サマータイムのような時刻の人為的な変更は、恩恵よりも害が大きい恐れがある。
Time out p.549
Artificial fixes to make the most of summer time may do more harm than good.
doi: 10.1038/531549b
Artificial fixes to make the most of summer time may do more harm than good.
doi: 10.1038/531549b
Attempts by digital companies to curb unpleasant behaviour online could make the Internet a more welcoming and useful space.
doi: 10.1038/531549a
Psychology drives some overindulgence — and it could help us to resist.
doi: 10.1038/531550a
Craig Venter’s creation comes as CRISPR gene-editing methods provide alternative ways to tinker with life’s building blocks.
doi: 10.1038/531557a
Most researchers in Britain and the wider EU think that the union benefits science.
doi: 10.1038/531559a
Scientists will track psychological and medical outcomes of controversial treatments to help transgender adolescents transition.
doi: 10.1038/531560a
Decision by US National Science Foundation could hamper research on conservation biology, climate change and invasive species.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.19599
Sea levels could rise by more than 15 metres by 2500 if greenhouse-gas emissions continue to grow.
doi: 10.1038/531562a
昼夜を分かたず働き続ける欧州シンクロトロン放射光研究所(ESRF)の1日を追う。
doi: 10.1038/531564a
プレーヤーの有害な言動を防ごうと、世界で最も人気の高いオンラインゲームで、科学者の助けを借りた取り組みが行われている。
doi: 10.1038/531568a
一次繊毛と呼ばれる、細胞から突き出た細胞小器官は、加えられた力に応答するカルシウムチャネルタンパク質を介して周囲環境を感知すると考えられてきた。この仮説に疑問を投げ掛けた研究が発生生物学と腎臓疾患研究に及ぼす影響を、2人の研究者が論じている。
doi: 10.1038/nature17313
マウスでキラーT細胞の細胞膜中のコレステロール濃度を上昇させてやると、この細胞の腫瘍細胞に対する免疫応答活性が増強されることが分かった。こうした戦略は抗がん免疫療法で有用となりそうだ。
doi: 10.1038/nature17310
重力計は石油探査から地下トンネルの探知まで応用範囲が広いが、そのサイズと可搬性がないことが野外での使用を制限してきた。今回、郵便切手ほどの大きさの重力計が開発され、新しい使い道が生まれることが期待されている。
doi: 10.1038/531585a
ミトコンドリアと呼ばれる細胞小器官はタバコの煙に曝露されると有毒となるレベルの鉄を蓄積するようになるが、マウスでIRP2タンパク質を欠失させるとこのような蓄積が防止されることが分かった。この知見は、慢性肺疾患について環境内リスク因子と遺伝的リスク因子を結び付けるものである。
doi: 10.1038/nature17309
光合成などの過程は、発色団分子の電気双極子間の相互作用に依存している。このような双極子間の相互作用は原子レベルで可視化されたことがまだなかったが、今回初めて画像化に成功した。
doi: 10.1038/531587a
リスクの選好性や損失に対する利得の感度には個体ごとにばらつきがある。今回ラットで、こうしたばらつきが特定の神経集団によって制御されていて、この神経集団を刺激するとリスクを求める行動が抑えられることが明らかになった。
doi: 10.1038/nature17314
Climate and ice-sheet modelling that includes ice fracture dynamics reveals that Antarctica could contribute more than a metre of sea-level rise by 2100 and more than 15 metres by 2500, if greenhouse gas emissions continue unabated.
doi: 10.1038/nature17145
Much of the intracellular protein degradation in eukaryotes is controlled by cullin–RING ubiquitin ligases (CRLs), a vast class of enzymes which are regulated by the COP9 signalosome (CSN); structural characterization of CSN–N8CRL4A complexes by cryo-electron microscopy reveals an induced-fit mechanism of CSN activation triggered only by catalytically activated CRLs without bound substrate, explaining how CSN acts as a global regulator of CRLs.
doi: 10.1038/nature17416
A sub-nanometre resolution cryo-EM structure of human TFIID bound to TFIIA and core promoter DNA and a model of the TFIID-based pre-initiation complex.
