原発事故の影響を、精神面を含めて長期的に調べる福島県の「県民健康管理調査」は、今後の世界の大災害にも役立つだろう。
Troubling thoughts p.271
A sustained commitment to mental-health treatment for Fukushima evacuees could also help survivors of future disasters.
doi: 10.1038/493271a
A sustained commitment to mental-health treatment for Fukushima evacuees could also help survivors of future disasters.
doi: 10.1038/493271a
Institutions must carefully evaluate their researchers’ relationships with Wall Street.
doi: 10.1038/493271b
Age-old field methods can tell us more about animal behaviour than can laboratory models.
doi: 10.1038/493272a
Critics say that antibody therapy is too expensive for its African target population.
doi: 10.1038/493279a
Universities indulge researchers’ ties to finance industry.
doi: 10.1038/493280a
But research on induced stem cells may be the real winner.
doi: 10.1038/493282a
Adoption by TV makers could expand the market for light-emitting nanocrystals.
doi: 10.1038/493283a
Speedy sequencing underpins genetic analysis of burrowing in wild oldfield mice.
doi: 10.1038/493284a
Inactivated virus vaccine could deliver the final blow.
doi: 10.1038/493285a
Bob Paineの学説とそれを受け継ぐ「アカデミックファミリー」は、生態学をどのように変えてきたのだろうか。
doi: 10.1038/493286a
福島第一原発事故から2年近く経ち、被災者は放射線による物理的危険からは守られているが、心の傷は癒されないままである。
doi: 10.1038/493290a
環境変化は絶滅と強く相関するが、種分化との相関は高くないことが、深海堆積物コアから得られた微生物の化石によって示された。これは進化を推進する力に対する見方に微妙な影響を与えるものだ。
doi: 10.1038/nature11851
地球表面に噴出したマグマが調べられ、新しいマントル供給源候補が明らかになった。この供給源はニッケルに富んでおり、ヘリウム同位体の存在比は始原的であって、マントルの非常に深い所に起源を持つ可能性がある。
doi: 10.1038/nature11852
細胞を再プログラム化して幹細胞に似た状態にする方法は、生物医学で非常に有用と考えられるにもかかわらず、効率が悪く、十分解明されていない。今回、この過程の分子レベルでの詳細な解析が行われたことは、このような制限を乗り越えるのに役立ちそうだ。
doi: 10.1038/493310b
ハイイロシロアシマウスとシカシロアシマウスでは巣穴の様式が異なっている。この2つの種の遺伝学的解析によって、この違いに関連する染色体領域が明らかになった。この結果は、複雑な行動も遺伝子モジュールの組み合わせから生じることを示唆している。
doi: 10.1038/493312a
脳に特異的に存在する酵素のPKM-ζは、長期記憶の維持の基盤となっていると考えられてきた。だが、PKM-ζを欠失するマウスでの研究から、このタンパク質の重要性に疑いが投げかけられている。
doi: 10.1038/nature11850
共焦点蛍光顕微鏡を用いて、金属有機構造体と呼ばれる結晶性の多孔質固体中の欠陥が可視化され、欠陥の数と材料の性質の間の関係を明らかにできる。
doi: 10.1038/493313a
ある種の絶縁体の詳細な量子力学的性質を計算によって予測する方法が開発された。この方法は、既存の方法を使った予測に内在する不確実性を回避できる。
doi: 10.1038/nature11767
The properties of all materials arise largely from the quantum mechanics of their constituent electrons under the influence of the electric field of the nuclei. The solution of the underlying many-electron Schrödinger equation is a ‘non-polynomial hard’ problem, owing to the complex interplay of kinetic energy, electron–electron repulsion and the Pauli exclusion principle. The dominant computational method for describing such systems has been density functional theory. Quantum-chemical methods—based on an explicit ansatz for the many-electron wavefunctions and, hence, potentially more accurate—have not been fully explored in the solid state owing to their computational complexity, which ranges from strongly exponential to high-order polynomial in system size. Here we report the application of an exact technique, full configuration interaction quantum Monte Carlo to a variety of real solids, providing reference many-electron energies that are used to rigorously benchmark the standard hierarchy of quantum-chemical techniques, up to the ‘gold standard’ coupled-cluster ansatz, including single, double and perturbative triple particle–hole excitation operators. We show the errors in cohesive energies predicted by this method to be small, indicating the potential of this computationally polynomial scaling technique to tackle current solid-state problems.
