The criticism of Europe’s Human Brain Project by leading scientists reflects a messy management structure that is in urgent need of clear direction.
doi: 10.1038/511125a
An outbreak of Ebola highlights the difficulties of implementing public-health measures.
doi: 10.1038/511126a
A possible link between neonicotinoid pesticide use and a decline in bird numbers is worrying.
doi: 10.1038/511126b
Changes in scope and focus of European project anger factions of neuroscience community.
doi: 10.1038/511133a
But ecologists worry that fast turnaround will do nothing to improve quality of assessments.
doi: 10.1038/511134a
Seismic project aims to reveal plumbing of Mount St Helens.
doi: 10.1038/511136a
Firms fight for the right to patent natural products and processes.
doi: 10.1038/511138a
STAP細胞論文は革命的な大発見として脚光を浴びたが、その発表前に問題点を見つけることはできなかったのだろうか。
doi: 10.1038/511140a
マラリアを媒介する蚊が長い乾期の間どこに潜んでいるのか探るため、イヌや風船など、さまざまな風変わりな方法を使って研究が進められている。
doi: 10.1038/511144a
英国でのウシ結核の伝播と蔓延についてのモデルの1つは、流行を食い止めるのには、家畜の大規模な処分、あるいは複合的な管理戦略の大々的な見直しが必要だとしている。
doi: 10.1038/nature13514
アモルファス状態と結晶状態の間で迅速に切り替わる材料は、熱管理やデータの記憶に広く使われている。こうした材料が、超高解像度ディスプレイ装置の構築材料として有望であることが明らかになってきた。
doi: 10.1038/511159a
成体細胞を再プログラム化して、体を構成する全ての細胞を生み出すことができる多能性幹細胞にするには2つの方法がある。この2つの方法の直接比較が初めて行われ、どちらの方法にも、分子レベルのごく小さな異常が引き起こされる可能性があることが示された。
doi: 10.1038/nature13515
NMDA受容体は、脳の働きとその異常の両方に重要である。2種類のほとんど完全な受容体の構造から、これらの大型の多ドメイン分子装置の込み入った複雑性が明らかになった。
doi: 10.1038/511162a
都市は、その周りの田園地帯よりも暑いことが多いのはどうしてなのだろうか。その答えは意外にも、熱対流の違いであることが判明した。
doi: 10.1038/511163a
海水に溶存している鉄が不足してくると、生物生産力と二酸化炭素の取り込みが制限される。北大西洋での溶存鉄の供給源が、この微量栄養素の同位体の変動によって突き止められた。
doi: 10.1038/nature13513
個人の利得を放棄にして未来の世代に資源を渡そうという人々の意欲についての研究から、こうした意欲が生じるのは、ただ乗りしようとする人々による引き出しが多数決原理によって制限されたときに限られることが分かった。
doi: 10.1038/nature13510
Cancer cells have been at the centre of cell metabolism research, but the metabolism of stromal and immune cells has received less attention. Nonetheless, these cells influence the progression of malignant, inflammatory and metabolic disorders. Here we discuss the metabolic adaptations of stromal and immune cells in health and disease, and highlight how metabolism determines their differentiation and function.
doi: 10.1038/nature13312
Genome-wide analysis of matched human IVF embryonic stem cells (IVF ES cells), induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) and nuclear transfer ES cells (NT ES cells) derived by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) reveals that human somatic cells can be faithfully reprogrammed to pluripotency by SCNT; NT ES cells and iPS cells derived from the same somatic cells contain comparable numbers of de novo copy number variations, but whereas DNA methylation and transcriptome profiles of NT ES cells and IVF ES cells are similar, iPS cells have residual patterns typical of parental somatic cells.
doi: 10.1038/nature13551
Initial exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induces endotoxin tolerance, which reduces immunological reactions to LPS; here it is shown that primary LPS challenge is controlled by AhR, TDO2 and IL-10, whereas sustained effects require AhR, IDO1 and TGF-β, allowing for disease tolerance with reduced immunopathology in infections.
doi: 10.1038/nature13323
X-ray crystal structures are presented of the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, a calcium-permeable ion channel that opens upon binding of glutamate and glycine; glutamate is a key excitatory neurotransmitter and enhanced structural insight of this receptor may aid development of therapeutic small molecules.
doi: 10.1038/nature13548
Trapped ions are used to determine the speed of propagation of correlations and the causal region to which they are confined in quantum many-body systems with medium- and long-range spin interactions.
doi: 10.1038/nature13450
The fine control afforded by trapped atomic ions is used to explore experimentally how the range of interactions between the ions influences the spreading of information in quantum many-body systems.
doi: 10.1038/nature13461
Here stable colour changes induced by solid-state electrical switching of ultrathin films of a germanium–antimony–telluride alloy are demonstrated, adding to its established uses in data storage; possible applications include flexible and transparent displays.
doi: 10.1038/nature13487
A high-resolution oceanic section of dissolved iron stable isotope ratios reveals that the primary source of dissolved iron to the North Atlantic is atmospheric dust, while seafloor sediments and submarine volcanic vents also contribute significantly.
doi: 10.1038/nature13482
Climate modelling is used to show that for cities across North America, geographic variations in daytime urban heat islands—that is, the temperature differences between urban and adjacent rural areas—are largely explained by variations in the efficiency with which those areas convect heat to the lower atmosphere.
doi: 10.1038/nature13462
An intergenerational cooperation game has been developed to study decision-making regarding resource use: when decisions about resource extraction were made individually the resource was rapidly depleted by a minority of defectors; the resource was sustainably maintained across generations, however, when decisions were made democratically by voting.
doi: 10.1038/nature13530
The fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis has been implicated in the decline of a large number of amphibian species; here it is shown that frogs can learn to avoid the pathogen, acquire resistance to it and be immunized against it using dead pathogen, findings that potentially offer a way in which resistant populations could be reintroduced into areas that have seen catastrophic declines.
doi: 10.1038/nature13491
Bovine tuberculosis is a major economic burden on the cattle industry, and attempts to control it have been politically controversial; here farm movement and bovine tuberculosis incidence data are used to construct a mechanistic model and tease apart the factors contributing to epidemic bovine tuberculosis spread.
doi: 10.1038/nature13529
The formation of a new species can occur by an asexual mechanism by transfer of entire nuclear genomes between plant cells as shown by the creation of a new allopolyploid plant from parental herbaceous and woody plant species, this mechanism is a potential new tool for crop improvement.
doi: 10.1038/nature13291
The molecular relationship between synaptic dysfunction and psychiatric disorders was investigated using a mouse model system; presynaptically localized Cntnap4 is required for the output of two disease-relevant neuronal subpopulations (cortical parvalbumin-positive GABAergic cells and midbrain dopaminergic neurons) and Cntnap4 mutants show behavioural abnormalities which can be pharmacologically reversed.
doi: 10.1038/nature13248
Intracranial germ cell tumours are rare tumours affecting mainly male adolescents, mainly in Asia; here the authors identify frequent mutations in the KIT/RAS and AKT/mTOR signalling pathways as well as rare germline variants in JMJD1C, suggesting potential therapeutic strategies focusing on the inhibition of KIT/RAS activation and the AKT1/mTOR pathway.
doi: 10.1038/nature13296
Here, in a mouse model of skin squamous cell carcinoma, a key role is demonstrated for the transcription factor SOX2 in the initiation and progression of skin tumours.
doi: 10.1038/nature13305
Srs2 helicase facilitates the removal of ribonucleoside monophosphates that are incorrectly incorporated into DNA during replication.
doi: 10.1038/nature13292
