Nature contents: 19 December 2013

Can't view this email? Click here to view in your browser.     Volume 504 Number 7480      nature •Visit Nature homepage •Subscribe to Nature •View Table of Contents The science that matters. Every week.             Unlocking the secrets of genetics FAPESP research center has identified more than a dozen genes responsible for diseases and have been developed tests for 45 of them Scientists discover infection control mechanism Sign up for FAPESP's free weekly newsletter with the latest developments of Brazilian science     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     Special: 2013 Review of the Year     Shutdowns, lethal viruses, typhoons and meteorites — much of this year's science news seemed to come straight from the set of a Hollywood disaster movie. But there were plenty of feel-good moments, too. Space exploration hit a new high, cash poured in to investigate that most cryptic of human organs, the brain, and huge leaps were made in stem-cell therapies and the treatment of HIV. Here, captured in soundbites, statistics and summaries, is everything you need to know about the science that mattered in 2013. ▼ more       Specials - Outlook: Cancer Immunotherapy     A groundswell of research on the immune system is yielding a deeper understanding of how cancer progresses and offering new ways to stop it. As a result of these efforts, a range of cancer therapies are under development that work by turning our own immune cells against tumours. ▼ more       Biological Sciences More Biological sciences ▼   Inconsistency in large pharmacogenomic studies   Two large-scale datasets recently determined the sensitivity of many cancer cell lines to drugs, and integrated the data with genomic features, such as mutations and gene expression profiles. This study compares the two studies and finds that while the gene expression data are largely concordant between them, drug sensitivity measures and subsequently their association with genomic features are discordant. The authors call for standardization of drug response measurements as a step towards personalized cancer medicine.           "We are at the beginning of the largest revolution in scientific publishing since Gutenberg invented printing." Read our special interview with Alex Hansen, professor of theoretical physics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Field Chief Editor of Frontiers in Physics           Earth & Environmental Sciences More Earth & Environmental sciences ▼   Rapid local acceleration of relativistic radiation-belt electrons by magnetospheric chorus   The magnetic storm of 9 October 2012 has been analysed in detail using the array of instruments onboard NASA's two Van Allen Probes, launched in 2012 to study Earth's magnetosphere. The nature of the force that accelerates electrons trapped in Earth's radiation belts has been a topic of much debate. Data from Van Allen probe A, together with modelling studies, identify the likely source of accelerating energy as chorus scattering, an effect caused locally by structured wave formations.       Biological Sciences More Biological sciences ▼   Attention to eyes is present but in decline in 2–6-month-old infants later diagnosed with autism   Infants who go on to develop autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) may exhibit a decline in eye contact within the first 2 to 6 months of life. This finding emerges from a study of 110 infants, 13 of whom were later diagnosed as having ASD. The results may represent some of the earliest manifestations of autism symptoms, but need to be replicated in a larger independent sample before being considered a potential diagnostic marker.       Podcast & Video     In this week's bumper Christmas podcast: comedian Andy Zaltzman joins the Nature Podcast team to talk pickles, Neanderthals, and the biggest science stories of 2013. In our latest video feature Carley Rutledge is taking part in a trial for a cancer vaccine. She talks about her experience, while her doctors explain how the personalised vaccine works.         Special - 2013 Review of the Year ▲top               News                   365 days: 2013 in review ▶     From the US shutdown to breakthroughs in stem-cell therapies, the past 12 months have seen fluctuating fortunes for science.             365 days: Images of the year ▶     Clear brains, hydrogen bonds and gas expelled from galaxies are among the most striking images of 2013.             Feature                   365 days: Nature's 10 ▶     Ten people who mattered this year.             Comment                   Particle physics: Together to the next frontier ▶     As emerging players jostle old ambitions, Nigel Lockyer calls for the next generation of particle-physics projects to be coordinated on a global scale.             