An accident with anthrax demonstrates that pathogen research always carries a risk of release — and highlights the need for rigorous scrutiny of gain-of-function flu studies.
doi: 10.1038/510443a
Environmentalists are divided over whether it is possible to have a ‘good’ Anthropocene.
doi: 10.1038/510444b
Measures of research impact are improving, but universities should be wary of their limits.
doi: 10.1038/510444a
Satellite will map sources and sinks of greenhouse gas in unprecedented detail.
doi: 10.1038/510451a
Proposed innovation strategy is low on detail and commitments from governments.
doi: 10.1038/510452a
Despite a chequered history, olaparib is finally before the US Food and Drug Administration.
doi: 10.1038/510454a
Assessments by international biodiversity group aim to halt damage to world’s ecosystems.
doi: 10.1038/510455a
State creates programme to boost neuroscience innovation.
doi: 10.1038/510456a
恋愛と研究をどのように両立させているかについて、職場で愛を育む4組の科学者に話を聞いた。
doi: 10.1038/510458a
栄養素を補給するサプリメントが健康改善に本当に役立つかどうかは、もう何十年も研究されているものの、まだ結論は出ていない。
doi: 10.1038/510462a
解体すべき核弾頭について、査察官に設計情報を一切漏らすことなく、本物かどうかを確認する方法が提案された。2人の専門家がこの方法を詳細に説明し、軍縮政策への関わりについて論じている。
doi: 10.1038/510476a
自然界に存在する真菌が作る化合物が、ある種の抗生物質に対する細菌の感受性を回復させることが分かった。このような抗生物質は現在、重篤な感染症に対する最後の防御対策と見なされているものである。
doi: 10.1038/510477a
重力の強さの基準となる重力定数として公表されている測定結果は一致していない。低温原子を用いる方法によって、この基礎定数を決定しようという試みに新たなデータポイントが付け加わった。
doi: 10.1038/nature13507
タンパク質合成の際に転移RNAにアミノ酸を付加する酵素は、基質の両方を特異的に認識しなくてはならない。このような系の1つで、RNAに対する特異性を説明するような機構が、結晶構造から明らかになった。
doi: 10.1038/nature13502
表面の電荷分布のナノスケール変動を測定する方法が考案された。この方法はこれまで特定の無機材料を調べるのに使われてきたが、画像化にも広く応用できる可能性がある。
doi: 10.1038/510481a
多くの酵素は、一連の触媒モジュールが含む「生産ライン｣を形成している。触媒作用の間にモジュールの構造が変化していく様子が画像化されたことで、このような酵素が機能する仕組みが明確になってきた。
doi: 10.1038/nature13505
N-heterocyclic carbenes are powerful tools in organic chemistry, with many commercially important applications; this overview describes their properties and potential uses.
doi: 10.1038/nature13384
Future rounds of nuclear arms control would ideally involve direct inspection of nuclear warheads using procedures that give inspectors high confidence about the authenticity of submitted nuclear items yet give no information about their design; this is now shown to be achievable using zero-knowledge protocols in neutron imaging of nuclear warheads.
doi: 10.1038/nature13457
The emergence of Gram-negative pathogens resistant to carbapenem antibiotics is a global health concern and carbapenem resistance often arises through acquisition of β-lactamase enzymes; this study identifies the natural fungal product aspergillomarasmine A as a metallo-β-lactamase inhibitor and a potential treatment to tackle carbapenem resistance.
doi: 10.1038/nature13445
X-ray crystal structures of a tRNA synthetase bound to wild-type and mutant alanine tRNAs reveal the structural basis for selectivity.
doi: 10.1038/nature13440
Polyketide synthases are multidomain enzymes that produce polyketides, which form the basis of many therapeutic agents; here, electron cryo-microscopy is used to establish the structure of a bacterial full-length module, and to elucidate the structural basis of both intramodule and intermodule substrate transfer.
doi: 10.1038/nature13423
Determination of the gravitational constant G using laser-cooled atoms and quantum interferometry, a technique that gives new insight into the systematic errors that have proved elusive in previous experiments, yields a value that has a relative uncertainty of 150 parts per million and which differs from the current recommended value by 1.5 combined standard deviations.
doi: 10.1038/nature13433
Single-walled carbon nanotubes of a single chirality can be produced with an abundance of more than 92 per cent when using tungsten-based bimetallic alloy nanocrystals as catalysts.
doi: 10.1038/nature13434
The isotopic composition of glacial sediment discharged into the ocean from south Greenland is used to identify a major reduction in the amount of that sediment derived from erosion of Greenland’s Precambrian bedrock, probably indicating the cessation of subglacial erosion and sediment transport during Marine Isotope Stage 11 as a result of the almost complete deglaciation of south Greenland.
doi: 10.1038/nature13456
Recordings from monkeys during motor learning suggest that durations of complex-spike (CS) responses to climbing-fibre inputs are meaningful signals correlated across the Purkinje-cell population during motor learning; longer climbing-fibre bursts lead to longer-duration CS responses, larger synaptic depression and stronger learning, thus forming a graded instruction.
doi: 10.1038/nature13282
Here human embryonic stem cell lines are derived by somatic cell nuclear transfer from cells of a newborn and from skin cells of an adult, a female with type 1 diabetes; the stem cells produced are pluripotent and can be differentiated into insulin-producing beta cells.
doi: 10.1038/nature13287
Medulloblastoma is a malignant childhood brain tumour presenting major clinical challenges; here, a comprehensive genome-wide DNA methylation data set from human and mouse tumours, coupled with analysis of histone modifications, RNA transcripts and genome sequencing, uncovers a wealth of alterations that provide insights into the epigenetic regulation of transcription and genome organization in medulloblastoma pathogenesis.
doi: 10.1038/nature13268
Metformin treatment of rats at physiologically relevant doses inhibits the redox shuttle enzyme mitochondrial glycerophosphate dehydrogenase.
doi: 10.1038/nature13270
Formation of an active cyclin D1–Cdk4 complex suppresses glucose metabolism independently of cell division.
doi: 10.1038/nature13267
Several proteins localized at membrane contact sites contain an SMP domain, which has been proposed to act as a lipid-binding module; here, the crystal structure of a fragment of the extended synaptotagmin 2 protein, including its SMP, is presented, and indicates that this protein may have a direct role in lipid transport.
doi: 10.1038/nature13269
Direct evidence for the role of BRCA1 in controlling homologous recombination at stalled replication forks has been obtained in mammalian cells using the bacterial Tus/Ter system.
doi: 10.1038/nature13295
Polyketide synthases (PKSs) are multidomain enzymes that produce polyketides, which form the basis of many therapeutic agents; here, electron cryo-microscopy is used to probe the structure of an intact module of a multi-enzyme PKS in different functional states.
doi: 10.1038/nature13409
