nature

THIS WEEK

Editorials

The case of Dr Hicheur ▶

The continued imprisonment of a French-Algerian physicist highlights the need for scientists to defend the human rights of all colleagues.

An eye for success ▶

Steve Jobs and Apple revolutionized the way scientists render their work.

More than teeth ▶

The bizarre-looking naked mole rat is a worthy member of the genome club.

World View

Marine protection in the Arctic cannot wait ▶

Global economics, not declining sea ice, is driving ships to the Arctic Ocean. Only international regulation will protect the region, says Lawson Brigham.

Seven Days

Seven days: 7-13 October 2011 ▶

The week in science

NEWS IN FOCUS

A fight for life that united a field ▶

Nobel-prizewinner Ralph Steinman tried to beat his cancer with vaccines based on the dendritic cells he discovered.

Persistence pays off for crystal chemist ▶

Discovery of mosaic material wins Nobel prize.

Sun-watchers hope giant telescope will get green light ▶

Observatory would reveal structures that trigger sunspots and space weather.

Brazil cooks up transgenic bean ▶

Approval draws criticism over transparency and safety tests.

France toughens conflict rules ▶

Law demands greater transparency for health experts.

Features

Special issue on the Arctic: After the ice ▶

As the Arctic thaws, can science help to chart a sustainable path for the north?

Redrawing the Arctic map: The new north ▶

Scientific challenges in the Arctic: Open water ▶

As the ice melts, fresh obstacles confront Arctic researchers.

COMMENT

Sustainability: A green Arctic ▶

Academic collaboration is essential for creating a sustainable future for Arctic development, says Lars Kullerud.

Governance: A peaceful Arctic ▶

Encourage dialogue between the producers and consumers of scientific knowledge in the north to keep the region conflict free, says Oran R. Young.

Arctic science: The local perspective ▶

Indigenous knowledge is maturing as a science, says Henry P. Huntington. But more work is needed to give the field the respect it deserves.

Books and Arts

Bioethics: Brave new biopolitics ▶

Kevin Finneran hails a timely take on the debate raging over biotechnology breakthroughs in the United States.

Books in brief ▶

Anthropology: Centuries of skulls ▶

Alison Abbott enjoys a German exhibition charting how the human head is revered by cultures worldwide.

Q&A: Internet visionary ▶

As the new director of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Joichi Ito brings his knowledge of Internet start-ups — including Flickr, Twitter and licence provider Creative Commons — to the lab that developed the ideas behind the game Guitar Hero and Amazon Kindle's E-Ink technology. Ito talks about the value of playfulness and freedom in scientific discovery.

Correspondence

Arctic warming: Sea-ice minimum is not a one-off Christian Melsheimer, Georg Heygster & Justus Notholt | Research investment: Vaccine research loses out Peter Hale, Simon Wain-Hobson & Robin A. Weiss | Military science: The JASONs bought into the Vietnam War Joseph Schwartz | Economics: Fallacy in costs of pollution control Neal Hockley

Corrections

Correction ▶

Correction ▶

RESEARCH

Latest Online

Solutions for a cultivated planet ▶

Jonathan A. Foley, Navin Ramankutty, Kate A. Brauman, Emily S. Cassidy, James S. Gerber et al.

Increasing population and consumption are placing unprecedented demands on agric...

PDGF signalling controls age-dependent proliferation in pancreatic β-cells ▶

Hainan Chen, Xueying Gu, Yinghua Liu, Jing Wang, Stacey E. Wirt et al.

Determining the signalling pathways that direct tissue expansion is a principal ...

A high-resolution map of human evolutionary constraint using 29 mammals ▶

Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, Manuel Garber, Or Zuk, Michael F. Lin, Brian J. Parker et al.

The comparison of related genomes has emerged as a powerful lens for genome inte...

Targeted gene correction of α₁-antitrypsin deficiency in induced pluripotent stem cells ▶

Kosuke Yusa, S. Tamir Rashid, Helene Strick-Marchand, Ignacio Varela, Pei-Qi Liu et al.

Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) represent a unique opportunity for ...

Perception of sniff phase in mouse olfaction ▶

Matthew Smear, Roman Shusterman, Rodney O’Connor, Thomas Bozza & Dmitry Rinberg

Olfactory systems encode odours by which neurons respond and by when they respon...

