The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has provided invaluable evidence for policy-makers, but giant reports should give way to nimbler, more relevant research.
doi: 10.1038/501281a
Novelist Thomas Pynchon shows that science and art can combine, with mutual benefit.
doi: 10.1038/501282b
Researchers and lawmakers must work to rebuild trust in secure Internet standards.
doi: 10.1038/501282a
But election prompts fears that budgetary pressures may sap strong investment.
doi: 10.1038/501289a
Plant secretion curbs greenhouse-gas emissions from soil.
doi: 10.1038/501291a
Other observatories watch for sharpened worker demands.
doi: 10.1038/501292a
Conciliation sought in talks on EU research guidelines.
doi: 10.1038/501293a
Lack of in-depth studies hampers efforts to identify source.
doi: 10.1038/501294a
気候変動の不確定要素と対策の必要性との間で難しい舵取り役を果たしてきたIPCCの、これまでとこれからを考える。
doi: 10.1038/501297a
地球の気候の監視役を果たしてきたIPCCの歴史を振り返る。
doi: 10.1038/501298a
海面がどのくらいの範囲で、どのくらい速く、どの程度上昇するかを予測しようと、研究者たちは苦労を重ねている。
doi: 10.1038/501300a
何百人もの専門家の意見をまとめるのは簡単ではないが、Ottmar Edenhoferは、着実に、そして哲学を持って、この責務を果たしている。
doi: 10.1038/501303a
東太平洋赤道域で観測された海洋表面の水温を要因として取り込んで作られた全球気候モデルは、近年の地球温暖化の休止に対する説明を与えてくれる。
doi: 10.1038/501318a
自己組織化する三次元組織を幹細胞を使って作り出せることが実証された。発生中のヒト脳を模倣するこの組織は、神経発生障害のモデルを作製するのに使用できる。
doi: 10.1038/nature12552
内部山岳波は、大洋の動態を作り出すのに関わっており、深海の混合に大きく寄与している可能性がある。これらは、こうした波を次世代気候モデルに取り込むことを真剣に考慮する根拠となる。
doi: 10.1038/501321a
病原体とその宿主は、果てしなく軍拡競争を続けている。病原性のトリパノソーマと、高密度リポタンパク質を含むヒト免疫複合体の1つも、そうした進化的にらみ合いを繰り広げている。
doi: 10.1038/501322a
太陽電池産業が目指す究極の目標は、太陽光を高効率で電気に変換する廉価なデバイスである。ペロブスカイト半導体の登場は、この目標に到達するための重要なステップと考えられる。
doi: 10.1038/nature12557
ダウン症候群のモデルでは酵素のUSP16の量が3倍になるが、これが成体組織に常在する幹細胞の欠陥を作り出すことが分かった。この知見は、加齢の際の幹細胞恒常性についての手がかりを与えてくれる。
doi: 10.1038/nature12558
Here the authors present a human pluripotent stem cell-derived three-dimensional organoid culture system that is able to recapitulate several aspects of human brain development in addition to modelling the brain disorder microcephaly, which has been difficult to achieve using mouse models.
doi: 10.1038/nature12517
An analysis of somatic tissues derived from mouse models of Down’s syndrome shows reduced self-renewal capacities in various cell types, with these defects partially dependent on triplication of the Usp16 gene; overexpression and knockout studies in human cells shows that USP16 has a role in Down’s syndrome-related proliferation defects, making this gene an attractive option for further study.
doi: 10.1038/nature12530
The crystal structure of BamA, the central component of the β-barrel assembly machinery (BAM) complex, from N. gonorrhoeae and H. ducreyi is determined; the structure consists of an interior cavity capped by extracellular loops, an exterior rim with a narrowed hydrophobic surface and a lateral opening of the barrel domain, providing insight into a possible route for the insertion of β-barrel membrane proteins into the bacterial outer membrane.
doi: 10.1038/nature12521
The unusually large Faraday rotation of a newly discovered pulsar indicates that there is a dynamically important magnetic field near the supermassive black hole believed to lie at the centre of the Milky Way.
