nature

THIS WEEK

Editorials

Science takes the stand ▶

Two legal rulings by the US Supreme Court last week will have significant implications for research into health-care outcomes and for how neuroscience is used in sentencing juveniles.

Good advice ▶

The UK government's latest appointment offers hope for British science.

Print preview ▶

The printing press changed the world; three-dimensional printing could do the same.

World View

Meet patients to get your motivation back ▶

Biomedical scientists risk forgetting what they’re working for if they don’t connect with the people who are affected by their research, says Tal Nuriel.

Seven Days

Seven days: 29 June–5 July 2012 ▶

The week in science: First weight-loss pill approved for more than a decade; GSK pleads guilty to health-care fraud; and Gabon burns ivory in stance against illegal trade.

NEWS IN FOCUS

Health law worries hospitals ▶

US academic centres fear they will lose out as upheld Affordable Care Act cuts payments.

Palm-oil boom raises conservation concerns ▶

Industry urged towards sustainable farming practices as rising demand drives deforestation.

Laser plant offers cheap way to make nuclear fuel ▶

Experts worry that uranium-enrichment technique could be used to make bombs.

African researchers sue flagship programme for discrimination ▶

Conflict at Kenya Medical Research Institute exposes widespread tensions.

The data detective ▶

Uri Simonsohn explains how he uncovered wrongdoing in psychology research.

Turkey cracks down on academic freedom ▶

External groups hope scrutiny will restrain government.

Britain names next chief science adviser ▶

Immunologist Mark Walport, head of one of the world’s largest biomedical charities, will take on role in 2013.

Features

Science in three dimensions: The print revolution ▶

Three-dimensional printers are opening up new worlds to research.

Neurodevelopment: Unlocking the brain ▶

Much of our neural circuitry is fixed during childhood. Researchers are finding ways to unglue it, raising hopes for treating many brain disorders.

COMMENT

Nuclear deterrence: Decisions at the brink ▶

Linguistic analysis reveals how advisers influenced President Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis 50 years ago, argues David R. Gibson.

Policy: A call for global nuclear disarmament ▶

Danger from nuclear weapons is mounting. It is time to take control of the nuclear fuel cycle and move towards a world without warheads, says Scott D. Sagan.

Summer Books

Summer books ▶

With the annual exodus from labs and lecture theatres on the horizon, Nature's regular reviewers and editors share some gripping holiday reads.

Correspondence

Policy: Take direct action on climate inaction Alejandro Frid & Lynne Quarmby | Carbon: Doubt in Australia's emissions scheme Frank Jotzo | Spanish cuts: Careers come to abrupt end Sergio P. Acebrón | Spanish cuts: More economic damage Manuel Corpas | Spanish cuts: Reform bureaucratic culture Miguel B. Araújo | Gerontology: More funding for studies of ageing Brian Kennedy | Biodiversity: Trade threat could be even more dire Franz Essl, Marten Winter & Petr Pyšek | Disease outbreaks: Support for a cholera vaccine stockpile Agnes Binagwaho, Thierry Nyatanyi, Cameron T. Nutt & Claire M. Wagner | Microbial profiling: Extend ethnicity of human microbiome Bhaswati Chatterjee & Suman S. Thakur

Obituary

Phillip Vallentine Tobias (1925–2012) ▶

Palaeoanthropologist who pioneered description of African hominins.

Correction

Correction ▶

Correction ▶

RESEARCH

Latest Online

Non-invasive prenatal measurement of the fetal genome ▶

H. Christina Fan, Wei Gu, Jianbin Wang, Yair J. Blumenfeld, Yasser Y. El-Sayed et al.

Prenatal testing usually requires invasive sampling; here molecular counting of parental haplotypes in the maternal plasma allows the fetal genome to be deciphered and molecular counting of individual alleles enables the fetal exome to be captured.

An epigenetic silencing pathway controlling T helper 2 cell lineage commitment ▶

Rhys S. Allan, Elina Zueva, Florence Cammas, Heidi A. Schreiber, Vanessa Masson et al.

The histone modification H3K9me3, the histone methyltransferase SUV39H1 and the H3K9me3-binding protein HP1α participate in maintaining the silent state of the two canonical T helper 1 cell signature genes (which encode interferon-γ and T-bet), ensuring T helper 2 lineage stability in vitro and in vivo; targeting this pathway has the potential to reduce asthma-related pathology.