Conservation: The Endangered Species Act at 40 ▶     On the anniversary of a landmark piece of US legislation, four experts weigh in on what has worked and what needs to change.             News and Views                   2013 Editors' choice ▶     Adapted extracts from selected News & Views articles published this year.               News & Comment Read daily news coverage▶ ▲top               THIS WEEK           Editorials                   Stem-cell fiasco must be stopped ▶     In the public interest, the Italian health minister should resolve the ongoing uncertainty over a government trial of a controversial therapy.             Sink or swim? ▶     A rethink on monitoring land-use change is needed to estimate effects on global warming.             Futures redux ▶     Can you tell a sci-fi tale in just 200 characters? Then the Nature Futures competition is for you.             World View                   Academics should not remain silent on hacking ▶     The revelation that US and British spy agencies have undermined a commonly used encryption code should alarm researchers, says Charles Arthur.             Seven Days                   Seven days: 13–19 December 2013 ▶     The week in science: China lands rover on the Moon, Israel joins CERN, and the number of animals used for scientific purposes in the European Union falls.             NEWS IN FOCUS           Seabed scars raise questions over carbon-storage plan ▶     Unexpected fractures above the world's biggest storage site could provide path for leaks.             EU fishing vote foments anger ▶     Failure to impose a ban on deep-sea fishing jeopardizes the future of vulnerable ecosystems, say researchers.             Quandary over Soviet croplands ▶     Researchers ponder whether Eastern Europe's large areas of abandoned land should be replanted or left as a carbon sink.             Charitable grants found lacking ▶     Foundations increasingly fund biomedical research, but are reluctant to pay overhead costs.             COMMENT           Books and Arts                   Chemistry: A festive ferment ▶     Harold McGee surveys a seething array of microbially transformed treats — from beard beer and grasshopper sauce to extreme herring and armpit cheese.             Education: Fairylands of science ▶     Melanie Keene revisits two Victorian children's science primers that harnessed interest in the supernatural.             Correspondence                   Policy tips: six more practical pointers Kevin Padian | Policy tips: heed risks of uncertainty Andrew A. Rosenberg | Reproducibility: Life sciences lag in stringent standards Leonard Freedman | Health: EU fructose claim ignores risks Igor Pravst             Obituary                   Adrienne Asch (1946–2013) ▶     Bioethicist who fought for disability rights in reproductive technologies.                 nature.com webcasts Macmillan Science Communication presents a custom webcast: Pioneering advances in the next generation sequencing clinical research workflow.   Wednesday December 18th at 8am PST / 11am EST / 4pm GMT / 5pm CET   Register for the free webcast followed by our live Q & A session    Sponsored by:  Agilent         Biological Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Cell biology: The beginning of the end ▶     Judith Campisi             Malaria: Resistance nailed ▶     Christopher V. Plowe             Archaic humans: Four makes a party ▶     Ewan Birney, Jonathan K. Pritchard             CNVs conferring risk of autism or schizophrenia affect cognition in controls ▶     Hreinn Stefansson, Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, Stacy Steinberg et al.     Rare copy-number variants (CNVs) conferring risk of schizophrenia or autism affect fecundity of carriers in Iceland, and carriers of these CNVs who do not suffer disease or have not been diagnosed with intellectual disability show phenotypes in brain structure and cognitive abilities between those of non-carrier controls and patients with schizophrenia.             A molecular marker of artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria ▶     Frédéric Ariey, Benoit Witkowski, Chanaki Amaratunga et al.     A molecular marker is required to monitor artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum parasites in southeast Asia; here mutations in K13-propeller are associated with artemisinin resistance in vitro and in vivo and also cluster in Cambodian provinces where resistance is prevalent.             The complete genome sequence of a Neanderthal from the Altai Mountains ▶     Kay Prüfer, Fernando Racimo, Nick Patterson et al.     