Data sharing p.435
Pooling clinical details helps doctors to diagnose rare diseases — but more sharing is needed.doi: 10.1038/534435b
Volume 534 Issue 7608
Editorials
Way of the dragon p.435
To boost its research quality and innovation, China must strengthen its scientific foundations and let researchers — not policymakers — set the agenda for innovation and discovery.doi: 10.1038/534435a
At gunpoint p.436
The problem of gun violence in the United States must finally be addressed.doi: 10.1038/534436a
News
Election campaigns edge Australia towards climate consensus p.443
Rival parties avoid carbon controversy of former years.doi: 10.1038/534443a
Giant SKA telescope rattles South African community p.444
Struggle in Northern Cape province highlights a balancing act that scientists leading gigantic projects face.doi: 10.1038/534444a
Canadian earthquake detector has deep-sea edge over US rival p.446
Sea-floor instruments will monitor seismic activity very close to the Cascadia fault.doi: 10.1038/534446a
Infections reveal inequality between the sexes p.447
Stark differences between men and women’s immune responses pose medical conundrum.doi: 10.1038/534447a
LIGO detects whispers of another black-hole merger p.448
After historic first discovery last September, twin observatories detected gravitational waves again on Boxing Day.doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.20093
Iconic Antarctic geology lab gets the boot p.448
Florida repository of marine sediments dates back to early days of US polar exploration.doi: 10.1038/nature.2016.20096
News Features
Science in China p.451
A special issue looks at the country's astonishing scientific trajectory as it seeks to secure its spot among the leaders in innovation.doi: 10.1038/534451a
China by the numbers p.452
Research capacity has grown rapidly, and now quality is on the rise.doi: 10.1038/534452a
Science stars of China p.456
From ancient DNA to neutrinos and neuroscience, top researchers in China are making big impacts — and raising their country’s standing in science.doi: 10.1038/534456a
China’s bid to be a DNA superpower p.462
First China conquered DNA sequencing. Now it wants to dominate precision medicine too.doi: 10.1038/534462a
News & Views
Recipe for a black-hole merger p.478
The detection of a gravitational wave was a historic event that heralded a new phase of astronomy. A numerical model of the Universe now allows researchers to tell the story of the black-hole system that caused the wave. See Letter p.512doi: 10.1038/534478a
Membrane kiss mediates hormone secretion p.479
Communication between cells relies on hormone release from secretory granules, but how these vesicles fuse with cell membranes is unclear. An imaging study provides in vivo evidence for a stable intermediate fusion step. See Letter p.548doi: 10.1038/nature18446
Quantum simulation of fundamental physics p.480
Gauge theories underpin the standard model of particle physics, but are difficult to study using conventional computational methods. An experimental quantum system opens up fresh avenues of investigation. See Letter p.516doi: 10.1038/534480a
Gene regulation in transition p.482
An in-depth analysis of a close relative of animals, Capsaspora owczarzaki, provides clues to the changes in gene regulation that occurred during the transition to multicellularity.doi: 10.1038/nature18447
Synergy of a warm spring and dry summer p.483
An analysis suggests that high carbon uptake by US land ecosystems during the warm spring of 2012 offset the carbon loss that resulted from severe drought over the summer — and hints that the warm spring could have worsened the drought.doi: 10.1038/nature18450
When sperm meets egg p.484
Sperm–egg binding is mediated by two cell-surface proteins. Structural analysis of these proteins separately and in complex provides insight into the recognition process and the subsequent sperm–egg fusion. See Letters p.562 & p.566doi: 10.1038/nature18448
Review
Searching for the rules that govern hadron construction p.487
Advances in meson spectroscopy can enhance our understanding of how composite objects emerge from the fundamental underlying theory of interacting quarks and gluons, quantum chromodynamics.doi: 10.1038/nature18011
Articles
Selective spider toxins reveal a role for the Nav1.1 channel in mechanical pain p.494
Two spider toxins are shown to target the Nav1.1 subtype of sodium channel specifically, shedding light on the role of these channels in mechanical pain signalling.doi: 10.1038/nature17976
Defining the consequences of genetic variation on a proteome-wide scale p.500
The effect of natural genetic diversity on the proteome is characterized using an outbred mouse model with extensive variation; both transcripts and proteins from mouse livers are quantified to identify a large set of protein quantitative trait loci (pQTL), and mediation analysis identifies causal protein intermediates of distant pQTL.doi: 10.1038/nature18270
Crystal structure of the epithelial calcium channel TRPV6 p.506
The X-ray crystal structure of rat transient receptor potential channel TRPV6 at 3.25 Å resolution is reported, providing new insights into its assembly and calcium-selective permeation.doi: 10.1038/nature17975
Letters
The first gravitational-wave source from the isolated evolution of two stars in the 40–100 solar mass range p.512
