Nature contents: 16 August 2012

Can't view this email? Click here to view in your browser.     Volume 488 Number 7411      nature •Visit Nature homepage •Subscribe to Nature •View Table of Contents The science that matters. Every week.                       AIMResearch - Highlighting the latest research from the WPI Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Japan. Latest highlights: Spintronics: Both sides polarized | Cell imaging: Switching it up | Oxide materials: Hidden layers | Metallic glasses: Nanowire gems in the particle dust | In the spotlight: Bringing mathematics to life (roundtable interview)  Register today for monthly email alerts and never miss the latest in materials research from the WPI-AIMR!             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     Specials - Insight: Chemistry and energy     This series of Reviews highlights some of the lines of scientific and engineering research that may eventually deliver the technological innovations we need if we are to harvest energy from alternative sources in the future. Possible strategies range from the well-established photovoltaics to newly emerging methods, such as the use of algae to produce potential fuels. ▼ more       Biological Sciences More Biological sciences ▼   Passenger deletions generate therapeutic vulnerabilities in cancer   A search for genetic deletions in cancer patients that also encompass a nearby functionally redundant passenger gene - usually genes with 'housekeeping' roles for example in cellular metabolism - provides potential alternative candidates as targets for anticancer drugs.       Physical Sciences More Physical sciences ▼   Room-temperature solid-state maser   The maser is the microwave-frequency precursor of the now ubiquitous laser - or 'optical maser' as it was once known. Masers typically require vacuum and/or low-temperature operating conditions, a factor that has mitigated against their wide use. But here is an easy-to-use bench-top solid maser that operates at room temperature. Applications in science and technology should follow.                   NPG Asia Materials has received its first impact factor: 5.533* Good reasons to submit your next excellent paper to NPG Asia Materials: - Ranked 20 of 231 in Multidisciplinary Materials Science* - Open Access: anyone can download and read your paper - High exposure on nature.com - Widely read by the global audience *2011 Journal Citation Reports(R) Science Edition (Thomson Reuters, 2012)  Submit online!                 Biological Sciences More Biological sciences ▼   Reconstructing Native American population history   The settlement of the Americas occurred at least 15,000 years ago through the Beringia land bridge between Asia and America that existed during the ice ages. This new survey of genetic variation in Native American and Siberian populations provides support for the controversial hypothesis that the Americas were peopled in three waves of migration from Asia.       Podcast & Video     In this week's podcast: The rise of the maser, a tasty journey along the Silk Road, and a neat little recipe for an important drug.         News & Comment Read daily news coverage▶ ▲top             THIS WEEK           Editorial                   Repeat after me ▶     With plagiarism seemingly endemic in Romania, as well as rife among Europe's political class, a bid by academics to root out misconduct deserves widespread support.             Safety shambles ▶     Lax management of Fukushima clean-up intensifies concerns over Japan's nuclear future.             World View                   Why we are poles apart on climate change ▶     The problem isn't the public's reasoning capacity; it's the polluted science-communication environment that drives people apart, says Dan Kahan.             Seven Days                   Seven days: 10–16 August 2012 ▶     The week in science: US declares hottest month ever recorded; CERN physicists make hottest-ever plasma; and Indian politicians look coldly on GM crop trials.           NEWS IN FOCUS           Green protests on the rise in China ▶     Environmental groups use momentum to push for reforms.             Mars scientists await feast of data ▶     As the Curiosity rover prepares to take its first trip across the surface, the lead scientist shares his hopes for the mission.             Romanian scientists fight plagiarism ▶     Researchers set up independent review panel after misconduct scandals hit government.             Ebola outbreak tests local surveillance ▶     Ugandan laboratory helps to minimize number of cases.             Amino acid provides shortcut to drugs ▶     Organocatalyst halves synthesis of prostaglandin family.             Generic HIV drugs will widen US treatment net ▶     Upcoming patent expiries stand to make medicines cheaper — although less convenient.             