米国などの国々は、水圧破砕法による天然ガス生産に巨額な投資をしているが、その生産量を過大に予測している恐れがある。
The uncertain dash for gas p.7
The United States and other countries have made huge investments in fracking, but forecasts of production may be vastly overestimated.
doi: 10.1038/516007a
The United States and other countries have made huge investments in fracking, but forecasts of production may be vastly overestimated.
doi: 10.1038/516007a
Two reports highlight the plight of postdocs on both sides of the pond aiming for academia.
doi: 10.1038/516007b
Research into climate engineering must proceed — even if it turns out to be unnecessary.
doi: 10.1038/516008a
With trials under way, scientists are working out how to give vaccines in affected regions.
doi: 10.1038/516015a
The Karolinska Institute is carrying out two inquiries into an experimental transplant procedure.
doi: 10.1038/516016a
Archaeopteryx’s status is changing, but the animal is still key to the dinosaur–bird transition.
doi: 10.1038/516018a
Geoengineers meet to work out what research is acceptable.
doi: 10.1038/516020a
Researchers gather data on innovative uses of cancer treatments.
doi: 10.1038/516021a
量子の奇妙な性質をコンピューターに利用しようという30年間にわたる苦闘が、いよいよ実を結びそうだ。
doi: 10.1038/516024a
米国は、豊富な天然ガスを経済再生に活用しようと見込んでいるが、それは希望的観測に過ぎない可能性がある。
doi: 10.1038/516028a
オートファジーと呼ばれている細胞内品質管理機構が、オートファジーに関連する遺伝子の発現を支配している核内受容体タンパク質によって調節されていることが2つの研究から明らかになった。
doi: 10.1038/nature13939
雨水に含まれる水素と酸素の重い同位体の濃度は、嵐が陸上を移動するにつれて低下する。こうした影響を生じさせる水蒸気の輸送がモデルで調べられ、過去と現在の気候に関する手掛かりが得られた。
doi: 10.1038/516041a
腸管のウイルスは腸内細菌の代理として、哺乳類宿主の健康を促進することがあるという知見は、腸内のウイルスが、特定の環境条件下ではヒトの役に立つ可能性を示している。
doi: 10.1038/nature13938
銀河内の星の数は予想されたよりも少ない。星形成速度が天の川銀河の100倍程度のコンパクトな銀河で、分子ガスの大量のアウトフローが見つかったことは、このことを説明する助けとなりそうだ。
doi: 10.1038/516044a
慢性的なストレスは一部の人たちでうつ病の原因となるが、全く影響を受けない人もいる。小型のRNA断片の産生を制御する分子経路の関与がこうした違いを説明する役に立ちそうだ。
doi: 10.1038/nature13942
非反復性の超高速現象を、ストロボやフラッシュなしで記録できる撮像技術が開発された。この技術は生物医学やセキュリティー技術へ応用できそうだ。
doi: 10.1038/516046a
銀行員は平均して誠実にふるまうが、自己の職業的アイデンティティーを思い出すような質問をされてから決定を下す際には不誠実さが増してくることが､実験で明らかになった。
doi: 10.1038/nature14068
食物に含まれ、哺乳類の組織で合成される新種の脂肪酸は、血液からのグルコースの取り込みを増し、炎症を軽減させる。つまり、このような脂肪は糖尿病の治療に使えるかもしれない。
doi: 10.1038/nature14070
Here β-catenin, which has been implicated in neurological and psychiatric diseases, including depression, is shown to mediate resilience to chronic stress in mice through induction of Dicer and microRNAs in nucleus accumbens, a key brain reward region.
doi: 10.1038/nature13976
This study uses single-cell expression profiling of pluripotent stem cells after various perturbations, and uncovers a high degree of variability that can be inherited through cell divisions—modulating microRNA or external signalling pathways induces a ground state with reduced gene expression heterogeneity and a distinct chromatin profile.
doi: 10.1038/nature13920
Here the structure of the membrane protein complex sodium-translocating NADH:quinone oxidoreductase (Na+-NQR) is described; as Na+-NQR is a component of the respiratory chain of various bacteria, including pathogenic ones, this structure may serve as the basis for the development of new antibiotics.
