The proposed European Data Protection Regulation will rightly preserve people’s privacy — but, without exceptions for scientific research, it could hinder or prevent medical discoveries.
doi: 10.1038/497287a
The US National Center for Science Education teaches researchers how to fight for their cause.
doi: 10.1038/497287b
To reach a sustainable future, we must merge economic and environmental agendas.
doi: 10.1038/497288a
Breakthrough sets up showdown with induced adult lines.
doi: 10.1038/497295a
Magnetized neutron star could test Einstein’s theory.
doi: 10.1038/497296a
Bid to unravel the secrets of brainpower faces scepticism.
doi: 10.1038/497297a
Physicist’s stance a ‘turning point’, claim supporters.
doi: 10.1038/497299a
Attendees search for ways to tackle misconduct and sloppy science.
doi: 10.1038/497300a
最古とされるエル・カスティーヨ洞窟の壁画が、ネアンデルタール人と現生人類の関係をめぐる長い論争を激化させている。
doi: 10.1038/497302a
エクアドルは、ガラパゴス諸島の移入ブタやヤギの一掃に成功し、現在は移入ラットの根絶に取り組んでいる。
doi: 10.1038/497306a
漁獲の統計値を革新的な手法で取り扱った研究によって、気候変動は漁業で見られる種の構成に世界的に影響しており、したがって我々が食べる魚の種類にもすでに影響が及んでいることが明らかになった。
doi: 10.1038/497320a
細菌が固体表面上で集団を作る挙動を追跡することで、「金持ちはさらに金持ちに」式の機序が働き、多糖類の蓄積と細胞の占める位置が正のフィードバックループを増幅することがわかった。
doi: 10.1038/nature12103
宇宙探査機ボイジャー2号および地上の望遠鏡によって収集されたデータの解析から、天王星と海王星で風が吹き込む深さを絞り込むことが可能になり、これらの惑星の内部構造についての論争に関係する情報が得られた。
doi: 10.1038/497323a
電気を使って溶解酸化鉄を鉄と酸素に変換する方法は、長らく探し求められていた。今回、高温と、反応中に生じる腐食性物質に耐えられるアノード材料が開発され、この夢が実現に近づいた。
doi: 10.1038/nature12102
自然選択への発生動態の影響を評価するために設計された、歯の進化のコンピューターモデルで、複雑さが最大適応度の獲得可能性を低下させることが明らかになった。
doi: 10.1038/nature12099
Determining major branches in the tree of life generally relies on concatenating as much genetic information as possible, but, as shown here, phylogenomic analysis often produces results that are incongruent with the results of concatenation; a method that gives credence to genes or internodes with high average internode support reduces the incongruence.
doi: 10.1038/nature12130
High-resolution imaging has traditionally required thin sectioning, a process that disrupts long-range connectivity in the case of brains: here, intact mouse brains and human brain samples have been made fully transparent and macromolecule permeable using a new method termed CLARITY, which allows for intact-tissue imaging as well as repeated antibody labelling and in situ hybridization of non-sectioned tissue.
doi: 10.1038/nature12107
The crystal structure of the human smoothened (SMO) receptor is presented in complex with a small-molecule antitumour agent; this represents the first example of a non-class-A, 7-transmembrane (7TM) receptor structure, revealing different conserved motifs common within class frizzled 7TM receptors and an unusually complex arrangement of long extracellular loops stabilized by disulphide bonds.
doi: 10.1038/nature12167
On Uranus and Neptune, the measured fourth-order gravity harmonic, J4, constrains the atmospheric dynamics to the outermost 0.15 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively, of the planetary mass, indicating that these dynamics are confined to a thin weather layer no more than 1,000 kilometres deep on both planets.
doi: 10.1038/nature12131
An electrically pumped polariton laser is constructed using a quantum well microcavity, and its polaritonic nature is demonstrated unambiguously by using a magnetic field to probe the part-light, part-matter character of the system.
doi: 10.1038/nature12036
Molten oxide electrolysis is considered a promising route for extractive metallurgy with much reduced carbon dioxide emissions relative to traditional routes; now a new chromium-based alloy has been developed for use as an oxygen evolving anode that remains stable in the high-temperature corrosive conditions found during iron production via electrolysis.
doi: 10.1038/nature12134
Xenon isotopic analysis shows that ancient pockets of water found in a mine in Timmins, Canada, have survived in the Earth’s crust for at least 1.5 billion years.
doi: 10.1038/nature12127
Tooth development is used as a model to examine which aspects of phenotype can be optimized by natural selection; this reveals that the complexity of the relationship between genotypic and phenotypic variation can affect adaptation
doi: 10.1038/nature12142
The mean temperature of the catch, an index designed to characterize the effect of climate change on global fisheries catch, increased at a rate of 0.19 degrees Celsius per decade between 1970 and 2006, showing that ocean warming has already affected global fisheries.
doi: 10.1038/nature12156
This paper identifies a specific population of subventricular-zone-generated astrocytes that increases in population density after cortical injury; these activated astrocytes migrate to the site of injury, unlike described properties for their counterparts residing in the cortex.
doi: 10.1038/nature12069
Opaque tissues provide a challenge for live imaging of Xenopus laevis development; a problem solved by in vivo time-lapse X-ray microtomography that is shown to provide a high-resolution three-dimensional view of structural changes and dynamics of gastrulation, and that is applied to identify and analyse new aspects of gastrulation in frog embryos.
doi: 10.1038/nature12116
MicroRNA profiling of 1,302 human breast tumour samples provides an overview of the miRNA landscape and its regulation, revealing context-dependent interactions, broad prognostic value of miRNA signatures and an important modulatory role for miRNAs in the biology of breast tumours devoid of copy-number aberrations.
doi: 10.1038/nature12108
Epidermal growth factor receptor, the product of a human oncogene, suppresses the maturation of specific tumour-suppressor-like microRNAs in response to hypoxic stress through phosphorylation of argonaute 2.
doi: 10.1038/nature12080
Cell-tracking experiments and simulations show that the Psl exopolysaccharide deposited by Pseudomonas aeruginosa guides the surface motility of subsequent cells that encounter the Psl trails, generating a ‘rich-get-richer’ effect that leads to microcolony formation.
doi: 10.1038/nature12155
Building on previous work that identified a mutant avian H5 virus that is transmissible between ferrets, the authors present an algorithm to predict virus avidity from the affinity of single haemagglutinin (HA)–receptor interactions; these studies predict that the mutant has a 200-fold preference for the human over the avian receptor, and crystal structures of the mutant HA in complex with human and avian receptors shed light on the molecular basis for these altered binding properties.
doi: 10.1038/nature12144