Features                   Science on the Silk Road: Taste for adventure ▶     Scientists have travelled the ancient Silk Road to understand how genes shape people's love for foods.             Science in the Sahara: Man of the desert ▶     Stefan Kröpelin has carved out a career where few dare to tread — in the heart of the Sahara.           COMMENT           Technology: How to build a low-energy future ▶     Advanced construction technologies promise huge energy savings, says Philip Farese. Investment is needed to bring them to market and to encourage their use.             Books and Arts                   Cosmology: Enigma at the heart of the Universe ▶     Mario Livio enjoys a tour of modern astronomy that speculates on how black holes drive cosmic evolution.             Technology: Pre-digital dreams ▶     Josie Glausiusz strolls through an evanescent 'cabinet of wonders' exploring the surreal side of technology.             Q&A: The social roboticist ▶     Maja Matarić, a computer scientist and neuroscientist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, makes robots that assist people with disabilities, children with autism and elderly people — a phenomenon explored in the film Robot and Frank (2012). On the eve of its release, she talks about the future of socially assistive machines.             Correspondence                   West Bank: Keep politics out of academia in Israel Nir Gov | Academic freedom: Turkey must build on science reforms Bengt Gustafsson | Birds: Time to accept conservation triage John A. Wiens, Dale D. Goble & J. Michael Scott | Authorship: Call for clear policy on deceased authors Vincent Nijman | Nanosafety: How to allay fears over nanomaterials Robin Fears, Peter Gehr & Elke Anklam           Correction                   Corrections ▶               Specials - Insight: Chemistry and Energy ▲top               Chemistry and energy ▶     Rosamund Daw, Joshua Finkelstein & Magdalena Helmer             Opportunities and challenges for a sustainable energy future ▶     Steven Chu & Arun Majumdar             Materials interface engineering for solution-processed photovoltaics ▶     Michael Graetzel, René A. J. Janssen, David B. Mitzi & Edward H. Sargent             Membrane-based processes for sustainable power generation using water ▶     Bruce E. Logan & Menachem Elimelech             Microbial engineering for the production of advanced biofuels ▶     Pamela P. Peralta-Yahya, Fuzhong Zhang, Stephen B. del Cardayre & Jay D. Keasling             Exploiting diversity and synthetic biology for the production of algal biofuels ▶     D. Ryan Georgianna & Stephen P. Mayfield         Sponsors             Biological Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Recurrent R-spondin fusions in colon cancer  OPEN ▶     Somasekar Seshagiri, Eric W. Stawiski, Steffen Durinck, Zora Modrusan, Elaine E. Storm et al.     Exomes, transcriptomes and copy-number alterations in a sample of more than 70 primary human colonic tumours were analysed in an attempt to characterize the genomic landscape; in addition to finding alterations in genes associated with commonly mutated signalling pathways, recurrent gene fusions involving R-spondin family members were also found to occur in approximately 10% of colonic tumours, revealing a potential new therapeutic target.             Tumour suppressor RNF43 is a stem-cell E3 ligase that induces endocytosis of Wnt receptors ▶     Bon-Kyoung Koo, Maureen Spit, Ingrid Jordens, Teck Y. Low, Daniel E. Stange et al.     In vivo and in vitro studies show that the stem-cell E3 ubiquitin ligases RNF43 and ZNRF3 act as tumour suppressors in colorectal cancer models, and are involved in the negative regulation of the cancer-associated Wnt signalling pathway through limiting the cell-surface expression of Wnt receptors.             Genome-wide association study indicates two novel resistance loci for severe malaria ▶     Christian Timmann, Thorsten Thye, Maren Vens, Jennifer Evans, Jürgen May et al.     A genome-wide association study in Ghana, West Africa, to identify genetic variants associated with malaria pathogenesis reveals two previously unknown loci on chromosomes 1 and 16.             Stereocontrolled organocatalytic synthesis of prostaglandin PGF2α in seven steps ▶     Graeme Coulthard, William Erb & Varinder K. Aggarwal     A concise new synthesis of the most complex of the prostaglandins—diverse hormone-like chemical messengers—should make existing prostaglandin-based drugs cheaper and also facilitate other related syntheses.             Caspase-11 increases susceptibility to Salmonella infection in the absence of caspase-1 ▶     Petr Broz, Thomas Ruby, Kamila Belhocine, Donna M. Bouley, Nobuhiko Kayagaki et al.     