The UK Research Excellence Framework’s focus on impact is a useful reminder of all the ways that science can help society — both economically and by other means.
doi: 10.1038/518137a
The US measles outbreak highlights why most states should reconsider their vaccination rules.
doi: 10.1038/518137b
A year of illumination switches on with a Nature special issue.
doi: 10.1038/518138a
British approval for pioneering fertility technique leads other nations to consider rule changes.
doi: 10.1038/518145a
Agency wants to pay senior biomedical researchers to wind down their labs.
doi: 10.1038/518146a
Scientists pinpoint genes behind famous beak variations.
doi: 10.1038/518147a
The US media are abuzz after an outbreak of measles in Disneyland but the disease will keep on popping up until it is wiped out worldwide.
doi: 10.1038/518148a
Language analysis reflects how projects succeeded in unique assessment.
doi: 10.1038/518150a
光の特性を極限にまで広げる光科学の最前線を探る。
doi: 10.1038/518153a
光を成形したり、スクイーズしたり、また活性化したり、結んだりするなど、驚くべき課題に挑んでいる光の科学者3人を紹介する。
doi: 10.1038/518154a
天文学技術を利用して、生体組織のような不透明な物体を透視する方法の研究が進んでいる。
doi: 10.1038/518158a
宇宙マイクロ波背景放射は、ビッグバンが遺したかすかな光である。これは全天に広がり、宇宙の初期の歴史を記録している。2人の専門家が別々に、この太古の光について知られていることの要点を、理論と宇宙観測の観点の両方から述べている。
doi: 10.1038/518170a
死にかけている細胞についての分析から、こうした細胞は近隣の細胞を引っ張っていて、組織形態の変化に能動的な役割を果たしていることが分かった。これによって近くの細胞の頂端部が収縮し、それが組織の折りたたみにつながるのである。
doi: 10.1038/nature14198
近傍にある分子ガス雲の高分解能での天文学的観測によって形成途上にある4個一組の星が見つかった。この系が、これまでに観測された中で最も若い多重星系であることはおそらく間違いない。
doi: 10.1038/518173a
生物種を忠実に増殖させていくには、複数あるDNA修復経路の複雑なバランスをうまく保ってゲノムの完全性を維持していく必要がある。新たな研究で、こうした経路のうちでほとんど解明されていなかった1つが調べられ、一部のがんでのその役割が明らかになった。
doi: 10.1038/nature14200
ごく小型のプランクトンの化石中のホウ素同位体記録から、最終氷期の末期に地球が温暖化した際に大洋の一部海域が二酸化炭素の大気への供給源となっていたことの新しい証拠が得られた。
doi: 10.1038/518176a
低体温症の際に放出されるタンパク質が、マウスで神経細胞死を防止し、神経相互間の接続を保存するように働いて、神経変性疾患の進行に影響を与えることが分かった。
doi: 10.1038/nature14195
A review of the phases of copper oxides (especially the ‘strange metal’), discussing their high-temperature superconductivity and their various forms of quantum matter, and the implications for fundamental theory.
doi: 10.1038/nature14165
Genome-wide association meta-analyses of waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index in more than 224,000 individuals identify 49 loci, 33 of which are new and many showing significant sexual dimorphism with a stronger effect in women; pathway analyses implicate adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution.
doi: 10.1038/nature14132
A genome-wide association study and Metabochip meta-analysis of body mass index (BMI) detects 97 BMI-associated loci, of which 56 were novel, and many loci have effects on other metabolic phenotypes; pathway analyses implicate the central nervous system in obesity susceptibility and new pathways such as those related to synaptic function, energy metabolism, lipid biology and adipogenesis.
doi: 10.1038/nature14177
Grid cells are cells of the brain’s internal map of space that fire when an animal is in a location corresponding to the vertices of a hexagonal grid pattern tiling the entire environment; how the pattern is mapped onto the external environment has remained a mystery, however, new studies in rat reveal that the axes of the grid are determined by the boundaries of the external environment and provide insight into the rotation of the grid axis in relation to these boundaries.
