Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Glutamate receptors facilitate the transmission of excitatory signals in the brain. A series of structures reveals how the shape of one such receptor alters on activation, providing insight that might aid drug discovery.
The perception range of an ordinary camera can be extended by analysing information contained in shadows. This finding could have technological implications for robotic, automotive and medical sensing.
Tectonic plates lost to the deep mantle carry a record of ancient surface tectonic processes. A method for retrieving such records has been developed that could clarify the links between tectonics and mountain building.
Infection by Ebola virus can be fatal. The discovery of a human protein that mimics one type of Ebola protein and binds to another to suppress viral RNA production might aid the development of clinical treatments for the disease.
During the deaths of some massive stars, a narrow beam called a jet is launched through the stellar envelope, leaving an imprint that is difficult to detect. Such an imprint has now been seen in unprecedented detail.
Metals can be strengthened by mechanisms that work on the atomic scale. These same mechanisms used at a much larger scale have been found to also strengthen materials that contain hierarchical, engineered substructures.
Fungal infection can affect crop yield. A plant protein found to counter fungal-induced interference with host metabolism illuminates antifungal defences and mechanisms that inhibit metabolic enzymes.
Intron sequences are removed from newly synthesized RNA and usually rapidly degraded. However, it now seems that introns have a surprising role — helping yeast cells survive when nutrients are scarce.
A tenet of elementary biology is that mitochondria — the cell’s powerhouses — and their DNA are inherited exclusively from mothers. A provocative study suggests that fathers also occasionally contribute.
Polymeric gel particles have been used to make windows that highly effectively allow or block heat-generating wavelengths of sunlight in response to temperature. Such windows might increase the energy efficiency of buildings.
A study shows that a multi-chromosomal hub assembles in mouse olfactory neurons to ensure that only one odour-sensing receptor is expressed in each neuron — a feature essential to odour discrimination.
Identification of the enzyme that catalyses a site-specific modification of the protein actin reveals how this change modulates the function of the cell’s force-producing machinery.
In roots, stem cells in the cambium region form vascular tissues needed for the long-distance transport of water and nutrients. How these stem cells are specified and regulated has now been illuminated.
A technique called reverberation mapping has previously been used to probe the structure of matter around supermassive black holes. Observations suggest that this technique can also be applied to much smaller black holes.
A technically challenging analysis has revealed the physical properties of a mineral at pressures and temperatures as high as those in Earth’s mantle. The findings have implications for our understanding of Earth’s deep interior.
A computational strategy has delivered a redesigned, more stable version of a cytokine protein that mimics the natural protein’s interactions with receptors, opening the way for designer cytokine-based therapeutics.
Scenarios have been discovered in which it is impossible to prove whether or not a machine-learning algorithm could solve a particular problem. This finding might have implications for both established and future learning algorithms.
