Hominin fossils discovered near the site of the 'hobbit' Homo floresiensis provide yet more evidence that the human lineage is more diverse than was ever imagined.
doi: 10.1038/534151a
Germany’s decision to slow the expansion of green-energy production is a reasonable move.
doi: 10.1038/534152a
The line between compliance and misconduct is finer than you might think.
doi: 10.1038/534152b
Network of deep-water observatories streams data in real time.
doi: 10.1038/534159a
With drug companies’ policies hard to decipher, frustrated patients often resort to social-media campaigns and other public appeals.
doi: 10.1038/534160a
Gold-mining boom in southeastern Amazon is driving high levels of mercury contamination.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.19999
Some admire project's ambition; others say that it hasn't justified its aims.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.20028
Jaw and teeth discovered in Indonesia are triumph for team that almost gave up hope.
doi: 10.1038/534164a
Government can't say how many policy studies it paid for or published, report reveals.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.20022
インドの首都デリーでは大気汚染が深刻化しており、改善のための対応に迫られている。
doi: 10.1038/534166a
カリフォルニア大学サンディエゴ校のPieter Dorresteinは、質量分析法を用いて、化学物質の分布から微生物の存在や関係を精密に描き出そうとしている。
doi: 10.1038/534170a
ヒト体内の微生物集団の動態は個人ごとに独自のものなのか、それとも全ての微生物相が同じ規則に従っているのだろうか。この問題について明らかになりつつある知見は健康や病気に関係してくると考えられる。
doi: 10.1038/534182a
極端な高圧条件下では異例な形の酸化鉄が生じることが分かり、地球の進化に強い影響を与える2つの元素、すなわち水素と酸素がマントル中で生じていることが示唆された。
doi: 10.1038/534183a
致死的な毒を持つサンゴヘビは、赤と黒のしま模様という目立つ体色パターンで捕食者に警告する。多くの無害なヘビがサンゴヘビに似るように進化したことが新たな研究により確認された。また、このベイツ型擬態への進化は、一方通行ばかりではないことが示唆された。
doi: 10.1038/nature18441
齧歯類の腸内に生息している細菌は、副交感神経系を活性化させてインスリン分泌と食物摂取を促進することが分かった。微生物相は多様な役割を持つが、これはこれまで知られていなかった新しい作用である。
doi: 10.1038/534185a
化学エネルギーを使って一方向の回転運動をする2種類の分子モーターが開発された。この成果は、こうしたモーターで動くデバイスへの期待をいやが上にも高めるものだ。
doi: 10.1038/534187a
小型のヒト族であるフローレス原人（Homo floresiensis）は、インドネシアのフローレス島に少なくとも70万年前には生息していたことが、新たに見つかった化石によって実証された。これは、もっと大型のホモ・エレクトスからの小型化が迅速に進行したことを示しているのかもしれない。
doi: 10.1038/534188a
This work highlights the critical challenges in experimental design and interpretation due to important combinatorial effects of host and microbial genes, and calls for the development of minimal reporting requirements to improve the interpretation and reproducibility of experimental biology.
doi: 10.1038/nature18285
Analysis of ancient genomic data of 51 humans from Eurasia dating from 45,000 to 7,000 years ago provides insight into the population history of pre-Neolithic Europe and support for recurring migration and population turnover in Europe during this period.
doi: 10.1038/nature17993
A combination of optogenetic, electrophysiological and neuroanatomical tracing methods defines midbrain periaqueductal grey circuits for specific defensive behaviours.
doi: 10.1038/nature17996
Increased acetate production by an altered gut microbiota in rats fed a high-fat diet activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which in turn promotes increased insulin secretion, increased food intake, obesity and related changes.
doi: 10.1038/nature18309
The so-called accretion flow that powers the growth of supermassive black holes in galaxy centres is assumed to be dominated by a smooth, steady flow of very hot plasma, but now observations instead reveal a clumpy accretion of very cold molecular clouds onto a supermassive black hole in the nucleus of a nearby giant elliptical galaxy.
doi: 10.1038/nature17969
A digitized approach to adiabatic quantum computing, combining the generality of the adiabatic algorithm with the universality of the digital method, is implemented using a superconducting circuit to find the ground states of arbitrary Hamiltonians.
