Nature contents: 24 January 2013

Can't view this email? Click here to view in your browser.     Volume 493 Number 7433      nature •Visit Nature homepage •Subscribe to Nature •View Table of Contents The science that matters. Every week.                       AIMReseach Highlighting the latest research from the WPI Advanced Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Japan Latest highlights: Ultra-hard ceramics: Open up and toughen up | Oxide materials: A see-through superconductor In the spotlight: Marrying materials with mathematics (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     Physical Sciences More Physical sciences ▼   Energy release in the solar corona from spatially resolved magnetic braids   The Sun's outer atmosphere is millions of degrees hotter than its surface. Somehow, heat has to get from the Sun's interior to the periphery on a massive scale. New data support a mechanism involving the reconnection and unravelling of magnetic braids in the corona. The evidence comes in the form of a five-minute series of images obtained by a high-resolution camera on-board a sounding rocket.       Earth & Environmental Sciences More Earth & Environmental sciences ▼   Stable creeping fault segments can become destructive as a result of dynamic weakening   Hiroyuki Noda and Nadia Lapusta propose a model in which apparently 'quiet' fault segments undergoing long-term stable creep are weakened by rupture of a nearby segment, allowing unstable and destructive slip to occur. The long-term slip behaviour of the model explains a number of observations from the magnitude-9.0 2011 Tohoku-Oki and magnitude-7.6 1999 Chi-Chi earthquakes.       Chemical Sciences More Chemical sciences ▼   Earliest evidence for cheese making in the sixth millennium BC in northern Europe   Dairying was an important part of early agriculture — despite the fact that the first farmers were unable to metabolize lactose. One way to make milk palatable to the lactose intolerant is to turn it into cheese, and in this study Richard Evershed and colleagues report the presence of organic residues on pottery shards from enigmatic pottery vessels common in northern Europe about 7,500 years ago. In 1984 the hole-covered vessels were tentatively identified as cheese strainers by Peter Bogucki, a co-author on this current paper, and it seems he was right.                   New Nature Journals iPad app Read Nature anytime, anywhere. Subscribe to Nature on the iPad for only $35.99 Download the new app from the app store. *Apple exchange rates apply to international prices. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nature.com-reader/id409367154?ls=1&mt=8?ENS                 Podcast & Video     In this week's podcast: the genetics of dog domestication, how understanding rituals could help solve global problems, why the outer layers of the sun are so hot and what happened to ice levels during the Earth's last warm period.         News & Comment Read daily news coverage▶ ▲top             THIS WEEK           Editorials                   Genetic privacy ▶     The ability to identify an individual from their anonymous genome sequence, using a clever algorithm and data from public databases, threatens the principle of subject confidentiality.             Vigilance needed ▶     Experiments that make deadly pathogens more dangerous demand the utmost scrutiny.             Science stakes ▶     With the Royal Institution in trouble, Britain's crowded public-science scene must evolve.             World View                   Ensuring health in universal health coverage ▶     Health systems must transcend clinical medicine and emphasize public-health approaches aimed at the drivers of disease, argues James D. Shelton.             Seven Days                   Seven days: 18–24 January 2013 ▶     The week in science: Barak Obama vows to tackle climate change; scientists resume research on flu viruses; and an international treaty to cap mercury emissions gets the green light.           NEWS IN FOCUS           Greenland defied ancient warming ▶     But Antarctic glaciers may be more vulnerable than thought.             Work resumes on lethal flu strains ▶     Study of lab-made viruses a 'public-health responsibility'.             Researchers debate oil-spill remedy ▶     Oil industry maintains that dispersants should be part of routine response to deep-water blowouts.             International aid projects come under the microscope ▶     Clinical-research techniques deployed to assess effectiveness of aid initiatives.             