Genome sequencing reveals insights into physiology and longevity of the naked mole rat ▶

Eun Bae Kim, Xiaodong Fang, Alexey A. Fushan, Zhiyong Huang, Alexei V. Lobanov et al.

The naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber) is a strictly subterranean, extraordi...

A draft genome of Yersinia pestis from victims of the Black Death ▶

Kirsten I. Bos, Verena J. Schuenemann, G. Brian Golding, Hernán A. Burbano, Nicholas Waglechner et al.

Technological advances in DNA recovery and sequencing have drastically expanded ...

Cascades of multisite phosphorylation control Sic1 destruction at the onset of S phase ▶

Mardo Kõivomägi, Ervin Valk, Rainis Venta, Anna Iofik, Martin Lepiku et al.

Multisite phosphorylation of proteins has been proposed to transform a graded pr...

Distinct stem cells contribute to mammary gland development and maintenance ▶

Alexandra Van Keymeulen, Ana Sofia Rocha, Marielle Ousset, Benjamin Beck, Gaëlle Bouvencourt et al.

The mammary epithelium is composed of several cell lineages including luminal, a...

Feedback from rhodopsin controls rhodopsin exclusion in Drosophila photoreceptors ▶

Daniel Vasiliauskas, Esteban O. Mazzoni, Simon G. Sprecher, Konstantin Brodetskiy, Robert J. Johnston Jr et al.

Sensory systems with high discriminatory power use neurons that express only one...

Structural basis for the bifunctionality of fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase/phosphatase ▶

Shinya Fushinobu, Hiroshi Nishimasu, Daiki Hattori, Hyun-Jin Song & Takayoshi Wakagi

Enzymes catalyse specific reactions and are essential for maintaining life. Alth...

Active-site remodelling in the bifunctional fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase/phosphatase ▶

Juan Du, Rafael F. Say, Wei Lü, Georg Fuchs & Oliver Einsle

Fructose-1,6-bisphosphate (FBP) aldolase/phosphatase is a bifunctional, thermost...

Macrophage skewing by Phd2 haplodeficiency prevents ischaemia by inducing arteriogenesis ▶

Yukiji Takeda, Sandra Costa, Estelle Delamarre, Carmen Roncal, Rodrigo Leite de Oliveira et al.

PHD2 serves as an oxygen sensor that rescues blood supply by regulating vessel f...

Articles and Letters

An endogenous tumour-promoting ligand of the human aryl hydrocarbon receptor ▶

Christiane A. Opitz, Ulrike M. Litzenburger, Felix Sahm, Martina Ott, Isabel Tritschler et al.

Activation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) by environmental xenobiotic to...

Diffraction-unlimited all-optical imaging and writing with a photochromic GFP ▶

Tim Grotjohann, Ilaria Testa, Marcel Leutenegger, Hannes Bock, Nicolai T. Urban et al.

Lens-based optical microscopy failed to discern fluorescent features closer than...

DNA stretching by bacterial initiators promotes replication origin opening ▶

Karl E. Duderstadt, Kevin Chuang & James M. Berger

Many replication initiators form higher-order oligomers that process host replic...

Self-replication of information-bearing nanoscale patterns ▶

Tong Wang, Ruojie Sha, Rémi Dreyfus, Mirjam E. Leunissen, Corinna Maass et al.

DNA molecules provide what is probably the most iconic example of self-replicati...

Atmospheric oxygenation caused by a change in volcanic degassing pressure ▶

Fabrice Gaillard, Bruno Scaillet & Nicholas T. Arndt

The Precambrian history of our planet is marked by two major events: a pulse of ...

Strong contributors to network persistence are the most vulnerable to extinction ▶

Serguei Saavedra, Daniel B. Stouffer, Brian Uzzi & Jordi Bascompte

The architecture of mutualistic networks facilitates coexistence of individual p...

An olfactory receptor for food-derived odours promotes male courtship in Drosophila ▶

Yael Grosjean, Raphael Rytz, Jean-Pierre Farine, Liliane Abuin, Jérôme Cortot et al.

Many animals attract mating partners through the release of volatile sex pheromo...

Molecular organization of vomeronasal chemoreception ▶

Yoh Isogai, Sheng Si, Lorena Pont-Lezica, Taralyn Tan, Vikrant Kapoor et al.

The vomeronasal organ (VNO) has a key role in mediating the social and defensive...