Activation of the non-canonical, pro-inflammatory caspase-11 by Salmonella Typhimurium is shown to contribute to bacterial spread and pathogenesis by the induction of macrophage cell death.             Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia is driven by antigen-independent cell-autonomous signalling ▶     Marcus Dühren-von Minden, Rudolf Übelhart, Dunja Schneider, Thomas Wossning, Martina P. Bach et al.     B-cell receptor (BCR) signalling in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is found not to be dependent on exogenous antigens; instead, signalling may involve the binding of the BCR heavy-chain complementarity-determining region to self epitopes on the same receptor, a finding that may have important implications for understanding the pathogenesis of CLL and potential therapeutic approaches.             HDAC8 mutations in Cornelia de Lange syndrome affect the cohesin acetylation cycle ▶     Matthew A. Deardorff, Masashige Bando, Ryuichiro Nakato, Erwan Watrin, Takehiko Itoh et al.     The deacetylase enzyme HDAC8 is identified as a crucial regulator of cohesin in humans, and loss-of-function mutations in the HDAC8 gene are found in patients with Cornelia de Lange syndrome.             Burkitt lymphoma pathogenesis and therapeutic targets from structural and functional genomics ▶     Roland Schmitz, Ryan M. Young, Michele Ceribelli, Sameer Jhavar, Wenming Xiao et al.     RNA sequencing of Burkitt lymphoma tumours allows identification of mutations affecting the transcription factor TCF3, its negative regulator ID3 and the cell cycle regulator CCND3; these pathways reveal new targets for potential therapeutic intervention.             Phosphorylation of NLRC4 is critical for inflammasome activation ▶     Yan Qu, Shahram Misaghi, Anita Izrael-Tomasevic, Kim Newton, Laurie L. Gilmour et al.     Phosphorylation of the NOD-like receptor NLRC4 is essential for activation of the NLRC4 inflammasome complex in response to bacterial stimuli.             Articles and Letters                   Passenger deletions generate therapeutic vulnerabilities in cancer ▶     Florian L. Muller, Simona Colla, Elisa Aquilanti, Veronica E. Manzo, Giannicola Genovese et al.     The ‘collateral’ homozygous deletion of essential redundant housekeeping genes in cancer genomes is shown to confer therapeutic vulnerability on cancer cells with the deletion, without affecting genomically intact normal non-cancerous cells, suggesting new therapeutic opportunities.             Division and subtraction by distinct cortical inhibitory networks in vivo ▶     Nathan R. Wilson, Caroline A. Runyan, Forea L. Wang & Mriganka Sur     Use of a two-way optical system to activate subclasses of inhibitory neurons, while simultaneously monitoring responses in target cells within cortical circuits in vivo, reveals that parvalbumin-expressing and somatostatin-expressing neurons exert distinct effects on cellular responses across the network.             Doubling of marine dinitrogen-fixation rates based on direct measurements ▶     Tobias Großkopf, Wiebke Mohr, Tina Baustian, Harald Schunck, Diana Gill et al.     A newly developed method of measuring oceanic nitrogen-fixation rates provides significantly higher estimates than a current widely applied technique, and could close gaps in the marine nitrogen budget.             Reconstructing Native American population history ▶     David Reich, Nick Patterson, Desmond Campbell, Arti Tandon, Stéphane Mazieres et al.     A survey of genetic variation in Native American and Siberian populations reveals that Native Americans are descended from at least three streams of gene flow from Asia: after the initial peopling of the continent there was a southward expansion facilitated by the coast, with sequential population splits and little gene flow after divergence, especially in South America.             A biophysical signature of network affiliation and sensory processing in mitral cells ▶     Kamilla Angelo, Ede A. Rancz, Diogo Pimentel, Christian Hundahl, Jens Hannibal et al.     Functional heterogeneity within a class of neurons is investigated by comparing the intrinsic properties of pairs of mitral cells belonging to either the same or different glomerular circuits; this shows that neuronal excitability is stereotypic for mitral cells from the same olfactory network, indicating that local circuits are functionally adapted to process subtly distinct information.             Activation of specific interneurons improves V1 feature selectivity and visual perception ▶     Seung-Hee Lee, Alex C. Kwan, Siyu Zhang, Victoria Phoumthipphavong, John G. Flannery et al.     Optogenetic activation of parvalbumin-expressing versus other classes of interneurons is found to have distinct effects on the response properties of individual and populations of excitatory cells, as well as on visual behaviour in awake mice, providing evidence that this specific interneuron subtype has a unique role in visual coding and perception.             