Nature contents: 15 November 2012

Can't view this email? Click here to view in your browser.     Volume 491 Number 7424      nature •Visit Nature homepage •Subscribe to Nature •View Table of Contents The science that matters. Every week.                       Special Offer: Complete Cell Analysis and Cell Sorting Package For a limited time, $260,000 buys the new BD FACSJazz™ sorter, the BD Accuri™ C6 analyzer with BD CSampler™, high quality BD reagents for 2 years, an advanced biosafety cabinet, 2 workstations, and BD FACS™ Sortware and BD Accuri™ C6 software. Add up the savings - it equals unprecedented value. bdbiosciences.com/go/plus             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: Metabolism and disease     Many of the most common and debilitating diseases, such as obesity, diabetes and cancer, are manifestations of abnormal metabolism. This Insight supplement features six reviews that highlight the latest research on the molecular mechanisms that underlie metabolism and its associated pathologies. ▼ more       Biological Sciences More Biological sciences ▼   Analyses of pig genomes provide insight into porcine demography and evolution   A high-quality draft genome sequence a female domestic Duroc pig is published this week. Comparisons of the genomes of wild and domestic pigs shed light on the evolutionary relationship between European and Asian wild boars. The authors identify many possible disease-causing gene variants, extending the potential of the pig as a biomedical model, and an analysis of endogenous porcine retroviruses, essential knowledge of importance to the possible use of pigs as organ and tissue donors in xenotransplantation.       Physical Sciences More Physical sciences ▼   Spontaneous motion in hierarchically assembled active matter   Autonomous motion is a characteristic of living organisms; by consuming energy, cells and their components can generate motion without the need for externally applied force. This paper reports the creation of polymer gels, liquid crystals and emulsions that mimic this behaviour using biological molecules as building blocks. The authors assemble microtubules into hierarchical bundles and then into percolating networks. This work raises the exciting possibility that chaotic behaviour of this type could be engineered to be tunable and controllable.                   Academy of Military Medical Sciences - Celebrating 60 years of research at one of China's leading organizations for medical science. The Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS) in Beijing has developed beyond its military heritage to become a world leader in medical science with a string of achievements in both military and civilian applications that have resonated around the globe. Find out more about the AMMS in Part 4 of the five-part series of this special sponsor feature on nature.com.                 Biological Sciences More Biological sciences ▼   An ultraviolet-radiation-independent pathway to melanoma carcinogenesis in the red hair/fair skin background   Individuals with pale skin and red hair may need to worry about more than just sun exposure in relation to their increased risk of skin cancer. The 'redhead' phenotype is often associated with a polymorphism in the gene encoding the melanocortin 1 receptor (Mc1r) that reduces its ability to stimulate the production of black/brown pigment eumelanin from the red/yellow pigment pheomelanin. Experiments in a mouse model show that inactivation of Mc1r promotes melanoma formation in the presence of BRAFV600E, the most common melanoma oncoprotein, independently of exposure to ultraviolet radiation.       Podcast & Video     In this week's podcast: pig geneticists go the whole hog, the link between light and mood, and are women really born with all their eggs?         News & Comment Read daily news coverage▶ ▲top             THIS WEEK           Editorials                   America's carbon compromise ▶     As looming tax increases and budget cuts threaten to plunge the US economy back into recession, Congress should take a hard look at introducing a carbon tax as an important part of the solution.             A shaky restart ▶     Japan still has lessons to learn from Fukushima if it is to convince the public about nuclear energy.             Save scientific sites ▶     The push to conserve cultural-heritage sites must not leave out areas of interest to science.             