doi: 10.1038/nature17394
It has long been debated whether elements heavier than zinc are formed continually, for example in core-collapse supernovae, or in rare events, such as neutron star mergers; here, studies of element abundances in a local ultrafaint dwarf galaxy provide evidence that these elements are formed during rare yet prolific stellar events.
doi: 10.1038/nature17425
A light-weight, low-cost microelectromechanical system gravimeter is presented with sensitivity and stability high enough to measure the elastic deformation of the Earth’s crust as a result of tidal forces, enabling many applications.
doi: 10.1038/nature17397
A combined experimental and theoretical investigation of phononic properties in nanocrystal-based semiconductors reveals that unusually strong coupling between phonons and electrons originates from the mechanical softness of the surfaces of the nanocrystalline domains and sheds new light on charge carrier recombination in nanocrystal-based devices.
doi: 10.1038/nature16977
Luminescence induced by highly localized excitations that are produced by electrons tunnelling from the tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope is used to map the spatial distribution of the excitonic coupling in well-defined arrangements of a few zinc-phthalocyanine molecules and the dependence of this spatial distribution on the relative orientation and phase of the transition dipoles of the individual molecules.
doi: 10.1038/nature17428
Archaean komatiites are shown to originate in hot mantle plumes that entrained hydrous material from deep in the mantle.
doi: 10.1038/nature17152
Acclimation of leaf respiration to a 3–5-year period of warming by 3.4 °C for 10 North American tree species in forest conditions eliminated 80% of the increase in leaf respiration expected of non-acclimated trees; this suggests that the increase in respiration rates of terrestrial plants from climate warming, and the associated increase in atmospheric CO2 levels, may be less than anticipated.
doi: 10.1038/nature17142
Embryos in a particular phylum of the animal kingdom tend to most resemble one another at a stage in the middle of embryogenesis known as the phylotypic period; a transcriptional analysis of embryogenesis from single embryos of ten different phyla reveals that the transcripts expressed at the phylotypic stage (or mid-developmental transition) differ greatly between phyla, and a ‘phylum’ may be defined as a set of species sharing the same signals and transcription factor networks during the mid-developmental transition.
doi: 10.1038/nature16994
Increased activity of dopamine receptor type-2 (D2R)-expressing cells in the nucleus accumbens of rats during a ‘decision’ period reflects a ‘loss’ outcome of the previous decision and predicts a subsequent safe choice; by artificially increasing the activity of D2R neurons during the decision period, risk-seeking rats could be converted to risk-avoiding rats.
doi: 10.1038/nature17400
Activation of glucose-sensing neurons in the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus using radio waves or magnetic fields remotely and non-invasively in vivo increases plasma glucose and glucagon, and suppresses plasma insulin; conversely, remote inhibition of glucose-sensing neurons decreased blood glucose and increased plasma insulin.
doi: 10.1038/nature17183
Modulating cholesterol metabolism can improve CD8+ T-cell-mediated immunity against tumours; genetic or pharmacological inhibition of the cholesterol esterification enzyme ACAT1 led to higher plasma membrane cholesterol levels, better T-cell receptor clustering and signalling, improved immunological synapse maturation, and enhanced antitumour activity in mice.
doi: 10.1038/nature17412
Mechanosensation, if it originates in primary cilia, is not via calcium signalling.
doi: 10.1038/nature17426
A series of FRET-based β-arrestin2 biosensors are used to study the dynamics and conformational changes that occur when β-arrestin2 binds to and dissociates from the β2-adrenergic receptor in living cells; results show that after β-arrestin2 dissociates from the β2-adrenergic receptor, it stays at the cell membrane in an active conformation for a while, indicating that β-arrestin is able to signal in a G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR)-free state.
doi: 10.1038/nature17198
A series of intramolecular fluorescent FlAsH BRET reporters is used to monitor conformational changes in β-arrestin2 following activation of seven G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), showing that different GPCRs produce distinct β-arrestin2 conformational signatures that correlate with the stability of the receptor–arrestin complex and the role of β-arrestin2 in activating or dampening downstream signalling events, which explains how different GPCRs can use a common effector for different purposes.
doi: 10.1038/nature17154