アフリカの優れた科学者を支援し、育てながら、世界の科学の舞台へ引き上げていこうとする新しい試みを、応援していく必要がある。
Africa’s elite p.275
A new forum promises to bring deserved prestige to outstanding African researchers, and demonstrates the continent’s untapped potential.
doi: 10.1038/531275a
A new forum promises to bring deserved prestige to outstanding African researchers, and demonstrates the continent’s untapped potential.
doi: 10.1038/531275a
Growing urbanization is heralding a new era of science in the city.
doi: 10.1038/531275b
The promise of DNA origami shows signs of coming to fruition a decade after its debut.
doi: 10.1038/531276a
Electrical stimulation seems to boost endurance in preliminary studies.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.19534
AlphaGo’s techniques could have broad uses, but moving beyond games is a challenge.
doi: 10.1038/531284a
Sequence of 430,000-year-old DNA pushes back divergence of humans and Neanderthals.
doi: 10.1038/531286a
Mathematician receives coveted award for solving three-century-old problem in number theory.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.19552
Joint ExoMars mission launches lander and orbiter — a rover is planned for 2018.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.19547
Plan to postpone launch of InSight probe will cost agency an extra US$150 million.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.19549
太陽系の外縁部に存在する可能性のある未確認の第9惑星をめぐって、天文学者たちが研究を続けている。
doi: 10.1038/531290a
アルツハイマー病がヒトからヒトへと感染するという異論の多い説の真偽をはっきりさせようと、研究者たちが競い合っている。
doi: 10.1038/531294a
広く使われている半導体のナノワイヤーが成長する仕組みが、形成過程の電子顕微鏡観察によって明らかになった。今回の知見によって、このようなナノワイヤーの結晶相の操作が可能になりそうで、これは材料科学における重要な進歩の1つとなるだろう。
doi: 10.1038/531308a
幹細胞工学の手法を使って、ウサギでの角膜移植と小児での透明な水晶体の再生が成功したことが報告された。これらの成果は、幹細胞工学の治療への応用の可能性を実証するものだ。
doi: 10.1038/nature17305
中国での化石燃料使用による二酸化炭素排出量はこの数十年間で急激に増大してきたが、全球的な気候変動への中国の関与の相対的な量は意外なほど一定であることが分かってきた。
doi: 10.1038/531310a
構造化された光の投影によって形態の制御が可能なソフトなマイクロロボットが作られた。このロボットは、水中を遊泳する原生動物で見られるものに似た、進行波状の体の変形によって自己推進する。
doi: 10.1038/531312a
B型肝炎ウイルスのHBxタンパク質は、Smc5/6複合体を標的として分解する宿主細胞酵素を乗っ取って勝手に使うことが明らかになった。今回のこの知見によって、Smc5/6が細胞の抗ウイルス因子であることが突き止められた。
doi: 10.1038/531313a
天然のサンゴ礁の周辺の海水の酸性度を下げてやると、サンゴ礁の石灰化が大幅に促進されることがin situ実験によって明らかになった。このことは、海洋酸性化がすでにサンゴ礁の成長を遅くしている可能性を示唆している。
doi: 10.1038/nature17302
Crystal phase switching between zinc-blende and wurtzite phases during the growth of gallium arsenide nanowires is observed experimentally, and explained via changes in the geometry of the catalytic droplet sitting on top of the growing nanowire.
doi: 10.1038/nature17148
A new procedure for cataract removal that preserves lens epithelial progenitor cells in mammals, which require Pax6 and Bmi1 for their self-renewal, achieves lens regeneration in rabbits, macaques and in infants with cataracts.
doi: 10.1038/nature17181
Here the authors use in crystallo enzymology to obtain structural snapshots of a complete cellulose biosynthesis cycle and reveal the mechanism by which the bacterial cellulose synthase BcsA–BcsB translocates the nascent cellulose polymer.