World View                   Be persuasive. Be brave. Be arrested (if necessary) ▶     A resource crisis exacerbated by global warming is looming, argues financier Jeremy Grantham. More scientists must speak out.             Seven Days                   Seven days: 9–15 November 2012 ▶     The week in science: Fukushima clean-up costs rocket, UK funds open-access publication and Denmark abandons fat tax.           NEWS IN FOCUS           Obama reasserts research focus ▶     But 'fiscal cliff' threatens science and climate goals.             Snow survey hopes for avalanche of data ▶     More accurate snowfall measurements could improve climate models and estimates of water resources.             Chelation-therapy heart trial draws fire ▶     Critics not persuaded that metal-snaring treatment works.             Pig geneticists go the whole hog ▶     Genome will benefit farmers and medical researchers.             Investment relief for biotech sector ▶     Public markets provide cash injection for struggling field.             Berlin aims to create research powerhouse ▶     German government finds a creative way to fund universities.             Features                   Reproductive biology: Fertile mind ▶     Jonathan Tilly defied decades of dogma by suggesting that women can make new eggs throughout their lives. Now some of his critics are taking a second look.             Simulation: Quantum leaps ▶     Fully fledged quantum computers are still a long way off. But devices that can simulate quantum systems are proving uniquely useful.           COMMENT           Computing: Secure the Internet ▶     Software engineers must close the loophole used to intercept online communications, say Ben Laurie and Cory Doctorow.             Biotechnology: Bring more rigour to GM research ▶     The latest furore over GM food highlights the need for good-quality research on highly sensitive topics, says François Houllier.             Books and Arts                   Conservation: Shoring up the wonders ▶     Forty years on from UNESCO's world heritage convention, Alison Abbott contemplates the state of Italy's vast legacy.             Books in brief ▶             Science fiction: Curtains for space opera? ▶     Since July, astronomers have killed off one trope of science fiction and given fresh life to another. Leigh Phillips gets Mars Trilogy author Kim Stanley Robinson's reaction.             Computer science: Virtually there ▶     John Gilbey applauds a call for the digital to join the physical, biological and social in science.             Correspondence                   Lab animals: Standardize the diet for zebrafish model Sam Penglase, Mari Moren & Kristin Hamre | Energy: Clean stoves already in use in rural India Sudhir Kumar | University of California: Union improves postdocs' rights Neal Sweeney | Collaboration: Biomedical network in South America Eduardo Arzt | Human behaviour: Environmental stress seen since antiquity Frank Vereecken           Obituary                   Edward Donnall Thomas (1920–2012) ▶     Immunologist who won Nobel prize for bone-marrow transplants.               Specials - Insight: Metabolism and disease ▲top               Metabolism and disease ▶     Joshua Finkelstein, Noah Gray, Marie Thérèse Heemels, Barbara Marte & Deepa Nath             Circadian topology of metabolism ▶     Joseph Bass             Central nervous system control of metabolism ▶     Martin G. Myers , Jr & David P. Olson             How cancer metabolism is tuned for proliferation and vulnerable to disruption ▶     Almut Schulze & Adrian L. Harris             Mitochondrial disorders as windows into an ancient organelle ▶     Scott B. Vafai & Vamsi K. Mootha             Metabolic phenotyping in clinical and surgical environments ▶     Jeremy K. Nicholson, Elaine Holmes, James M. Kinross, Ara W. Darzi, Zoltan Takats et al.                           Clinical & Translational Immunology (CTI) - Call for Papers! As a new open access online-only journal brought to you by the editorial team of Immunology & Cell Biology, CTI will publish the latest and most exciting advances in biomedical research for scientists and physicians. Discover more about CTI               Biological Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Circadian rhythms: Depression brought to light ▶     Lisa M. Monteggia & Ege T. Kavalali             The calcium-sensing receptor regulates the NLRP3 inflammasome through Ca2+ and cAMP ▶     Geun-Shik Lee, Naeha Subramanian, Andrew I. Kim, Ivona Aksentijevich, Raphaela Goldbach-Mansky et al.     