Theta-paced flickering between place-cell maps in the hippocampus ▶

Karel Jezek, Espen J. Henriksen, Alessandro Treves, Edvard I. Moser & May-Britt Moser

The ability to recall discrete memories is thought to depend on the formation of...

Peripheral education of the immune system by colonic commensal microbiota ▶

Stephanie K. Lathrop, Seth M. Bloom, Sindhuja M. Rao, Katherine Nutsch, Chan-Wang Lio et al.

The instruction of the immune system to be tolerant of self, thereby preventing ...

A reserve stem cell population in small intestine renders Lgr5-positive cells dispensable ▶

Hua Tian, Brian Biehs, Søren Warming, Kevin G. Leong, Linda Rangell et al.

The small intestine epithelium renews every 2 to 5 days, making it one of the mo...

Mechanical strain in actin networks regulates FilGAP and integrin binding to filamin A ▶

A. J. Ehrlicher, F. Nakamura, J. H. Hartwig, D. A. Weitz & T. P. Stossel

Mechanical stresses elicit cellular reactions mediated by chemical signals. Defe...

S-nitrosylation of NADPH oxidase regulates cell death in plant immunity ▶

Byung-Wook Yun, Angela Feechan, Minghui Yin, Noor B. B. Saidi, Thierry Le Bihan et al.

Changes in redox status are a conspicuous feature of immune responses in a variety...

Structure of human mitochondrial RNA polymerase ▶

Rieke Ringel, Marina Sologub, Yaroslav I. Morozov, Dmitry Litonin, Patrick Cramer et al.

Transcription of the mitochondrial genome is performed by a single-subunit RNA p...

News & Views

Behavioural neuroscience: Fruity aphrodisiacs ▶

Benjamin Prud'homme & Nicolas Gompel

Cancer: Why tumours eat tryptophan ▶

George C. Prendergast

Brief Communications Arising

InsP₃R channel gating altered by clustering? ▶

Horia Vais, J. Kevin Foskett & Don-On Daniel Mak

Rahman et al. reply ▶

Taufiq Rahman, Alexander Skupin, Martin Falcke & Colin W. Taylor

Corrigenda

Ephrin Bs are essential components of the Reelin pathway to regulate neuronal migration ▶

Aycan Sentürk, Sylvia Pfennig, Alexander Weiss, Katja Burk & Amparo Acker-Palmer

A plastidial sodium-dependent pyruvate transporter ▶

Tsuyoshi Furumoto, Teppei Yamaguchi, Yumiko Ohshima-Ichie, Masayoshi Nakamura, Yoshiko Tsuchida-Iwata et al.

Research Highlights

Conservation biology: Culls won't save Tasmanian devils | Neurodegeneration: Parkinson's propagator | Climate-change ecology: Foreshadows of climates past | Evolution: These fins were made for walking | Microbiology: How a bacterium grabs the gut | Neurobiology: Stress alters brain connections

NEWS & COMMENT

More than teeth | Arctic science: The local perspective | Bioethics: Brave new biopolitics | Books in brief | Anthropology: Centuries of skulls | Research investment: Vaccine research loses out Peter Hale, Simon Wain-Hobson & Robin A. Weiss

More Biological Sciences ▶

RESEARCH

Latest Online

Genome sequencing reveals insights into physiology and longevity of the naked mole rat ▶

Eun Bae Kim, Xiaodong Fang, Alexey A. Fushan, Zhiyong Huang, Alexei V. Lobanov et al.

The naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber) is a strictly subterranean, extraordi...

Structural basis for the bifunctionality of fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase/phosphatase ▶

Shinya Fushinobu, Hiroshi Nishimasu, Daiki Hattori, Hyun-Jin Song & Takayoshi Wakagi

Enzymes catalyse specific reactions and are essential for maintaining life. Alth...

Active-site remodelling in the bifunctional fructose-1,6-bisphosphate aldolase/phosphatase ▶

Juan Du, Rafael F. Say, Wei Lü, Georg Fuchs & Oliver Einsle

Fructose-1,6-bisphosphate (FBP) aldolase/phosphatase is a bifunctional, thermost...

Articles and Letters

Self-replication of information-bearing nanoscale patterns ▶

Tong Wang, Ruojie Sha, Rémi Dreyfus, Mirjam E. Leunissen, Corinna Maass et al.