doi: 10.1038/nature14003
A high-velocity outflow of molecular gas from a starburst galaxy has been observed to extend about ten kiloparsecs; its velocity is consistent with the momentum flux from stellar radiation pressure, showing that bursts of star formation can eject large amounts of cold gas from the central regions of galaxies, curtailing star formation.
doi: 10.1038/nature14012
Femtosecond X-ray diffraction and ab initio density functional theory calculations are used to determine the crystal structure of YBa2Cu3O6.5 undergoing optically driven, nonlinear lattice excitation above the transition temperature of 52 kelvin, under which conditions the electronic structure of the material changes in such a way as to favour superconductivity.
doi: 10.1038/nature13875
A technique based on compressed imaging with a streak camera is reported that can videotape transient events in two dimensions with temporal resolution down to tens of picoseconds, and its usefulness is demonstrated using single laser shots applied to a variety of physical phenomena.
doi: 10.1038/nature14005
Two-dimensional titanium carbide has been produced by etching out aluminium in a lithium fluoride and hydrochloric acid mixture; it is hydrophilic and mouldable like clay and has excellent volumetric capacitance and cyclability, properties that are desirable for portable electronics.
doi: 10.1038/nature13970
El Niño events can transfer subsurface heat to the eastern North Pacific with a delay of several months, causing the intensification of tropical cyclones; the mechanism may lead to insights into past variations in tropical cyclone intensity and enhance seasonal predictions.
doi: 10.1038/nature13958
According to popular opinion, unethical business practices are common in the financial industry; here, the employees of a large, international bank are shown to behave, on average, honestly in a laboratory game to reveal dishonest behaviour, but when their professional identity as bank employees was rendered salient, the prevalence of dishonest behaviour increased.
doi: 10.1038/nature13977
In roots and dark-grown hypocotyls of Arabidopsis thaliana, ABP1-mediated auxin signalling induces swift re-orientation of the microtubule cytoskeleton from transverse to longitudinal, thus inhibiting cell expansion.
doi: 10.1038/nature13889
Commensal bacteria are known to have an important role in keeping the host healthy, but the role of eukaryotic viruses has been unknown; now, persistent infection in mice with various strains of enteric norovirus is shown to provide similar host protection.
doi: 10.1038/nature13960
A new role for the endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) is identified in fly larvae, where it is shown to be essential for the secretion and long-range signalling of the embryonic development morphogen Hedgehog.
doi: 10.1038/nature13847
Using advanced microscopy techniques, the process of centriole amplification in multiciliated cells is explored, and the daughter centriole identified as the primary nucleation site of more than 90% of the new centrioles, contesting existing de novo theories of centriolar amplification and highlighting a new centrosome asymmetry.
doi: 10.1038/nature13770
The FXR–CREB axis is identified as a key physiological switch that regulates autophagy during feeding/fasting cycles; in the fed state, the nuclear receptor FXR is shown to suppress autophagy in the liver by inhibiting autophagy-associated lipid breakdown triggered under fasting conditions by the transcriptional activator CREB.
doi: 10.1038/nature13949
The nuclear receptors FXR and PPARα are shown to regulate autophagy by competing for binding to shared sites in the promoters of autophagic genes; in the fed state FXR suppresses hepatic autophagy, whereas in the fasted state PPARα is activated and reverses the normal suppression of autophagy.
doi: 10.1038/nature13961
The RING finger protein TRIM37 is encoded by a gene that is amplified in certain breast cancers, but its function is unknown; here, it is shown to mono-ubiquitinate histone H2A and repress gene expression, and to function as a breast cancer oncoprotein.
doi: 10.1038/nature13955
Mice lacking the mechanically activated ion channel Piezo2 in both sensory neurons and Merkel cells are almost totally incapable of light-touch sensation while other somatosensory functions, such as mechanical nociception, remain intact, implying that other mechanically activated ion channels must now be identified to account for painful touch sensation.
doi: 10.1038/nature13980
X-ray structures of the human TRAAK mechanosensitive potassium channel reveal how build-up of tension in the lipid membrane can convert the channel from a non-conducting wedge shape associated with an inserted lipid acyl chain that blocks the pore to an expanded cross-sectional shape that prevents lipid entry and thus permits ion conduction.
doi: 10.1038/nature14013