Numerical simulations of the formation of binary black holes provide a framework within which to interpret the recent detection of the first gravitational-wave source and to predict the properties of subsequent binary-black-hole gravitational-wave events; the calculations predict detections of about 1,000 black-hole mergers per year once gravitational-wave observatories reach full sensitivity.doi: 10.1038/nature18322
Real-time dynamics of lattice gauge theories with a few-qubit quantum computer p.516
A digital quantum simulation of a lattice gauge theory is performed on a quantum computer that consists of a few trapped-ion qubits; the model simulated is the Schwinger mechanism, which describes the creation of electron–positron pairs from vacuum.doi: 10.1038/nature18318
Solid-state harmonics beyond the atomic limit p.520
A direct comparison of high harmonic generation in the solid and gas phases of Ar and Kr reveals higher harmonics in these rare-gas solids caused by strong interband couplings; evidence of recollisions implies that gas-phase techniques for attosecond pulse generation and orbital tomography could be adapted for solids.doi: 10.1038/nature17660
Negative capacitance in multidomain ferroelectric superlattices p.524
Negative capacitance is observed in a model system of multidomain ferroelectric–dielectric superlattices; the multidomain state can increase the temperature range over which negative capacitance can be observed.doi: 10.1038/nature17659
Controlled fragmentation of multimaterial fibres and films via polymer cold-drawing p.529
Cold-drawing of multimaterial fibres consisting of a brittle core embedded in a ductile polymer cladding results in controllable fragmentation of the core to produce uniformly sized rods parallel to the drawing direction for cylindrical geometries and narrow, parallel strips perpendicular to the drawing direction for flat geometries.doi: 10.1038/nature17980
Abiological catalysis by artificial haem proteins containing noble metals in place of iron p.534
Replacing the iron atom in Fe-porphyrin IX proteins with a noble-metal atom enables the creation of enzymes that catalyse reactions not catalysed by native Fe-enzymes or other metalloenzymes; this approach could be used to generate other artificial enzymes that could catalyse a wide range of abiological transformations.doi: 10.1038/nature17968
A complement–microglial axis drives synapse loss during virus-induced memory impairment p.538
People infected with West Nile virus often experience cognitive side effects including memory loss through unknown mechanisms; mice and humans infected with the virus experience a loss in hippocampal presynaptic terminals, which can be reversed by disrupting complement or microglia in mice.doi: 10.1038/nature18283
The bacteriophage φ29 tail possesses a pore-forming loop for cell membrane penetration p.544
Structural and functional studies of the tail knob protein of bacteriophage ϕ29 shed light on how the phage breaches the membrane barrier and ejects its DNA genome into the host cell.doi: 10.1038/nature18017
Hemi-fused structure mediates and controls fusion and fission in live cells p.548
Super-resolution imaging provides direct evidence in live cells that membrane fusion and fission are mediated through an intermediate hemi-fused structure, where fusion and calcium/dynamin-dependent fission mechanisms compete to determine the transition of the intermediate to fusion or fission.doi: 10.1038/nature18598
AMPK–SKP2–CARM1 signalling cascade in transcriptional regulation of autophagy p.553
An investigation into the nuclear events involved in autophagy regulation identifies the histone arginine methyltransferase CARM1 as a transcriptional co-activator of transcription factor TFEB; CARM1 levels are decreased by the SKP2-containing E3 ubiquitin ligase and increased during autophagy induction after nutrient starvation.doi: 10.1038/nature18014
Rocaglates convert DEAD-box protein eIF4A into a sequence-selective translational repressor p.558
The cancer drug rocaglamide A cements the RNA helicase eIF4A on polypurine sequences and thereby prevents scanning of the 43S subunit along the messenger RNA, highlighting how a drug can act by stabilizing sequence-selective RNA–protein interactions.doi: 10.1038/nature17978
Molecular architecture of the human sperm IZUMO1 and egg JUNO fertilization complex p.562
This study describes the structures of the IZUMO1 protein, found on sperm, and the JUNO protein, found on eggs, and sheds light on their roles in sperm–egg fusion during fertilization.doi: 10.1038/nature18595
Structure of IZUMO1–JUNO reveals sperm–oocyte recognition during mammalian fertilization p.566
The structure of the IZUMO1–JUNO complex, crucial for sperm–oocyte interaction during fertilization, is reported, providing a first step towards understanding the mechanics of the interaction.doi: 10.1038/nature18596
Proteome-wide covalent ligand discovery in native biological systems p.570
Small molecules are powerful tools for investigating protein function, and can serve as leads for new therapeutics, but most human proteins lack known small-molecule ligands; here, a quantitative analysis of cysteine-reactive small-molecule fragments screened against thousands of proteins is reported.doi: 10.1038/nature18002
S tructural basis of N6 - adenosine methylation by the METTL3–METTL14 complex p.575
The structure of the METTL3–METTL14 complex, which mediates N6-adenosine methylation of RNA, suggests that the METTL3 subunit is the catalytic core while METTL14 serves to bind RNA.doi: 10.1038/nature18298