A complete genome sequence is presented of a female Neanderthal from Siberia, providing information about interbreeding between close relatives and uncovering gene flow events among Neanderthals, Denisovans and early modern humans, as well as establishing substitutions that became fixed in modern humans after their separation from the ancestors of Neanderthals and Denisovans.             Immunological and virological mechanisms of vaccine-mediated protection against SIV and HIV ▶     Mario Roederer, Brandon F. Keele, Stephen D. Schmidt et al.     The analysis of multiple SIV vaccine regimens in macaques leads to the identification of a key two-amino-acid signature that confers resistance to neutralizing antibodies; a similar mechanism of immune escape is shown to operate in HIV and may explain the limited efficacy seen in HIV vaccine trials.             Cytokinin signalling inhibitory fields provide robustness to phyllotaxis ▶     Fabrice Besnard, Yassin Refahi, Valérie Morin et al.     The regularly spaced arrangement of plant organs around the stem known as phyllotaxis depends on auxin-based inhibitory fields; this study identifies another hormone-based inhibitory field downstream of auxin which is generated by movement of the cytokinin signalling inhibitor ARABIDOPSIS HISTIDINE PHOSPHOTRANSFER PROTEIN 6 and regulates the periodicity of organ production.             Mycobacteria manipulate macrophage recruitment through coordinated use of membrane lipids ▶     C. J. Cambier, Kevin K. Takaki, Ryan P. Larson et al.     The bacteria responsible for causing tuberculosis in mammals and zebrafish are shown to preferentially recruit and infect permissive macrophages while evading microbicidal ones.             Structural basis of lentiviral subversion of a cellular protein degradation pathway ▶     David Schwefel, Harriet C. T. Groom, Virginie C. Boucherit et al.     The crystal structure of a ternary complex of the lentiviral accessory protein Vpx with the E3 ligase substrate adaptor DCAF1 and the HIV-1 restriction factor SAMHD1 shows how Vpx recruits SAMHD1 to the cell's ubiquitination machinery.             Icosahedral bacteriophage ΦX174 forms a tail for DNA transport during infection ▶     Lei Sun, Lindsey N. Young, Xinzheng Zhang et al.     Here, the atomic structure of a virally encoded, cell-wall-spanning, DNA-translocating conduit from bacteriophage ΦX174 is described.             The genome of the recently domesticated crop plant sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) OPEN ▶     Juliane C. Dohm, André E. Minoche, Daniela Holtgräwe et al.     A full genome sequence is presented of sugar beet Beta vulgaris, the first plant belonging to Caryophyllales to have its genome sequenced; spinach was sequenced to enable inter-clade comparisons, and intraspecific variation was analysed by comparative genomics of a progenitor of all beet crops and additional sugar beet accessions.             Glutamine methylation in histone H2A is an RNA-polymerase-I-dedicated modification ▶     Peter Tessarz, Helena Santos-Rosa, Sam C. Robson et al.     A description of a new histone modification, methylation of glutamine, on histone H2A in yeast and human cells.             Genome-wide dissection of the quorum sensing signalling pathway in Trypanosoma brucei  ▶     Binny M. Mony, Paula MacGregor, Alasdair Ivens et al.     Here a genome-wide RNAi library screen is used to identify components of the signalling pathway that allow transformation of Trypanosoma brucei spp., the protozoan parasite responsible for important human and livestock diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, from proliferative slender forms to arrested stumpy forms which are transmitted to the tsetse fly vector.             RNA viruses can hijack vertebrate microRNAs to suppress innate immunity ▶     Derek W. Trobaugh, Christina L. Gardner, Chengqun Sun et al.     Here it is proposed that RNA viruses can adapt to use the antiviral properties of microRNAs to limit viral replication and suppress innate immunity in particular cell types, and this restriction can lead to exacerbation of disease severity.             C/EBPα poises B cells for rapid reprogramming into induced pluripotent stem cells ▶     Bruno Di Stefano, Jose Luis Sardina, Chris van Oevelen et al.     A pulse of C/EBPα followed by overexpression of the transcription factors Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and Myc leads to fast and very efficient reprogramming of B cell precursors to induced pluripotent stem cells; C/EBPα facilitates transient chromatin accessibility and accelerates expression of pluripotency genes through a mechanism that involves activation of the Tet2 enzyme.             Genome-wide probing of RNA structure reveals active unfolding of mRNA structures in vivo  ▶     Silvi Rouskin, Meghan Zubradt, Stefan Washietl et al.     