Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Nature contents: 04 February 2016

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  journal cover  
Nature Volume 530 Issue 7588
 
This Week  
 
 
Editorials  
 
 
 
The next steps on Zika
With birth defects blamed on the virus now deemed a matter of international concern, researchers must work fast to assess the extent of the threat.
Green growth
US policymakers must set aside their divisions and give climate research a much-needed boost.
Better together
The European Union has its issues, but a Brexit could spell problems for science.
 
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World View  
 
 
 
Make journals report clinical trials properly
There is no excuse for the shoddy practice of allowing researchers to change outcomes and goals without saying so, says Ben Goldacre.
 
Seven Days  
 
 
 
The week in science: 29 January–4 February 2016
GM fish flip-flop; Earth’s crust drilled; and stem-cell scandal memoirs published.
Research Highlights  
 
 
 
Climate science: UK floods tied to climate change | Astrobiology: Fungus survives simulated Mars | Animal behaviour: Colour signals octopus fight | Metabolism: On–off switch for obesity | Conservation: A map of threats from alien species | Microbiology: What makes Listeria deadly | Astronomy: Widest-known planetary orbit | Geophysics: Unnatural shaking in California | Ecology: Bat cave choice affects disease | Microbial ecology: Archaea revealed from genomes
 
 
New! Nature Microbiology - First issue now published.

The first issue of Nature Microbiology is now published and free to access online! This new journal covers all aspects of microorganisms, be it their evolution, physiology and cell biology; their interactions with each other, with a host or with an environment; or their societal significance.
Ensure you stay up to date with future content by registering to receive the monthly e-alert.

 
 
News in Focus
 
Zika virus: Brazil's surge in small-headed babies questioned by report
Organization says spike might be the result of heightened awareness because of possible link to Zika — but not everyone agrees.
Declan Butler
  Academics across Europe join ‘Brexit’ debate
If the United Kingdom leaves the EU, researchers throughout the bloc will feel the effects.
Daniel Cressey
University seeks private donations to offset climate funding crunch
Columbia courts philanthropic benefactors to support research in impacts and adaptation.
Jeff Tollefson
  Drugmakers target depression’s cognitive fog
Industry and researchers push for ways to assess memory and concentration deficits.
Heidi Ledford
UK scientists gain licence to edit genes in human embryos
Team at Francis Crick Institute permitted to use CRISPR–Cas9 technology in embryos for early-development research.
Ewen Callaway
  Germany’s science hubs win in major research revamp
Research clusters emerge as the big success of Germany’s Excellence Initiative — despite its focus on elite institutes.
Quirin Schiermeier
Features  
 
 
 
The mystery of the expanding tropics
As Earth's dry zones shift rapidly polewards, researchers are scrambling to figure out the cause — and consequences.
Olive Heffernan
Meet the soft, cuddly robots of the future
Rigid robots step aside — a new generation of squishy, stretchy machines is wiggling our way.
Helen Shen
Multimedia  
 
 
Nature: 4 February 2016
This week, killing off old cells lengthens life, brain-tickling comedy, and new forests make good carbon sinks.
 
 
Comment
 
Reproducibility: A tragedy of errors
Mistakes in peer-reviewed papers are easy to find but hard to fix, report David B. Allison and colleagues.
David B. Allison, Andrew W. Brown, Brandon J. George et al.
Books and Arts  
 
 
 
Imaging: Medical modernist
Thomas Schnalke extols the dual genius of pathology sculptor and abstract artist Adolf Fleischmann.
Thomas Schnalke
Books in brief
Barbara Kiser reviews five of the week's best science picks.
Barbara Kiser
Architecture: The Crick Institute unpeeled
Ewen Callaway finds smart design fostering collaboration at London's biology super-lab.
Ewen Callaway
Correspondence  
 
 
 
Biodiversity law: Mauritius culls threatened fruit bats
F. B. Vincent Florens
  Gene editing: Edited plants should not be patented
John R. Porter, Jean-Louis Durand, Taline Elmayan
Range management: Tibetan wildlife hemmed in
Weihong Ji, Achyut Aryal, Junhu Su
  Governments: Balance research funds across Europe
Giorgio Parisi
Earth's crust: A toast to the deep-drilling idea
Frank B. Estabrook
 
 
 
Specials
 
TOOLBOX  
 
 
 
Open journals that piggyback on arXiv gather momentum
Peer-review platforms built around online pre-print repositories spread to astrophysics.
Elizabeth Gibney
The code librarian
Alice Allen discusses the volunteer-run Astrophysics Source Code Library.
Jeffrey Perkel
 
 
Research
 
NEW ONLINE  
 
 
 
