| | Renewables: Share data on wind energy
Giving researchers access to information on turbine performance would allow wind farms to be optimized through data mining, says Andrew Kusiak.
Andrew Kusiak | Listings: Science in culture 2016
Gear up for some big birthdays, as anniversaries roll around for Star Trek, H. G. Wells and the US National Park Service. And jostling for the spotlight are Finding Nemo's fishy crew, a modern twist on haute couture, groundbreaking artists, ground-quaking dinosaurs and (perhaps) Keanu Reeves. Daniel Cressey reports.
Daniel Cressey | | | | |
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Nature Index 2015 China
The 2015 Nature Index supplement dedicated to China reveals the country's output of high quality science continues to grow — a trend that shows no signs of slowing.
Access now for free. | | | | | | | | | | | Autophagy maintains stemness by preventing senescence
The regenerative properties of muscle stem cells decline with age as the stem cells enter an irreversible state of senescence; a study of mouse muscle stem cells reveals that entry into senescence is an autophagy-dependent process and promoting autophagy in old satellite cells can reverse senescence and restore their regenerative properties in an injury model.
Laura García-Prat, Marta Martínez-Vicente, Eusebio Perdiguero et al. | Substantial contribution of extrinsic risk factors to cancer development
Recent analyses have suggested that the intrinsic behaviour of tissue stem cells may be responsible for malignant transformation and cancer progression, raising questions regarding the influence of extrinsic factors on tumourigenesis; here, both data-driven and model-driven evidence show that such intrinsic risk factors contribute only marginally to cancer development, indicating that cancer risk is heavily influenced by extrinsic factors.
Song Wu, Scott Powers, Wei Zhu et al. | SMN and symmetric arginine dimethylation of RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain control termination
Symmetric dimethylation of the human RNA polymerase II C-terminal domain residue R1810 by the protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) directly recruits the protein survival of motor neuron (SMN) and indirectly recruits the helicase senataxin to resolve R-loops and promote transcription termination.
Dorothy Yanling Zhao, Gerald Gish, Ulrich Braunschweig et al. | | Repetitive patterns in rapid optical variations in the nearby black-hole binary V404 Cygni
Observations of V404 Cygni, an X-ray transient containing a black hole of nine solar masses and a companion star, show that optical oscillations on timescales of 100 seconds to 2.5 hours can occur at mass-accretion rates at least ten times lower than previously thought, suggesting that the accretion rate is not the critical parameter for inducing inner-disk instabilities.
Mariko Kimura, Keisuke Isogai, Taichi Kato et al. | Four-electron deoxygenative reductive coupling of carbon monoxide at a single metal site
The environmental and geopolitical problems associated with fossil fuels might be alleviated if it were possible to produce synthetic multicarbon fuels efficiently from single-carbon feedstocks; here, a molybdenum compound supported by a terphenyl–diphosphine ligand is used to convert carbon monoxide into a metal-free C2O1 fragment, with the ligand both serving as an electron reservoir and stabilizing the different intermediate species.
Joshua A. Buss, Theodor Agapie | A continuum from clear to cloudy hot-Jupiter exoplanets without primordial water depletion
A spectroscopic comparison of ten hot-Jupiter exoplanets reveals that the difference between the planetary radius measured at optical and infrared wavelengths allows atmosphere types ranging from clear to cloudy to be distinguished; the difference in radius at a given wavelength correlates with the spectral strength of water at that wavelength, suggesting that haze obscures the signal from water.
David K. Sing, Jonathan J. Fortney, Nikolay Nikolov et al. | Evidence for a new phase of dense hydrogen above 325 gigapascals
Raman spectroscopy of three isotopes of hydrogen under very high compression yields evidence of a new phase of hydrogen—phase V—which could potentially be a precursor to the long-sought non-molecular phase.
