Knowledge trades p.271

Institutions must carefully evaluate their researchers’ relationships with Wall Street.

doi: 10.1038/493271b

Troubling thoughts p.271

A sustained commitment to mental-health treatment for Fukushima evacuees could also help survivors of future disasters.

doi: 10.1038/493271a

Natural history p.272

Age-old field methods can tell us more about animal behaviour than can laboratory models.

doi: 10.1038/493272a

HIV trial under scrutiny p.279

Critics say that antibody therapy is too expensive for its African target population.

doi: 10.1038/493279a

Insider trading sparks concerns p.280

Universities indulge researchers’ ties to finance industry.

doi: 10.1038/493280a

Court lifts cloud over embryonic stem cells p.282

But research on induced stem cells may be the real winner.

doi: 10.1038/493282a

Quantum dots go on display p.283

Adoption by TV makers could expand the market for light-emitting nanocrystals.

doi: 10.1038/493283a

Behaviour genes unearthed p.284

Speedy sequencing underpins genetic analysis of burrowing in wild oldfield mice.

doi: 10.1038/493284a

Vaccine switch urged for polio endgame p.285

Inactivated virus vaccine could deliver the final blow.

doi: 10.1038/493285a

Scientific families: Dynasty p.286

Bob Paine fathered an idea — and an academic family — that changed ecology.

doi: 10.1038/493286a

Fukushima: Fallout of fear p.290

After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Japan kept people safe from the physical effects of radiation — but not from the psychological impacts.

doi: 10.1038/493290a

Evolution: A history of give and take p.308

Fossils of microorganisms from deep-sea sediment cores show that environmental change correlates closely with extinction but not with speciation, producing a nuanced view of the drivers of evolution. See Letter p.398

doi: 10.1038/nature11851

Earth science: Plumbing nickel from the core p.309

Magmas that have erupted at Earth's surface reveal a potential new mantle source. This source, which is rich in nickel and has a primordial helium isotopic content, may have originated at great depth in the mantle. See Letter p.393

doi: 10.1038/nature11852

Stem cells: Surf the waves of reprogramming p.310

Cellular reprogramming to a stem-cell-like state is inefficient and poorly understood, despite its biomedical potential. Detailed molecular analyses of this process are now reported, and should help to overcome these limitations.

doi: 10.1038/493310b

Evolutionary genetics: Genes for home-building p.312

doi: 10.1038/493312a

Neuroscience: Memory and the single molecule p.312

Sustained activity of the brain-specific enzyme PKM-ζ is thought to underlie the maintenance of long-term memories. Studies in PKM-ζ-deficient mice, however, cast the importance of this protein into question. See Letters p.416 & p.420

doi: 10.1038/nature11850

Analytical chemistry: Defects visualized in porous solids p.313

The use of confocal fluorescence microscopy to image defects in crystalline, porous solids known as metal–organic frameworks enables the relationship between the number of defects and the materials' properties to be determined.

doi: 10.1038/493313a

Computational materials science: Trustworthy predictions p.314

A method has been developed to compute the precise quantum-mechanical properties of certain insulators. This approach avoids the uncertainties that are intrinsic to predictions made using existing approaches. See Article p.365

doi: 10.1038/nature11767

Towards an exact description of electronic wavefunctions in real solids p.365

Recent developments that reduce the computational cost and scaling of wavefunction-based quantum-chemical techniques open the way to the successful application of such techniques to a variety of real-world solids.

doi: 10.1038/nature11770

Autism-related deficits via dysregulated eIF4E-dependent translational control p.371

Mice lacking 4E-BP2, an eIF4E repressor, display increased translation of neuroligins; the mice also show autism-related behaviours and alterations in hippocampal synaptic activity, and these are reversed by normalization of eIF4E activity or neuroligin 1 levels.

doi: 10.1038/nature11628

Pulsed accretion in a variable protostar p.378

The infrared luminosity of a young protostar (about 10⁵ years old) is found to increase by a factor of ten in roughly one week every 25.34 days; this is attributed to pulsed accretion associated with an unseen binary companion.

doi: 10.1038/nature11746

Planetary system disruption by Galactic perturbations to wide binary stars p.381

Numerical simulations of a widely separated binary star system demonstrate that planetary systems around one star may often be strongly perturbed by the other star, triggering planetary ejections and increasing the orbital eccentricities of surviving planets.

