NEUROBIOLOGY: How the Nose Knows
In many sensory systems, lateral connections between the neurons are thought to be inhibitory, fine-tuning sensory responses. But a new study by Rachel Wilson and colleagues in the April 5 Neuron indicates that many lateral connections in the olfactory system are excitatory. The finding suggests that the brain’s olfactory processing may be more complex than previously believed.

EDUCATION: When Doctors Negotiate Uncertainty
An emerging consensus, explored at an April 6 symposium titled “The Mindful Brain,” holds that medical errors are often years in the making. Rather than the result of momentary lapses, they may be the direct result of a medical education system that encourages a state of “mindlessness” in doctors—a tendency to regard learned facts as unchanging and absolute, to quickly commit patients to preconceived categories, and to have little tolerance for uncertainty. The good news, according to presenters, is that the alternative—mindfulness—can be taught.

SYSTEMS BIOLOGY: Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Just before a cell divides, it pauses to make sure that each new daughter cell will receive a full set of genes. The cell waits while its molecular wranglers at opposite ends of the mitotic spindle lasso each replicated chromosome from either side. Then the cell splits into two new daughter cells. In a collaboration across several labs, two research teams have figured out how the cell puts restraints on cell division and then how it quickly lets the process go. The studies, whose lead authors are Sashank Reddy (left), Michael Rape (right), and Frank Stegmeier, appear in the April 19 Nature.