Editorials
A flaw in the system leaves physicists grappling with dimensionless units.
doi: 10.1038/548135b
It’s time for researchers to lend their expertise to expediting the arrival of cutting-edge therapies that are waiting in the wings.
doi: 10.1038/548135a
News
Odd results could still be consistent with the ‘standard model’ of cosmology.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.22413
Scientific network aims to train a generation of African leaders in primate research.
doi: 10.1038/548144a
Women with sleep disorders were about twice as likely to deliver babies more than six weeks early.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.22419
From ground, sky and space, researchers are ready to test latest technologies on the Great American Eclipse.
doi: 10.1038/548146a
Non-scientists are being recruited to collect data on everything from the Sun’s outer atmosphere to animal behaviour.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.22415
US firm AquaBounty Technologies says that its transgenic fish has hit the market after a 25-year wait.
doi: 10.1038/nature.2017.22116
News Features
Neuroscientists want to understand how tangles of neurons produce complex behaviours, but even the simplest networks defy understanding.
doi: 10.1038/548150a
News & Views
Fossil evidence is scarce for early stages of evolution in the ape family tree at the time before apes and the ancestors of humans diverged. A 13-million-year-old skull now offers insights into ape development at that time. See Article p.169
doi: 10.1038/548160a
Conventional sensors based on devices called optical resonators have fundamentally limited sensitivity. Careful engineering has been used to overcome this constraint, opening the door to ultraprecise sensing. See Letters p.187 & p.192
doi: 10.1038/548161a
Details of the activity of promising anticancer drugs known as BET inhibitors remain elusive. An approach called click chemistry enables in-depth analysis of how these drugs modulate the function of a crucial target protein, BRD4.
doi: 10.1038/548162a
An analysis suggests that the time taken for ecosystems to recover from drought increased during the twentieth century. If the frequency of drought events rises, some ecosystems might never have the chance to fully recover. See Letter p.202
doi: 10.1038/548164a
The ability to become nearly any cell type is restricted to eggs, sperm and primitive stem cells in very early embryos. Two studies reveal that maintaining this pluripotent state in vitro comes at a cost. See Letters p.219 & p.224
doi: 10.1038/nature23102
A modelling approach used to investigate competition between different species provides insight into how contests that have multiple players can help to maintain biodiversity. See Letter p.210
doi: 10.1038/nature23103
Articles
Description of the most complete fossil skull of an infant ape recovered from the Miocene epoch of Kenya, assigned to a new species in the genus Nyanzapithecus.
doi: 10.1038/nature23456
The complete, synapse-resolution connectome of the Drosophila larval mushroom body.
doi: 10.1038/nature23455
Letters
In an analysis of a large sample of microlensing events, a few suggest the existence of Earth-mass free-floating planets, but only the expected number of Jupiter-mass free-floating objects were detected.
doi: 10.1038/nature23276
The response of a ternary, parity–time-symmetric system that exhibits a third-order exceptional point increases as a function of the cube-root of induced perturbations.
doi: 10.1038/nature23280
Tuning optical microcavities to exceptional points enhances their ability to sense nanoscale objects, owing to the topological features of exceptional points.
doi: 10.1038/nature23281
A bottom-up process to achieve rapid growth of micrometre-sized three-dimensional nanocrystal superlattices during colloidal synthesis at high temperatures is revealed by in situ small-angle X-ray scattering; the process is applicable to several colloidal materials.
doi: 10.1038/nature23308
A global analysis of gross primary productivity reveals that drought recovery is driven by climate and carbon cycling, with recovery longest in the tropics and high northern latitudes, and with impacts increasing over the twentieth century.
doi: 10.1038/nature23021
The pollination service provided by nocturnal flower visitors is disrupted near street lamps, which leads to a reduced reproductive output of the plant that cannot be compensated for by daytime pollinators; in addition, the structure of combined nocturnal and diurnal pollination networks facilitates the spread of the consequences of disrupted night-time pollination to daytime pollinators.
doi: 10.1038/nature23288
Communities that are very rich in species could persist thanks to the stabilizing role of higher-order interactions, in which the presence of a species influences the interaction between other species.
doi: 10.1038/nature23273
New genome-wide data for ancient, Bronze Age individuals, including Minoans, Mycenaeans, and southwestern Anatolians, show that Minoans and Mycenaeans were genetically very similar yet distinct, supporting the idea of continuity but not isolation in the history of populations of the Aegean.
doi: 10.1038/nature23310
Long-term culture of male embryonic stem cells in naive conditions containing Mek1/2 and Gsk3a/b inhibitors leads to irreversible changes in epigenetic and genomic stability that compromise their in vivo developmental potential.
doi: 10.1038/nature23274
Derivation of female mouse embryonic stem cells under certain conditions induces a loss of DNA methylation and erasure of genomic imprints, which are not recovered and that may contribute to observed impaired development.
doi: 10.1038/nature23286
Metabolic changes in T cells can affect the genomic methylation status of key transcription factors and regulate the fate decision between induced regulatory T cells and T helper 17 cells.
doi: 10.1038/nature23475
Hypoactive BRAF mutants bind more tightly than wild type to the upstream regulator RAS, thus amplifying ERK signalling; tumours expressing these mutants require coexistent mechanisms for RAS activation to grow and are sensitive to their inhibition.
doi: 10.1038/nature23291
Kinase-inactive Braf mutants can initiate the development of lung adenocarcinoma in mice; co-expression of activated Kras enhances tumour initiation and progression, and wild-type Braf is required to sustain tumorigenesis.
doi: 10.1038/nature23297
Introducing a single ‘sticky’ (hydrophobic) amino acid by point mutation into symmetric protein complexes frequently triggers their association into higher-order assemblies, without affecting their native fold and structure.
doi: 10.1038/nature23320