Evidence is presented that activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome is regulated by the calcium-sensing receptor (CASR).             Nonlinear dendritic integration of sensory and motor input during an active sensing task ▶     Ning-long Xu, Mark T. Harnett, Stephen R. Williams, Daniel Huber, Daniel H. O’Connor et al.     Recordings from cortical neuron dendrites of head-fixed mice during an object-localization task provide direct evidence that a novel global nonlinearity has a role in integrating sensory and motor information during a behaviour-related computation.             Interleukin receptor activates a MYD88–ARNO–ARF6 cascade to disrupt vascular stability ▶     Weiquan Zhu, Nyall R. London, Christopher C. Gibson, Chadwick T. Davis, Zongzhong Tong et al.     Interleukin-1β-induced disruption to endothelial stability and vascular permeability in a human in vitro model is shown to be independent of downstream nuclear factor-κB activation, relying instead on a MYD88–ARNO–ARF6 signalling cascade; inhibiting proteins involved in this pathway is shown to improve outcomes in animal models of inflammatory disease.             Regulation of ISWI involves inhibitory modules antagonized by nucleosomal epitopes ▶     Cedric R. Clapier & Bradley R. Cairns     Two separate regulatory regions on the Drosophila chromatin remodeller ISWI are defined, AutoN and NegC, which negatively regulate ATP hydrolysis and the coupling of ATP hydrolysis to productive DNA translocation, respectively; epitopes on nucleosomes activate ISWI by inhibiting these negative regulatory domains, ensuring that remodelling occurs only in the appropriate chromatin context.             Aberrant light directly impairs mood and learning through melanopsin-expressing neurons ▶     Tara A. LeGates, Cara M. Altimus, Hui Wang, Hey-Kyoung Lee, Sunggu Yang et al.     Mice subjected to an aberrant daily light cycle that still maintain the circadian timing system are shown to exhibit increased depression-like behaviours and disruptions in synaptic plasticity and cognitive function.             Tet1 controls meiosis by regulating meiotic gene expression ▶     Shinpei Yamaguchi, Kwonho Hong, Rui Liu, Li Shen, Azusa Inou, Dinh Diep et al.     A loss-of-function approach in mice is used to show that the methylcytosine dioxygenase Tet1 has a role in regulating meiosis and meiotic gene activation in female germ cells; Tet1 deficiency does not greatly affect genome-wide demethylation but has a more specific effect on the expression of a subset of meiotic genes.             Structure and function of the initially transcribing RNA polymerase II–TFIIB complex ▶     Sarah Sainsbury, Jürgen Niesser & Patrick Cramer     Crystal structures of the Pol II–TFIIB complex in free form and bound by the DNA template and a short RNA product are reported; the latter complex represents an initially transcribing complex, a critical transient state in the pathway from transcription initiation to elongation.             RNAi triggered by specialized machinery silences developmental genes and retrotransposons ▶     Soichiro Yamanaka, Sameet Mehta, Francisca E. Reyes-Turcu, Fanglei Zhuang, Ryan T. Fuchs, Yikang Rong et al.     In the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe RNA interference (RNAi) machinery promotes heterochromatin assembly and silencing of centromeric repeats; here it is shown that RNAi participates in silencing other genomic regions, such as sexual differentiation genes and retrotransposons, and this process is regulated by developmental and environmental signals.             Articles and Letters                   Analyses of pig genomes provide insight into porcine demography and evolution  OPEN ▶     Martien A. M. Groenen, Alan L. Archibald, Hirohide Uenishi, Christopher K. Tuggle, Yasuhiro Takeuchi et al.     This study presents the assembly and analysis of the genome sequence of a female domestic Duroc pig and a comparison with the genomes of wild and domestic pigs from Europe and Asia; the results shed light on the evolutionary relationship between European and Asian wild boars.             Pancreatic cancer genomes reveal aberrations in axon guidance pathway genes ▶     Andrew V. Biankin, Nicola Waddell, Karin S. Kassahn, Marie-Claude Gingras, Lakshmi B. Muthuswamy et al.     