Bacterial virulence proteins as tools to rewire kinase pathways in yeast and immune cells ▶     Ping Wei, Wilson W. Wong, Jason S. Park, Ethan E. Corcoran, Sergio G. Peisajovich et al.     Virulence factors from two bacteria are used to reprogram intracellular signalling in yeast and immune T cells, illustrating how pathogens can provide a toolkit to engineer cells for biotechnological or therapeutic applications.             NLRP6 negatively regulates innate immunity and host defence against bacterial pathogens ▶     Paras K. Anand, R. K. Subbarao Malireddi, John R. Lukens, Peter Vogel, John Bertin et al.     The Nod-like receptor family member NLRP6 is characterized and shown to be a negative regulator of inflammatory signalling, dampening host responses against bacterial infections and impeding bacterial clearance.             APJ acts as a dual receptor in cardiac hypertrophy ▶     Maria Cecilia Scimia, Cecilia Hurtado, Saugata Ray, Scott Metzler, Ke Wei et al.     APJ is shown to be a bifunctional receptor for both mechanical stretch and the endogenous peptide apelin, a finding that is important for the development of APJ agonists to treat heart failure.             ‘Slings’ enable neutrophil rolling at high shear ▶     Prithu Sundd, Edgar Gutierrez, Ekaterina K. Koltsova, Yoshihiro Kuwano, Satoru Fukuda et al.     During inflammation neutrophils roll along the vascular endothelium; here, previously unknown structures called ‘slings’, which appear and persist at the front of rolling cells in vivo and in vitro, are described.             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.             The H3K27 demethylase Utx regulates somatic and germ cell epigenetic reprogramming ▶     Abed AlFatah Mansour, Ohad Gafni, Leehee Weinberger, Asaf Zviran, Muneef Ayyash et al.     The H3K27 demethylase Utx is reported to be a critical regulator for the initiation of somatic and germ cell reprogramming.             The dynamic disulphide relay of quiescin sulphydryl oxidase ▶     Assaf Alon, Iris Grossman, Yair Gat, Vamsi K. Kodali, Frank DiMaio et al.     The X-ray crystal structures of trypanosome and mammalian quiescin sulphydryl oxidase are determined; these structures and follow-up biochemical studies show that large conformational changes occur as the enzyme relays disulphide bonds through its redox-active sites.             News & Views                   Cancer: Exploiting collateral damage ▶     Ben Lehner & Solip Park             Cell biology: Neither brown nor white ▶     Barbara Cannon & Jan Nedergaard             Neuroscience: Circuits drive cell diversity ▶     Nathaniel Urban & Shreejoy Tripathy             50 & 100 years ago ▶             Errata                   Erratum: Administration of vorinostat disrupts HIV-1 latency in patients on antiretroviral therapy ▶     N. M. Archin, A. L. Liberty, A. D. Kashuba, S. K. Choudhary, J. D. Kuruc et al.             Erratum: Stereospecific binding of a disordered peptide segment mediates BK channel inactivation ▶     Vivian Gonzalez-Perez, Xu-Hui Zeng, Katie Henzler-Wildman & Christopher J. Lingle             Research Highlights                   Animal behaviour: Curious hyenas crack puzzles | Behavioural genetics: Genetics of sexual harassment | Evolution: Sloth inner-ear diversity | Zoology: Beetles walk underwater | Regenerative medicine: Nanofibres foster blood vessels | Genetics: Heady dog genetics | Computational biology: 'Whole-cell' computer model         NEWS & COMMENT           Green protests on the rise in China | Ebola outbreak tests local surveillance | Generic HIV drugs will widen US treatment net | Science on the Silk Road: Taste for adventure | Science in the Sahara: Man of the desert | Q&A: The social roboticist | Birds: Time to accept conservation triage John A. Wiens, Dale D. Goble & J. Michael Scott | Nanosafety: How to allay fears over nanomaterials Robin Fears, Peter Gehr & Elke Anklam           CAREERS           Turning point: Nehal Mehta             More Biological Sciences ▶                 Chemical Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Stereocontrolled organocatalytic synthesis of prostaglandin PGF2α in seven steps ▶     Graeme Coulthard, William Erb & Varinder K. Aggarwal     A concise new synthesis of the most complex of the prostaglandins—diverse hormone-like chemical messengers—should make existing prostaglandin-based drugs cheaper and also facilitate other related syntheses.             Phosphorylation of NLRC4 is critical for inflammasome activation ▶     Yan Qu, Shahram Misaghi, Anita Izrael-Tomasevic, Kim Newton, Laurie L. Gilmour et al.     Phosphorylation of the NOD-like receptor NLRC4 is essential for activation of the NLRC4 inflammasome complex in response to bacterial stimuli.             