The authorities must take the necessary time to remedy the slapdash introduction of a database containing the medical records of the entire population of England.
doi: 10.1038/507007a
Regulatory agencies must demand conflict-of-interest statements for the research they use.
doi: 10.1038/507008a
Identifiers that follow researchers’ work from grant to paper will make funding more effective.
doi: 10.1038/507008b
Radioactive leak brings nuclear repositories into the spotlight.
doi: 10.1038/507015a
As the third anniversary of the Fukushima disaster nears, the nation is faltering in its resolution to shun nuclear power.
doi: 10.1038/507016a
US agency’s reassessment of silica exposure rules provokes conflict-of-interest row with senators.
doi: 10.1038/507018a
But the increasingly accurate analyses carry the ethical dilemma of uncertain outcomes.
doi: 10.1038/507019a
Debate rages as collectors accused of exporting specimens face up to 20 years in jail.
doi: 10.1038/507020a
Costly cancer trials a challenge for revamped US programme.
doi: 10.1038/507021a
遺伝はゲノムだけでは説明できない可能性もあるが、エピジェネティックな変化が遺伝に及ぼす影響は、いまだにはっきりとしていない。
doi: 10.1038/507022a
化学者たちが、より安価で高性能なバッテリーの開発に取り組んでいる。
doi: 10.1038/507026a
地球の上部マントル中に豊富に含まれる鉱物に回位（ディスクリネーション）と呼ばれる結晶学的欠陥が見つかったことは、数十年にわたって鉱物物理学の研究者を悩ませてきた問題の解決につながる可能性がある。
doi: 10.1038/nature13064
本物の心臓から三次元プリンターによって作られたモデルをぴったりと包み込むような伸縮性のある膜は、心臓機能を多様な観点から監視したり、調整や治療を行ったりすることを可能にするプラットホームとなると考えられ、新しい診断法や治療技術につながりそうだ。
doi: 10.1038/507043a
タンパク質のNRT1.1は硝酸を広い濃度範囲にわたって植物に取り込ませる働きをしている。2つの研究によって、この独特な働きの構造的基盤の手がかりが得られたが、それに対する説明はそれぞれ異なっている。
doi: 10.1038/nature13063
高周波電気信号をレーザー光に変換する、オプトメカニクスに基づくデバイスが設計された。この系は光ファイバーを使う将来の量子ネットワークにおけるコンピューターのデータ共有を可能にすると考えられる。
doi: 10.1038/507045a
インフルエンザウイルスの長期にわたる進化の予測は難しい。だが、有害な変異と有益な変異の影響を取り込んだモデルによって、ウイルス群の出現頻度の年々変動を予測するという、より具体的な目標が達成された。
doi: 10.1038/nature13054
腫瘍の広がりは黒色腫患者の主な死因となっている。黒色腫に紫外線が当たると炎症応答が引き起こされ、それが遠隔転移の形成を促進することが明らかになった。
doi: 10.1038/nature13062
Using electron backscattering diffraction maps of deformed olivine to resolve the disclinations at grain boundaries, combined with a disclination-based model of a high-angle tilt boundary in olivine, reveals the missing mechanism for describing plastic flow in polycrystalline olivine: an applied shear induces grain-boundary migration through disclination motion.
doi: 10.1038/nature13043
A computational approach for predicting the future evolution of the human influenza virus, based on population-genetic data of previous strains, is presented; this model holds promise for improving vaccine strain selection for seasonal influenza.
doi: 10.1038/nature13087
This study defines how a short DNA sequence, known as the PAM, is critical for target DNA interrogation by the CRISPR-associated enzyme Cas9 — DNA melting and heteroduplex formation initiate near the PAM and extend directionally through the remaining target sequence, and the PAM is also required to activate the catalytic activity of Cas9.
doi: 10.1038/nature13011
In Arabidopsis thaliana the phosphorylation state of the ‘dual affinity’ transporter, NRT1.1, allows the uptake of nitrate over a wide concentration range; the crystal structure and molecular basis for this is described in this study.
doi: 10.1038/nature13116
A description of the crystal structure of unphosphorylated NRT1.1 provides insights into how phosphorylation switches the nitrate transporter between the low-affinity and high-affinity states.
doi: 10.1038/nature13074
Observations of a protostellar envelope and disk (from which planets should form) in the relatively close star-forming region of the Taurus molecular cloud reveal unexpected chemistry in the gas between the envelope and the disk: the unsaturated hydrocarbon molecule cyclic-C3H2 and sulphur monoxide.
doi: 10.1038/nature13000
A room-temperature nanomechanical transducer that couples efficiently to both radio waves and light allows radio-frequency signals to be detected as an optical phase shift with quantum-limited sensitivity.
doi: 10.1038/nature13029
Scanning tunnelling microscopy reveals that molecules of ferrocenecarboxylic acid can self-assemble into quasicrystal monolayers containing highly unusual cyclic hydrogen-bonded pentamers; this molecular framework could form the basis of a large range of supramolecular assemblies.
doi: 10.1038/nature12993
A global analysis shows that for most tree species the largest trees are the fastest-growing trees, a finding that resolves conflicting assumptions about tree growth and that has implications for understanding forest carbon dynamics, resource allocation trade-offs within trees and plant senescence.
doi: 10.1038/nature12914
Direct neural recordings from electrodes over bilateral cortices show that sensory–motor transformations for speech occur bilaterally; neural responses are robust during both perception and production in an overt word-repetition task, and bilateral sensory–motor responses can perform transformations between speech-perception and speech-production representations during a non-word transformation task.
doi: 10.1038/nature12935
Generation of human induced pluripotent stem cells from patient fibroblasts containing ring chromosomes with large deletions reveals that reprogrammed cells lose the abnormal chromosome and duplicate the wild-type homologue through compensatory uniparental disomy, suggesting that cellular reprogramming may hold potential for ‘chromosome therapy’.
doi: 10.1038/nature12923
This study shows that PADI4-mediated citrullination occurs during pluripotency and that citrullination of H1 results in loosening of chromatin compaction; furthermore, citrullination is shown to be important for the activation of stem-cell genes, for iPS cell reprogramming and to maintain pluripotent cells in the early mouse embryo.
doi: 10.1038/nature12942
Mouse experiments show that ultraviolet radiation can promote tumour metastasis in melanoma by enhancing the expansion of tumour cells on blood vessel surfaces in a process linked to inflammation and requiring neutrophils and the proteins HMGB1 and TLR4.
doi: 10.1038/nature13111
Escherichia coli K-12 performs sulphoglycolysis; heterologous expression of enzymes encoded in a ten-gene cluster present in almost all (>91%) available E. coli genomes is used to show that sulphoquinovose is catabolised through four reactions to produce dihydroxyacetone phosphate, which powers energy conservation and growth, and a sulphonate product, which is excreted.
doi: 10.1038/nature12947
Here it is shown that T-cell receptors accumulate at the immunological synapse after stimulation with cognate antigen and are released in extracellular microvesicles by an ESCRT-dependent mechanism, the microvesicles deliver transcellular signals from CD4 T cells to antigen-presenting B cells and can induce B-cell signalling.
doi: 10.1038/nature12951
In Arabidopsis, the RNA-directed DNA methylation pathway is important for establishing and maintaining DNA methylation — here Pol V is shown to depend on SUVH2 and SUVH9, where both of these proteins are proposed to bind specifically to methylated DNA to recruit Pol V, providing a self-reinforcing loop mechanism for maintenance of RNA-directed DNA methylation.
doi: 10.1038/nature12931