Exome sequencing and copy number analysis are used to define genomic aberrations in early sporadic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma; among the findings are mutations in genes involved in chromatin modification and DNA damage repair, and frequent and diverse somatic aberrations in genes known as embryonic regulators of axon guidance.             Broad and potent neutralization of HIV-1 by a gp41-specific human antibody ▶     Jinghe Huang, Gilad Ofek, Leo Laub, Mark K. Louder, Nicole A. Doria-Rose et al.     A novel neutralizing antibody from a healthy HIV-1-infected donor that is specific for the membrane proximal region of gp41 is reported; the antibody has high potency and breadth, is not autoreactive and does not bind phospholipids.             The Mu transpososome structure sheds light on DDE recombinase evolution ▶     Sherwin P. Montaño, Ying Z. Pigli & Phoebe A. Rice     The structure of the bacteriophage transposase MuA bound to DNA sequences that mimic both the transposon ends and the target DNA ends is solved; the picture of this synaptic complex illustrates the intricacy of Mu transposition, and exposes the architectural diversity among DDE recombinases in complex with substrate DNAs.             The global diversity of birds in space and time ▶     W. Jetz, G. H. Thomas, J. B. Joy, K. Hartmann & A. O. Mooers     The authors analyse the tempo and geography of diversification for all 10,000 species of birds: diversification has sped up over time, bursts are spread out across the tree and across the world, and high rates are not concentrated in the tropics.             An ultraviolet-radiation-independent pathway to melanoma carcinogenesis in the red hair/fair skin background ▶     Devarati Mitra, Xi Luo, Ann Morgan, Jin Wang, Mai P. Hoang et al.     Individuals with the red hair/fair skin phenotype usually carry a polymorphism in the gene encoding the melanocortin 1 receptor (Mc1r) that results in the production of pigment containing a high pheomelanin-to-eumelanin ratio; here it is shown in a mouse model that inactivation of Mc1r promotes melanoma formation in the presence of the Braf oncogene, thus suggesting that pheomelanin synthesis is carcinogenic by an ultraviolet-radiation-independent mechanism.             Long non-coding antisense RNA controls Uchl1 translation through an embedded SINEB2 repeat ▶     Claudia Carrieri, Laura Cimatti, Marta Biagioli, Anne Beugnet, Silvia Zucchelli et al.     Antisense Uchl1, a long non-coding RNA that is an antisense transcript for the Uchl1 gene, upregulates UCHL1 protein levels through the combined action of an overlapping sequence at its 5′ end and an embedded SINEB2 element.             Serine is a natural ligand and allosteric activator of pyruvate kinase M2 ▶     Barbara Chaneton, Petra Hillmann, Liang Zheng, Agnès C. L. Martin, Oliver D. K. Maddocks et al.     The M2 isoform of pyruvate kinase (PKM2) is a key glycolytic enzyme that is overexpressed in cancer cells; here, serine is shown to bind to and directly activate PKM2, and the resulting reduction in enzyme activity under serine-deprivation conditions is shown to lead to the diversion of glucose-derived carbon to promote serine biosynthesis required for cell proliferation.             A vaccine strategy that protects against genital herpes by establishing local memory T cells ▶     Haina Shin & Akiko Iwasaki     A genital herpes simplex vaccine strategy of immunization using attenuated virus with peripheral local chemokine application can establish a population of protective tissue-resident memory T cells.             A bimodular mechanism of calcium control in eukaryotes ▶     Henning Tidow, Lisbeth R. Poulsen, Antonina Andreeva, Michael Knudsen, Kim L. Hein et al.     Detailed characterization of the regulatory domain of a plasma-membrane Ca2+-ATPase — a calcium pump — in complex with calmodulin results in a two-step structural model that explains how calmodulin-mediated regulation of pump activation affords highly responsive control over the intracellular calcium concentration in eukaryotes.             Endothelial cell expression of haemoglobin α regulates nitric oxide signalling ▶     Adam C. Straub, Alexander W. Lohman, Marie Billaud, Scott R. Johnstone, Scott T. Dwyer et al.     This study presents a new model for the regulation of nitric oxide signalling in endothelial cells; the oxidation state of endothelial haemoglobin α, controlled by cytochrome B5 reductase 3, regulates nitric oxide bioactivity and diffusion towards its vascular smooth muscle targets.             