Re-engineering the zinc fingers of PRDM9 reverses hybrid sterility in mice
PRDM9 is a DNA-binding protein that controls the position of double-strand breaks in meiosis, and the gene that encodes it is responsible for hybrid infertility between closely related mouse species; this hybrid infertility is eliminated by introducing the zinc-finger domain sequence from the human version of the PRDM9 gene, a change which alters both the position of double-strand breaks and the symmetry of PRDM9 binding and suggests that PRDM9 may have a more general but transient role in the early stages of speciation.
Naturally occurring p16Ink4a-positive cells shorten healthy lifespan
When senescent cells accumulate during adulthood they negatively influence lifespan and promote age-dependent changes in several organs; clearance of these cells delayed tumorigenesis in mice and attenuated age-related deterioration of several organs without overt side effects, suggesting that the therapeutic removal of senescent cells may be able to extend healthy lifespan.
Cryo-EM structure of the yeast U4/U6.U5 tri-snRNP at 3.7 Å resolution
A 3.7 Å resolution structure for the yeast U4/U6.U5 tri-snRNP, a complex involved in splicing, allows a better appreciation of the architecture of the tri-snRNP, and offers new functional insights into the activation of the spliceosome and the assembly of the catalytic core.
Observing the Rosensweig instability of a quantum ferrofluid
Spontaneous translational symmetry breaking is experimentally observed in a dipolar Bose–Einstein condensate of dysprosium atoms, whereby an instability causes a spontaneous transition from an unstructured superfluid to an ordered arrangement of droplet crystals, which is surprisingly long-lived.
Covariation of deep Southern Ocean oxygenation and atmospheric CO2 through the last ice age
A reconstruction of changes in ocean oxygenation throughout the last glacial cycle shows that respired carbon was removed from the deep Southern Ocean during deglaciation and Antarctic warm events, consistent with a prominent role of reduced iron fertilization and enhanced ocean ventilation, modifying atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations over the past 80,000 years.
Multistage coupling of independent laser-plasma accelerators
Laser-plasma particle accelerators offer much higher acceleration than conventional methods, which could enable high-energy applications; here two separate accelerator stages, driven by two independent lasers, are coupled using plasma-based optics.
Backbone NMR reveals allosteric signal transduction networks in the β1-adrenergic receptor
Although several X-ray crystal structures of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) have been reported, relatively little is known about the conformational dynamics of these important membrane proteins; here, the authors used NMR spectroscopy to monitor the conformational changes that occur in the turkey β1-adrenergic receptor in the presence of antagonists, partial agonists, and full agonists.
Late acquisition of mitochondria by a host with chimaeric prokaryotic ancestry
Evidence that among the eukaryotic ancestor genes, those derived from the proto-mitochondrion have the closest evolutionary distances to their bacterial relatives.
Real-time, portable genome sequencing for Ebola surveillance
A nanopore DNA sequencer is used for real-time genomic surveillance of the Ebola virus epidemic in the field in Guinea; the authors demonstrate that it is possible to pack a genomic surveillance laboratory in a suitcase and transport it to the field for on-site virus sequencing, generating results within 24 hours of sample collection.
News and Views  
 
 
 
Ageing: A stretch in time
Zachary Pincus
Parkinson's disease: Disorder in the court
T. Reid Alderson, Ad Bax
Electrochemistry: Photocatalysts in close-up
Johan Hofkens, Maarten B. J. Roeffaers
 
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Optical physics: Ultrashort light pulses shake atoms
Kyung Taec Kim
 
Cancer: Fibroblasts for all seasons
Erwin F. Wagner
Phylogeny: A home for Xenoturbella
Henry Gee
 
Articles  
 
 
 
Structural disorder of monomeric α-synuclein persists in mammalian cells
Atomic resolution in-cell NMR and EPR spectroscopy show that the human amyloid protein α-synuclein remains disordered within all mammalian cells tested, including neurons, and identifies which parts of the protein dynamically interact or remain shielded from the cytoplasm, thus counteracting aggregation under physiological cell conditions.
Francois-Xavier Theillet, Andres Binolfi, Beata Bekei et al.
Persistent HIV-1 replication maintains the tissue reservoir during therapy
By examining viral sequences in lymphoid tissue from three HIV-1-infected individuals receiving drug therapy, the authors find phylogenetic evidence for ongoing virus replication, suggesting that the antiretroviral drug concentration in the lymphoid tissue is insufficient to fully suppress the virus; using a mathematical model, they further explain why drug resistance does not necessarily arise as a result.
Ramon Lorenzo-Redondo, Helen R. Fryer, Trevor Bedford et al.
Active medulloblastoma enhancers reveal subgroup-specific cellular origins
Genomic studies of the paediatric brain tumour medulloblastoma have revealed four clinically distinct molecular subgroups; here active gene regulatory elements in 28 primary medulloblastoma tissues are mapped to reveal differentially regulated enhancers across the different subgroups, allowing insights into the transcription factors that characterize subgroup divergence and the cellular origin of the poorly characterized Group 3 and 4 subgroups.
Charles Y. Lin, Serap Erkek, Yiai Tong et al.
Letters  
 
 
 
