Nature contents: 02 August 2012

Can't view this email? Click here to view in your browser.     Volume 488 Number 7409      nature •Visit Nature homepage •Subscribe to Nature •View Table of Contents The science that matters. Every week.                       Nature Communications #4 in multidisciplinary sciences with first Impact Factor Nature Communications has joined Nature at the top of the multidisciplinary sciences category with its first impact factor of 7.396. Launched in April 2010, Nature Communications is a multidisciplinary online-only journal publishing high quality research across the natural sciences. *2011 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2012)             Jump to the content that matters to you View Table of Contents ▶ ▼ News & Comment   ▼ Biological Sciences   ▼ Chemical Sciences   ▼ Physical Sciences   ▼ Earth & Environmental Sciences   ▼ Careers & Jobs       This week's highlights     Physical Sciences More Physical sciences ▼   A Newtonian approach to extraordinarily strong negative refraction   Negative refractive index metamaterials, which bend light the 'wrong way', can produce startling effects such as superlensing and cloaking. Donhee Ham and colleagues demonstrate a Newtonian route to negative refraction that exploits the property of kinetic inertia of electrons in a two-dimensional semiconductor. Electrons are accelerated across an array of metallic strips using microwave radiation, achieving a refractive index equivalent to minus 700.       Biological Sciences More Biological sciences ▼   A complete insect from the Late Devonian period   The early evolutionary history of the insects is obscure, with little fossil evidence between the mid-Devonian, around 385 million years ago, and the fully modern insects of the Carboniferous, 345 million years ago. Now the fossil of a complete insect has been found to bridge that gap. At 365 million years old this insect was terrestrial, but its features suggest that modern winged insects had already started to diversify at that early date.       Biological Sciences More Biological sciences ▼   A mutation in APP protects against Alzheimer's disease and age-related cognitive decline   Alzheimer's disease is characterized by the existence of amyloid plaques formed via proteolic cleavage of amyloid precursor protein (APP). By screening almost 2,000 genomes, Kari Stefansson and colleagues find a coding mutation in the APP gene that protects against Alzheimer's disease and cognitive decline. The mutation causes a 40% reduction in the formation of amyloidogenic peptides in vitro.                   British Journal of Cancer presents: Occupational Cancer in Britain Lesley Rushton and Gareth Evans with the British Occupational Cancer Burden Study Group Foreword by Kurt Straif This study aims to provide an objective estimate of the burden of cancer in Britain due to occupation. It presents extensive analyses for all carcinogens and occupational circumstances defined as relevant by IARC. The results should help the development of an evidence-based approach for occupational cancer control. Read the articles for FREE                 Podcast & Video     In this week's podcast: we bring you the best science books for your summer holiday, chosen by science writers.         News & Comment Read daily news coverage▶ ▲top             THIS WEEK           Editorial                   Unfortunate oversight ▶     Scientists must remember that however irrelevant their involvement in industry might seem to them, others will see it differently — only full disclosure will avert the taint of scandal.             Marching orders ▶     Scientists unhappy with policy are right to take to the streets.             World View                   The time is right to confront misconduct ▶     After a generation of denial, research leaders are finally treating scientific fraud with the seriousness it deserves, says Colin Macilwain.             Seven Days                   Seven days: 27 July–2 August 2012 ▶     The week in science: Nine physicists net $3 million each in new prize; India curbs tiger tourism; and Uganda suffers an outbreak of ebolavirus           NEWS IN FOCUS           Cancer stem cells tracked ▶     The master builders that underlie tumour growth may inform treatment strategies.             FDA's claims over stem cells upheld ▶     Drug watchdog wins right to regulate controversial therapies.             Officials act to secure cattle-plague virus ▶     Risk of accidental reintroduction shadows rinderpest eradication effort.             7 minutes of terror ▶     The Curiosity rover prepares to plunge down to Mars.             Lawsuit challenges anti-ageing claims ▶     Former executive sues manufacturer of pill meant to rejuvenate cells.             