政府は、助成機関や大学とともに、社会の重要課題に取り組む科学者の研究が適切に評価され、意欲が報われるよう図るべきだ。
The greater good p.5
Governments, funding agencies and universities must all do their bit to ensure that research is appropriately assessed and rewarded.
doi: 10.1038/505005a
Governments, funding agencies and universities must all do their bit to ensure that research is appropriately assessed and rewarded.
doi: 10.1038/505005a
The secrets to its success are lasers, magnets and a big pinch.
doi: 10.1038/505009a
First comprehensive global-impact project shows that water scarcity is a major worry.
doi: 10.1038/505010a
No plans to build next-generation accelerator despite large investment by US agency.
doi: 10.1038/505011a
Nature takes a look at what is in store for science in the new year.
doi: 10.1038/505013a
心理学者Richard Tremblayは、子供たちの常習的な攻撃的行動の根が幼少期にあることを突き止め、さらにもっと深い原因を探っている。
doi: 10.1038/505014a
in vitro、ゲノミクス、生態学的および疫学的な一連の研究によって、熱帯熱マラリア原虫（Plasmodium falciparum）の遺伝子に生じた変異で、アルテミシニンを使った抗マラリア薬への耐性に重要な役割を持つものが突き止められた。
doi: 10.1038/nature12845
中程度の大きさの2つの太陽系外惑星について、親星の前面を通過する際に観測された透過スペクトルは平らで特徴のないものだった。この結果は、これらの惑星の大気の性質を明らかにするものだ。
doi: 10.1038/505031a
旧人類と現生人類のゲノムの比較に、初めてのネアンデルタール人高品質ゲノム塩基配列が加えられたことで、遺伝子流動、個体群の構造や適応についての手がかりが得られ、またこれまで知られていなかった旧人類集団の存在が示唆された。
doi: 10.1038/nature12847
気候モデルにおける大気の対流混合と低層雲の評価が新たに行われ、二酸化炭素濃度の上昇に応答して、地球の気候がこれまで考えられていたよりも温暖となる可能性が示唆された。
doi: 10.1038/505034a
細胞の老化、つまりがんを抑制し老化を促進する細胞増殖停止は、胚発生を調節するために進化した可能性が、マウスとヒトでの研究で示唆された。
doi: 10.1038/nature12844
The change in global mean temperature in response to a change in external forcing is highly uncertain; here differences in the simulated strength of convective mixing between the lower and middle tropical troposphere are shown to explain about half of the variance in climate sensitivity, constraining the predicted equilibrium climate sensitivity to an increase of 3 to 5 degrees Celsius.
doi: 10.1038/nature12829
A complete genome sequence is presented of a female Neanderthal from Siberia, providing information about interbreeding between close relatives and uncovering gene flow events among Neanderthals, Denisovans and early modern humans, as well as establishing substitutions that became fixed in modern humans after their separation from the ancestors of Neanderthals and Denisovans.
doi: 10.1038/nature12886
A molecular marker is required to monitor artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum parasites in southeast Asia; here mutations in K13-propeller are associated with artemisinin resistance in vitro and in vivo and also cluster in Cambodian provinces where resistance is prevalent.
doi: 10.1038/nature12876
X-ray crystal structures of a voltage-gated Na+ channel mutated to be highly Ca2+ selective provide a framework for understanding the mechanisms of ion selectivity and conductance in vertebrate voltage-gated Ca2+ channels.
doi: 10.1038/nature12775
Cycles of electron capture and β− decay involving neutron-rich nuclei at a typical depth of about 150 metres are found to cool the outer crust of a neutron star by emitting neutrinos while also thermally decoupling the surface layers from the deeper crust; this mechanism has been studied in other astrophysical environments, but has not hitherto been considered in neutron stars.
doi: 10.1038/nature12757
The transmission spectrum of the Neptune-mass exoplanet GJ 436b is shown to be featureless, implying that the planet has either a hydrogen-poor atmosphere or a high cloud layer.
doi: 10.1038/nature12887
The transmission spectrum of the super-Earth exoplanet GJ 1214b is observed to be featureless at near-infrared wavelengths and its atmosphere must contain clouds to be consistent with the data.
doi: 10.1038/nature12888
Very slow cooling, over several days, of solutions of complementary-DNA-modified nanoparticles through the melting temperature of the system produces nanoparticle assemblies with the Wulff equilibrium crystal structure, thus showing that DNA hybridization can direct nanoparticle assembly along a pathway that mimics atomic crystallization.
doi: 10.1038/nature12739
Despite a reduction in nutrient supply to the North Pacific subtropical gyre, it has undergone a recent increase in nitrogen fixation, and here records of nitrogen isotopes preserved in Hawaiian corals show that this is a trend that could be linked to climate change since the end of the Little Ice Age.
doi: 10.1038/nature12784
Plant life-history traits, notably plant investments in growth versus reproduction, can explain the impact of nitrogen:phosphorus stoichiometry on plant species richness; compared with plants in nitrogen-limited communities, plants in phosphorus-limited communities (in which endangered plant species are more common) invest little in phosphorus-intense activity such as sexual reproduction and have conservative leaf traits.
doi: 10.1038/nature12733
Draft genomes of two south-central Siberian individuals dating to 24,000 and 17,000 years ago show that they are genetically closely related to modern-day western Eurasians and Native Americans but not to east Asians; the results have implications for our understanding of the origins of Native Americans.
doi: 10.1038/nature12736
Single-unit recordings and optogenetic manipulations in mice undergoing auditory fear conditioning show that fear expression is related to the phasic inhibition of prefrontal cortex (PFC) parvalbumin interneurons; inhibition disinhibits PFC projection neurons and synchronizes their firing, leading to fear expression.
doi: 10.1038/nature12755
Divergent angiocrine signals from liver sinusoidal endothelial cells elicit regeneration after immediate injury and provoke fibrosis after chronic insult.
doi: 10.1038/nature12681
Secreted C-type lectins protect the intestinal epithelium from Gram-positive bacteria; this study shows that for the C-type lectin RegIIIα, bacterial killing occurs in a two-step process whereby the lectin first binds to bacterial peptidoglycans then oligomerizes on the bacterial membrane to form a permeabilizing pore.
doi: 10.1038/nature12729
Botulinum neurotoxin A (BoNT/A) is considered the most toxic substance known but is also used as a therapeutic drug for a growing number of diseases and conditions; researchers have now obtained a high-resolution crystal structure of the receptor-binding domain of the BoNT/A in complex with the luminal domain of synaptic vesicle protein 2C (SV2C), one of its receptors, allowing the identification of a peptide that can inhibit complex formation.
doi: 10.1038/nature12732
Two proteins are identified in yeast that regulate the timing of pre-ribosome export from the nucleus; Nug2 binds pre-60S particles until they are ready for export, at which time Nug2 is replaced by the export adaptor Nmd3, enabling the export machinery to recognise the pre-ribosome that is ready to be transferred to the cytoplasm.
doi: 10.1038/nature12731
The mRNAs of higher eukaryotes are extensively modified internally with N6-methyladenosine, but the specific functional role of this modification has been unclear; here this modification on mRNA is shown to be recognized by several proteins, the modification and its recognition serve to regulate the RNA’s lifetime.
doi: 10.1038/nature12730
