環境汚染度の低い調理用バイオマスストーブを普及させる取り組みが失敗に終わっており、この改善のためには新しい方法が求められる。
Clean break p.533
Improved biomass stoves are not popular, people everywhere deserve modern cooking methods.
doi: 10.1038/509533b
Improved biomass stoves are not popular, people everywhere deserve modern cooking methods.
doi: 10.1038/509533b
If the threat of antibiotic resistance is to be managed, existing drugs must be marshalled more effectively and new medicines must get to market fast.
doi: 10.1038/509533a
doi: 10.1038/509534a
Refinements to disfavoured immune therapy offer safer, more effective treatment.
doi: 10.1038/509541a
Long-awaited vessel Sikuliaq joins an ageing fleet.
doi: 10.1038/509542a
Price and flexibility appeal as data sets grow.
doi: 10.1038/509543a
The development is part of a growing trend to tap physics expertise.
doi: 10.1038/509544a
Effort aims to unravel the history of bird’s domestication.
doi: 10.1038/509546a
世界人口の約3分の1が有害な煙を放出する調理用バイオマスストーブを利用しており、より環境汚染度の低いストーブを普及させる取り組みが行われているが、その努力は成功していない。
doi: 10.1038/509548a
計算機科学のために開発された概念「計算複雑性」が、一般相対性理論と量子力学の矛盾という、基礎物理学が抱えるパラドックスを解くカギになる可能性が出てきた。
doi: 10.1038/509552a
南半球の半乾燥生態系が、大気中二酸化炭素の全球濃度の変化に大きな役割を果たしている可能性が明らかになった。このことは、この温室効果ガスの将来の濃度に影響を与える。
doi: 10.1038/nature13341
土壌微生物では、抗生物質に対する耐性を付与できる遺伝子が多数見つかっている。それにもかかわらず、こうした遺伝子のうちヒト病原体が共有しているものは少数だけで、土壌微生物群集内ではこうした遺伝子の伝播はめったに起こらないことが、新たな研究で明らかになった。
doi: 10.1038/nature13342
電気を伝導するにはケーブルやワイヤーが使われるが、こうしたものはエネルギー貯蔵にも使えるのだろうか。この答えは、もし電気二重層を利用したエネルギー蓄積デバイスである「スーパーキャパシター」で覆われるなら、はっきりイエスである。この知見は多くの応用への道を開くことになりそうだ。
doi: 10.1038/509568a
カイコガ(Bombyx mori)の性は、ある小分子RNAが存在するかどうかによって決まることが分かった。これは、タンパク質以外の分子が性決定を仲介することを示す初めての例だと考えられる。
doi: 10.1038/nature13336
これまでになく高い精度での陽子の磁性の測定が、1個の陽子を二重ペニングトラップと呼ばれるデバイス中に閉じ込めることで達成された。この結果は自然界の基本的な対称性の1つを調べる道を開く。
doi: 10.1038/509571a
哺乳類では、出生後の数日間に大気中酸素に曝露されることで、心筋細胞の増殖停止が引き起こされる。この知見は、低酸素環境内に生息しているゼブラフィッシュは成体でも心臓の再生が可能なことの説明になるかもしれない。
doi: 10.1038/509572a
胚中心は、免疫応答の際にB細胞の増殖と変異が起こるホットスポットである。この胚中心にあるB細胞の追跡から、抗原の大半を細胞表面に提示しているB細胞が優位を占めるようにプログラムされていることが分かった。
doi: 10.1038/509573a
A draft map of the human proteome is presented here, accounting for over 80% of the annotated protein-coding genes in humans; some novel protein-coding regions, including translated pseudogenes, non-coding RNAs and upstream open reading frames, are identified.
doi: 10.1038/nature13302
A mass-spectrometry-based draft of the human proteome and a public database for analysis of proteome data are presented; assembled information is used to estimate the size of the protein-coding genome, to identify organ-specific proteins, proteins predicting drug resistance or sensitivity, and many translated long intergenic non-coding RNAs, and to reveal conserved control of protein abundance.
doi: 10.1038/nature13319
A novel combined NMR and EPR spectroscopy approach reveals the structure and assembly mechanism of a 70-kDa bacterial ribonucleoprotein complex acting as a protein sponge in translational regulation.
doi: 10.1038/nature13271
Analysis of the metallicities of more than 400 stars hosting 600 candidate extrasolar planets shows that the planets can be categorized by size into three populations — terrestrial-like planets, gas dwarf planets with rocky cores and hydrogen–helium envelopes, and ice or gas giant planets — on the basis of host star metallicity.
doi: 10.1038/nature13254
The magnetic moment of the proton is directly measured with unprecedented precision using a double Penning trap.
doi: 10.1038/nature13388
The unusually large land carbon sink reported in 2011 can mostly be attributed to semi-arid vegetation growth in the Southern Hemisphere following increased rainfall and long-term greening trends.
doi: 10.1038/nature13376
Concurrent observations at multiple locations indicate that storm-generated ocean waves propagating through Antarctic sea ice can transport enough energy to break first-year sea ice hundreds of kilometres from the ice edge, which is much farther than would be predicted by the commonly assumed exponential wave decay.
doi: 10.1038/nature13262
A description of the gill skeleton of a very early fossil shark-like fish shows that it bears more resemblance to gill skeletons from bony fishes rather than to those from modern cartilaginous fishes, suggesting that modern sharks are not anatomically primitive, as previously thought.
doi: 10.1038/nature13195
Functional metagenomic selections for resistance to 18 antibiotics in 18 different soils reveal that bacterial community composition is the primary determinant of soil antibiotic resistance gene content.
doi: 10.1038/nature13377
The cellular basis of touch has long been debated, in particular the relationship between sensory neurons and non-neuronal cells; a mouse study uses optogenetics to identify their distinct and collaborative roles, with skin-derived Merkel cells both transducing touch and actively tuning responses of touch-sensitive neurons.
doi: 10.1038/nature13250
A mouse study shows that non-neuronal epidermal Merkel cells aid fine-touch perception in the skin through their expression of the Piezo2 mechanosensitive cation channel which then actively tunes the response to touch in adjacent somatosensory neurons.
doi: 10.1038/nature13251
Activation of Esr1+ neurons of the mouse ventromedial hypothalamus initiates graded social behavioural responses–weak activation triggers close investigation (sniffing) during a social encounter that often leads, with continued stimulation, to mounting behaviours by males towards either gender; mounting behaviour transitions to aggressive attacks with greater stimulation intensity.
doi: 10.1038/nature13169
It is known that in the silkworm (Bombyx mori), males have two Z sex chromosomes whereas females have Z and W and the W chromosome has a dominant role in female determination; here a single female-specific W-chromosome-derived PIWI-interacting RNA is shown to be the feminizing factor in B. mori.
doi: 10.1038/nature13315
Clonal expansion and hypermutation of B cells in the germinal centre are regulated by the amount of antigen that the B cells present to follicular helper T cells.
doi: 10.1038/nature13300
During development of myointimal hyperplasia in human arteries, smooth muscle cells have hyperpolarized mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm), high proliferation and apoptosis resistance; PDK2 is a key regulatory protein whose activation is necessary for myointima formation, and its blockade with dichloroacetate prevents Δψm hyperpolarization, facilitates apoptosis and reduces myointima formation in injured arteries, without preventing vessel re-endothelialization, possibly representing a novel strategy to prevent proliferative vascular diseases.
doi: 10.1038/nature13232