Tumour micro-environment elicits innate resistance to RAF inhibitors through HGF secretion ▶

Ravid Straussman, Teppei Morikawa, Kevin Shee, Michal Barzily-Rokni, Zhi Rong Qian et al.

The secretion of hepatocyte growth factor by stromal cells in the tumour micro-environment can make melanoma resistant to RAF inhibitors, through the activation of the MET signalling pathway, but a combination of RAF and MET inhibitors can overcome this resistance.

Widespread potential for growth-factor-driven resistance to anticancer kinase inhibitors ▶

Timothy R. Wilson, Jane Fridlyand, Yibing Yan, Elicia Penuel, Luciana Burton et al.

The efficacy of kinase inhibitors in treating cancer is limited by drug resistance; here it is shown that most human tumour cells can develop drug resistance through being exposed to one or more receptor tyrosine kinase ligands.

The human CST complex is a terminator of telomerase activity ▶

Liuh-Yow Chen, Sophie Redon & Joachim Lingner

The human CST complex is shown to interact with the telomeric primer and the POT1–TPP1 complex to inhibit telomerase activity in late S phase, thereby keeping unrestrained telomere lengthening in check.

IDH1(R132H) mutation increases murine haematopoietic progenitors and alters epigenetics ▶

Masato Sasaki, Christiane B. Knobbe, Joshua C. Munger, Evan F. Lind, Dirk Brenner et al.

Mutations in isocitrate dehydrogenases IDH1 and IDH2 are common in human gliomas and acute myeloid leukaemias; here, mice that carry the IHD1(R132H) mutation are described, in a new model that should help in investigating the links between mutant IDH1 and leukaemia.

Structural insights into electron transfer in caa₃-type cytochrome oxidase ▶

Joseph A. Lyons, David Aragão, Orla Slattery, Andrei V. Pisliakov, Tewfik Soulimane et al.

The caa₃-type cytochrome oxidase structure described here provides insight into the coupling of energy transduction to the complete reduction of oxygen.

RNA sequencing of pancreatic circulating tumour cells implicates WNT signalling in metastasis ▶

Min Yu, David T. Ting, Shannon L. Stott, Ben S. Wittner, Fatih Ozsolak et al.

A new method allows the collection of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) despite their rarity; transcriptome sequencing of CTCs could allow identification of pathways involved in metastasis.

Live imaging of stem cell and progeny behaviour in physiological hair-follicle regeneration ▶

Panteleimon Rompolas, Elizabeth R. Deschene, Giovanni Zito, David G. Gonzalez, Ichiko Saotome et al.

A non-invasive method is used to study and manipulate hair-follicle regeneration over time in live mice, and shows that hair growth involves spatially regulated cell divisions, cellular reorganization and migration of epithelial cells, and that the mesenchyme is required for hair growth.

A map of the cis-regulatory sequences in the mouse genome ▶

Yin Shen, Feng Yue, David F. McCleary, Zhen Ye, Lee Edsall et al.

A genomic map of nearly 300,000 potential cis-regulatory sequences determined from diverse mouse tissues and cell types reveals active promoters, enhancers and CCCTC-binding factor sites encompassing 11% of the mouse genome and significantly expands annotation of mammalian regulatory sequences.

‘Slings’ enable neutrophil rolling at high shear ▶

Prithu Sundd, Edgar Gutierrez, Ekaterina K. Koltsova, Yoshihiro Kuwano, Satoru Fukuda et al.

During inflammation neutrophils roll along the vascular endothelium; here, previously unknown structures called ‘slings’, which appear and persist at the front of rolling cells in vivo and in vitro, are described.

NLRP6 negatively regulates innate immunity and host defence against bacterial pathogens ▶

Paras K. Anand, R. K. Subbarao Malireddi, John R. Lukens, Peter Vogel, John Bertin et al.

The Nod-like receptor family member NLRP6 is characterized and shown to be a negative regulator of inflammatory signalling, dampening host responses against bacterial infections and impeding bacterial clearance.

Autistic-like behaviour and cerebellar dysfunction in Purkinje cell Tsc1 mutant mice ▶

Peter T. Tsai, Court Hull, YunXiang Chu, Emily Greene-Colozzi, Abbey R. Sadowski et al.

Both heterozygous loss and homozygous loss of Tsc1 in mouse cerebellar Purkinje cells (PCs) result in autistic-like behaviours, which can be prevented by treatment with the mTOR inhibitor, rapamycin; these findings demonstrate critical roles for PCs in autistic-like behaviours in mice.

