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Nature - Issue - nature.com science feeds

Planetary science: Planet-like asteroid
The giant asteroid Vesta resembles a planet more than it does other asteroids, according to Christopher Russell at the University of California, Los Angeles, and his colleagues. In six separate studies, the researchers report their analysis of data from NASA's Dawn spacecraft, which has been   more

Neuroscience: Anti-seizure drug boosts memory
One way to improve memory in people with a disorder that can precede Alzheimer's disease is to dampen activity in a part of the brain known as the hippocampus, rather than to boost it as previously thought.Michela Gallagher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore,   more

Anthropology: Ancient Mayan wall calendar
In an underground chamber in Guatemala, archaeologists have discovered the earliest evidence so far of Mayan astronomical tables: dates, numbers and depictions of lunar deities painted or carved on the walls some 1,200 years ago.William Saturno at Boston University in Massachusetts and his colleagues   more

Neuroscience: The neural core of consciousness
Highly read on www.jneurosci.org in April'Waking up' from an unconscious state requires the activation of only primitive areas deep in the brain ? not the higher cortical areas indicated in previous studies on anaesthetized people.Harry Scheinin at the University of Turku in   more

Seven days: 11?17 May 2012
The week in science: Scientific journals to be protected in UK libel reform; Mars rover awakens; and the Global Fund emerges from a fund-raising crisis.  more

Science policy: Beyond the great and good
Chief scientific advisers need better support and networks to ensure that science advice to governments is robust, say Robert Doubleday and James Wilsdon.  more

Sociology: The social sciences are already relevant
Luk Van Langenhove argues that the social sciences should be made more relevant (Nature484, 442; 2012). But the problem is rather that society remains largely unaware of the thousands of social-science studies produced every year that are relevant to global   more

Correction
In the Editorial 'Price of freedom' (Nature485, 148; 2012), we stated that 'plenty of European scientists will be lost'. 'European scientists' should have been 'Europan science', as we meant to refer to science on the Jovian moon Europa.  more

Resolving the time when an electron exits a tunnelling barrier
The tunnelling of a particle through a barrier is one of the most fundamental and ubiquitous quantum processes. When induced by an intense laser field, electron tunnelling from atoms and molecules initiates a broad range of phenomena such as the generation of attosecond pulses, laser-induced electron diffraction and holography. These processes evolve on the attosecond timescale (1?attosecond???1?as = 10?18?seconds) and are well suited to the investigation of a general issue much debated since the early days of quantum mechanics?the link between the tunnelling of an electron through a barrier and its dynamics outside the barrier. Previous experiments have measured tunnelling rates with attosecond time resolution and tunnelling delay times. Here we study laser-induced tunnelling by using a weak probe field to steer the tunnelled electron in the lateral direction and then monitor the effect on the attosecond light bursts emitted when the liberated electron re-encounters the parent ion. We show that this approach allows us to measure the time at which the electron exits from the tunnelling barrier. We demonstrate the high sensitivity of the measurement by detecting subtle delays in ionization times from two orbitals of a carbon dioxide molecule. Measurement of the tunnelling process is essential for all attosecond experiments where strong-field ionization initiates ultrafast dynamics. Our approach provides a general tool for time-resolving multi-electron rearrangements in atoms and molecules?one of the key challenges in ultrafast science.  more