| | Palaeontology: Getting the measure of a monster
Scrutiny of fossils sometimes uncovers an unexpected phylogenetic relationship. New analyses of the enigmatic fossil Tullimonstrum from 300 million years ago reveal it to be a vertebrate. | Neuroscience: Fault tolerance in the brain
If stored information is erased from neural circuits in one brain hemisphere in mice, the lost data can be recovered from the other. This finding highlights a safeguarding mechanism at work in the brain. | Microbiome: Eating for trillions
Three studies investigate the bacteria in the guts of malnourished children and find that, when this microbiota is transferred into mice, supplements of certain microbes or sugars from human breast milk can restore normal growth. | Distinct bone marrow blood vessels differentially regulate haematopoiesis
Bone marrow endothelial cells have dual roles in the regulation of haematopoietic stem cell maintenance and in the trafficking of blood cells between the bone marrow and the blood circulatory system; this study shows that these different functions are regulated by distinct types of endothelial blood vessels with different permeability properties, affecting the metabolic state of their neighbouring stem cells. | Robust neuronal dynamics in premotor cortex during motor planning
In mouse cortex, 'preparatory' activity that encodes future movements is remarkably robust against large-scale perturbations; this robustness is achieved by corrective signals from unperturbed parts of the network. | Rapid cycling of reactive nitrogen in the marine boundary layer
Aircraft measurements, laboratory photolysis experiments and modelling calculations reveal a mechanism for the recycling of nitric acid into nitrogen oxides; this enables observations to be reconciled with model studies, and suggests that particulate nitrate photolysis could be a substantial tropospheric nitrogen oxide source. | Bubble accumulation and its role in the evolution of magma reservoirs in the upper crust
Here, the authors model the fluid dynamics that controls the transport of the magmatic volatile phase (MVP) in crystal-rich and crystal-poor magmas; they find that the MVP tends to migrate efficiently in crystal-rich parts of a magma reservoir but to accumulate in crystal-poor parts-possibly explaining why crystal-poor silicic magmas are particularly prone to erupting. | Daily magnesium fluxes regulate cellular timekeeping and energy balance
Circadian rhythms in the intracellular concentration of magnesium ions act as a cell-autonomous timekeeping component to determine key clock properties and tune cellular metabolism both in a human cell line and in a unicellular alga. | Quantum phases from competing short- and long-range interactions in an optical lattice
The simplest form of the Hubbard model includes only on-site interactions, but by placing an optical lattice filled with ultracold rubidium atoms into an optical cavity the Hubbard model is implemented with competing long- and short-range interactions; four phases emerge, namely, a superfluid phase, a Mott insulating phase, a supersolid phase and a charge density wave phase. | Detection of a Cooper-pair density wave in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x
Scanned Josephson tunnelling microscopy is used to image Cooper pair tunnelling from a superconducting microscope tip to the quantum condensate of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x, thus revealing the spatially modulated density of Cooper pairs predicted from several theories of the cuprate pseudogap phase. | USP14 deubiquitinates proteasome-bound substrates that are ubiquitinated at multiple sites
The proteasome-associated enzyme USP14 regulates protein degradation by removing ubiquitin from proteins; here it is shown that USP14 removes ubiquitin chains from in vitro generated cyclin B conjugates en bloc and within milliseconds, before the proteasome has a chance to initiate degradation, and proceeds until a single chain remains. | Restoring cortical control of functional movement in a human with quadriplegia
Signals recorded from motor cortex-through an intracortical implant-can be linked in real-time to activation of forearm muscles to restore movement in a paralysed human. | The diversity-generating benefits of a prokaryotic adaptive immune system
Population-level spacer diversity is a key fitness determinant of CRISPR-Cas adaptive immune systems because it limits the emergence of escape virus. | Metabolic maintenance of cell asymmetry following division in activated T lymphocytes
The asymmetric distribution of mTORC1 and c-Myc in the first division of daughter cells of activated CD8 T cells affects the proliferation, metabolism and differentiation potential of their progeny. | Age-dependent modulation of vascular niches for haematopoietic stem cells
Notch signalling in endothelial cells of the bone induces change in the capillaries and mesenchymal stem cells of the environment to support haematopoietic stem cell amplification. | The eyes of Tullimonstrum reveal a vertebrate affinity
The eyes of the Tully monster (Tullimonstrum) possess ultrastructural details indicating homology with vertebrate eyes. | | Corrigendum: Flexible high-temperature dielectric materials from polymer nanocomposites | | | | 
Open for Submissions
An interdisciplinary journal dedicated to publishing high-quality open research relevant to all aspects of schizophrenia and psychosis. | | | | | | | | | | | Hourglass fermions
The energy-momentum relationship of certain fermions resembles an hourglass, which is movable but unremovable; this robust property follows from the intertwining of spatial symmetries with the band theory of crystals, revised with mathematical connections to topology and cohomology.
Zhijun Wang, A. Alexandradinata, R. J. Cava et al. | Astrocyte scar formation aids central nervous system axon regeneration
Sustained delivery of axon-specific growth factors not typically present in spinal cord lesions allows for robust axonal regrowth only if the astrocytic scar is present-a result that questions the prevailing dogma and suggests that astrocytic scarring aids rather than prevents central nervous system axon regeneration post injury.
Mark A. Anderson, Joshua E. Burda, Yilong Ren et al. | Modulation of tissue repair by regeneration enhancer elements
An injury-dependent enhancer element is identified that activates gene expression in regenerating zebrafish tissues and can be engineered into DNA constructs that increase tissue regenerative capacity; the element is also active in injured mouse tissue.