Articles and Letters

Neural population dynamics during reaching ▶

Mark M. Churchland, John P. Cunningham, Matthew T. Kaufman, Justin D. Foster, Paul Nuyujukian et al.

Embryonic stem cell potency fluctuates with endogenous retrovirus activity ▶

Todd S. Macfarlan, Wesley D. Gifford, Shawn Driscoll, Karen Lettieri, Helen M. Rowe et al.

A rare cell subpopulation within mouse embryonic stem cell cultures is identified that exhibits properties of two-cell (2C) embryos; the interconversion of ES cells to 2C cells correlates with endogenous retroviral activity.

Biophysical mechanism of T-cell receptor triggering in a reconstituted system ▶

John R. James & Ronald D. Vale

After introducing the T-cell receptor and other essential signalling genes, a non-immune cell is capable of displaying the early events of T-cell activation when placed in contact with antigen-presenting cells, and the initial signalling in this reconstituted system is shown to require the spatial reorganization of molecules at the cell interface.

The diet of Australopithecus sediba ▶

Amanda G. Henry, Peter S. Ungar, Benjamin H. Passey, Matt Sponheimer, Lloyd Rossouw et al.

Phytolith, stable carbon isotope, and dental microwear texture data for two individuals of Au. sediba, 2-million-year-old hominins from South Africa, show that they consumed a mostly C₃ diet that probably included harder foods, and both dicotyledons (for example, tree leaves, fruits, and wood or bark) and monocotyledons (for example, grasses and sedges); this diet contrasts with previously described diets of other early hominin species.

Butterfly genome reveals promiscuous exchange of mimicry adaptations among species  OPEN ▶

The Heliconius Genome Consortium

Sequencing of the genome of the butterfly Heliconius melpomene shows that closely related Heliconius species exchange protective colour-pattern genes promiscuously.

Compartmentalized calcium dynamics in a C. elegans interneuron encode head movement ▶

Michael Hendricks, Heonick Ha, Nicolas Maffey & Yun Zhang

Subcellular compartmentalization established by mobilization of intracellular calcium stores in RIA interneurons provides a means of self-motion monitoring and a cellular basis for integrating sensory and motor signals in nematodes’ brains.

Dietary-fat-induced taurocholic acid promotes pathobiont expansion and colitis in Il10^−/− mice ▶

Suzanne Devkota, Yunwei Wang, Mark W. Musch, Vanessa Leone, Hannah Fehlner-Peach et al.

Consumption of a diet high in milk-derived fat is shown to increase the abundance of sulphite-reducing bacteria by altering bile composition, leading to inflammation and colitis in genetically susceptible mice.

Reduced airway surface pH impairs bacterial killing in the porcine cystic fibrosis lung ▶

Alejandro A. Pezzulo, Xiao Xiao Tang, Mark J. Hoegger, Mahmoud H. Abou Alaiwa, Shyam Ramachandran et al.

In a porcine cystic fibrosis model, lack of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) is shown to result in acidification of airway surface liquid (ASL), and this decrease in pH reduces the ability of ASL to kill bacteria; the findings directly link loss of the CFTR anion channel to impaired defence against bacterial infection.

SIRT7 links H3K18 deacetylation to maintenance of oncogenic transformation ▶

Matthew F. Barber, Eriko Michishita-Kioi, Yuanxin Xi, Luisa Tasselli, Mitomu Kioi et al.

SIRT7 is an H3K18Ac-selective deacetylase that has a pivotal role in chromatin regulation, maintenance of cellular transformation programs and tumour formation in vivo.

SbsB structure and lattice reconstruction unveil Ca²⁺ triggered S-layer assembly ▶

Ekaterina Baranova, Rémi Fronzes, Abel Garcia-Pino, Nani Van Gerven, David Papapostolou et al.

Nanobody-aided X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy are used to describe the Ca²⁺-dependent polymerization dynamics of the S-layer of the Geobacillus stearothermophilus cell wall.

Programmable single-cell mammalian biocomputers ▶

Simon Ausländer, David Ausländer, Marius Müller, Markus Wieland & Martin Fussenegger

In synthetic biology, the use of regulatory proteins that bind either DNA or RNA to reprogram mammalian cellular functions allows a variety of computational ‘logic circuits’ to be built in a plug-and-play manner, which may pave the way for precise and robust control of future gene-based and cell-based therapies.