Geneticists eye the potential of arXiv ▶     Population biologists turn to pre-publication server to gain wider readership and rapid review of results.             Features                   Science funding: Duel to the death ▶     Physicists, chemists and mathematicians in the United Kingdom are furious about funding reforms that they say threaten blue-skies research.             Human cycles: History as science ▶     Advocates of 'cliodynamics' say that they can use scientific methods to illuminate the past. But historians are not so sure.           COMMENT           NASA: Let academia lead space science ▶     NASA must put more of its money into thrifty missions led by principal investigators, says Daniel N. Baker.             Books and Arts                   Neuroscience: A quest for consciousness ▶     Christof Koch marvels at a journey that explains mind–body theory through a fantastical lens.             Astronomy: Under African skies ▶     Ivan Semeniuk follows the gaze of artists from cultures that have interpreted the heavens for millennia.             Books in brief ▶             Correspondence                   Higgs boson: Budget cuts leave US science lagging William J. Richards | Water: Improve access to sanitation in China Hong Yang, Jim A. Wright & Stephen W. Gundry | Population: Better lives, not just contraceptives Devi Sridhar & Karen Grápin | Ecology: Bat deaths from wind turbine blades Angelo Capparella, Sabine Loew & David K. Meyerholz | Neuroscience: Giants all around — apart from the squid Jonathan C. Horton           Correction                   Corrections ▶                     Biological Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Cancer: Resolving the stem-cell debate ▶     Richard J. Gilbertson & Trevor A. Graham             A restricted cell population propagates glioblastoma growth after chemotherapy ▶     Jian Chen, Yanjiao Li, Tzong-Shiue Yu, Renée M. McKay, Dennis K. Burns et al.     By using a GFP reporter protein expressed selectively in neural stem cells in a mouse model of glioblastoma, a small subset of GFP-positive glioma cells is shown to be responsible for re-growth of tumours after chemotherapy.             Defining the mode of tumour growth by clonal analysis ▶     Gregory Driessens, Benjamin Beck, Amélie Caauwe, Benjamin D. Simons & Cédric Blanpain     Using genetic lineage tracing, tumour cells are traced in vivo in an unperturbed solid tumour; in a carcinogen-induced papilloma mouse model, cells in these benign lesions are found to mirror the clonal hierarchy organization of normal tissue.             Lrp4 is a retrograde signal for presynaptic differentiation at neuromuscular synapses ▶     Norihiro Yumoto, Natalie Kim & Steven J. Burden     Lrp4 acts bidirectionally and coordinates synapse formation by binding agrin, activating MuSK and stimulating postsynaptic differentiation, and functioning in turn as a muscle-derived retrograde signal that is necessary and sufficient for presynaptic differentiation.             HIV-infected T cells are migratory vehicles for viral dissemination ▶     Thomas T. Murooka, Maud Deruaz, Francesco Marangoni, Vladimir D. Vrbanac, Edward Seung et al.     Using intravital microscopy, this study visualizes HIV-1-infected T cells within the lymph nodes of humanized mice, demonstrating that infected cells have reduced motility and long membrane processes; treating infected mice with a lymphocyte egress inhibitor prevents HIV-1 from spreading to the circulation during the course of treatment.             Structural plasticity and dynamic selectivity of acid-sensing ion channel–spider toxin complexes ▶     Isabelle Baconguis & Eric Gouaux     Acid-sensing ion channels (ASICs) are voltage-independent ion channels that participate in a broad range of biological processes, including nociception and mechanosensation; here X-ray crystal structures of the complexes of chicken ASIC1a with psalmotoxin, a peptide toxin from tarantula, indicate that toxin binding triggers an expansion of the extracellular vestibule and stabilization of the open channel pore.             Structure of a RING E3 ligase and ubiquitin-loaded E2 primed for catalysis ▶     Anna Plechanovová, Ellis G. Jaffray, Michael H. Tatham, James H. Naismith & Ronald T. Hay             A selective jumonji H3K27 demethylase inhibitor modulates the proinflammatory macrophage response ▶     Laurens Kruidenier, Chun-wa Chung, Zhongjun Cheng, John Liddle, KaHing Che et al.     A structure-guided small-molecule and chemoproteomics approach uncovers a catalytic site inhibitor selective for the jumonji subfamily of H3K27me3 demethylases; the inhibitor decreases lipopolysaccharide-induced proinflammatory cytokine production by human primary macrophages.             