Fresh bid to see exo-Earths ▶     Improved instruments and a telescope windfall could aid the search for extrasolar life.             Japan's stimulus package showers science with cash ▶     But new leadership's largesse brings expectations of fast commercial pay-offs.             Features                   Mapping brain networks: Fish-bowl neuroscience ▶     Tiny fish trapped in a virtual world provide a window into complex brain connections.             Social evolution: The ritual animal ▶     Praying, fighting, dancing, chanting — human rituals could illuminate the growth of community and the origins of civilization.           COMMENT           Computing: A vision for data science ▶     To get the best out of big data, funding agencies should develop shared tools for optimizing discovery and train a new breed of researchers, says Chris A. Mattmann.             Energy policy: The rebound effect is overplayed ▶     Increasing energy efficiency brings emissions savings. Claims that it backfires are a distraction, say Kenneth Gillingham and colleagues.             Books and Arts                   Anthropology: Power of the past ▶     Monique Borgerhoff Mulder assesses an exploration of how modern industrial and traditional societies differ.             History: Frozen assets ▶     Edmund Stump welcomes a history of Antarctica that covers the glory, the rivalries and the scientific legacy.             Books in brief ▶             Correspondence                   Public opinion: Science petitions are a facade of numbers Robert J. Warren & Mark A. Bradford | Natural history: Small collections make a big impact Kevin Winker & Jack J. Withrow | Obesity: Multiple factors contribute Kristin Hamre | Obesity: Appetite hormone weighs in Stephan J. Guyenet | Grant applications: Undo NIH policy to ease effect of cuts Robert Benezra | Graphics: Chance thrown by inaccurate dice Janet K. Burg | H5N1 virus: Transmission studies resume for avian flu Ron A. M. Fouchier, Adolfo García-Sastre, Yoshihiro Kawaoka & 37 co-authors                       Content this Good Deserves the Best Reading Experience Bring article PDF's to life with ReadCube. Annotate articles, link to citations and view supplementary information - all in one place. Get ReadCube now - it's free: www.readcube.com               Biological Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Neuroscience: To go or not to go ▶     D. James Surmeier             Structural biology: Spliceosome's core exposed ▶     Charles C. Query & Maria M. Konarska             Crystal structure of Prp8 reveals active site cavity of the spliceosome ▶     Wojciech P. Galej, Chris Oubridge, Andrew J. Newman & Kiyoshi Nagai     The crystal structure of yeast Prp8 bound to a U5 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particle assembly factor Aar2 is solved, offering insight into the architecture of the spliceosome active site, and supporting a possible common origin of eukaryotic pre-messenger-RNA splicing and group II intron splicing.             The genomic signature of dog domestication reveals adaptation to a starch-rich diet ▶     Erik Axelsson, Abhirami Ratnakumar, Maja-Louise Arendt, Khurram Maqbool, Matthew T. Webster et al.     Whole-genome resequencing of dogs and wolves helps identify genomic regions that are likely to represent targets for selection during dog domestication.             Responsive biomimetic networks from polyisocyanopeptide hydrogels ▶     Paul H. J. Kouwer, Matthieu Koepf, Vincent A. A. Le Sage, Maarten Jaspers, Arend M. van Buul et al.     Thermal transitions of polyisocyanide single molecules to polymer bundles and finally networks lead to hydrogels mimicking the properties of biopolymer intermediate-filament networks; their analysis shows that bundling and chain stiffness are crucial design parameters for hydrogels.             Concurrent activation of striatal direct and indirect pathways during action initiation ▶     Guohong Cui, Sang Beom Jun, Xin Jin, Michael D. Pham, Steven S. Vogel et al.     In mice performing an operant task, increases in neural activity in direct- and indirect-pathway spiny projection neurons (SPNs) are associated with action initiation but not with inactivity, and concurrent activation of SPNs from both pathways in one hemisphere precedes the initiation of contraversive movements.             Towards practical, high-capacity, low-maintenance information storage in synthesized DNA ▶     Nick Goldman, Paul Bertone, Siyuan Chen, Christophe Dessimoz, Emily M. LeProust et al.     