doi: 10.1038/nature12499
The use of organometal halide perovskites as the light-absorbing material in nanostructured solar cells has increased efficiency to practical levels; here it is shown that vapour deposition of the perovskite removes the need for complex nanostructures and will hence simplify large-scale manufacture.
doi: 10.1038/nature12509
Silver nanoparticles are susceptible to oxidation and have accordingly received less attention than gold nanoparticles; ultrastable silver nanoparticles are now reported, which can be produced in very large quantities as a single-sized molecular product, and the origins of their enhanced stability are elucidated using a single-crystal X-ray structure and first-principles calculations.
doi: 10.1038/nature12523
Global warming has stalled since the late 1990s, puzzling researchers; here a climate model that includes observed sea surface temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific reproduces the hiatus as part of natural variation, suggesting that long-term global warming is likely to continue.
doi: 10.1038/nature12534
An ocean tracer release in the Drake Passage, between South America and Antarctica, shows that its rough bottom topography causes greatly increased internal mixing, by a factor of about 20 at depths of around 1,500 metres.
doi: 10.1038/nature12432
Mutations in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) accumulate at a higher rate than mutations in nuclear DNA, and although somatic mtDNA mutations are known to be involved in mammalian ageing, the role of germline mutations in this process is unclear: here germline-transmitted mtDNA mutations are shown to be associated with ageing and brain malformations, and maternally transmitted mtDNA mutations may thus influence both development and ageing.
doi: 10.1038/nature12474
In Caenorhabditis elegans, genome instability in the form of exogenous and endogenous DNA damage in germ cells evokes elevated heat- and oxidative-stress resistance in somatic tissues; this is mediated by MPK-1, which triggers the induction of putative secreted peptides associated with innate immunity, leading to activation of the ubiquitin–proteasome system.
doi: 10.1038/nature12452
In mice with Eµ-myc transgenic lymphomas in which therapy-induced senescence (TIS) depends on the H3K9 histone methyltransferase Suv39h1, TIS-competent lymphomas but not TIS-incompetent Suv39h1– lymphomas show increased glucose utilization and ATP production after senescence-inducing chemotherapy to cope with proteotoxic stress elicited by factors of the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP); senescent cancers are selectively vulnerable to drugs that block glucose utilization or autophagy.
doi: 10.1038/nature12437
Germ-free mice mono-associated with a single species of Bacteroides are found to be resistant to further colonization by the same, but not different, species; a unique class of polysaccharide utilization loci that is required for the penetration of the colonic mucus and colonization of the crypt channel niche is discovered that explains this observed species-specific saturable colonization.
doi: 10.1038/nature12447
This study shows that Trypanosoma brucei gambiense resists trypanolytic factors (TLFs) in a multifactorial manner, relying on a hydrophobic β-sheet of the TgsGP glycoprotein, which prevents APOL1 toxicity and induces membrane stiffening, as well as a reduction in sensitivity to APOL1 requiring cysteine protease activity and TLF-1 receptor inactivation owing to a single amino acid substitution.
doi: 10.1038/nature12516
Cells expressing variable lymphocyte receptor C (VLRC) genes that encode VLRC receptors, which are used by jawless vertebrates to react with antigens, are defined as a second T-cell-like lymphocyte subset (the first being VLRA-bearing cells); distinct properties of these two T-cell-like subsets are reminiscent of the distinction between αβ and γδ T cells in jawed vertebrates.
doi: 10.1038/nature12467
A human monoclonal antibody has been identified which can cross-neutralize both human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) and human metapneumovirus (HMPV), demonstrating that a single monoclonal antibody can target different viruses, a discovery that may lead to the creation of new therapeutics and vaccines.
doi: 10.1038/nature12442
An X-ray crystal structure of two intracellular domains of a mouse KCNH voltage-dependent potassium channel, EAG1, is presented: the structure reveals that the eag domain interacts directly with the cyclic nucleotide-binding homology domain (CNBHD), and that many KCNH-associated disease mutations are localized to the eag domain–CNBHD interface.
doi: 10.1038/nature12487
