Increased LIS1 expression affects human and mouse brain development

Weimin Bi et al.

Mapping and sequencing of structural variation from eight human genomes

Jeffrey M Kidd et al.

Closing gaps in the human genome with fosmid resources generated from multiple individuals

Donald Bovee et al.

Charles Darwin’s theory of descent with modification by means of natural selection has stood the test of time, with new discoveries in genetics and the mathematical basis of natural selection providing ever growing evidence for the theory. The October issue of Nature Reviews Neuroscience — contains an online focus, free to access online for six months from the issue date, celebrating the contribution of Darwin’s ideas to our current understanding of the evolution of the nervous system. The articles in this special issue discuss the molecular, cellular and structural changes that have contributed to CNS (central nervous system) evolution and their functional consequences. The focus consists of reviews and perspectives on:

The origin and evolution of synapses

Tomás J. Ryan & Seth G. N. Grant

Considering the evolution of regeneration in the central nervous system

Elly M. Tanaka & Patrizia Ferretti

Evolution of the neocortex: a perspective from developmental biology

Pasko Rakic

Chordate roots of the vertebrate nervous system: expanding the molecular toolkit

Linda Z. Holland

Sleep viewed as a state of adaptive inactivity

Jerome M. Siegel

MicroRNAs tell an evo–devo story

Kenneth S. Kosik

Editors’ summary of these articles.

NPG library of articles on CNS evolution.

Nature celebrates Darwin 200.

Nature Publishing Group celebrates Darwin 200 with a range of articles from its journals.

Fifteen evolutionary gems from Nature’s archives.

More about Nature Reviews Neuroscience.