An efficient and scalable strategy with robust error correction is reported for encoding a record amount of information (including images, text and audio files) in DNA strands; a ‘DNA archive’ has been synthesized, shipped from the USA to Germany, sequenced and the information read.             OTUD7B controls non-canonical NF-κB activation through deubiquitination of TRAF3 ▶     Hongbo Hu, George C. Brittain, Jae-Hoon Chang, Nahum Puebla-Osorio, Jin Jin et al.     The deubiquitinase OTUD7B is shown to regulate the non-canonical NF-κB pathway by inhibiting TRAF3 proteolysis.             A complete mass-spectrometric map of the yeast proteome applied to quantitative trait analysis ▶     Paola Picotti, Mathieu Clément-Ziza, Henry Lam, David S. Campbell, Alexander Schmidt et al.     High-throughput peptide synthesis and mass spectrometry are used to generate a near-complete reference map of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae proteome; two versions of the map (supporting discovery- and hypothesis-driven proteomics) are then applied to a protein-based quantitative trait locus analysis.             Ecosystem resilience despite large-scale altered hydroclimatic conditions ▶     Guillermo E. Ponce Campos, M. Susan Moran, Alfredo Huete, Yongguang Zhang, Cynthia Bresloff et al.     The resilience of a global sample of ecosystems to an increase in drought conditions is assessed, comparing data from the early twenty-first with the late twentieth century; results indicate a cross-ecosystem capacity for tolerating low precipitation and responding to high precipitation during recent warm drought and yet suggest a threshold to resilience with prolonged warm drought.             Articles and Letters                   LTP requires a reserve pool of glutamate receptors independent of subunit type ▶     Adam J. Granger, Yun Shi, Wei Lu, Manuel Cerpas & Roger A. Nicoll     The minimal possible requirement for AMPA receptor trafficking during long-term potentiation is explored, revealing that no region of the receptor subunit is necessary, in contrast with previous work; the only requirement for LTP seems to be a large reserve of glutamate receptors.             Sustainable bioenergy production from marginal lands in the US Midwest ▶     Ilya Gelfand, Ritvik Sahajpal, Xuesong Zhang, R. César Izaurralde, Katherine L. Gross et al.     A comparative assessment of six alternative cropping systems over 20 years shows that, once well established, successional herbaceous vegetation grown on marginal lands has a direct greenhouse gas emissions mitigation capacity that rivals that of purpose-grown crops.             Earliest evidence for cheese making in the sixth millennium bc in northern Europe ▶     Mélanie Salque, Peter I. Bogucki, Joanna Pyzel, Iwona Sobkowiak-Tabaka, Ryszard Grygiel et al.     Biomarker and stable isotopic analysis of lipid residues from perforated pottery vessels from sixth millennium bc Europe are consistent with these vessels having been used for making cheese, a low-lactose dairy product with digestion and storage advantages for the prehistoric lactose-intolerant farming communities.             Insights into bilaterian evolution from three spiralian genomes  OPEN ▶     Oleg Simakov, Ferdinand Marletaz, Sung-Jin Cho, Eric Edsinger-Gonzales, Paul Havlak et al.     Comparative analysis of the genomes of one mollusc (Lottia gigantea) and two annelids (Capitella teleta and Helobdella robusta) enable a more complete reconstruction of genomic features of the last common ancestors of protostomes, bilaterians and metazoans; against this conserved background they provide the first glimpse into lineage-specific evolution and diversity of the lophotrochozoans.             Rapid regulation of depression-related behaviours by control of midbrain dopamine neurons ▶     Dipesh Chaudhury, Jessica J. Walsh, Allyson K. Friedman, Barbara Juarez, Stacy M. Ku et al.     Optogenetic induction of phasic, but not tonic, firing in VTA dopamine neurons induces susceptibility to stress in mice undergoing a subthreshold social-defeat paradigm and in previously resilient mice that have been subjected to repeated social-defeat stress, and this effect is projection-pathway specific.             Dopamine neurons modulate neural encoding and expression of depression-related behaviour ▶     Kay M. Tye, Julie J. Mirzabekov, Melissa R. Warden, Emily A. Ferenczi, Hsing-Chen Tsai et al.     Specific manipulation of midbrain dopamine neurons in freely moving rodents shows that their inhibition or excitation immediately modulates depression-like phenotypes that are induced by chronic mild stress, and that their activation alters the neural encoding of depression-related behaviours in the nucleus accumbens.             