Volume 534 Issue 7609

Editorials

Non-expert nation p.589

Scientists — just like everybody else — have little idea what will happen now that the United Kingdom has voted to exit the European Union.

doi: 10.1038/534589a

News

News Features

News & Views

The dark side of antibiotics p.624

Interactions in the gut between host cells and bacteria can determine a state of health or disease. A study investigates how antibiotic treatment can affect host cells in a way that drives growth of pathogenic bacteria. See Letter p.697

doi: 10.1038/nature18449

Stressed-out chromatin promotes longevity p.625

Two studies reveal that early-life malfunction in organelles called mitochondria brings about lasting changes in how DNA is packaged. These alterations have consequences for cellular stress responses and organismal longevity.

doi: 10.1038/534625a

An extended yardstick for climate variability p.626

Decoded and precisely dated information encrypted in stalagmites from a cave in China reveal past climatic changes and provide insight into the complex interactions in today's climate system. See Letter p.640

doi: 10.1038/534626a

Transmissible tumours under the sea p.628

In some species, cancer cells can be directly transmitted between individuals. An analysis in shellfish now shows that some transmissible cancers can even cross the species barrier. See Letter p.705

doi: 10.1038/nature18455

Perspective

Paris Agreement climate proposals need a boost to keep warming well below 2 °C p.631

The objective of the Paris climate agreement is to limit global-average temperature increase to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to further pursue limiting it to 1.5 degrees Celsius; here, the adequacy of the national plans submitted in preparation for this agreement is assessed, and it is concluded that substantial enhancement or over-delivery on these plans is required to have a reasonable chance of achieving the Paris climate objective.

doi: 10.1038/nature18307

Articles

Letters

Synthetic Landau levels for photons p.671

It is an long-standing goal to produce a photonic quantum Hall effect, analogous to the well-known quantum Hall effect for electrons; now an artificial magnetic field for a continuum of photons has been produced, making it possible to observe photonic Landau levels in a photonic quantum Hall material.

doi: 10.1038/nature17943

Switching stiction and adhesion of a liquid on a solid p.676

Switching of static friction and adhesion of a liquid drop on a corrugated solid boron nitride surface is linked to the intercalation of hydrogen, which changes the electric field of in-plane dipole rings and thus reduces the adsorption energy.

doi: 10.1038/nature18275

Seasonality of temperate forest photosynthesis and daytime respiration p.680

Climate models require an understanding of ecosystem-scale respiration and photosynthesis, yet there is no way of measuring these two fluxes directly; here, new instrumentation is used to determine these fluxes in a temperate forest, showing, for instance, that respiration is less during the day than at night.

doi: 10.1038/nature17966

Host-mediated sugar oxidation promotes post-antibiotic pathogen expansion p.697

Antibiotic usage in humans can increase the risk of Salmonella infection by an unknown mechanism; this paper reveals that the antibiotic streptomycin increases the activity of the host-encoded enzyme inducible nitric oxide synthase, this then drives Salmonella expansion by the generation of galactarate — a metabolite normally absent from the gut.

doi: 10.1038/nature18597

Translation readthrough mitigation p.719

Translation termination sequences are occasionally bypassed by the ribosome and the resulting proteins can be detrimental to the cell; here it is shown that cells can prevent such proteins from accumulating through peptides that are encoded within the 3' UTR of genes in both humans and C. elegans.

doi: 10.1038/nature18308