Many women are deterred from pursuing a career in science at the highest levels. Much more must be done to address the reasons behind this potential waste of human talent.
doi: 10.1038/495005a
Biologists track species on flotsam from Japan to US shores.
doi: 10.1038/495013a
Scientists face difficult choice for Europe’s next Earth-observation mission.
doi: 10.1038/495015a
Scientists reconstruct a battered traveller’s final moments.
doi: 10.1038/495016a
Materials that flip from insulator to conductor could make energy-efficient transistors.
doi: 10.1038/495017a
Antares test could challenge dominance of Falcon 9 rocket.
doi: 10.1038/495018a
Critics fear that a proposed megaproject could crowd out other biological research.
doi: 10.1038/495019a
科学分野での男女平等を実現するには、まだ多くの課題が残されている。
doi: 10.1038/495021a
改善されてはいるものの、女性科学者はいまだに、差別、低報酬、助成の不平などに悩まされている。
doi: 10.1038/495022a
科学研究に携わる女性は増えているが、業界や審議会はいまだに男性が牛耳っている。
doi: 10.1038/495025a
「女だからってそんなの関係ない」と、研究と子育てを両立させる気鋭の30代女性科学者たちは語る。
doi: 10.1038/495028a
ガイドRNA分子を使ってDNA標的を切断する細菌酵素が、細菌やヒトの細胞のゲノムからゼブラフィッシュのような個体のゲノムまで、部位特異的修飾をするためのプログラム可能な手段として広く使われるようになった。
doi: 10.1038/495050a
大マゼラン雲までの距離の非常に正確な値が得られれば、宇宙の「暗黒エネルギー」について、天文学上のよりよい物差しが得られる。今回、連星系を使うことで、2.2％という精度での値が得られた。
doi: 10.1038/495051a
腸の陰窩構造に局在していて静止状態にある細胞が幹細胞かどうかということは、ずっと不明確なままだった。この問題の答えは、幹細胞という言葉が何を意味しているかによってイエスでもありノーでもあるようだ。
doi: 10.1038/nature11958
数ppmの濃度で、大量に得られる単純な化学製品のメタノールから水素ガスを放出させるルテニウム触媒が開発された。この進歩によって、メタノールを自動車燃料用の水素ガス供給源として使うことが可能になるかもしれない。
doi: 10.1038/nature11955
鳥のさえずりが作り出される際に、運動を計画するニューロンがどの時点で働くのかについては議論が続いている。新しいデータからは、このようなニューロンの急激な活動が発声器官への命令に突然の変化をもたらすと考えられる。
doi: 10.1038/nature11957
ある種の細菌と菌類の1つは共に、概日時計タンパク質の産生を最適化できないような遺伝子塩基配列を使っている。別々に行われた2つの研究では、産生されるタンパク質の量を減らすことの利点について、異なる説明が与えられている。
doi: 10.1038/nature11952
The auditory response of song premotor HVC neurons in sleeping birds, and HVC activity in singing birds, is synchronized with particular moments of vocal motor movements as defined by a dynamical systems model of song production; this HVC activity could be used as a ‘forward’ model to predict behaviour and evaluate feedback.
doi: 10.1038/nature11967
A new method to trace the lineage of slow cycling label-retaining cells (LRCs) in vivo identifies a population of LRCs that have features of committed Paneth cells but still express stem-cell markers such as Lgr5; the slow cycling cells differentiate into Paneth cells without cell division, but after injury can also repopulate the stem-cell niche and contribute to the regeneration of all intestinal lineages.
doi: 10.1038/nature11965
The crystal structure of a complete yeast exosome (Exo-10) bound to a region of the Rrp6 nuclease and an RNA substrate is determined, demonstrating that the exosome binds and degrades RNA molecules with a channelling mechanism that is largely conserved in all kingdoms of life and is similar to the mechanism used by the proteasome to degrade polypeptides.
doi: 10.1038/nature11870
Observations of eight long-period, late-type eclipsing-binary systems composed of cool, giant stars are used to determine a distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud accurate to 2.2 per cent, providing a base for a determination of the Hubble constant to an accuracy of 3 per cent.
doi: 10.1038/nature11878
A series of porous crystalline materials known as metal–organic materials are prepared, and a full sorption study shows that controlled pore size (rather than large surface area) coupled with appropriate chemistry lead to materials exhibiting fast and highly selective CO2 sorption.
doi: 10.1038/nature11893
An efficient, low-temperature, aqueous-phase method of producing hydrogen gas from methanol using ruthenium complexes is described, which could make the transport of hydrogen — and hence its use for clean-energy generation — feasible.
doi: 10.1038/nature11891
Extensive glaciations, possibly even a globally ice-covered Snowball Earth, took place in the Neoproterozoic era, and here the possible ocean circulation at that time, under a kilometre of ice, is described.
doi: 10.1038/nature11894
New strashilid fossils from the Middle Jurassic epoch of Daohugou, China, show that they are highly specialized flies, and suggest that larval abdominal respiratory gills were retained in adult males, indicating that adult strashilids were probably aquatic or amphibious, with mating occurring in water.
doi: 10.1038/nature11898
NFIB, a transcription factor expressed by epithelial hair follicle stem cells, is shown to coordinate the synchronous maturation of hair follicle stem cells and melanocyte stem cells, thus controlling hair regeneration and pigmentation.
doi: 10.1038/nature11847
A post-transcriptional switch that controls spatiotemporal and mutually exclusive expression of two alternative gene products from a single transcript is reported; these gene products—miR-198 and FSTL1—are found to have opposing functions on keratinocyte migration and wound healing.
doi: 10.1038/nature11890
A role is demonstrated for miR-34a, a microRNA that is upregulated in the ageing heart; miR-34a downregulates PNUTS, a protein that protects cardiomyocytes and telomeres, silencing of miR-34a is therefore a promising therapeutic target.
doi: 10.1038/nature11919
The frq gene, essential for circadian clock function, is shown to differ from most other genes in Neurospora by exhibiting non-optimal codon usage; by contrast, optimization of codon usage is unexpectedly found to affect the structure and function of the coded protein, subsequently impairing circadian feedback loops.
doi: 10.1038/nature11833
Central circadian proteins in cyanobacteria unexpectedly use non-optimal codons, and optimizing their codes is shown to cause a change in an adaptive response to environmental conditions.
doi: 10.1038/nature11942
CPEB1 is known to regulate cytoplasmic polyadenylation, and is now shown to have a second function in the nucleus; it associates with the cleavage and polyadenylation machinery, thereby promoting usage of an upstream poly(A) signal in many messenger RNAs, and affecting alternative splicing.
doi: 10.1038/nature11901