Structural insight into the type-II mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenases ▶     Yue Feng, Wenfei Li, Jian Li, Jiawei Wang, Jingpeng Ge et al.     Analysis of the respective crystal structures of the yeast single-component type-II NADH dehydrogenase Ndi1 in its substrate-free form and when bound to NADH, ubiquinone and NADH–ubiquinone shows that Ndi1 homodimerization through its carboxy-terminal domain is critical for its catalytic activity and membrane targeting.             News & Views                   Evolutionary biology: Birds of a feather ▶     Robert E. Ricklefs & Mark Pagel             Animal behaviour: Personality in the wild ▶     Alison M. Bell             Cancer: Complexion matters ▶     Mizuho Fukunaga-Kalabis & Meenhard Herlyn             Vascular biology: Nitric oxide caught in traffic ▶     Mark T. Gladwin & Daniel B. Kim-Shapiro             Circadian rhythms: Depression brought to light ▶     Lisa M. Monteggia & Ege T. Kavalali             Corrigenda                   Corrigendum: Yeretssian et al. reply ▶     Garabet Yeretssian, Ricardo G. Correa, Karine Doiron, Patrick Fitzgerald, Christopher P. Dillon et al.             Corrigendum: CD95 promotes tumour growth ▶     Lina Chen, Sun-Mi Park, Alexei V. Tumanov, Annika Hau, Kenjiro Sawada et al.             Research Highlights                   Zoology: Thick-skinned but sensitive | Physiology: How cold triggers fat formation | Neuroscience: Blind reading with sounds | Animal behaviour: Wrens learn as embryos in the egg | Neurotechnology: Brain–machine does the two-step | Neuroscience: When neurons mature too early         NEWS & COMMENT           Save scientific sites | Chelation-therapy heart trial draws fire | Pig geneticists go the whole hog | Investment relief for biotech sector | Berlin aims to create research powerhouse | Reproductive biology: Fertile mind | Biotechnology: Bring more rigour to GM research | Conservation: Shoring up the wonders | Books in brief | Lab animals: Standardize the diet for zebrafish model Sam Penglase, Mari Moren & Kristin Hamre | Collaboration: Biomedical network in South America Eduardo Arzt | Human behaviour: Environmental stress seen since antiquity Frank Vereecken | Edward Donnall Thomas (1920–2012)             More Biological Sciences ▶                         Nature Outlook: Autism Its causes, treatments, and definition remain to be pieced together. Access the Outlook free online for six months. Produced with support from: Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation, The Simons Foundation, Roche, Autism Speaks, The Autism Science Foundation               Chemical Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Regulation of ISWI involves inhibitory modules antagonized by nucleosomal epitopes ▶     Cedric R. Clapier & Bradley R. Cairns     Two separate regulatory regions on the Drosophila chromatin remodeller ISWI are defined, AutoN and NegC, which negatively regulate ATP hydrolysis and the coupling of ATP hydrolysis to productive DNA translocation, respectively; epitopes on nucleosomes activate ISWI by inhibiting these negative regulatory domains, ensuring that remodelling occurs only in the appropriate chromatin context.             Articles and Letters                   The Mu transpososome structure sheds light on DDE recombinase evolution ▶     Sherwin P. Montaño, Ying Z. Pigli & Phoebe A. Rice     The structure of the bacteriophage transposase MuA bound to DNA sequences that mimic both the transposon ends and the target DNA ends is solved; the picture of this synaptic complex illustrates the intricacy of Mu transposition, and exposes the architectural diversity among DDE recombinases in complex with substrate DNAs.             Serine is a natural ligand and allosteric activator of pyruvate kinase M2 ▶     Barbara Chaneton, Petra Hillmann, Liang Zheng, Agnès C. L. Martin, Oliver D. K. Maddocks et al.     The M2 isoform of pyruvate kinase (PKM2) is a key glycolytic enzyme that is overexpressed in cancer cells; here, serine is shown to bind to and directly activate PKM2, and the resulting reduction in enzyme activity under serine-deprivation conditions is shown to lead to the diversion of glucose-derived carbon to promote serine biosynthesis required for cell proliferation.             A bimodular mechanism of calcium control in eukaryotes ▶     Henning Tidow, Lisbeth R. Poulsen, Antonina Andreeva, Michael Knudsen, Kim L. Hein et al.     