doi: 10.1038/nature16966
X-ray crystal structures of the M1 and M4 muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, revealing differences in the orthosteric and allosteric binding sites that help to explain the subtype selectivity of drugs targeting this family of receptors.
doi: 10.1038/nature17188
Observations of γ-ray emission from the microquasar V404 Cygni during a recent period of strong flaring activity show spectral features at around 511 kiloelectronvolts, which are clear signatures of variable positron annihilation, implying a high rate of positron production.
doi: 10.1038/nature16978
By calculating the rotational figure of Mars and its surface topography before the Tharsis volcanic region caused true polar wander, it is shown that Tharsis formed during the Noachian and Hesperian periods at about the same time as the valley networks; early Mars climate simulations suggest icy precipitation in a latitudinal band in the southern hemisphere.
doi: 10.1038/nature17171
Magnetic molecules are candidates for solid-state spin qubits from which a quantum computer might be constructed, but the magnetic interactions between such molecules typically lead to unwanted decoherence; now magnetic molecules have been designed in such a way that their spin dynamics are energetically protected against the decoherence-inducing interactions.
doi: 10.1038/nature16984
Chiral nematic liquid crystals are self-organized helical superstructures in which the helices can stand or lie, and lie in either a uniform or a random way; here, the helices are reversibly driven from a standing arrangement to a uniform lying arrangement and then rotated in-plane—solely by light.
doi: 10.1038/nature17141
Using a global coupled biogeochemistry–climate model and a chemistry and transport model reveals that China’s present-day global radiative forcing is about ten per cent of the current global total, made up of both warming and cooling contributions; if in the future China reduces the cooling forcings, global warming could accelerate.
doi: 10.1038/nature17165
A manipulative experiment in which a reef is alkalinized in situ shows that calcification rates are likely to be lower already than they were in pre-industrial times because of acidification.
doi: 10.1038/nature17155
Vocalizations were recorded for over eight distinct whale species as they converged on a shoal of herring to feed; the predators divided the shoal into overlapping but species-specific foraging sectors and the activities of the whales changed between day and night.
doi: 10.1038/nature16960
Igf1 is identified in mice as an experience-induced gene that functions cell-autonomously to increase inhibitory input onto a disinhibitory subtype of GABAergic neurons in the cortex, affecting the downstream excitation–inhibition balance within circuits that regulate visual acuity, and providing a novel example of experience modulating neural plasticity.
doi: 10.1038/nature17187
A protocol has been developed to use human induced pluripotent stem cells to obtain a self-formed ectodermal autonomous multizone, which includes distinct cell lineages of the eye, including the ocular surface ectoderm, lens, neuro-retina, and retinal pigment epithelium that can be expanded to form a functional corneal epithelium when transplanted to an animal model of corneal visual impairment.
doi: 10.1038/nature17000
The discovery is reported of a small molecule drug, GS-5734, which has antiviral activity against Ebola virus and other filoviruses, and is capable of providing post-exposure therapeutic protection against lethal disease in 100% of drug-treated nonhuman primates infected with Ebola virus; the drug targets viral RNA polymerase and can distribute to sanctuary sites (such as testes, eyes and brain), suggesting that it may be able to clear persistent virus infection.
doi: 10.1038/nature17180
Hepatitis B virus X protein stimulates transcription from the viral DNA episome by hijacking the host ubiquitin machinery to target the Smc5/6 complex for degradation.
doi: 10.1038/nature17170
Maternal mRNAs are tethered within the Drosophila germ plasm via base-pairing interactions between mRNAs and piRNPs containing the Aub Piwi protein; the preference for certain mRNAs to be tethered appears to be related to their longer length, which provides more potential piRNP-binding sites, and the results suggest a new role for piRNAs in germ-cell specification independent of their role in transposon silencing.
doi: 10.1038/nature17150
The crystal structure of a substrate-engaged SecY channel and the SecA ATPase, which provides molecular insight into the process of protein translocation across membranes.
doi: 10.1038/nature17163