Philip Dalladay-Simpson, Ross T. Howie, Eugene Gregoryanz | Partially oxidized atomic cobalt layers for carbon dioxide electroreduction to liquid fuel
Electroreduction of carbon dioxide into useful fuels helps to reduce fossil-fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, but activating carbon dioxide requires impractically high overpotentials; here a metal atomic layer combined with its native oxide that requires low overpotentials to reduce carbon dioxide is developed, adapted from an existing cobalt-based catalyst.
Shan Gao, Yue Lin, Xingchen Jiao et al. | Slab melting as a barrier to deep carbon subduction
Experiments show that carbonated oceanic crust subducting into the mantle will intersect the melting curve at depths of about 300 to 700 kilometres, creating a barrier to direct carbonate recycling into the deep mantle.
Andrew R. Thomson, Michael J. Walter, Simon C. Kohn et al. | Holocene shifts in the assembly of plant and animal communities implicate human impacts
Plant and animal assemblage co-occurrence patterns have remained relatively consistent for 300 million years but have changed over the Holocene epoch as the impact of humans has dramatically increased.
S. Kathleen Lyons, Kathryn L. Amatangelo, Anna K. Behrensmeyer et al. | Influence of extreme weather disasters on global crop production
Analyses of the effects of extreme weather disasters on global crop production over the past five decades show that drought and extreme heat reduced national cereal production by 9–10%, whereas no discernible effect at the national level was seen for floods and extreme cold; droughts affect yields and the harvested area, whereas extreme heat mainly affects yields.
Corey Lesk, Pedram Rowhani, Navin Ramankutty | The calcium sensor synaptotagmin 7 is required for synaptic facilitation
Synaptotagmin 7 is shown to be essential for synaptic facilitation at a variety of central synapses, and the results pave the way for future functional studies of short-term synaptic plasticity, a fundamental form of neuronal computation.
Skyler L. Jackman, Josef Turecek, Justine E. Belinsky et al. | The C. elegans adult neuronal IIS/FOXO transcriptome reveals adult phenotype regulators
The FOXO transcription factor, DAF-16, is required for the long-life phenotype of daf-2 mutant nematode worms; here the authors find that daf-2 mutant worms maintain neuronal functions and behaviours with age by using a set of transcriptional targets that are distinct from previously identified canonical FOXO/DAF-16-regulated targets.
Rachel Kaletsky, Vanisha Lakhina, Rachel Arey et al. | Targeting PTPRK-RSPO3 colon tumours promotes differentiation and loss of stem-cell function
Antibody-mediated inhibition of R-spondin-3 in colorectal tumours decreases tumour growth and promotes differentiation—these effects are associated with a decrease in expression of genes associated with stem-cell function.
Elaine E. Storm, Steffen Durinck, Felipe de Sousa e Melo et al. | Species difference in ANP32A underlies influenza A virus polymerase host restriction
The host protein ANP32A is shown here to be a species barrier to the function of avian influenza virus polymerase in mammalian cells; the mutation E627K in viral protein PB2, which allows mammalian ANP32 family proteins to support the avian virus polymerase, is known to be associated with increased virulence of avian viruses in mammals.
Jason S. Long, Efstathios S. Giotis, Olivier Moncorgé et al. | A LAIR1 insertion generates broadly reactive antibodies against malaria variant antigens
Monoclonal antibodies with broad reactivity against antigens on the parasite that causes malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, are isolated from two subjects and are found to have an unusual insertion of an immunoglobulin-like domain from a different chromosome, illustrating a new mechanism of antibody diversification.
Joshua Tan, Kathrin Pieper, Luca Piccoli et al. | Insulator dysfunction and oncogene activation in IDH mutant gliomas
An epigenetic mechanism in which gain-of-function IDH mutations promote gliomagenesis by disrupting chromosomal topology is presented, with IDH mutations causing the binding sites of the methylation-sensitive insulator CTCF to become hypermethylated; disruption of a CTCF boundary near the glioma oncogene PDGFRA allows a constitutive enhancer to contact and activate the oncogene aberrantly.
William A. Flavahan, Yotam Drier, Brian B. Liau et al. | | | | |
