Editorials
Japan deserves praise for early success, but must still exercise caution in commercializing induced pluripotent stem-cell treatments.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.21757
A breakdown of purchasing habits shows where science books fall on the political spectrum.
doi: 10.1038/544005b
Brexit is forcing agencies to relocate their headquarters, and member states to rethink their language choices.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.21762
News
Early studies fuel scientists’ determination to understand how immunotherapy may sometimes make disease worse.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.21755
More than 30% of biomedical studies funded by the US government are later cited in commercial patents.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.21752
Teenage mother who lived 12,000 years ago was malnourished but still roamed widely.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.21753
Debate grows over a molecule implicated in animal navigation.
doi: 10.1038/544016a
But the child's parents have decided to forego long-term monitoring by researchers.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.21761
News Features
New investments promise to get precision medicine and precision public health off the ground. But experts debate how much work needs to be done first.
doi: 10.1038/544020a
News & Views
sign of an elusive nuclear decay that could help to explain why the Universe is dominated by matter, rather than antimatter. An upgraded experiment continues the search with unprecedented sensitivity. See Letter p.47
doi: 10.1038/544038a
A proxy for the amount of carbon dioxide taken up by plants for photosynthesis has been used to estimate historical global uptake, revealing a large increase that might partly offset the rise in atmospheric CO2 levels. See Letter p.84
doi: 10.1038/544039a
Mosquitoes flap their long, thin wings four times faster than similarly sized insects. Imaging and computational analysis of mosquito flight illuminates some aerodynamic mechanisms not seen before in animal flight. See Letter p.92
doi: 10.1038/nature21904
Structural insights into adiponectin receptors provide evidence that these proteins have an inherent enzymatic activity, which gives them the ability to propagate signalling by their ligand, the hormone adiponectin. See Letter p.120
doi: 10.1038/nature21900
The sign of a material's charge carriers is usually reflected in the sign of the 'Hall voltage'. But for a structure inspired by chain mail, altering its geometry inverts the Hall voltage, even if the charge carriers are unchanged.
doi: 10.1038/nature21902
A polysaccharide called rhamnogalacturonan II is a major component of some fruits, but humans rely on their gut microbiota to digest it. The microbes and processes responsible for this digestion have now been revealed. See Article p.65
doi: 10.1038/nature21901
Articles
If neutrinos are their own antiparticles, neutrinoless double-β decay of 76Ge should occur; a new lower-limit half-life of 5 × 1025 years for this process has now been determined under background-free conditions.
doi: 10.1038/nature21717
During emergency myelopoiesis in mice, clusters of self-renewing granulocyte/macrophage progenitors (GMP) are transiently formed in the bone marrow cavity to produce a burst of myeloid cells; in leukaemia, GMP clusters persist and constantly generate myeloid leukaemia cells.
doi: 10.1038/nature21693
A chromosome conformation capture method in which single cells are first imaged and then processed enables intact genome folding to be studied at a scale of 100 kb, validated, and analysed to generate hypotheses about 3D genomic interactions and organisation.
doi: 10.1038/nature21429
The hierarchical deconstruction of the complex pectic glycan rhamnogalacturonan-II by the human gut bacterium Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron reveals seven new families of glycoside hydrolases and three catalytic functions not previously observed.
doi: 10.1038/nature21725
Letters
A massive ancient galaxy with minimal star formation is observed spectroscopically at an epoch when the Universe is less than 2 billion years old, posing a challenge to theories.
doi: 10.1038/nature21680
By switching shell growth on and off on the (0001) facet of wurtzite CdSe cores to produce a built-in biaxial strain that lowers the optical gain threshold, we achieve continuous-wave lasing in colloidal quantum dot films.
doi: 10.1038/nature21424
Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) running on hydrogen are attractive alternative power supplies for a range of applications, with in situ release of the required hydrogen from a stable liquid offering one way of ensuring its safe storage and transportation before use. The use of methanol is particularly interesting in this regard, because it is inexpensive and can reform itself with water to release hydrogen with a high gravimetric density of 18.8 per cent by weight. But traditional reforming of methanol steam operates at relatively high temperatures (200–350 degrees Celsius), so the focus for vehicle and portable PEMFC applications has been on aqueous-phase reforming of methanol (APRM). This method requires less energy, and the simpler and more compact device design allows direct integration into PEMFC stacks. There remains, however, the need for an efficient APRM catalyst. Here we report that platinum (Pt) atomically dispersed on α-molybdenum carbide (α-MoC) enables low-temperature (150–190 degrees Celsius), base-free hydrogen production through APRM, with an average turnover frequency reaching 18,046 moles of hydrogen per mole of platinum per hour. We attribute this exceptional hydrogen production—which far exceeds that of previously reported low-temperature APRM catalysts—to the outstanding ability of α-MoC to induce water dissociation, and to the fact that platinum and α-MoC act in synergy to activate methanol and then to reform it.
doi: 10.1038/nature21672
Long-term records of global carbonyl sulfide levels reveal that terrestrial gross primary production (GPP) increased by around 30% during the twentieth century—a finding that may aid understanding of the connection between GPP growth and climate change.
doi: 10.1038/nature22030
Whereas the enteric nervous system of jawed vertebrates is derived largely from the vagal neural crest, that of the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) is populated by trunk-derived neural crest cells that may be homologous to Schwann cell precursors.
doi: 10.1038/nature21679
In addition to generating lift by leading-edge vortices (as used by most insects), mosquitoes also employ trailing-edge vortices and a lift mechanism from wing rotation, which enables them to stay airborne despite having a seemingly unlikely airframe.
doi: 10.1038/nature21727
A sizable fraction of granule cells convey information about the expectation of reward, with different populations responding to reward delivery, anticipation and omission, with some responses evolving over time with learning.
doi: 10.1038/nature21726
Analysis of spacer acquisition in Staphylococcus aureus reveals that type II CRISPR–Cas systems exploit viral DNA injection to ensure a successful CRISPR immune response.
doi: 10.1038/nature21719
Direct imaging of the lung microcirculation in mice indicates that it is a major site of mature platelet production from megakaryocytes.
doi: 10.1038/nature21706
Using a single-nucleus Hi-C protocol, the authors find that spatial organization of chromatin during oocyte-to-zygote transition differs between paternal and maternal nuclei within a single-cell zygote.
doi: 10.1038/nature21711
In the absence of DHX9, circular RNAs accumulate and transcription and translation are dysregulated—effects that are exacerbated by concomitant depletion of the RNA-editing enzyme ADAR.
doi: 10.1038/nature21715
Structures of the adiponectin receptors ADIPOR1 and ADIPOR2 combined with molecular dynamics simulations and enzymatic assays suggest that both receptors have intrinsic ceramidase activity.
doi: 10.1038/nature21714