doi: 10.1038/nature14151
Observations of a wide-separation quadruple system in the Perseus star-forming region reveal a young protostar and three gravitationally bound dense gas condensations; each condensation is expected to form a star and the closest pair will form a bound binary, while the quadruple stellar system itself is bound but unstable on timescales of 500,000 years.
doi: 10.1038/nature14166
Grains collected from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the Rosetta mission come from a dusty crust that is predicted to be imminently shed as the comet nears the Sun; the grains are high in sodium and fluffy, not icy, suggesting that they are the precursors of interplanetary dust particles.
doi: 10.1038/nature14159
The boron isotope pH proxy in sediment-core planktic foraminifera is used as a tracer of oceanic CO2 outgassing to show that surface waters which derive partly from deep water upwelled in the Southern Ocean became a significant source of carbon to the atmosphere during the last deglaciation.
doi: 10.1038/nature14155
Observations of rapid, persistent elevation gains that occur on the ice surface above a subglacial lake as the lake is refilled with surface meltwater during the summer melt period in Greenland show that surface meltwater may be trapped and stored at the bed of an ice sheet, affecting ice dynamics downstream.
doi: 10.1038/nature14116
Argon and luminescence dating of fossil shell infills from Trinil in Java, where Homo erectus lived, reveals that the hominin-bearing deposits are younger than previously thought; perforated shells, a shell tool and an engraved shell indicate that Homo erectus ate freshwater mussels, used their shells as tools and was able to create abstract engravings.
doi: 10.1038/nature13962
Neuronal grid cells fire in a spatial grid pattern laid out across the surface of a familiar environment, however the role of environmental boundaries in the construction of this pattern is not well understood; this study shows that the grid pattern orients to the walls of polarized environments such as squares but not circles and that the hexagonal grid symmetry is permanently broken in highly polarized environments such as trapezoids.
doi: 10.1038/nature14153
Structural synaptic plasticity and remodelling are features of the healthy adult brain and are seen during hibernation; a hibernation-inspired model of mouse cooling used to study synaptic regeneration has identified the ‘cold-shock’ RNA-binding protein, RBM3, as a regulator of synaptic assembly, deficiency of which contributes to synapse loss in neurodegenerative disease.
doi: 10.1038/nature14142
A study of genome evolution in a metastatic breast cancer bearing an activating PIK3CA mutation, following treatment with the PI(3)Kα inhibitor BYL719, shows that all metastatic lesions, when compared to the pre-treatment tumour, had lost a copy of PTEN; parallel genetic evolution of separate sites with different PTEN genomic alterations had led to a convergent PTEN-null phenotype resistant to PI(3)Kα inhibition.
doi: 10.1038/nature13948
Apoptotic cell death is required for morphogenesis of the developing leg joint of fruitflies; using this model system, the authors show here that within apoptotic cells a transient pulling force exerted through a highly dynamic apico-basal myosin II cable-like structure acts as a mechanical signal to increase tissue tension and modify tissue shape.
doi: 10.1038/nature14152
DEAD-box RNA helicase DDX21 is involved in both the transcription and RNA processing of ribosomal genes in human cells, sensing the transcriptional status of both RNA polymerase I and RNA polymerase II and associating with non-coding RNAs involved in ribonucleoprotein formation, possibly allowing for coordinated regulation of protein synthesis.
doi: 10.1038/nature13923
Next-generation sequencing technology is used to show that the error-prone polymerase θ (Polθ) is needed to promote alternative non-homologous end joining at telomeres, and during chromosomal translocations, while counteracting homologous recombination; inhibition of Polθ represents a potential therapeutic strategy for tumours that have mutations in homology-directed repair genes.
doi: 10.1038/nature14157
In studies in mammalian cells, polymerase theta (Polθ, also known as POLQ) is identified as the polymerase responsible for non-homologous end joining DNA repair; this DNA repair pathway acts in many tumours when homologous recombination is inactivated and the identification of the polymerase responsible may aid the development of new therapeutic approaches.
doi: 10.1038/nature14184