News & Views

Palaeoanthropology: The ancestral dinner table ▶

Margaret J. Schoeninger

Stem cells: A sporadic super state ▶

Azim Surani & Julia Tischler

50 & 100 years ago ▶

Ecology: The importance of being rare ▶

Kevin J. Gaston

Microbiology: Fat, bile and gut microbes ▶

Peter J. Turnbaugh

Corrigenda

Corrigendum: Fetal load and the evolution of lumbar lordosis in bipedal hominins ▶

Katherine K. Whitcome, Liza J. Shapiro & Daniel E. Lieberman

Corrigendum: Conditional modulation of spike-timing-dependent plasticity for olfactory learning ▶

Stijn Cassenaer & Gilles Laurent

Corrigendum: Inhibitory receptors bind ANGPTLs and support blood stem cells and leukaemia development ▶

Junke Zheng, Masato Umikawa, Changhao Cui, Jiyuan Li, Xiaoli Chen et al.

Erratum

Erratum: Genome-wide structure and organization of eukaryotic pre-initiation complexes ▶

Ho Sung Rhee & B. Franklin Pugh

Research Highlights

Evolution: Fighters invest in body, not testes | Gene therapy: Quit smoking with a shot | Neuroscience: fMRI translates thoughts to words | Neurodegeneration: Silencing Huntington's gene | Biophysics: How cells maintain chains | Neuroscience: DNA methylation controls memory | Neuroscience: Gene blocks effects of stress | Ecology: Illuminating invertebrate habitats

NEWS & COMMENT

Summer books | Meet patients to get your motivation back | Health law worries hospitals | African researchers sue flagship programme for discrimination | The data detective | Neurodevelopment: Unlocking the brain | Gerontology: More funding for studies of ageing Brian Kennedy | Biodiversity: Trade threat could be even more dire Franz Essl, Marten Winter & Petr Pyšek | Disease outbreaks: Support for a cholera vaccine stockpile Agnes Binagwaho, Thierry Nyatanyi, Cameron T. Nutt & Claire M. Wagner | Microbial profiling: Extend ethnicity of human microbiome Bhaswati Chatterjee & Suman S. Thakur | Phillip Vallentine Tobias (1925–2012)

More Biological Sciences ▶

RESEARCH

Latest Online

The human CST complex is a terminator of telomerase activity ▶

Liuh-Yow Chen, Sophie Redon & Joachim Lingner

The human CST complex is shown to interact with the telomeric primer and the POT1–TPP1 complex to inhibit telomerase activity in late S phase, thereby keeping unrestrained telomere lengthening in check.

Structural insights into electron transfer in caa₃-type cytochrome oxidase ▶

Joseph A. Lyons, David Aragão, Orla Slattery, Andrei V. Pisliakov, Tewfik Soulimane et al.

The caa₃-type cytochrome oxidase structure described here provides insight into the coupling of energy transduction to the complete reduction of oxygen.

Articles and Letters

Biophysical mechanism of T-cell receptor triggering in a reconstituted system ▶

John R. James & Ronald D. Vale

After introducing the T-cell receptor and other essential signalling genes, a non-immune cell is capable of displaying the early events of T-cell activation when placed in contact with antigen-presenting cells, and the initial signalling in this reconstituted system is shown to require the spatial reorganization of molecules at the cell interface.

Direct and highly regioselective and enantioselective allylation of β-diketones ▶

Wesley A. Chalifoux, Samuel K. Reznik & James L. Leighton

A simple, regioselective and enantioselective method for allylating β-diketones has been developed, significantly expanding the pool of easily accessible enantiomerically enriched and functionally complex tertiary carbinols.

News & Views

Organic chemistry: Reactions at the end of a tether ▶

Stefan Roesner & Varinder K. Aggarwal

Erratum

Erratum: Genome-wide structure and organization of eukaryotic pre-initiation complexes ▶

Ho Sung Rhee & B. Franklin Pugh

More Chemical Sciences ▶

RESEARCH

Latest Online

A filament of dark matter between two clusters of galaxies ▶

Jörg P. Dietrich, Norbert Werner, Douglas Clowe, Alexis Finoguenov, Tom Kitching et al.

A dark-matter filament connecting the galaxy clusters Abell 222 and Abell 223 has been detected from its weak gravitational lensing signal.