Serine starvation induces stress and p53-dependent metabolic remodelling in cancer cells ▶     Oliver D. K. Maddocks, Celia R. Berkers, Susan M. Mason, Liang Zheng, Karen Blyth et al.     The authors show that p53 helps cancer cells survive serine depletion by coordinating metabolic remodelling; a diet lacking serine slowed tumour growth in mice, with p53-null tumours showing greatest sensitivity to serine starvation.             Apoptotic cell clearance by bronchial epithelial cells critically influences airway inflammation ▶     Ignacio J. Juncadella, Alexandra Kadl, Ashish K. Sharma, Yun M. Shim, Amelia Hochreiter-Hufford et al.     Airway epithelial cells are important in immune homeostasis in that they dampen immune activation by clearing dying cells and producing anti-inflammatory cytokines.             Functional and evolutionary insight from the crystal structure of rubella virus protein E1 ▶     Rebecca M. DuBois, Marie-Christine Vaney, M. Alejandra Tortorici, Rana Al Kurdi, Giovanna Barba-Spaeth et al.     The crystal structure of rubella virus E1 glycoprotein in its post-fusion form reveals a class II fusion protein with distinct features so far unseen in any other crystallized fusion protein; the location of an antibody-neutralization epitope also suggests that rubella-specific antibodies may function through prevention of E1 glycoprotein trimer formation during cell entry.             RNAi triggered by specialized machinery silences developmental genes and retrotransposons ▶     Soichiro Yamanaka, Sameet Mehta, Francisca E. Reyes-Turcu, Fanglei Zhuang, Ryan T. Fuchs 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.             TET2 promotes histone O-GlcNAcylation during gene transcription ▶     Qiang Chen, Yibin Chen, Chunjing Bian, Ryoji Fujiki & Xiaochun Yu     TET2 is shown to associate with OGT, which catalyses O-GlcNAcylation, and the two enzymes are found together at transcription start sites; TET2 facilitates the activity of OGT in O-GlcNAcylation of histone 2B, and epigenetic modifications to both DNA and histones by TET2 and OGT may be important in gene transcription regulation.             News & Views                   Neuroscience: Strength in numbers ▶     Morgan Sheng, Roberto Malinow & Richard Huganir             Bioenergy: Biofuel production on the margins ▶     Klaus Butterbach-Bahl & Ralf Kiese             Palaeontology: Gritting their teeth ▶     Bernard Wood             Cancer: The to and fro of tumour spread ▶     Bryce J. W. van Denderen & Erik W. Thompson             Neuroscience: To go or not to go ▶     D. James Surmeier             Structural biology: Spliceosome's core exposed ▶     Charles C. Query & Maria M. Konarska             Research Highlights                   Animal behaviour: Quail pick nests that best hide eggs | Genomics: Gene linked to Alzheimer's | Microbiology: Leprosy bacteria reprogram cells | Ecology: Arctic rain brings animal pain | Biotechnology: Cancer drugs from algae         NEWS & COMMENT           Genetic privacy | Vigilance needed | Ensuring health in universal health coverage | Work resumes on lethal flu strains | International aid projects come under the microscope | Mapping brain networks: Fish-bowl neuroscience | Social evolution: The ritual animal | Computing: A vision for data science | Energy policy: The rebound effect is overplayed | Anthropology: Power of the past | Books in brief | Natural history: Small collections make a big impact Kevin Winker & Jack J. Withrow | Obesity: Multiple factors contribute Kristin Hamre | Obesity: Appetite hormone weighs in Stephan J. Guyenet | Grant applications: Undo NIH policy to ease effect of cuts Robert Benezra | H5N1 virus: Transmission studies resume for avian flu Ron A. M. Fouchier, Adolfo García-Sastre, Yoshihiro Kawaoka & 37 co-authors           CAREERS           Clinical research: Conducting a trial | Academic pay lagging             More Biological Sciences ▶                         Nature Biotechnology Focus on DNA Sequencing Technology Performance gains and falling costs have fueled diverse applications of high-throughput DNA sequencing. This focus issue summarizes the current status of these technologies as applied to life sciences and medical research. Click here to access the Focus! Produced with support from Ion Torrent.               