Understanding how RNA structure influences its function has been hampered by a lack of approaches that can accurately quantify RNA structure in vivo; here, RNA structure is revealed on a global scale and with nucleotide-level resolution, showing that there is less structure within cells than expected from in vitro and in silico analyses.             Articles and Letters                   Astrocytes mediate synapse elimination through MEGF10 and MERTK pathways ▶     Won-Suk Chung, Laura E. Clarke, Gordon X. Wang et al.     This study describes comprehensive synaptic engulfment by astrocytes, mediating synapse elimination in an activity-dependent manner; this elimination process involves the MEGF10 and MERTK phagocytic pathways and persists into adulthood, with mutant mice that lack these pathways in astrocytes exhibiting a failure to refine retinogeniculate connections during development.             DWARF 53 acts as a repressor of strigolactone signalling in rice ▶     Liang Jiang, Xue Liu, Guosheng Xiong et al.     Strigolactones (SLs), key regulators of plant growth, are believed to mediate their responses through a proposed receptor (D14) that interacts with an F-box protein (D3) to form a D14–SCFD3 protein complex; here the perception of SLs by the D14–SCFD3 complex and the control of gene expression are linked by the finding that DWARF 53, a repressor protein of SL signalling, interacts with the D14–SCFD3 complex and is ubiquitinated and degraded in a SL-dependent manner.             D14–SCFD3-dependent degradation of D53 regulates strigolactone signalling ▶     Feng Zhou, Qibing Lin, Lihong Zhu et al.     Strigolactones (SLs), key regulators of plant growth, are believed to mediate their responses through a proposed receptor (D14) that interacts with an F-box protein (D3) to form a D14–SCFD3 protein complex; here the perception of SLs by the D14–SCFD3 complex and the control of gene expression are linked by the finding that DWARF 53, a repressor protein of SL function, interacts with the D14–SCFD3 complex and is ubiquitinated and degraded in a SL-dependent manner.             Attention to eyes is present but in decline in 2–6-month-old infants later diagnosed with autism ▶     Warren Jones, Ami Klin     A prospective longitudinal study identifies the earliest known indicator of social disability in human infancy: decline in attention to others' eyes in infants who are later diagnosed with autism; the decline is evident already within the first 2 to 6 months of life, which reveals the early unfolding of the disorder but also offers a promising opportunity for the future of early intervention.             Dysfunctional nitric oxide signalling increases risk of myocardial infarction ▶     Jeanette Erdmann, Klaus Stark, Ulrike B. Esslinger et al.     Two private, heterozygous mutations in two functionally related genes, GUCY1A3 and CCT7, are identified in an extended family with myocardial infarction; these genes encode proteins that work together to inhibit platelet activation after nitric oxide stimulation, suggesting a link between impaired nitric oxide signalling and myocardial infarction risk.             Antidiabetic effects of glucokinase regulatory protein small-molecule disruptors ▶     David J. Lloyd, David J. St Jean Jr, Robert J. M. Kurzeja et al.     Two small-molecule disruptors of the glucokinase–glucokinase-regulatory-protein complex, AMG-1694 and AMG-3969, are identified that decrease blood glucose levels in various models of hyperglycaemic rodents.             Themis sets the signal threshold for positive and negative selection in T-cell development ▶     Guo Fu, Javier Casas, Stephanie Rigaud et al.     This work shows that the Themis protein has a critical role in positive and negative thymocyte selection by dampening responses to low-affinity ligands but without affecting responses to high-affinity ligands, thus enabling positive selection of weakly self-reactive thymocytes.             Commensal microbe-derived butyrate induces the differentiation of colonic regulatory T cells ▶     Yukihiro Furusawa, Yuuki Obata, Shinji Fukuda et al.     The gut microbial metabolite butyrate is shown to induce the differentiation of colonic T regulatory cells in mice and to ameliorate the development of colitis; it also increases histone H3 acetylation at the Foxp3 promoter.             Metabolites produced by commensal bacteria promote peripheral regulatory T-cell generation ▶     Nicholas Arpaia, Clarissa Campbell, Xiying Fan et al.     In mice, provision of butyrate—a short-chain fatty acid produced by commensal microorganisms during starch fermentation—facilitates extrathymic generation and differentiation of Foxp3+ regulatory T cells, demonstrating that metabolic by-products are sensed by cells of the immune system and affect the balance between pro- and anti-inflammatory cells.             