My colleague Fridolf Kudlien in his recent paper "Empticius servus __ .n (Historia 35 [1986] p. 248) has remarked on the fact that in the ancient slave-market youth was at a premium. He points out that the manganes applied vegetable salves to arrest puberty and quotes Pliny N.H. XXI 170. The growth of pubic hair was arrested (N.H. XXX 41). The following Greeklarallels attest to the widespread b...

n meiosis II, vertebrate oocytes undergo a cell cycle arrest that is maintained until fertilization, but it has been difficult to identify the factors responsible for this process. By screening a novel cDNA library, Lefebvre et al., page 603, have discovered and characterized a protein that specifically regulates meiosis II spindle integrity during arrest. The work helps to explain how the cell...