DNA molecules provide what is probably the most iconic example of self-replicati...

Atmospheric oxygenation caused by a change in volcanic degassing pressure ▶

Fabrice Gaillard, Bruno Scaillet & Nicholas T. Arndt

The Precambrian history of our planet is marked by two major events: a pulse of ...

S-nitrosylation of NADPH oxidase regulates cell death in plant immunity ▶

Byung-Wook Yun, Angela Feechan, Minghui Yin, Noor B. B. Saidi, Thierry Le Bihan

Changes in redox status are a conspicuous feature of immune responses in a variety...

Corrigendum

A plastidial sodium-dependent pyruvate transporter ▶

Tsuyoshi Furumoto, Teppei Yamaguchi, Yumiko Ohshima-Ichie, Masayoshi Nakamura, Yoshiko Tsuchida-Iwata et al.

NEWS & COMMENT

An eye for success

More Chemical Sciences ▶

RESEARCH

Latest Online

Efficient quantum computing using coherent photon conversion ▶

N. K. Langford, S. Ramelow, R. Prevedel, W. J. Munro, G. J. Milburn et al.

Single photons are excellent quantum information carriers: they were used in the...

Articles and Letters

Diffraction-unlimited all-optical imaging and writing with a photochromic GFP ▶

Tim Grotjohann, Ilaria Testa, Marcel Leutenegger, Hannes Bock, Nicolai T. Urban et al.

Lens-based optical microscopy failed to discern fluorescent features closer than...

Low-Mach-number turbulence in interstellar gas revealed by radio polarization gradients ▶

B. M. Gaensler, M. Haverkorn, B. Burkhart, K. J. Newton–McGee, R. D. Ekers et al.

The interstellar medium of the Milky Way is multiphase, magnetized and turbulent...

Ocean-like water in the Jupiter-family comet 103P/Hartley 2 ▶

Paul Hartogh, Dariusz C. Lis, Dominique Bockelée-Morvan, Miguel de Val-Borro, Nicolas Biver et al.

For decades, the source of Earth's volatiles, especially water with a deuterium-...

Coherent coupling of a superconducting flux qubit to an electron spin ensemble in diamond ▶

Xiaobo Zhu, Shiro Saito, Alexander Kemp, Kosuke Kakuyanagi, Shin-ichi Karimoto et al.

During the past decade, research into superconducting quantum bits (qubits) base...

Theta-paced flickering between place-cell maps in the hippocampus ▶

Karel Jezek, Espen J. Henriksen, Alessandro Treves, Edvard I. Moser & May-Britt Moser

The ability to recall discrete memories is thought to depend on the formation of...

News & Views

Applied physics: Controlled incandescence ▶

Jean-Jacques Greffet

Quantum engineering: Spins coupled to a persistent current ▶

Irinel Chiorescu

Research Highlights

Nanotechnology: Sugar and shake sensor power | Climate-change ecology: Foreshadows of climates past | Optics: A mirage of invisibility

NEWS & COMMENT

The case of Dr Hicheur | An eye for success | Sustainability: A green Arctic | Q&A: Internet visionary | Arctic warming: Sea-ice minimum is not a one-off Christian Melsheimer, Georg Heygster & Justus Notholt

More Physical Sciences ▶

RESEARCH

Latest Online

Solutions for a cultivated planet ▶

Jonathan A. Foley, Navin Ramankutty, Kate A. Brauman, Emily S. Cassidy, James S. Gerber et al.

Increasing population and consumption are placing unprecedented demands on agric...

Articles and Letters

Ocean-like water in the Jupiter-family comet 103P/Hartley 2 ▶

Paul Hartogh, Dariusz C. Lis, Dominique Bockelée-Morvan, Miguel de Val-Borro, Nicolas Biver et al.

For decades, the source of Earth's volatiles, especially water with a deuterium-...

Atmospheric oxygenation caused by a change in volcanic degassing pressure ▶

Fabrice Gaillard, Bruno Scaillet & Nicholas T. Arndt

The Precambrian history of our planet is marked by two major events: a pulse of ...