The heterotaxy gene GALNT11 glycosylates Notch to orchestrate cilia type and laterality ▶     Marko T. Boskovski, Shiaulou Yuan, Nis Borbye Pedersen et al.     The O-glycosylation enzyme Galnt11 has an important role in heterotaxy, a disorder of left–right body patterning or laterality: Galnt11 modulates Notch signalling which alters cilia types at the embryonic left–right organizer, therefore determining laterality.             Role of Tet1 in erasure of genomic imprinting ▶     Shinpei Yamaguchi, Li Shen, Yuting Liu et al.     This study establishes an important role for the enzyme Tet1 in erasing genomic imprinting in vivo — mice with a knockout of paternal Tet1 give rise to progeny with imprinting defects and associated growth and development defects, which leads to early embryonic lethality; furthermore, analysis of the DNA methylation dynamics in reprogramming primordial germ cells (PGCs) suggests that Tet1 is required at a late stage of the reprogramming process, in the second wave of DNA demethylation in PGCs.             High-resolution Xist binding maps reveal two-step spreading during X-chromosome inactivation ▶     Matthew D. Simon, Stefan F. Pinter, Rui Fang et al.     During mammalian X-chromosome inactivation, the Xist long noncoding RNA coats the future inactive X chromosome and recruits polycomb repressive complex 2 to a nucleation site, but how Xist spreads silencing across the entire X chromosome is unclear; here high-resolution maps of Xist binding sites across the X chromosome are generated and show that Xist does not spread across the inactive X chromosome uniformly but in two steps, initially targeting gene-rich islands before later spreading to intervening gene-poor domains.             Inconsistency in large pharmacogenomic studies ▶     Benjamin Haibe-Kains, Nehme El-Hachem, Nicolai Juul Birkbak et al.     This Analysis compares two large-scale pharmacogenomic data sets that catalogued the sensitivity of a large number of cancer cell lines to approved and potential drugs, and finds that whereas the gene expression data are largely concordant between the two studies, the reported drug sensitivity measures and subsequently their association with genomic features are highly discordant.             News & Views                   Cancer: Discrepancies in drug sensitivity ▶     John N. Weinstein, Philip L. Lorenzi             Plant biology: Witchcraft and destruction ▶     Steven M. Smith             2013 Editors' choice ▶             Cell biology: The beginning of the end ▶     Judith Campisi             Malaria: Resistance nailed ▶     Christopher V. Plowe             Archaic humans: Four makes a party ▶     Ewan Birney, Jonathan K. Pritchard             Corrigenda                   Corrigendum: Membrane potential dynamics of grid cells ▶     Cristina Domnisoru, Amina A. Kinkhabwala, David W. Tank             Corrigendum: Primary forests are irreplaceable for sustaining tropical biodiversity ▶     Luke Gibson, Tien Ming Lee, Lian Pin Koh et al.             Retraction                   Retraction: Dance reveals symmetry especially in young men ▶     William M. Brown, Lee Cronk, Keith Grochow et al.             Research Highlights                   Animal behaviour: Macho chameleons shine the brightest | Neuroscience: Cell junk hinders nerve regrowth | Molecular biology: Microbes meddle with microRNA | Cancer: Invasive tumours follow the leader | Evolutionary biology: Biofilms block bacterial cheaters | Physiology: A road block for blood vessels | Microbiology: Bacteria adapt to diseased lungs         NEWS & COMMENT           365 days: 2013 in review | 365 days: Images of the year | 365 days: Nature's 10 | Chemistry: A festive ferment | Health: EU fructose claim ignores risks | Adrienne Asch (1946–2013) | Stem-cell fiasco must be stopped             More Biological Sciences ▶                 Empower your cancer research with our end-to-end patient-derived xenografts solution  First-in-kind to predict somatic mutations under the normal-absent condition. Comprehensive cancer genome database for cross-validation and auto-correction of genetic variants. Accelerate your translational research and drug discovery. Learn more...         Chemical Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Asymmetric synthesis from terminal alkenes by cascades of diboration and cross-coupling ▶     Scott N. Mlynarski, Christopher H. Schuster, James P. Morken     A single-flask, catalytic enantioselective conversion of terminal alkenes into a number of chiral products is described: this tandem diboration/cross-coupling reaction works on a broad range of substrates, requires small amounts of commercially available catalysts, and provides products in high yield and high selectivity.           