A homogeneous nucleus for comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko from its gravity field
The precise mass, bulk density, porosity and internal structure of the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko are calculated, on the basis of its gravity field, showing it to be dusty, homogeneous, low-density and highly porous.
M. Pätzold, T. Andert, M. Hahn et al.
Optical attosecond pulses and tracking the nonlinear response of bound electrons
Intense light pulses in the visible and adjacent spectral ranges with their energy mostly confined to a half wave cycle—optical attosecond pulses—are synthesized and used to measure the time it takes electrons to respond to light.
M. Th. Hassan, T. T. Luu, A. Moulet et al.
Bioresorbable silicon electronic sensors for the brain
Electronic implants are often used in diagnosing and treating human illness, but permanent implants come with problems; here, devices are described that can sense temperature, pressure, pH or thermal characteristics, and—crucially—are fully resorbable by the body.
Seung-Kyun Kang, Rory K. J. Murphy, Suk-Won Hwang et al.
Sub-particle reaction and photocurrent mapping to optimize catalyst-modified photoanodes
Using single-molecule fluorescence imaging of photoelectrocatalysis, the charge-carrier activities on single TiO2 nanorods and the corresponding water-oxidation photocurrent are mapped at high spatiotemporal resolution, revealing the best catalytic sites and the most effective sites for depositing an oxygen evolution catalyst.
Justin B. Sambur, Tai-Yen Chen, Eric Choudhary et al.
Dehydration of lawsonite could directly trigger earthquakes in subducting oceanic crust
Deformation experiments on lawsonite reveal that unstable fault slip occurs during dehydration reactions with continuous acoustic emission signals; this indicates the potential for unstable frictional sliding in natural lawsonite layers, which could possibly be the source of intermediate-depth earthquakes in cold subduction zones.
Keishi Okazaki, Greg Hirth
Historical nectar assessment reveals the fall and rise of floral resources in Britain
Historical assessment of nectar provision in the UK from the 1930s to 2007 shows an initial dramatic fall, but more recently nectar provision has increased; the diversity of nectar sources has fallen to the point that four species now produce half of the total UK nectar.
Mathilde Baude, William E. Kunin, Nigel D. Boatman et al.
Xenacoelomorpha is the sister group to Nephrozoa
Robust phylogenetic analysis based on transcriptomes of Xenoturbella and acoelomorph worms shows that Xenacoelomorpha is an early bilaterian lineage forming the sister group to Nephrozoa.
Johanna Taylor Cannon, Bruno Cossermelli Vellutini, Julian Smith et al.
New deep-sea species of Xenoturbella and the position of Xenacoelomorpha
Description of four new species of Xenoturbella and phylogenomic analyses, aligning Xenacoelomorpha as sister group to the rest of Bilateria, or as sister to Protostomia.
Greg W. Rouse, Nerida G. Wilson, Jose I. Carvajal et al.
Autism-like behaviours and germline transmission in transgenic monkeys overexpressing MeCP2
Lentivirus-based transgenic Macaca fascicularis monkeys are generated expressing the human MECP2 transgene in the brain, and they display behavioural alterations including changes in social interaction and increased anxiety; germline transmission of the transgene to the F1 offspring is shown, and these monkeys also had an altered social interaction phenotype.
Zhen Liu, Xiao Li, Jun-Tao Zhang et al.
The temporal scaling of Caenorhabditis elegans ageing
A diverse range of molecular and genetic manipulations all alter lifespan distributions of Caenorhabditis elegans by an apparent stretching or shrinking of time.
Nicholas Stroustrup, Winston E. Anthony, Zachary M. Nash et al.
An essential receptor for adeno-associated virus infection
An adeno-associated virus (AAV) receptor protein essential for AAV2 entry into cells is identified; AAV receptor binds directly to the virus, and its ablation renders a diverse range of mammalian cell types and mice resistant to infection by AAV of multiple serotypes.
S. Pillay, N. L. Meyer, A. S. Puschnik et al.
Genome-wide nucleosome specificity and function of chromatin remodellers in ES cells
Genome-wide binding profiles for eight different chromatin remodellers in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells are determined at single nucleosome resolution; each remodeller binds at specific nucleosome positions relative to the start of genes, and the same remodeller acts as a positive or negative regulator of transcription depending on the promoter chromatin organization and epigenetic marking of the gene it binds.
Maud de Dieuleveult, Kuangyu Yen, Isabelle Hmitou et al.
 
 

Nature Insight Frontiers in Biology

This year's Frontiers in Biology Insight features Reviews on the processes that underlie metastasis, the positive influence of inflammation on tissue repair, the role of endothelial cells in organ development, growth and regeneration, the endoplasmic reticulum stress response and its contribution to disease, and antibiotic resistance. 
 
 
Careers & Jobs
 
Feature  
 
 
 
Counselling: Knowledge is power
Paul Smaglik
Column  
 
 
 
The question I hate the most
Eleftherios P. Diamandis
Q&AS  
 
 
 
Trade talk: Neuro connector
Monya Baker
Futures  
 
 
Musings on time travel
An investment for the future.
Robert Reed
 
 
 
 
 

naturejobs.com

naturejobs.com Science jobs of the week

 
 
 

Postdoc Positions

 
 

Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems 

 
 
 
 
 

Postdoctoral Scholar

 
 

University of Chicago 

 
 
 
 
 

Postdoctoral Associate

 
 

Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute 

 
 
 
 

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natureevents.com - The premier science events website

natureevents directory featured events

 
 
 
 

Techniques of Molecular Biology

 
 

11 July 2016 Coventry, 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.

 
 
 
 
 
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