doi: 10.1038/nature11770
Hyperconnectivity of neuronal circuits due to increased synaptic protein synthesis is thought to cause autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is strongly implicated in ASDs by means of upstream signalling; however, downstream regulatory mechanisms are ill-defined. Here we show that knockout of the eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E-binding protein 2 (4E-BP2)—an eIF4E repressor downstream of mTOR—or eIF4E overexpression leads to increased translation of neuroligins, which are postsynaptic proteins that are causally linked to ASDs. Mice that have the gene encoding 4E-BP2 (Eif4ebp2) knocked out exhibit an increased ratio of excitatory to inhibitory synaptic inputs and autistic-like behaviours (that is, social interaction deficits, altered communication and repetitive/stereotyped behaviours). Pharmacological inhibition of eIF4E activity or normalization of neuroligin 1, but not neuroligin 2, protein levels restores the normal excitation/inhibition ratio and rectifies the social behaviour deficits. Thus, translational control by eIF4E regulates the synthesis of neuroligins, maintaining the excitation-to-inhibition balance, and its dysregulation engenders ASD-like phenotypes.
doi: 10.1038/nature11628
The infrared luminosity of a young protostar (about 105 years old) is found to increase by a factor of ten in roughly one week every 25.34 days; this is attributed to pulsed accretion associated with an unseen binary companion.
doi: 10.1038/nature11746
Numerical simulations of a widely separated binary star system demonstrate that planetary systems around one star may often be strongly perturbed by the other star, triggering planetary ejections and increasing the orbital eccentricities of surviving planets.
doi: 10.1038/nature11780
The hardness, toughness and chemical stability of the well-known superhard material cubic boron nitride have been improved by using a synthesis technique based on specially prepared ‘onion-like’ precursor materials.
doi: 10.1038/nature11728
Proxy indicators of relative moisture balance, in combination with long control simulations from coupled climate models, show that the Indian Ocean drives multidecadal hydroclimate variability by altering the local Walker circulation, whereas the influence of the Pacific Ocean is minimal on these timescales.
doi: 10.1038/nature11785
Several nickel-rich and helium-rich lava samples from ocean islands and large igneous provinces suggest that mantle plume material formed by core–mantle interaction during the crystallization of a melt-rich layer or basal magma ocean.
doi: 10.1038/nature11771
Plate tectonics and climate change are shown to have driven the diversity and extinction of planktonic foraminifera throughout their evolutionary history.
doi: 10.1038/nature11815
The complex burrows created by oldfield mice are shown to be governed by genetic modules that each control an aspect of burrow size or shape.
doi: 10.1038/nature11816
Rare truncating mutations in the p53-inducible protein phosphatase PPM1D are shown to be associated with predisposition to breast cancer and ovarian cancer; notably, all of the mutations are mosaic in white blood cells but are not present in tumours, and probably have a gain-of-function effect.
doi: 10.1038/nature11725
Mice overexpressing eIF4E show autism-related behaviours and altered synaptic activity in the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and striatum, and these phenotypes can be rescued with the cap-dependent translation inhibitor 4EGI-1.
doi: 10.1038/nature11782
Genetically removing PKM-ζ in mice has no effect on memory, and despite absence of this kinase, the original peptide inhibitor of PKM-ζ still disrupts memory in these mutant mice; these data re-open the exploration for key molecules regulating maintenance of long-term plasticity processes.
doi: 10.1038/nature11803
It was proposed that protein kinase M-ζ (PKM-ζ) is a key factor in long-term potentiation (LTP) and memory maintenance on the basis of the disruption of LTP and memory by inhibitors of PKM-ζ; however, here mice that do not express PKM-ζ are shown to have normal LTP and memory, thus casting doubts on a critical role for PKM-ζ in these processes.
doi: 10.1038/nature11802
When an odour activates a fly′s antennae asymmetrically, more neurotransmitter is released from olfactory receptor neuron axon branches ipsilateral to the antenna than from contralateral branches. This causes ipsilateral central olfactory neurons to begin spiking earlier and at a higher rate than contralateral neurons, thereby enabling a walking fly to turn towards the odour.
doi: 10.1038/nature11747
Five classes of phage genes are identified that protect phages from CRISPR-mediated bacterial immunity.
doi: 10.1038/nature11723
During normal ageing a low rate of division of pre-existing cardiomyocytes, rather than progenitor cells, is responsible for cardiomyocyte genesis; this process is increased fourfold during myocardial infarction.
doi: 10.1038/nature11682
Crystal structures of the Pol II–TFIIB complex in free form and bound by the DNA template and a short RNA product are reported; the latter complex represents an initially transcribing complex, a critical transient state in the pathway from transcription initiation to elongation.
doi: 10.1038/nature11715