Detailed characterization of the regulatory domain of a plasma-membrane Ca2+-ATPase — a calcium pump — in complex with calmodulin results in a two-step structural model that explains how calmodulin-mediated regulation of pump activation affords highly responsive control over the intracellular calcium concentration in eukaryotes.             Structural insight into the type-II mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenases ▶     Yue Feng, Wenfei Li, Jian Li, Jiawei Wang, Jingpeng Ge et al.     Analysis of the respective crystal structures of the yeast single-component type-II NADH dehydrogenase Ndi1 in its substrate-free form and when bound to NADH, ubiquinone and NADH–ubiquinone shows that Ndi1 homodimerization through its carboxy-terminal domain is critical for its catalytic activity and membrane targeting.             Corrigendum                   Corrigendum: Yeretssian et al. reply ▶     Garabet Yeretssian, Ricardo G. Correa, Karine Doiron, Patrick Fitzgerald, Christopher P. Dillon et al.           NEWS & COMMENT           Chelation-therapy heart trial draws fire             More Chemical Sciences ▶               Physical Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Low-temperature physics: A chilling effect for molecules ▶     John F. Barry & David DeMille             Rapid coupling between ice volume and polar temperature over the past 150,000 years ▶     K. M. Grant, E. J. Rohling, M. Bar-Matthews, A. Ayalon, M. Medina-Elizalde et al.     A new approach to dating a continuous sea-level record, using speleothem U–Th ages, shows that past variations in global ice volume occurred within centuries of polar climate change, with rates of sea-level rise reaching at least 1 m per century.             Sisyphus cooling of electrically trapped polyatomic molecules ▶     Martin Zeppenfeld, Barbara G. U. Englert, Rosa Glöckner, Alexander Prehn, Manuel Mielenz et al.     A general method of cooling polyatomic molecules to ultracold temperatures is reported; the optoelectrical cooling technique removes kinetic energy via a Sisyphus effect, effectively causing the molecules to continually ‘climb’ a hill of potential energy.             Articles and Letters                   A primordial origin for misalignments between stellar spin axes and planetary orbits ▶     Konstantin Batygin     Modelling shows that the misaligned orbits of ‘hot Jupiters’ can follow naturally from disk migration in binary systems whose orbital plane is uncorrelated with the spin axes of the individual stars.             Quantum-dot spin–photon entanglement via frequency downconversion to telecom wavelength ▶     Kristiaan De Greve, Leo Yu, Peter L. McMahon, Jason S. Pelc, Chandra M. Natarajan et al.     Entanglement of the spin of an electron in a semiconductor quantum dot with a single photon is reported, and verified by means of time-resolved frequency downconversion to a telecommunications wavelength; this process is an essential requirement for future quantum networks.             Observation of entanglement between a quantum dot spin and a single photon ▶     W. B. Gao, P. Fallahi, E. Togan, J. Miguel-Sanchez & A. Imamoglu     Fast, single-photon detection enables the observation of entanglement between a stationary quantum bit (a single quantum dot spin) and a propagating quantum bit (a single photon), marking a first step towards the implementation of a quantum network with nodes consisting of semiconductor spin quantum bits.             Spontaneous motion in hierarchically assembled active matter ▶     Tim Sanchez, Daniel T. N. Chen, Stephen J. DeCamp, Michael Heymann & Zvonimir Dogic     Active materials are hierarchically assembled, starting from extensile microtubule bundles, to form emulsions with unexpected collective biomimetic properties such as autonomous motility.             Little change in global drought over the past 60 years ▶     Justin Sheffield, Eric F. Wood & Michael L. Roderick     A physically based approach to drought modelling shows that there has been little change in drought from 1950 to 2008, contradicting previous work that suggested an increase in recent years.             Slowdown of the Walker circulation driven by tropical Indo-Pacific warming ▶     Hiroki Tokinaga, Shang-Ping Xie, Clara Deser, Yu Kosaka & Yuko M. Okumura     Changes in the Walker circulation, an enormous east–west atmospheric circulation over the equatorial Pacific Ocean, are shown to be driven by changes in zonal sea surface temperature gradients rather than by changes in the hydrological cycle, as previously suggested.             