NEWS & COMMENT           Education: Fairylands of science | Seabed scars raise questions over carbon-storage plan             More Chemical Sciences ▶               Physical Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Quantum physics: An atomic SQUID ▶     Charles A. Sackett             Dislocations in bilayer graphene ▶     Benjamin Butz, Christian Dolle, Florian Niekiel et al.     Basal-plane dislocations, identified as fundamental defects in bilayer graphene by transmission electron microscopy and atomistic simulations, reveal striking size effects, most notably a pronounced buckling of the graphene membrane, which drastically alters the strain state and is of key importance for the material's mechanical and electronic properties.             Asymmetric synthesis from terminal alkenes by cascades of diboration and cross-coupling ▶     Scott N. Mlynarski, Christopher H. Schuster, James P. Morken     A single-flask, catalytic enantioselective conversion of terminal alkenes into a number of chiral products is described: this tandem diboration/cross-coupling reaction works on a broad range of substrates, requires small amounts of commercially available catalysts, and provides products in high yield and high selectivity.             Articles and Letters                   Rapid local acceleration of relativistic radiation-belt electrons by magnetospheric chorus ▶     R. M. Thorne, W. Li, B. Ni et al.     High-resolution measurements of electrons obtained by satellite during the geomagnetic storm of 9 October 2012 together with a data-driven global wave model are analysed to show that scattering by a magnetospheric electromagnetic emission, known as 'chorus', can explain the temporal evolution of the observed increase in relativistic electron flux.             Dissipative production of a maximally entangled steady state of two quantum bits ▶     Y. Lin, J. P. Gaebler, F. Reiter et al.     Engineered dissipation is used to deterministically produce and stabilize entanglement between two trapped-ion quantum bits, independently of their initial states; the entanglement is stabilized even in the presence of experimental noise and decoherence.             Autonomously stabilized entanglement between two superconducting quantum bits ▶     S. Shankar, M. Hatridge, Z. Leghtas et al.     An entangled Bell state of two superconducting quantum bits can be stabilized for an arbitrary time using an autonomous feedback scheme, that is, one that does not require a complicated external error-correcting feedback loop.             News & Views                   Space physics: A fast lane in the magnetosphere ▶     Mary K. Hudson             2013 Editors' choice ▶             Quantum physics: An atomic SQUID ▶     Charles A. Sackett             Erratum                   Erratum: Exciting Andreev pairs in a superconducting atomic contact ▶     L. Bretheau, Ç. Ö. Girit, H. Pothier et al.             Research Highlights                   Astronomy: Galactic clouds swathed in fog | Electronics: Battery woven into textiles         NEWS & COMMENT           365 days: 2013 in review | 365 days: Nature's 10 | Particle physics: Together to the next frontier | Academics should not remain silent on hacking | Education: Fairylands of science | Seabed scars raise questions over carbon-storage plan             More Physical Sciences ▶               Earth & Environmental Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Increasing subtropical North Pacific Ocean nitrogen fixation since the Little Ice Age ▶     Owen A. Sherwood, Thomas P. Guilderson, Fabian C. Batista et al.     Despite a reduction in nutrient supply to the North Pacific subtropical gyre, it has undergone a recent increase in nitrogen fixation, and here records of nitrogen isotopes preserved in Hawaiian corals show that this is a trend that could be linked to climate change since the end of the Little Ice Age.             Amazon River carbon dioxide outgassing fuelled by wetlands ▶     Gwenaël Abril, Jean-Michel Martinez, L. Felipe Artigas et al.     Global carbon budgets reveal that inland waters emit substantial amounts of carbon, which is believed to originate from the terrestrial biosphere; however, here the carbon emitted from the Amazon River system is shown to originate from temporary wetlands in the flooded area itself, such as flooded forests.             Articles and Letters                   Worldwide acceleration of mountain erosion under a cooling climate ▶     Frédéric Herman, Diane Seward, Pierre G. Valla et al.     To establish what effect the Late Cenozoic cooling climate shift might have had on global erosion, inverse modelling of thermochronometric ages is used to show that erosion rates are increased by cooling, especially in glaciated mountain ranges.             