Articles and Letters

The signature of the first stars in atomic hydrogen at redshift 20 ▶

Eli Visbal, Rennan Barkana, Anastasia Fialkov, Dmitriy Tseliakhovich & Christopher M. Hirata

A simulation of the distribution of the first stars at a cosmic age of about 180 million years reveals that the 21-cm atomic hydrogen signature of these stars is an enhanced (ten millikelvin) fluctuation signal on scales of a few hundred million light-years.

Rapid disappearance of a warm, dusty circumstellar disk ▶

Carl Melis, B. Zuckerman, Joseph H. Rhee, Inseok Song, Simon J. Murphy et al.

Observations of a young, Sun-like star indicate that orbiting debris from the process of terrestrial planet formation has undergone an unprecedented phase of rapid evolution that cannot be explained by any known physical model.

Optical nano-imaging of gate-tunable graphene plasmons ▶

Jianing Chen, Michela Badioli, Pablo Alonso-González, Sukosin Thongrattanasiri, Florian Huth et al.

Propagating optical plasmons — collective electron excitations coupled to photons — are launched in graphene and studied with near-field optical microscopy, revealing ultra-strong optical field confinement and gate-tunable control of optical fields at nanoscale dimensions.

Gate-tuning of graphene plasmons revealed by infrared nano-imaging ▶

Z. Fei, A. S. Rodin, G. O. Andreev, W. Bao, A. S. McLeod et al.

Plasmons are directly launched in graphene, and their key parameters — propagation and attenuation — are studied with near-field infrared nano-imaging.

SbsB structure and lattice reconstruction unveil Ca²⁺ triggered S-layer assembly ▶

Ekaterina Baranova, Rémi Fronzes, Abel Garcia-Pino, Nani Van Gerven, David Papapostolou et al.

Nanobody-aided X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy are used to describe the Ca²⁺-dependent polymerization dynamics of the S-layer of the Geobacillus stearothermophilus cell wall.

News & Views

Astronomy: Warm dust makes a fast getaway ▶

Margaret Moerchen

Research Highlights

Climate change: Lopsided warming north to south

NEWS & COMMENT

Print preview | Palm-oil boom raises conservation concerns | Laser plant offers cheap way to make nuclear fuel | Science in three dimensions: The print revolution | Nuclear deterrence: Decisions at the brink | Policy: A call for global nuclear disarmament | Policy: Take direct action on climate inaction Alejandro Frid & Lynne Quarmby | Carbon: Doubt in Australia's emissions scheme Frank Jotzo

More Physical Sciences ▶

RESEARCH

Articles and Letters

Rapid disappearance of a warm, dusty circumstellar disk ▶

Carl Melis, B. Zuckerman, Joseph H. Rhee, Inseok Song, Simon J. Murphy et al.

Observations of a young, Sun-like star indicate that orbiting debris from the process of terrestrial planet formation has undergone an unprecedented phase of rapid evolution that cannot be explained by any known physical model.

News & Views

50 & 100 years ago ▶

Astronomy: Warm dust makes a fast getaway ▶

Margaret Moerchen

Research Highlights

Environmental science: Future ozone from planes and boats | Climate change: Lopsided warming north to south

NEWS & COMMENT

Palm-oil boom raises conservation concerns | Policy: Take direct action on climate inaction Alejandro Frid & Lynne Quarmby | Carbon: Doubt in Australia's emissions scheme Frank Jotzo | Biodiversity: Trade threat could be even more dire Franz Essl, Marten Winter & Petr Pyšek

More Earth & Environmental Sciences ▶

Publishing: Foreign tongues ▶

Non-native English speakers face challenges when trying to publish. But there are resources that can provide help.

Turning point: Martin Oeggerli ▶

Cancer researcher turns scientific photography into his main career pursuit.

Careers related news & comment

Laser plant offers cheap way to make nuclear fuel | African researchers sue flagship programme for discrimination | Britain names next chief science adviser | Carbon: Doubt in Australia's emissions scheme Frank Jotzo | Spanish cuts: Careers come to abrupt end Sergio P. Acebrón | Spanish cuts: More economic damage Manuel Corpas | Spanish cuts: Reform bureaucratic culture Miguel B. Araújo

Postdoctoral Fellowship

Northwestern Univeristy Feinberg School of Medicine 

Research Technician

King's College London 

Research Associate

Vertex 

Postdoctoral position: membrane fusion imaging

Institute of Anatomy, Medical Faculty, University of Bern 

Photocontrol and Optogenetic of Biological Systems and Functions

17.-20.09.12 Paris, France