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Let researchers try
new paths
Demand for
steady output stymies discovery. To pursue the most
important research, scientists must be allowed to shift
their focus, say Tolu Oni and
colleagues.
Tolu
Oni, Fabio Sciarrino, Gerardo Adesso et
al. |
Fewer numbers,
better science
Scientific
quality is hard to define, and numbers are easy to look
at. But bibliometrics are warping science — encouraging
quantity over quality. Leaders at two research
institutions describe how they do things
differently.
Rinze
Benedictus, Frank Miedema, Mark W. J. Ferguson
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Cancer: Bad neighbours
cause bad blood
Expression of a
blood-cancer-associated genetic mutation in the
non-blood cells of the bone marrow is sufficient to
cause blood cancer in mice. This finding could point to
new approaches to treating an often-fatal
disease.
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Molecular biology:
Mature proteins braced by a chaperone
Hsp70
chaperone molecules help other proteins to fold, and
were thought to bind mainly to unfolded proteins.
Single-molecule experiments now suggest that Hsp70s can
also stabilize almost fully folded
proteins.
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In retrospect:
Eighty years of stress
The discovery in
1936 that rats respond to various damaging stimuli with
a general response that involves alarm, resistance and
exhaustion launched the discipline of stress
research.
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Linguistics: Sound and
meaning in the world's languages
The sounds of
words that represent particular meanings are usually
thought to vary arbitrarily across languages. However, a
large-scale study of languages finds that some
associations between sound and meaning are
widespread.
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Transplanted embryonic
neurons integrate into adult neocortical
circuits
Transplanted
embryonic neurons in mice mature and achieve adult-like
properties within 4–8 weeks, receiving appropriate
inputs and establishing stimulus-selective
responses.
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Defining synonymous
codon compression schemes by genome recoding
REXER,
a new method that allows long sections of DNA to be
inserted or replaced in the genome of the bacterium
Escherichia coli, is used to investigate codon
replacement schemes for the generation of synthetic
genomes.
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Correcting
mitochondrial fusion by manipulating mitofusin
conformations
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S-2-hydroxyglutarate
regulates CD8+ T-lymphocyte fate
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Amazon boundary layer
aerosol concentration sustained by vertical transport
during rainfall
Rapid vertical
transport of small aerosol particles from the free
troposphere to the atmospheric boundary layer occurs
during precipitation and maintains the population of
aerosol particles over Amazonia.
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Olfactory receptor
pseudo-pseudogenes
Drosophila
sechellia, a species closely related to the model
species Drosophila melanogaster, bypasses a
premature stop codon in neuronal cells to express a
functional olfactory receptor protein from an assumed
pseudogene template.
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1970s and ‘Patient 0’
HIV-1 genomes illuminate early HIV/AIDS history in North
America
A study of the
early genetic diversity and history of the HIV-1
epidemic in North America through sequencing of eight
full-length viral genomes from the
1970s.
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Nanoscale thermal
imaging of dissipation in quantum systems
A
cryogenic thermal imaging technique that uses a
superconducting quantum interference device fabricated
on the tip of a sharp pipette can be used to image the
thermal signature of extremely low power nanometre-scale
dissipation processes.
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Transcription of the
non-coding RNA upperhand controls Hand2
expression and heart development
Transcription of
a long non-coding RNA, known as upperhand (Uph)
located upstream of the HAND2 transcription factor is
required to maintain transcription of the Hand2
gene by RNA polymerase, and blockade of Uph
expression leads to heart defects and embryonic
lethality in mice.
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Leukaemogenic effects
of Ptpn11 activating mutations in the stem cell
microenvironment
Mutations in the
protein tyrosine phosphatase SHP2 affect cells in the
bone marrow environment, which leads to aberrant
activation of resident haematopoietic stem cells and
thereby contributes to the development of
leukaemia.
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Alternative modes of
client binding enable functional plasticity of
Hsp70
Hsp70 binds
unfolded protein segments in its groove, but can also
bind and stabilize folded protein structures, owing to
its moveable lid, with ATP hydrolysis and co-chaperones
allowing control of these contrasting
effects.
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Local regulation of
gene expression by lncRNA promoters, transcription and
splicing
Various
cis-regulatory functions of genomic loci that
produce long non-coding RNAs are revealed, including
instances where their promoters have enhancer-like
activity and the lncRNA transcripts themselves are not
required for activity.
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Mechanism of
super-assembly of respiratory complexes III and
IV
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Atomic model for the
membrane-embedded VO motor of a eukaryotic
V-ATPase
The structure of
the VO subcomplex of yeast V-ATPase, solved
by electron cryomicroscopy, reveals a new subunit and
suggests a mechanism for the translocation of protons
across membranes.
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Corrigendum:
Synergistic, ultrafast mass storage and removal in
artificial mixed conductors
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Communications Arising |
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Quantum dynamics of
simultaneously measured non-commuting
observables
Simultaneous
measurement of two incompatible observables in a
superconducting qubit placed in a cavity shows that the
quantum dynamics of the system is governed by the
uncertainty principle and that the wavefunction collapse
is replaced by persistent diffusion.