News & Views                   Earth science: Erosion by cooling ▶     David Lundbek Egholm             Space physics: A fast lane in the magnetosphere ▶     Mary K. Hudson             2013 Editors' choice ▶             Research Highlights                   Geoscience: Volcanic lightning made in the lab         NEWS & COMMENT           Sink or swim? | Quandary over Soviet croplands | Conservation: The Endangered Species Act at 40 | Seabed scars raise questions over carbon-storage plan | EU fishing vote foments anger             More Earth & Environmental Sciences ▶               Specials - Nature Outlook: Cancer Immunotherapy Free Access ▲top               Cancer immunotherapy ▶     Lauren Gravitz             Calling cells to arms ▶     Increased understanding of immune- and tumour-cell biology has led to an explosion of research into potential ways to harness the immune system to kill cancer. By Emily Elert.             Bacteriology: A caring culture ▶     William Coley found a way to prompt the immune system to fight cancer over a century ago. After years of neglect, scientists are now seeking to replicate his success.             Drug development: Releasing the brakes ▶     Tumours can put a brake on the immune system, but new therapies work by removing these brakes. Now, researchers have to figure out how to use them most effectively.             Q&A: Evidence presenter ▶     Immunologist Karolina Palucka, at Baylor Institute for Immunology Research in Dallas, Texas, helped treat Nobel prizewinner Ralph Steinman's pancreatic cancer with dentritic cells — the cells he co-discovered. Here she explains the use of dentritic cells in cancer immunotherapy.             Medical imaging: Removing the blindfold ▶     Using a variety of creative imaging techniques, researchers are tracking the dynamic interactions of immune and cancer cells. Their results will guide drug development.             Adoptive cell therapy: Honing that killer instinct ▶     Genetically altered immune cells are helping to push life-threatening cancers into remission and generating a buzz.             Cancer vaccines: Material breach ▶     An experimental vaccine implanted beneath the skin could usher in biomaterial-based immunotherapies for cancer.                 Nature Outlook The Spine Combating paralysis with drugs, stem cells and robotics   Access the Outlook free online for six months.   Produced with support from: Mesoblast         Careers & Jobs ▲top               Higher education: On the lookout for true grit ▶     With the right mix of persistence and support structures, scholars from minority groups can thrive as they pursue their PhDs.                   Lack of female leaders ▶     Dearth of high-ranking women in UK academia misrepresents faculty members and students, says report.                   Focus on outcomes ▶     Basic research increasingly targets societal outcomes, finds study.                   Internet freedom ▶     Professors are entitled to speak out and publish on social media, argues report.             Careers related news & comment                   Seven days: 13–19 December 2013 | Education: Fairylands of science Melanie Keene | Reproducibility: Life sciences lag in stringent standards Leonard Freedman | Charitable grants found lacking Sara Reardon               naturejobs.com Science jobs of the week       PhD studentships at the Institute of Molecular and Experimental Medicine     Cardiff University            Head of Bioinformatics (m / f)     Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB)            PhD Placement with the Institute of Neurocience     Newcastle University            Engineer for Energy Efficient Clusters     Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación          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. Keep up-to-date with the latest sector trends, vote in our reader poll and sign-up to receive the monthly Naturejobs newsletter.           • Natureevents Directory featured events           natureevents directory featured events         Alzheimer's Research UK Drug Discovery Institute     14.02.14 UK         Natureevents Directory is the premier resource for scientists looking for the latest scientific conferences, courses, meetings and symposia. Featured across Nature Publishing Group journals and centrally at natureevents.com it is an essential reference guide to scientific events worldwide.               Futures                   A soon and distant christmas ▶     Nathan Insel                 Your email address is in the Nature mailing list. You have been sent this Table of Contents Alert because you have opted in to receive it. 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