Articles and Letters                   Room-temperature solid-state maser ▶     Mark Oxborrow, Jonathan D. Breeze & Neil M. Alford     Using an organic molecular crystal as gain medium allows a maser to be operated in pulsed mode in air, at room temperature and in the terrestrial magnetic field, so avoiding many of the obstacles that have previously hindered the application of masers.             Electronic read-out of a single nuclear spin using a molecular spin transistor ▶     Romain Vincent, Svetlana Klyatskaya, Mario Ruben, Wolfgang Wernsdorfer & Franck Balestro     The long-lived nuclear spin state of an individual metal atom embedded in a single-molecule magnet is shown to be readable electronically.             Bacterial virulence proteins as tools to rewire kinase pathways in yeast and immune cells ▶     Ping Wei, Wilson W. Wong, Jason S. Park, Ethan E. Corcoran, Sergio G. Peisajovich et al.     Virulence factors from two bacteria are used to reprogram intracellular signalling in yeast and immune T cells, illustrating how pathogens can provide a toolkit to engineer cells for biotechnological or therapeutic applications.             APJ acts as a dual receptor in cardiac hypertrophy ▶     Maria Cecilia Scimia, Cecilia Hurtado, Saugata Ray, Scott Metzler, Ke Wei et al.     APJ is shown to be a bifunctional receptor for both mechanical stretch and the endogenous peptide apelin, a finding that is important for the development of APJ agonists to treat heart failure.             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.             The dynamic disulphide relay of quiescin sulphydryl oxidase ▶     Assaf Alon, Iris Grossman, Yair Gat, Vamsi K. Kodali, Frank DiMaio et al.     The X-ray crystal structures of trypanosome and mammalian quiescin sulphydryl oxidase are determined; these structures and follow-up biochemical studies show that large conformational changes occur as the enzyme relays disulphide bonds through its redox-active sites.             News & Views                   Applied physics: Masers made easy ▶     Aharon Blank             Erratum                   Erratum: Stereospecific binding of a disordered peptide segment mediates BK channel inactivation ▶     Vivian Gonzalez-Perez, Xu-Hui Zeng, Katie Henzler-Wildman & Christopher J. Lingle             More Chemical Sciences ▶               Physical Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Non-classical light generated by quantum-noise-driven cavity optomechanics ▶     Daniel W. C. Brooks, Thierry Botter, Sydney Schreppler, Thomas P. Purdy, Nathan Brahms et al.     The effect of quantum radiation-pressure fluctuations on the collective motion of ultracold atoms is observed in a cavity-optomechanical system, and the back-action of this motion on the cavity light field is shown to produce sub-shot-noise optical squeezing.             Articles and Letters                   A massive, cooling-flow-induced starburst in the core of a luminous cluster of galaxies ▶     M. McDonald, M. Bayliss, B. A. Benson, R. J. Foley, J. Ruel et al.     X-ray, optical and infrared observations reveal a very high rate of star formation in the core of an extremely luminous galaxy cluster; this starburst seems to be triggered by a cooling flow of the dense intracluster plasma.             Room-temperature solid-state maser ▶     Mark Oxborrow, Jonathan D. Breeze & Neil M. Alford     Using an organic molecular crystal as gain medium allows a maser to be operated in pulsed mode in air, at room temperature and in the terrestrial magnetic field, so avoiding many of the obstacles that have previously hindered the application of masers.             Electronic read-out of a single nuclear spin using a molecular spin transistor ▶     Romain Vincent, Svetlana Klyatskaya, Mario Ruben, Wolfgang Wernsdorfer & Franck Balestro     The long-lived nuclear spin state of an individual metal atom embedded in a single-molecule magnet is shown to be readable electronically.             More extreme swings of the South Pacific convergence zone due to greenhouse warming ▶     Wenju Cai, Matthieu Lengaigne, Simon Borlace, Matthew Collins, Tim Cowan et al.     The South Pacific convergence zone is a region of high precipitation spanning a vast swath of the Pacific Ocean that can shift northwards and become longitudinally oriented; such extreme zonal events have severe weather and climatic impacts and are predicted to become more frequent under greenhouse warming conditions.             