Shay
Hacohen-Gourgy, Leigh S. Martin, Emmanuel Flurin et
al. |
Fossil evidence of the
avian vocal organ from the Mesozoic
Birds make sound
in the syrinx, a unique vocal organ situated deep in the
chest, but little is known about the evolution of this
structure; a fossilized Cretaceous age syrinx from
Antarctica is described from a species that might have
been capable of making a goose-like honking
sound.
Julia
A. Clarke, Sankar Chatterjee, Zhiheng Li et
al. |
A triple protostar
system formed via fragmentation of a gravitationally
unstable disk
Observations of
the triple protostar system L1448 IRS3B support the
hypothesis that companion stars can form because of
gravitational instability in a protostellar
disk.
John
J. Tobin, Kaitlin M. Kratter, Magnus V. Persson et
al. |
Potassium isotopic
evidence for a high-energy giant impact origin of the
Moon
The potassium
isotope signature of lunar rocks supports the model of a
high-energy giant impact as the origin of the
Moon.
Kun
Wang, Stein B. Jacobsen |
Atom-at-a-time laser
resonance ionization spectroscopy of nobelium
Resonance
ionization spectroscopy of nobelium (atomic number 102)
reveals its ground-state transition and an upper limit
for its ionization potential, paving the way to
characterizing even heavier elements via optical
spectroscopy.
Mustapha
Laatiaoui, Werner Lauth, Hartmut Backe et
al. |
Projected land
photosynthesis constrained by changes in the seasonal
cycle of atmospheric CO2
Analysis of
observations and model projections provides large-scale
emergent constraints on the extent of CO2
fertilization, with estimated increases in gross primary
productivity for both high-latitude and extratropical
ecosystems under elevated atmospheric CO2
concentrations.
Sabrina
Wenzel, Peter M. Cox, Veronika Eyring et
al. |
Changing cultural
attitudes towards female genital cutting
Entertaining
movies addressing both individual values and
marriageability can provide a way to change cultural
attitudes towards female genital cutting within certain
cultures.
Sonja
Vogt, Nadia Ahmed Mohmmed Zaid, Hilal El Fadil Ahmed
et al. |
Genomic insights into
the peopling of the Southwest Pacific
Analysis of
ancient DNA from four individuals who lived in Vanuatu
and Tonga between 2,300 and 3,100 years ago suggests
that the Papuan ancestry seen in present-day occupants
of this region was introduced at a later
date.
Pontus
Skoglund, Cosimo Posth, Kendra Sirak et
al. |
Synchronous long-term
oscillations in a synthetic gene circuit
The
first synthetic genetic oscillator or ‘repressilator’ is
simplified using insights from stochastic theory, thus
achieving remarkably precise and robust oscillations and
informing current debates about the next generation of
synthetic circuits and their potential applications in
cell-based therapies.
Laurent
Potvin-Trottier, Nathan D. Lord, Glenn Vinnicombe et
al. |
T-cell acute leukaemia
exhibits dynamic interactions with bone marrow
microenvironments
Here, leukaemia
cells are followed by intravital microscopy as they
infiltrate mouse bone marrow and respond to
chemotherapy, revealing that at all stages analysed they
are highly motile and do not display any associations
with particular bone marrow
sub-compartments.
Edwin
D. Hawkins, Delfim Duarte, Olufolake Akinduro et
al. |
Chromosome
conformation elucidates regulatory relationships in
developing human brain
High-resolution
three-dimensional maps of chromatin contacts in the
developing human brain help to identify
enhancer–promoter contacts, many of which are associated
with human cognitive function and
disease.
Hyejung
Won, Luis de la Torre-Ubieta, Jason L. Stein et
al. |
TET-mediated DNA
demethylation controls gastrulation by regulating
Lefty–Nodal signalling
Inactivation of
three Tet genes in mice leads to gastrulation
phenotypes similar to those in embryos with increased
Nodal signalling, revealing a functional redundancy of
Tet genes and showing balanced and dynamic DNA
methylation and demethylation is crucial to regulate key
signalling pathways in early body plan
formation.
Hai-Qiang
Dai, Bang-An Wang, Lu Yang et al. |
Mechanism for DNA
transposons to generate introns on genomic
scales
The observations
that introns are acquired in bursts and that exons are
often nucleosome-sized can be explained by the
generation of introns from DNA transposons, which insert
between nucleosomes.
Jason
T. Huff, Daniel Zilberman, Scott W. Roy |
Pore architecture of
TRIC channels and insights into their gating
mechanism
X-ray structures
of C. elegans TRIC-B subtype channels reveal that
the membrane proteins form a symmetrical homotrimeric
complex, and a mechanistic model to explain the complex
gating mechanism of TRIC channels is
proposed.
Hanting
Yang, Miaohui Hu, Jianli Guo et al.
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