Chemical Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Materials science: Synthetic polymers with biological rigidity ▶     Margaret Lise Gardel             Structural biology: Spliceosome's core exposed ▶     Charles C. Query & Maria M. Konarska             Crystal structure of Prp8 reveals active site cavity of the spliceosome ▶     Wojciech P. Galej, Chris Oubridge, Andrew J. Newman & Kiyoshi Nagai     The crystal structure of yeast Prp8 bound to a U5 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particle assembly factor Aar2 is solved, offering insight into the architecture of the spliceosome active site, and supporting a possible common origin of eukaryotic pre-messenger-RNA splicing and group II intron splicing.             Responsive biomimetic networks from polyisocyanopeptide hydrogels ▶     Paul H. J. Kouwer, Matthieu Koepf, Vincent A. A. Le Sage, Maarten Jaspers, Arend M. van Buul et al.     Thermal transitions of polyisocyanide single molecules to polymer bundles and finally networks lead to hydrogels mimicking the properties of biopolymer intermediate-filament networks; their analysis shows that bundling and chain stiffness are crucial design parameters for hydrogels.             Towards practical, high-capacity, low-maintenance information storage in synthesized DNA ▶     Nick Goldman, Paul Bertone, Siyuan Chen, Christophe Dessimoz, Emily M. LeProust et al.     An efficient and scalable strategy with robust error correction is reported for encoding a record amount of information (including images, text and audio files) in DNA strands; a ‘DNA archive’ has been synthesized, shipped from the USA to Germany, sequenced and the information read.             A complete mass-spectrometric map of the yeast proteome applied to quantitative trait analysis ▶     Paola Picotti, Mathieu Clément-Ziza, Henry Lam, David S. Campbell, Alexander Schmidt et al.     High-throughput peptide synthesis and mass spectrometry are used to generate a near-complete reference map of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae proteome; two versions of the map (supporting discovery- and hypothesis-driven proteomics) are then applied to a protein-based quantitative trait locus analysis.             Articles and Letters                   Sustainable bioenergy production from marginal lands in the US Midwest ▶     Ilya Gelfand, Ritvik Sahajpal, Xuesong Zhang, R. César Izaurralde, Katherine L. Gross et al.     A comparative assessment of six alternative cropping systems over 20 years shows that, once well established, successional herbaceous vegetation grown on marginal lands has a direct greenhouse gas emissions mitigation capacity that rivals that of purpose-grown crops.             Functional and evolutionary insight from the crystal structure of rubella virus protein E1 ▶     Rebecca M. DuBois, Marie-Christine Vaney, M. Alejandra Tortorici, Rana Al Kurdi, Giovanna Barba-Spaeth et al.     The crystal structure of rubella virus E1 glycoprotein in its post-fusion form reveals a class II fusion protein with distinct features so far unseen in any other crystallized fusion protein; the location of an antibody-neutralization epitope also suggests that rubella-specific antibodies may function through prevention of E1 glycoprotein trimer formation during cell entry.             News & Views                   50 & 100 Years Ago ▶     Struther Arnott & W. H. Bragg             Materials science: Synthetic polymers with biological rigidity ▶     Margaret Lise Gardel             Structural biology: Spliceosome's core exposed ▶     Charles C. Query & Maria M. Konarska           NEWS & COMMENT           Obesity: Multiple factors contribute Kristin Hamre | Obesity: Appetite hormone weighs in Stephan J. Guyenet             More Chemical Sciences ▶               Physical Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Materials science: Synthetic polymers with biological rigidity ▶     Margaret Lise Gardel             Structural biology: Spliceosome's core exposed ▶     Charles C. Query & Maria M. Konarska             Crystal structure of Prp8 reveals active site cavity of the spliceosome ▶     Wojciech P. Galej, Chris Oubridge, Andrew J. Newman & Kiyoshi Nagai     The crystal structure of yeast Prp8 bound to a U5 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particle assembly factor Aar2 is solved, offering insight into the architecture of the spliceosome active site, and supporting a possible common origin of eukaryotic pre-messenger-RNA splicing and group II intron splicing.             Responsive biomimetic networks from polyisocyanopeptide hydrogels ▶     Paul H. J. Kouwer, Matthieu Koepf, Vincent A. A. Le Sage, Maarten Jaspers, Arend M. van Buul et al.     