doi: 10.1038/nature17658
Metals have been mankind’s most essential materials for thousands of years; however, their use is affected by ecological and economical concerns. Alloys with higher strength and ductility could alleviate some of these concerns by reducing weight and improving energy efficiency. However, most metallurgical mechanisms for increasing strength lead to ductility loss, an effect referred to as the strength–ductility trade-off
doi: 10.1038/nature17981
A fundamentally different approach to designing solid oxide electrolytes is presented, using a phase transition to suppress electronic conduction in a correlated perovskite nickelate; this yields ionic conductivity comparable to the best-performing solid electrolytes in the same temperature range.
doi: 10.1038/nature17653
A system is described in which a small macrocycle is continuously transported directionally around a cyclic molecular track when powered by irreversible reactions of a chemical fuel; such autonomous chemically fuelled molecular motors should find application as engines in molecular nanotechnology.
doi: 10.1038/nature18013
First-principles calculations and experiments are used to identify a stable, pyrite-structured iron oxide at 76 gigapascals and 1,800 kelvin that holds an excessive amount of oxygen and to show that goethite (rust) decomposes under these deep lower-mantle conditions to form an iron oxide and release hydrogen; this process provides another way to interpret the origin of seismic and geochemical anomalies in the deep lower mantle of Earth.
doi: 10.1038/nature18018
The evolutionary origin of Homo floresiensis, a diminutive hominin species previously known only by skeletal remains from Liang Bua in western Flores, Indonesia, has been intensively debated. It is a matter of controversy whether this primitive form, dated to the Late Pleistocene, evolved from early Asian Homo erectus and represents a unique and striking case of evolutionary reversal in hominin body and brain size within an insular environment
doi: 10.1038/nature17999
Stratigraphic, chronological, environmental and faunal context are provided to the newly discovered fossils of hominins that lived in the So’a Basin in Flores, Indonesia, 700,000 years ago; the stone tools recovered with the fossils are similar to those associated with the much younger Homo floresiensis from Flores, discovered in Liang Bua to the west.
doi: 10.1038/nature17663
The cultivation of Lenisia limosa, a newly discovered breviate protist, symbiotically colonized by relatives of the animal-associated bacterium Arcobacter.
doi: 10.1038/nature18297
A new computational method to characterize the dynamics of human-associated microbial communities is applied to data from two large-scale metagenomic studies, and suggests that gut and mouth microbiomes of healthy individuals are subjected to universal (that is, host-independent) dynamics, whereas skin microbiomes are shaped by the host environment; the method paves the way to designing general microbiome-based therapies.
doi: 10.1038/nature18301
The relationship between assembly of the gut community and gut mucosal immunoglobulin A responses during the first 24–36 months of postnatal life in a cohort of 40 twin pairs is defined and modelled in gnotobiotic mice.
doi: 10.1038/nature17940
The Zika virus can cross the placenta and cause intrauterine growth restriction, including microcephaly, in the SJL strain of mice; the virus can also infect human brain organoids, inducing cell death by apoptosis and disrupting cortical layers.
doi: 10.1038/nature18296
Inhibitors of the mTOR kinase are in clinical trials for the treatment of cancer; here, mutations in mTOR that can lead to drug resistance are investigated and the results are used to design a new class of mTOR inhibitors that can overcome this resistance.
doi: 10.1038/nature17963
The structure of a bacterial ribosome–RelA complex reveals that RelA, a protein recruited to the ribosome in the case of scarce amino acids, binds in a different location to translation factors, and that this binding event suppresses auto-inhibition to activate synthesis of the (p)ppGpp secondary messenger, thus initiating stringent control.
doi: 10.1038/nature17675
The fine structures of proteins, such as the positions of hydrogen atoms, distributions of valence electrons and orientations of bound waters, are critical factors for determining the dynamic and chemical properties of proteins. Such information cannot be obtained by conventional protein X-ray analyses at 3.0–1.5 Å resolution, in which amino acids are fitted into atomically unresolved electron-density maps and refinement calculations are performed under strong restraints
doi: 10.1038/nature18001