News & Views                   Applied physics: Masers made easy ▶     Aharon Blank             Astrophysics: One of the first of the second stars ▶     John Cowan             Corrigenda                   Corrigendum: ‘Big Bang’ tomography as a new route to atomic-resolution electron tomography ▶     Dirk Van Dyck, Joerg R. Jinschek & Fu-Rong Chen             Corrigendum: Constraints on future changes in climate and the hydrologic cycle ▶     Myles R. Allen & William J. Ingram             Erratum                   Erratum: Structured spheres generated by an in-fibre fluid instability ▶     Joshua J. Kaufman, Guangming Tao, Soroush Shabahang, Esmaeil-Hooman Banaei, Daosheng S. Deng et al.             Research Highlights                   Nanotechnology: Ramped up resolution | Materials: Polymers track the Sun | Computational biology: 'Whole-cell' computer model         NEWS & COMMENT           Safety shambles | Technology: How to build a low-energy future | Cosmology: Enigma at the heart of the Universe             More Physical Sciences ▶               Earth & Environmental Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   An index to assess the health and benefits of the global ocean ▶     Benjamin S. Halpern, Catherine Longo, Darren Hardy, Karen L. McLeod, Jameal F. Samhouri et al.     This study develops a wide-ranging index to assess the many factors that contribute to the health and benefits of the oceans, and the scores for all costal nations are assessed.             Articles and Letters                   Doubling of marine dinitrogen-fixation rates based on direct measurements ▶     Tobias Großkopf, Wiebke Mohr, Tina Baustian, Harald Schunck, Diana Gill et al.     A newly developed method of measuring oceanic nitrogen-fixation rates provides significantly higher estimates than a current widely applied technique, and could close gaps in the marine nitrogen budget.             More extreme swings of the South Pacific convergence zone due to greenhouse warming ▶     Wenju Cai, Matthieu Lengaigne, Simon Borlace, Matthew Collins, Tim Cowan et al.     The South Pacific convergence zone is a region of high precipitation spanning a vast swath of the Pacific Ocean that can shift northwards and become longitudinally oriented; such extreme zonal events have severe weather and climatic impacts and are predicted to become more frequent under greenhouse warming conditions.             News & Views                   Oceanography: The trouble with the bubble ▶     Angelicque E. White             Corrigendum                   Corrigendum: Constraints on future changes in climate and the hydrologic cycle ▶     Myles R. Allen & William J. Ingram           NEWS & COMMENT           Why we are poles apart on climate change | Green protests on the rise in China | Mars scientists await feast of data | Science in the Sahara: Man of the desert | Cosmology: Enigma at the heart of the Universe             More Earth & Environmental Sciences ▶                         Frontiers in Plant Biology: From Discovery to Applications October 3-5, 2012 • Ghent, Belgium This conference will focus on the recent breakthroughs in plant biology, enabled by the latest methodological developments. For more information and to register, visit: http://www.nature.com/natureconferences/fpb2012/index.html               Careers & Jobs ▲top               Training: Workshops that work ▶     Seminars on career alternatives and soft skills can provide crucial tips for advancement. But some workshops are more helpful than others.                   Correction ▶                   Turning point: Nehal Mehta ▶     Cardiologist is first winner of award supporting clinical research.                   Industrial outcomes ▶     Academics sponsored by large firms have lower publication rates than those with other funding sources.                   Awards for women ▶     Programme aims to boost scientific participation for women from 81 developing nations.                   Initiative criticized ▶     Report pans scheme meant to boost competitiveness of German universities.                   Careers related news & comment                   Repeat after me | Romanian scientists fight plagiarism | West Bank: Keep politics out of academia in Israel Nir Gov | Birds: Time to accept conservation triage John A. Wiens, Dale D. Goble & J. Michael Scott | Authorship: Call for clear policy on deceased authors Vincent Nijman | Nanosafety: How to allay fears over nanomaterials Robin Fears, Peter Gehr & Elke Anklam             naturejobs.com Science jobs of the week       Research Assistant / Associate in Mathematical and Epidemiological Modelling     University of Glasgow            Non-Clinical Research Fellow     Imperial College London            PhD positions in Materials Chemistry     University of Liverpool            Postdoctoral research associate     University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill          No matter what your career stage, student, postdoc or senior scientist, you will find articles on naturejobs.com to help guide you in your science career. 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