Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been buoyed by election success, but he must show that his science policies take the opinions of researchers into account.
doi: 10.1038/500005a
Inconsistent standards and a lack of research investment have left UK legal science in chaos.
doi: 10.1038/500005b
California facilities respond to US panel’s call for a powerful free-electron laser.
doi: 10.1038/500013a
US biomedical agency could enlist independent labs for verification.
doi: 10.1038/500014a
Scientists say core tools and expertise remain necessary.
doi: 10.1038/500016a
Two experiments test viability of sequestering emissions in porous layers of hard rock.
doi: 10.1038/500018a
1個の遺伝子の変異によって古代ヨーロッパ人は牛乳を飲めるようになり、これが大陸に大変動をもたらした。
doi: 10.1038/500020a
3つの研究チームが、扁形動物プラナリアの、正常な再生を起こせない種であっても、たった1つの細胞内シグナル伝達の変化で、潜在的な頭部再生能が復活する可能性があることを明らかにした。
doi: 10.1038/nature12458
大洋の乱流混合についての革新的な測定によって、赤道太平洋の9月の海面水温は、下方からの低温水の混合によって、3月よりも低くなっていることが分かった。
doi: 10.1038/nature12456
APOE4遺伝子変異体は遅発性アルツハイマー病について最も広く見られる遺伝的リスク要因である。包括的な多層的研究によって、APOE4のヒトで見られる分子レベルおよび細胞レベルの特徴が明らかにされた。
doi: 10.1038/nature12457
「不注意盲」、つまり人間は自分の関心のないものには全く気付かないことがあるという現象が、普通の人たちで見られることは以前から報告されてきた。今回、専門家でもこの現象を起こしやすいことが明らかになった。
doi: 10.1038/500036a
ミリケルビンの感度を持つナノメートルスケールの温度計が、ダイヤモンド結晶から作製された。このデバイスは生きている細胞中の温度勾配を測定するのに使えることが分かった。
doi: 10.1038/500036b
転移性腫瘍細胞はしばしば何年にもわたって休眠状態を維持する。新たな知見によって、血管の内側を覆う内皮細胞が、休眠状態から転移増殖状態への移行の調節に重要な役割を持つことが示唆された。
doi: 10.1038/nature12459
An in vivo genetic approach to generate mosaic expression of Myc in the mouse epiblast reveals evidence of cell competition, a tissue homeostasis mechanism first described in Drosophila by which viable but suboptimal cells are eliminated from metazoan tissues; during normal development Myc expression levels in the epiblast are heterogeneous, and endogenous cell competition refines the epiblast cell population through the apoptotic elimination of cells with low relative Myc levels.
doi: 10.1038/nature12389
Whole transcriptome differential gene co-expression correlation analysis of cerebral cortex of APOE ε4 allele carriers and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease patients reveals an APOE ε4 carrier transcription network pattern that resembles that of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease and also identifies new genes of interest for further study.
doi: 10.1038/nature12415
An absolute age of about ten billion years is determined for the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, which is about two billion years younger than the cluster NGC 6397 is thought to be, suggesting that metal-rich clusters like 47 Tucanae formed later than metal-poor clusters like NGC 6397.
doi: 10.1038/nature12334
A nanoscale thermometry technique that uses coherent manipulation of the electronic spin associated with nitrogen–vacancy colour centres in diamond makes it possible to detect temperature variations as small as 1.8 millikelvin in ultrapure samples and to control and map temperature gradients within living cells.
doi: 10.1038/nature12373
Stretchable conductors have many applications, from flexible electronics to medical implants; here polyurethane is filled with gold nanoparticles to give a composite with tunable viscoelastic properties arising from the dynamic self-organization of the nanoparticles under stress.
doi: 10.1038/nature12401
In the tropics, a strong seasonal cycle in sea surface temperature exists despite comparatively constant radiation inputs; turbulent mixing from below is now shown to control the cooling phase of the seasonal cycle in the equatorial Pacific ‘cold tongue’ at 140° W.
doi: 10.1038/nature12363
Diffusion modelling of nickel in mantle melts beneath a volcano reveals the short timescales of magma movement from the base of the crust to the surface in the months to years before an eruption.
doi: 10.1038/nature12342
More than a century ago, Thomas Hunt Morgan attempted to explain the extraordinary regenerative ability of planarians such as Dugesia japonica, which can regenerate a complete individual even from a tail fragment, by proposing that two opposing morphogenetic gradients along the anterior–posterior axis are required for regeneration; here ERK and β-catenin signalling are shown to form these gradients.
doi: 10.1038/nature12359
Although the capacity for tissue regeneration of planarians is exceptional, planarians with more limited regenerative capacities are known; this study of Procotyla fluviatilis, a planarian with restricted ability to replace missing tissues, shows that Wnt signalling is aberrantly regulated in regeneration-deficient tissues and that downregulation of Wnt signalling in these regions restores regenerative abilities, revealing that manipulating a single signalling pathway can reverse the evolutionary loss of regenerative potential.
doi: 10.1038/nature12403
Although the capacity for tissue regeneration of planarians is exceptional, planarians with more limited regenerative capacities are known; here knocking down components of the Wnt signalling pathway rescues head regeneration in the regeneration-impaired planarian Dendrocoelum lacteum, revealing that manipulating a single signalling pathway can reverse the evolutionary loss of regenerative potential.
doi: 10.1038/nature12414
A group of transcriptionally defined spinal neurons, V0 neurons, are identified as necessary for the control of normal alternation of left and right limbs in mice.
doi: 10.1038/nature12286
Fibroblasts deficient in the activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) enzyme are shown to fail to stabilize in the pluripotent state, despite initiating the expression of pluripotency genes.
doi: 10.1038/nature12299
A multiprotein complex containing AML1–ETO, the most common fusion protein found in acute myeloid leukaemia, is revealed and analysed in leukaemic cells, and a novel, functionally important protein-binding interface is identified.
doi: 10.1038/nature12287
The bacterial chaperone named trigger factor is found to stabilize protein folding intermediates that eventually convert to the native state, suggesting that chaperones play a direct role in instructing protein folding.
doi: 10.1038/nature12293
The first inhibitor-bound X-ray crystal structures of the bacterial multidrug efflux transporter AcrB and its homologue MexB are presented, with the inhibitor shown to bind the transporter through a narrow hydrophobic pit, thereby preventing rotation of AcrB and MexB monomers.
doi: 10.1038/nature12300
Here, the structure of the 30S ribosomal subunit and the 70S ribosome in complex with a messenger RNA with pseudouridine in the place of uridine reveals unexpected base pairing.
doi: 10.1038/nature12302