Thermal transitions of polyisocyanide single molecules to polymer bundles and finally networks lead to hydrogels mimicking the properties of biopolymer intermediate-filament networks; their analysis shows that bundling and chain stiffness are crucial design parameters for hydrogels.             Towards practical, high-capacity, low-maintenance information storage in synthesized DNA ▶     Nick Goldman, Paul Bertone, Siyuan Chen, Christophe Dessimoz, Emily M. LeProust et al.     An efficient and scalable strategy with robust error correction is reported for encoding a record amount of information (including images, text and audio files) in DNA strands; a ‘DNA archive’ has been synthesized, shipped from the USA to Germany, sequenced and the information read.             A complete mass-spectrometric map of the yeast proteome applied to quantitative trait analysis ▶     Paola Picotti, Mathieu Clément-Ziza, Henry Lam, David S. Campbell, Alexander Schmidt et al.     High-throughput peptide synthesis and mass spectrometry are used to generate a near-complete reference map of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae proteome; two versions of the map (supporting discovery- and hypothesis-driven proteomics) are then applied to a protein-based quantitative trait locus analysis.             Articles and Letters                   Eemian interglacial reconstructed from a Greenland folded ice core ▶     NEEM community members     Reconstruction of the Eemian interglacial from the new NEEM ice core shows that in spite of a climate warmer by eight degrees Celsius in Northern Greenland than that of the past millennium, the ice here was only a few hundred metres lower than its present level.             Energy release in the solar corona from spatially resolved magnetic braids ▶     J. W. Cirtain, L. Golub, A. R. Winebarger, B. De Pontieu, K. Kobayashi et al.     Solar observations at a resolution of 0.2 arc seconds show the reconnection and relaxation of magnetic braids in a coronal active region, leading to the dissipation of sufficient energy to heat the structures to about 4,000,000 K.             Laser cooling of a semiconductor by 40 kelvin ▶     Jun Zhang, Dehui Li, Renjie Chen & Qihua Xiong     Net laser cooling from 290 kelvin to about 250 kelvin is achieved in semiconductor cadmium sulphide ‘nanobelts’ and attributed to strong coupling between excitons and longitudinal optical phonons.             Interface-engineered templates for molecular spin memory devices ▶     Karthik V. Raman, Alexander M. Kamerbeek, Arup Mukherjee, Nicolae Atodiresei, Tamal K. Sen et al.     When molecules of a phenalenyl derivative, which has no net spin, are deposited on a ferromagnet, they develop into a magnetic supramolecular layer with spin-filtering properties; this could be the basis for a new approach to building molecular magnetic devices.             Sustainable bioenergy production from marginal lands in the US Midwest ▶     Ilya Gelfand, Ritvik Sahajpal, Xuesong Zhang, R. César Izaurralde, Katherine L. Gross et al.     A comparative assessment of six alternative cropping systems over 20 years shows that, once well established, successional herbaceous vegetation grown on marginal lands has a direct greenhouse gas emissions mitigation capacity that rivals that of purpose-grown crops.             Functional and evolutionary insight from the crystal structure of rubella virus protein E1 ▶     Rebecca M. DuBois, Marie-Christine Vaney, M. Alejandra Tortorici, Rana Al Kurdi, Giovanna Barba-Spaeth et al.     The crystal structure of rubella virus E1 glycoprotein in its post-fusion form reveals a class II fusion protein with distinct features so far unseen in any other crystallized fusion protein; the location of an antibody-neutralization epitope also suggests that rubella-specific antibodies may function through prevention of E1 glycoprotein trimer formation during cell entry.             News & Views                   50 & 100 Years Ago ▶     Struther Arnott & W. H. Bragg             Solar physics: Towards ever smaller length scales ▶     Peter Cargill             Materials science: Synthetic polymers with biological rigidity ▶     Margaret Lise Gardel             Structural biology: Spliceosome's core exposed ▶     Charles C. Query & Maria M. Konarska             Research Highlights                   Materials: Ceramics make water unwelcome | Imaging: Compressed picture-taking         NEWS & COMMENT           Fresh bid to see exo-Earths | Computing: A vision for data science | Books in brief | Obesity: Multiple factors contribute Kristin Hamre | Obesity: Appetite hormone weighs in Stephan J. Guyenet             More Physical Sciences ▶               Earth & Environmental Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Ecosystem resilience despite large-scale altered hydroclimatic conditions ▶     Guillermo E. Ponce Campos, M. Susan Moran, Alfredo Huete, Yongguang Zhang, Cynthia Bresloff et al.     