News & Views                   Active matter: Spontaneous flows and self-propelled drops ▶     M. Cristina Marchetti             Quantum physics: Putting a spin on photon entanglement ▶     Sophia E. Economou             Low-temperature physics: A chilling effect for molecules ▶     John F. Barry & David DeMille             Research Highlights                   Materials: Counting loops in gels | Astronomy: More co-orbiters for Neptune         NEWS & COMMENT           Simulation: Quantum leaps | Computing: Secure the Internet | Books in brief | Science fiction: Curtains for space opera? | Computer science: Virtually there             More Physical Sciences ▶               Earth & Environmental Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Rapid coupling between ice volume and polar temperature over the past 150,000 years ▶     K. M. Grant, E. J. Rohling, M. Bar-Matthews, A. Ayalon, M. Medina-Elizalde et al.     A new approach to dating a continuous sea-level record, using speleothem U–Th ages, shows that past variations in global ice volume occurred within centuries of polar climate change, with rates of sea-level rise reaching at least 1 m per century.             Articles and Letters                   A primordial origin for misalignments between stellar spin axes and planetary orbits ▶     Konstantin Batygin     Modelling shows that the misaligned orbits of ‘hot Jupiters’ can follow naturally from disk migration in binary systems whose orbital plane is uncorrelated with the spin axes of the individual stars.             Little change in global drought over the past 60 years ▶     Justin Sheffield, Eric F. Wood & Michael L. Roderick     A physically based approach to drought modelling shows that there has been little change in drought from 1950 to 2008, contradicting previous work that suggested an increase in recent years.             Slowdown of the Walker circulation driven by tropical Indo-Pacific warming ▶     Hiroki Tokinaga, Shang-Ping Xie, Clara Deser, Yu Kosaka & Yuko M. Okumura     Changes in the Walker circulation, an enormous east–west atmospheric circulation over the equatorial Pacific Ocean, are shown to be driven by changes in zonal sea surface temperature gradients rather than by changes in the hydrological cycle, as previously suggested.             News & Views                   Climate science: Historical drought trends revisited ▶     Sonia I. Seneviratne           NEWS & COMMENT           America's carbon compromise | Be persuasive. Be brave. Be arrested (if necessary) | Obama reasserts research focus | Snow survey hopes for avalanche of data             More Earth & Environmental Sciences ▶                         nature.com Open Innovation Pavilion The Pavilion offers users the ability to solve scientific Challenges for a chance to win up to $1 Million. Click here to see stories from past Solvers who have already won Challenges.               Careers & Jobs ▲top               Immigration: Waiting for green ▶     A US 'green-card' visa can open up career possibilities. But getting one requires stamina — and a dash of luck.                   UK recruitment drive ▶     Government investment yields academic-research hires.                   Teachers without PhDs ▶     Study reveals dearth of doctoral degrees.                   International enrolment ▶     Graduate students heading for the US on the rise.                   Careers related news & comment                   Chelation-therapy heart trial draws fire | Investment relief for biotech sector | Berlin aims to create research powerhouse | Computing: Secure the Internet | Lab animals: Standardize the diet for zebrafish model Sam Penglase, Mari Moren & Kristin Hamre | University of California: Union improves postdocs' rights Neal Sweeney             naturejobs.com Science jobs of the week       Technology Development Specialist     National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID)            Postdoctoral Fellow     University of Minnesota            Assistant Professor to Forest Products and Chemical Engineering     Chalmers Univerity of Technology            Professor / Associate Professor (Reader) in Oral and Dental Health Research     Plymouth University          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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