Protocadherins mediate dendritic self-avoidance in the mammalian nervous system ▶     Julie L. Lefebvre, Dimitar Kostadinov, Weisheng V. Chen, Tom Maniatis & Joshua R. Sanes     Protocadherins are found to potentially provide the molecular diversity and complexity required to promote dendritic self-avoidance in mouse retina and cerebellum.             Neuronal circuitry mechanism regulating adult quiescent neural stem-cell fate decision ▶     Juan Song, Chun Zhong, Michael A. Bonaguidi, Gerald J. Sun, Derek Hsu et al.     Parvalbumin-expressing interneurons regulate the activation and fate choice of adult neural stem cells.             Articles and Letters                   Novel mutations target distinct subgroups of medulloblastoma  OPEN ▶     Giles Robinson, Matthew Parker, Tanya A. Kranenburg, Charles Lu, Xiang Chen et al.     Whole-genome sequencing of medulloblastoma samples reveals several recurrent mutations in genes not previously implicated in the disease, many of which affect components of the epigenetic machinery in different disease subgroups.             Subgroup-specific structural variation across 1,000 medulloblastoma genomes  OPEN ▶     Paul A. Northcott, David J. H. Shih, John Peacock, Livia Garzia, A. Sorana Morrissy et al.     Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumour in children; having assembled over 1,000 samples the authors report that somatic copy number aberrations are common in medulloblastoma, in particular a tandem duplication of SNCAIP, a gene associated with Parkinson’s disease, which is restricted to subgroup 4α, and translocations of PVT1, which are restricted to Group 3.             Persistent near-tropical warmth on the Antarctic continent during the early Eocene epoch ▶     Jörg Pross, Lineth Contreras, Peter K. Bijl, David R. Greenwood, Steven M. Bohaty et al.     A reconstruction of temperatures along the Wilkes Land coast of Antarctica during the early Eocene epoch shows that the climate supported the growth of near-tropical forests and that winters were very mild and essentially frost-free.             Universal species–area and endemics–area relationships at continental scales ▶     David Storch, Petr Keil & Walter Jetz     The change in number of terrestrial vertebrate species or endemics with sampled area is characterized by universal curves whose properties depend only on the mean geographic range size of species.             A complete insect from the Late Devonian period ▶     Romain Garrouste, Gaël Clément, Patricia Nel, Michael S. Engel, Philippe Grandcolas et al.     The fossil of a complete insect from the Late Devonian period (approximately 365 million years ago) is presented; it was terrestrial, but its features suggest that modern winged insects had already started to diversify at that early date.             Defining the core Arabidopsis thaliana root microbiome ▶     Derek S. Lundberg, Sarah L. Lebeis, Sur Herrera Paredes, Scott Yourstone, Jase Gehring et al.     Sequencing of the Arabidopsis thaliana root microbiome shows that its composition is strongly influenced by location, inside or outside the root, and by soil type.             Revealing structure and assembly cues for Arabidopsis root-inhabiting bacterial microbiota ▶     Davide Bulgarelli, Matthias Rott, Klaus Schlaeppi, Emiel Ver Loren van Themaat, Nahal Ahmadinejad et al.     Roots of land plants are populated by a specific microbiota capable of modulating plant growth and development; here large-scale sequencing analysis shows that the bacterial community inhabiting Arabidopsis roots is influenced by soil type and plant genotype, and that plant cell-wall features serve as colonization cue for a subcommunity of the root microbiota.             A mutation in APP protects against Alzheimer’s disease and age-related cognitive decline ▶     Thorlakur Jonsson, Jasvinder K. Atwal, Stacy Steinberg, Jon Snaedal, Palmi V. Jonsson et al.     A coding mutation in APP, the gene that encodes the amyloid-β precursor protein, is found to protect against Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline in the elderly without Alzheimer’s disease.             Dissecting the genomic complexity underlying medulloblastoma  OPEN ▶     David T. W. Jones, Natalie Jäger, Marcel Kool, Thomas Zichner, Barbara Hutter et al.     Medulloblastoma is the most common brain tumour in children; using whole-genome sequencing of tumour samples the authors show that the clinically challenging Group 3 and 4 tumours can be tetraploid, and reveal the expression of the first medulloblastoma fusion genes identified.             Medulloblastoma exome sequencing uncovers subtype-specific somatic mutations ▶     Trevor J. Pugh, Shyamal Dilhan Weeraratne, Tenley C. Archer, Daniel A. Pomeranz Krummel, Daniel Auclair et al.     Medulloblastoma is the most common brain tumour in children; using exome sequencing of tumour samples the authors show that these cancers have low mutation rates and identify 12 significantly mutated genes, among them the gene encoding RNA helicase DDX3X.             