Junsu Kang, Jianxin Hu, Ravi Karra et al. | | Reductive carboxylation supports redox homeostasis during anchorage-independent growth
Malignant cells are able to survive and grow in detached conditions, despite the associated increase in reactive oxygen species; here a novel metabolic pathway used by cancer cells as they adapt to anchorage-independent growth is described.
Lei Jiang, Alexander A. Shestov, Pamela Swain et al. | sFRP2 in the aged microenvironment drives melanoma metastasis and therapy resistance
Aged fibroblasts release a Wnt antagonist, sFRP2, which drives a signalling cascade in melanoma cells, leading to increased metastasis and reduced effectiveness of targeted therapy.
Amanpreet Kaur, Marie R. Webster, Katie Marchbank et al. | Post-invasion demography of prehistoric humans in South America
South America was the last habitable continent to be colonized by humans; using a database of 1,147 archaeological sites and 5,464 radiocarbon dates spanning 14,000 to 2,000 years ago reveals two phases of the population history of the continent-a rapid expansion through the continent at low population sizes for over 8,000 years and then a second phase of sedentary lifestyle and exponential population growth starting around 5,000 years ago.
Amy Goldberg, Alexis M. Mychajliw, Elizabeth A. Hadly | TAM receptors regulate multiple features of microglial physiology
Microglial phagocytosis is required for neurogenic niche maintenance and response to injury; the TAM kinases Mer and Axl are expressed by microglia in the adult CNS, and mediate the clearance of apoptotic cells from the niche.
Lawrence Fourgeaud, Paqui G. Través, Yusuf Tufail et al. | Chemical weathering as a mechanism for the climatic control of bedrock river incision
Climate-dependent chemical weathering is found to control the erodibility of bedrock-floored rivers across a rainfall gradient on the Kohala Peninsula, Hawai'i; river erosion models that incorporate this process could improve the assessment of climatic controls from topographic data and the understanding of climatic feedbacks in landscape evolution models.
Brendan P. Murphy, Joel P. L. Johnson, Nicole M. Gasparini et al. | Ritual human sacrifice promoted and sustained the evolution of stratified societies
Phylogenetic methods were applied to a cross-cultural database of traditional Austronesian societies to test the link between ritual human sacrifice and the origins of social hierarchy-the presence of sacrifice in a society stabilized social stratification and promoted inherited class systems.
Joseph Watts, Oliver Sheehan, Quentin D. Atkinson et al. | A neuronal circuit for colour vision based on rod-cone opponency
Colour vision is thought to rely on the comparison of signals from cone cells in the retina, this paper identifies a class of mouse retinal ganglion cells (J-RGC) that integrates an OFF signal from ultraviolet-sensitive cones with an ON signal from green-sensitive rods, producing a colour-opponent channel that may enable animals to detect urine territory marks; the underlying circuit may also explain why humans experience a blue shift in night-time vision.
Maximilian Joesch, Markus Meister | Direct observation of dynamic shear jamming in dense suspensions
Dense suspensions of hard granular particles can transform from liquid-like to solid-like when perturbed; a state diagram is mapped out that reveals how this transformation can occur via dynamic jamming at sufficiently large shear stress while leaving the particle density unchanged.
Ivo R. Peters, Sayantan Majumdar, Heinrich M. Jaeger | A map of the large day-night temperature gradient of a super-Earth exoplanet
A longitudinal thermal brightness map of the super-Earth exoplanet 55 Cancri e reveals strong day–night temperature contrast, indicating inefficient heat redistribution consistent with 55 Cancri e either being devoid of atmosphere or having an optically thick atmosphere with heat recirculation confined to the planetary dayside.
Brice-Olivier Demory, Michael Gillon, Julien de Wit et al. | Exploring the quantum speed limit with computer games
The crowd sourcing and gamification of a problem in quantum computing are described; human players succeed in solving the problem where purely numerical optimization fails, providing insight into, and a starting point for, strategies for optimization.
Jens Jakob W. H. Sørensen, Mads Kock Pedersen, Michael Munch et al. | Asymmetric catalytic formation of quaternary carbons by iminium ion trapping of radicals
A combination of photoredox and asymmetric organic catalysis enables enantioselective radical conjugate additions to β,β-disubstituted cyclic enones to construct quaternary carbon stereocentres with high fidelity.
John J. Murphy, David Bastida, Suva Paria et al. | The necrosome promotes pancreatic oncogenesis via CXCL1 and Mincle-induced immune suppression
A study of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma shows that cancer cell proliferation is associated with increased expression of proteins that control programmed necrotic cell death and suppress the adaptive immune system.
Lena Seifert, Gregor Werba, Shaun Tiwari et al. | Differential DNA repair underlies mutation hotspots at active promoters in cancer genomes
Analysis of 1,161 cancer genomes across 14 cancer types shows that increased mutation density at gene promoters can be linked to transcription initiation activity and impairment of nucleotide excision repair.
Dilmi Perera, Rebecca C. Poulos, Anushi Shah et al. | Nucleotide excision repair is impaired by binding of transcription factors to DNA
An analysis of cancer genomic data reveals an increased rate of somatic mutations at active transcription factor binding sites located both within promoter regions and distal from genes; the increased mutation rate at these genomic regions can be explained by reduced accessibility of the protein-bound DNA to nucleotide excision repair machinery.
Radhakrishnan Sabarinathan, Loris Mularoni, Jordi Deu-Pons et al. | | | | |