doi: 10.1038/nature11780

Ultrahard nanotwinned cubic boron nitride p.385

The hardness, toughness and chemical stability of the well-known superhard material cubic boron nitride have been improved by using a synthesis technique based on specially prepared ‘onion-like’ precursor materials.

doi: 10.1038/nature11728

Multidecadal variability in East African hydroclimate controlled by the Indian Ocean p.389

Proxy indicators of relative moisture balance, in combination with long control simulations from coupled climate models, show that the Indian Ocean drives multidecadal hydroclimate variability by altering the local Walker circulation, whereas the influence of the Pacific Ocean is minimal on these timescales.

doi: 10.1038/nature11785

Nickel and helium evidence for melt above the core–mantle boundary p.393

Several nickel-rich and helium-rich lava samples from ocean islands and large igneous provinces suggest that mantle plume material formed by core–mantle interaction during the crystallization of a melt-rich layer or basal magma ocean.

doi: 10.1038/nature11771

Oceanographic controls on the diversity and extinction of planktonic foraminifera p.398

Plate tectonics and climate change are shown to have driven the diversity and extinction of planktonic foraminifera throughout their evolutionary history.

doi: 10.1038/nature11815

Discrete genetic modules are responsible for complex burrow evolution in Peromyscus mice p.402

The complex burrows created by oldfield mice are shown to be governed by genetic modules that each control an aspect of burrow size or shape.

doi: 10.1038/nature11816

Mosaic PPM1D mutations are associated with predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer p.406

Rare truncating mutations in the p53-inducible protein phosphatase PPM1D are shown to be associated with predisposition to breast cancer and ovarian cancer; notably, all of the mutations are mosaic in white blood cells but are not present in tumours, and probably have a gain-of-function effect.

doi: 10.1038/nature11725

Exaggerated translation causes synaptic and behavioural aberrations associated with autism p.411

Mice overexpressing eIF4E show autism-related behaviours and altered synaptic activity in the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and striatum, and these phenotypes can be rescued with the cap-dependent translation inhibitor 4EGI-1.

doi: 10.1038/nature11782

Prkcz null mice show normal learning and memory p.416

Genetically removing PKM-ζ in mice has no effect on memory, and despite absence of this kinase, the original peptide inhibitor of PKM-ζ still disrupts memory in these mutant mice; these data re-open the exploration for key molecules regulating maintenance of long-term plasticity processes.

doi: 10.1038/nature11803

PKM-ζ is not required for hippocampal synaptic plasticity, learning and memory p.420

It was proposed that protein kinase M-ζ (PKM-ζ) is a key factor in long-term potentiation (LTP) and memory maintenance on the basis of the disruption of LTP and memory by inhibitors of PKM-ζ; however, here mice that do not express PKM-ζ are shown to have normal LTP and memory, thus casting doubts on a critical role for PKM-ζ in these processes.

doi: 10.1038/nature11802

Asymmetric neurotransmitter release enables rapid odour lateralization in Drosophila p.424

When an odour activates a fly′s antennae asymmetrically, more neurotransmitter is released from olfactory receptor neuron axon branches ipsilateral to the antenna than from contralateral branches. This causes ipsilateral central olfactory neurons to begin spiking earlier and at a higher rate than contralateral neurons, thereby enabling a walking fly to turn towards the odour.

doi: 10.1038/nature11747

Bacteriophage genes that inactivate the CRISPR/Cas bacterial immune system p.429

Five classes of phage genes are identified that protect phages from CRISPR-mediated bacterial immunity.

doi: 10.1038/nature11723

Mammalian heart renewal by pre-existing cardiomyocytes p.433

During normal ageing a low rate of division of pre-existing cardiomyocytes, rather than progenitor cells, is responsible for cardiomyocyte genesis; this process is increased fourfold during myocardial infarction.

doi: 10.1038/nature11682

Structure and function of the initially transcribing RNA polymerase II–TFIIB complex p.437

Crystal structures of the Pol II–TFIIB complex in free form and bound by the DNA template and a short RNA product are reported; the latter complex represents an initially transcribing complex, a critical transient state in the pathway from transcription initiation to elongation.

doi: 10.1038/nature11715