Targeting nuclear RNA for in vivo correction of myotonic dystrophy ▶     Thurman M. Wheeler, Andrew J. Leger, Sanjay K. Pandey, A. Robert MacLeod, Masayuki Nakamori et al.     Nuclear-retained transcripts containing expanded repeats are shown to be sensitive to antisense silencing, and in a transgenic mouse model of myotonic dystrophy type 1, systemic administration of ASOs causes a rapid knockdown of the toxic RNA in skeletal muscle, correcting some hallmark features of the disease.             A map of the cis-regulatory sequences in the mouse genome ▶     Yin Shen, Feng Yue, David F. McCleary, Zhen Ye, Lee Edsall et al.     A genomic map of nearly 300,000 potential cis-regulatory sequences determined from diverse mouse tissues and cell types reveals active promoters, enhancers and CCCTC-binding factor sites encompassing 11% of the mouse genome and significantly expands annotation of mammalian regulatory sequences.             News & Views                   Palaeontology: An insect to fill the gap ▶     William A. Shear             Drug discovery: Kill the messenger where it lives ▶     Peter K. Todd & Henry L. Paulson             Alzheimer's disease: A protective mutation ▶     Bart De Strooper & Thierry Voet             Systems biology: A cell in a computer ▶     Mark Isalan             Cancer: Resolving the stem-cell debate ▶     Richard J. Gilbertson & Trevor A. Graham             Brief Communications Arising                   Models of grid cells and theta oscillations ▶     Caswell Barry, Daniel Bush, John O’Keefe & Neil Burgess             Yartsev et al. reply ▶     Michael M. Yartsev, Menno P. Witter & Nachum Ulanovsky             Research Highlights                   Genomics: Hunter-gatherer genes | Neuroscience: Blind mice can sense light | Microbiology: Skin bacteria boost immunity | Electrochemistry: Rechargeable Li–air battery | Animal behaviour: Sex is costly for squid | Neuroscience: Light control in monkey brains | Palaeoanthropology: Resilient to natural disasters | Gene therapy: Gene fix repairs hearing         NEWS & COMMENT           Cancer stem cells tracked | FDA's claims over stem cells upheld | Officials act to secure cattle-plague virus | Lawsuit challenges anti-ageing claims | Geneticists eye the potential of arXiv | Neuroscience: A quest for consciousness | Books in brief | Ecology: Bat deaths from wind turbine blades Angelo Capparella, Sabine Loew & David K. Meyerholz | Neuroscience: Giants all around — apart from the squid Jonathan C. Horton             More Biological Sciences ▶                         Feel like your paper is lost in a sea of submissions? Scientific Reports publishes your research quickly and efficiently, and makes it freely available to the global scientific community. Learn more with our one minute illustrative video.               Chemical Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Structure of a RING E3 ligase and ubiquitin-loaded E2 primed for catalysis ▶     Anna Plechanovová, Ellis G. Jaffray, Michael H. Tatham, James H. Naismith & Ronald T. Hay             A selective jumonji H3K27 demethylase inhibitor modulates the proinflammatory macrophage response ▶     Laurens Kruidenier, Chun-wa Chung, Zhongjun Cheng, John Liddle, KaHing Che et al.     A structure-guided small-molecule and chemoproteomics approach uncovers a catalytic site inhibitor selective for the jumonji subfamily of H3K27me3 demethylases; the inhibitor decreases lipopolysaccharide-induced proinflammatory cytokine production by human primary macrophages.             Research Highlights                   Electrochemistry: Rechargeable Li–air battery         NEWS & COMMENT           Science funding: Duel to the death             More Chemical Sciences ▶               Physical Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   A III–V nanowire channel on silicon for high-performance vertical transistors ▶     Katsuhiro Tomioka, Masatoshi Yoshimura & Takashi Fukui     The fabrication of transistors using vertical, six-sided core–multishell indium gallium arsenide nanowires with an all-surrounding gate on a silicon substrate combines the advantages of a three-dimensional gate architecture with the high electron mobility of the III–V nanowires, drastically enhancing the on-state current and transconductance.             Articles and Letters                   Quantum nonlinear optics with single photons enabled by strongly interacting atoms ▶     Thibault Peyronel, Ofer Firstenberg, Qi-Yu Liang, Sebastian Hofferberth, Alexey V. Gorshkov et al.     A cold, dense atomic gas is found to be optically nonlinear at the level of individual quanta, thereby opening possibilities for quantum-by-quantum control of light fields, including single-photon switching and deterministic quantum logic.             