The resilience of a global sample of ecosystems to an increase in drought conditions is assessed, comparing data from the early twenty-first with the late twentieth century; results indicate a cross-ecosystem capacity for tolerating low precipitation and responding to high precipitation during recent warm drought and yet suggest a threshold to resilience with prolonged warm drought.             Articles and Letters                   Eemian interglacial reconstructed from a Greenland folded ice core ▶     NEEM community members     Reconstruction of the Eemian interglacial from the new NEEM ice core shows that in spite of a climate warmer by eight degrees Celsius in Northern Greenland than that of the past millennium, the ice here was only a few hundred metres lower than its present level.             Energy release in the solar corona from spatially resolved magnetic braids ▶     J. W. Cirtain, L. Golub, A. R. Winebarger, B. De Pontieu, K. Kobayashi et al.     Solar observations at a resolution of 0.2 arc seconds show the reconnection and relaxation of magnetic braids in a coronal active region, leading to the dissipation of sufficient energy to heat the structures to about 4,000,000 K.             Sustainable bioenergy production from marginal lands in the US Midwest ▶     Ilya Gelfand, Ritvik Sahajpal, Xuesong Zhang, R. César Izaurralde, Katherine L. Gross et al.     A comparative assessment of six alternative cropping systems over 20 years shows that, once well established, successional herbaceous vegetation grown on marginal lands has a direct greenhouse gas emissions mitigation capacity that rivals that of purpose-grown crops.             Stable creeping fault segments can become destructive as a result of dynamic weakening ▶     Hiroyuki Noda & Nadia Lapusta     An earthquake source model in which stable, rate-strengthening behaviour at low slip rates is combined with coseismic weakening due to rapid shear heating of pore fluids, allowing unstable slip to occur in segments that can creep between events, explains a number of both long-term and coseismic observations of faults that hosted the 2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake and the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake.             News & Views                   Bioenergy: Biofuel production on the margins ▶     Klaus Butterbach-Bahl & Ralf Kiese             Palaeontology: Gritting their teeth ▶     Bernard Wood             Research Highlights                   Climate change: Black carbon a warming culprit | Hydrology: Irrigation brings more rain | Ecology: Arctic rain brings animal pain         NEWS & COMMENT           Greenland defied ancient warming | Researchers debate oil-spill remedy | Computing: A vision for data science | History: Frozen assets | Books in brief             More Earth & Environmental Sciences ▶                         Experimental & Molecular Medicine (EMM) Now Live - co-published with the Korean Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (KSBMB), EMM seeks to highlight the improved clinical benefits for human health from experimental and translational research performed using specific molecular tools. Read content and make sure you receive the latest by registering to receive the Table of Contents e-alert for EMM Learn more about EMM               Careers & Jobs ▲top               Clinical research: Conducting a trial ▶     Beginners hoping to initiate and complete a clinical trial must understand the complexities of the process.                   NSF grant changes ▶     Foundation restructures application requirements.                   Respect for librarians ▶     University librarians seek faculty status and tenure.                   Academic pay lagging ▶     Researchers in US industry far out-earn those in academia.                   Careers related news & comment                   Genetic privacy | Science stakes | Public opinion: Science petitions are a facade of numbers Robert J. Warren & Mark A. Bradford | Natural history: Small collections make a big impact Kevin Winker & Jack J. 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