News & Views

Earth science: Sea change for the rise of oxygen ▶

Timothy W. Lyons & Christopher T. Reinhard

Research Highlights

Climate-change ecology: Foreshadows of climates past | Environmental science: Plastic from clothing hits shorelines

NEWS & COMMENT

Sustainability: A green Arctic | Arctic science: The local perspective | Arctic warming: Sea-ice minimum is not a one-off Christian Melsheimer, Georg Heygster & Justus Notholt | Economics: Fallacy in costs of pollution control Neal Hockley

More Earth & Environmental Sciences ▶

Medical research masterclass ▶

Michelle Grayson

Lunchtime science ▶

Biophysicist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Shared 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for knowledge of the structure and function of the ribosome — the intracellular machine that builds proteins from instructions carried by RNA. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1940. The oldest of five children, Steitz has admitted to being an average student in high school, until motivated to compete against his youngest brother who was getting better grades. Steitz was a keen musician and chorister, and considered a career in music before finally choosing to pursue science. 

On the wings of imagination ▶

Biochemist at Technion, the Israeli Institute of Technology in Haifa. Shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of the ubiquitin system, which mediates protein degradation in all plant and animal cells by destroying proteins that are denatured, misfolded or no longer needed. Family moved from Poland in the 1920s, and he was born in Haifa in 1947. The following year the state of Israel was established. 

Biochemistry without boundaries ▶

Biochemist at the University of Washington in Seattle, he won a share of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning reversible phosphorylation: a regulatory mechanism that activates and deactivates enzymes in the vast majority of living cells. Fischer was born in Shanghai, China, in 1920. 

Tough science ▶

X-ray crystallographer currently at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. She won a share of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on the structure and function of the ribosome. Yonath was born in 1939 in Jerusalem to a poor family. Her father died when she was 11 years old, and Yonath helped support her mother and younger sister. Yonath was the first Israeli woman to win a Nobel prize and the first woman in 45 years to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 

Rational enthusiasm ▶

Chemist at the University of Strasbourg in France. Shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for development and use of molecules that recognize and interact with each other. Coined 'supramolecular chemistry', it is an area of chemistry that exploits non-covalent interactions. Born in 1939 in Rosheim in France, Lehn was the son of a baker who later became the city's organist. Music is Lehn's main passion other than science. 

Heart of science ▶

Biochemist at the George Washington University in Washington, DC, he shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery that nitric oxide acts as a signalling molecule in the cardiovascular system, prompting blood vessels to relax. Murad was born in Whiting, Indiana in 1936. His American mother was only 17 years old when she eloped with his father, an Albanian immigrant. His parents ran a restaurant, where he and his two brothers worked. Murad used to memorize customers' orders and mentally tally their bills, which he believed trained his memory and maths skills. 

Science addict ▶

Virologist at German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg. Joint winner of 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovery of the role of human papillomavirus (HPV) in causing cervical cancer. zur Hausen was born in 1936 in Gelsenkirchen-Buer in Germany, an area that was heavily bombed during the Second World War. 

Telomeres: All's well that ends well ▶

Elizabeth Blackburn gave the first lecture at the 2011 Lindau meeting, describing her Nobel prizewinning work on telomeres. These chromosomal caps are known to play a role in cancer and are implicated in ageing — but their full biological utility remains a mystery. 

Translational research: The American way ▶

The United States publishes more biomedical research papers than ever before, yet drug development is stagnating. Several new initiatives aim to turn this knowledge into new remedies. 

Masterclass: The gathering brainstorm ▶

In Lindau, a colloquy between a Nobel laureate and three students encouraged the young researchers to grapple with some of the biggest challenges in drug development. 

Sponsors

Rookie review ▶

What the novice peer reviewer needs to know before combing through a submission.

Postdocs probe industry ▶

Programme offers close-up view of industry opportunities.

PhD funding inadequate ▶

Pay falls short of expenses for some European PhD candidates.

Science careers unstable ▶

Survey uncovers frustrations with career uncertainties in the United Kingdom.

Careers related news & comment

Brazil cooks up transgenic bean | France toughens conflict rules | Redrawing the Arctic map: The new north | Q&A: Internet visionary

Postdoctoral Opportunity

International Agency for Research on Cancer Lyon, FR

Science Portfolio Adviser

Wellcome Trust London, GB

Faculty Positions

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center New York, US

Junior Research Groups

University of Würzburg Würzburg, DE

14th World Congress on Controversies in Obstetrics, Gynecology Infertility (COGI™)

17.-20.11.11 Paris, France