Quantum phase transition in a resonant level coupled to interacting leads ▶     Henok T. Mebrahtu, Ivan V. Borzenets, Dong E. Liu, Huaixiu Zheng, Yuriy V. Bomze et al.     A device based on a carbon nanotube is used to emulate the rich physics of the one-dimensional electronic systems known as Luttinger liquids, providing a new platform for studying quantum critical phenomena.             A Newtonian approach to extraordinarily strong negative refraction ▶     Hosang Yoon, Kitty Y. M. Yeung, Vladimir Umansky & Donhee Ham     An extremely large, negative refractive index is produced in a two-dimensional electron gas by exploiting its kinetic inductance, which is a manifestation of acceleration of the electrons by electromagnetic fields.             Increase in observed net carbon dioxide uptake by land and oceans during the past 50 years ▶     A. P. Ballantyne, C. B. Alden, J. B. Miller, P. P. Tans & J. W. C. White     A comprehensive carbon dioxide mass balance analysis shows that net global carbon uptake has increased by about 0.05 billion tonnes per year over the past 50 years and that in that time the global carbon uptake has almost doubled, making it unlikely that land and ocean carbon sinks have decreased on a global scale.             Persistent near-tropical warmth on the Antarctic continent during the early Eocene epoch ▶     Jörg Pross, Lineth Contreras, Peter K. Bijl, David R. Greenwood, Steven M. Bohaty et al.     A reconstruction of temperatures along the Wilkes Land coast of Antarctica during the early Eocene epoch shows that the climate supported the growth of near-tropical forests and that winters were very mild and essentially frost-free.             News & Views                   Earth science: The balance of the carbon budget ▶     Ingeborg Levin             50 & 100 years ago ▶             Quantum optics: Strongly interacting photons ▶     Thad G. Walker           NEWS & COMMENT           Science funding: Duel to the death | NASA: Let academia lead space science | Astronomy: Under African skies | Higgs boson: Budget cuts leave US science lagging William J. Richards             More Physical Sciences ▶               Earth & Environmental Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Articles and Letters                   Increase in observed net carbon dioxide uptake by land and oceans during the past 50 years ▶     A. P. Ballantyne, C. B. Alden, J. B. Miller, P. P. Tans & J. W. C. White     A comprehensive carbon dioxide mass balance analysis shows that net global carbon uptake has increased by about 0.05 billion tonnes per year over the past 50 years and that in that time the global carbon uptake has almost doubled, making it unlikely that land and ocean carbon sinks have decreased on a global scale.             Persistent near-tropical warmth on the Antarctic continent during the early Eocene epoch ▶     Jörg Pross, Lineth Contreras, Peter K. Bijl, David R. Greenwood, Steven M. Bohaty et al.     A reconstruction of temperatures along the Wilkes Land coast of Antarctica during the early Eocene epoch shows that the climate supported the growth of near-tropical forests and that winters were very mild and essentially frost-free.             A complete insect from the Late Devonian period ▶     Romain Garrouste, Gaël Clément, Patricia Nel, Michael S. Engel, Philippe Grandcolas et al.     The fossil of a complete insect from the Late Devonian period (approximately 365 million years ago) is presented; it was terrestrial, but its features suggest that modern winged insects had already started to diversify at that early date.             News & Views                   Earth science: The balance of the carbon budget ▶     Ingeborg Levin             50 & 100 years ago ▶             Research Highlights                   Climate modelling: Aerosols keep down monsoon rain         NEWS & COMMENT           Unfortunate oversight | 7 minutes of terror | NASA: Let academia lead space science             More Earth & Environmental Sciences ▶                 Careers & Jobs ▲top               The roots of research misconduct ▶     Mentors should understand what causes misconduct among trainees — and keep in mind some possible remedies, argues William Neaves.                   Action plans for equality ▶     European universities aim to eliminate gender bias                   US–European deal ▶     Agreement will let US postdocs join European research teams.                   Research area first steps ▶     Europe signs agreements with stakeholders of a unified research area.                   Careers related news & comment                   Marching orders | NASA: Let academia lead space science | Higgs boson: Budget cuts leave US science lagging William J. 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