News & Views in 2011

Two human trials investigate the efficacy of a type of antiretroviral drug — usually used to treat HIV-infected individuals — in preventing HIV infection. The results are heartening.

Protein engineering of an enzyme that catalytically detoxifies organophosphate compounds in the body opens up fresh opportunities in the search for therapeutic protection against nerve agents used in chemical warfare.

Cellular compartmentalization is an effective way to build gene circuits capable of complex logic operations, in which binary inputs are converted into binary outputs according to user-defined rules. See Letters p.207 & p.212

G-protein-coupled receptors initiate a wide range of signalling pathways in cells. It seems that both a G protein and an agonist molecule must bind to the receptors to persistently activate them. See Article p.175 & Letters p.236 & p.241

A survey of bumblebees in North America provides unequivocal evidence that four previously common and abundant species have undergone recent and widespread population collapse. Various explanations remain possible.

Studies of animal populations often use tags to track the fate of individuals and assume that there is no adverse impact. Work on penguins shows that seemingly innocuous flipper bands affect survival and breeding success. See Letter p.203

Generations of physicists have spent much of their lives using Richard Feynman's famous diagrams to calculate how particles interact. New mathematical tools are simplifying the results and suggesting improved underlying principles.

The functions of proteins are critically coupled to their interplay with water, but determining the dynamics of most water molecules at protein surfaces hasn't been possible. A new spectroscopic method promises to change that.

The Eastern Lau spreading centre in the Pacific Ocean is the subject of especial interest. The influence of the neighbouring subduction zone is considerable, but evidently has unexpected limits. See Letter p.198

Stacking two oxide insulators together is known to yield a conducting system at the interface between the oxides. But the discovery that simply cleaving such an insulator yields the same outcome is unexpected. See Letter p.189

Mutualism can be a double-edged sword if the animals concerned also compete for food. This may explain the discovery that catfish mimics in the Amazon rarely engage in mimicry with related species. See Letter p.84

Isotopic evidence from carbon and sulphur points to the spread of anoxia and toxic sulphide as the chief culprits in at least one of a series of crises for marine ecosystems during the nascent stages of early animal evolution. See Letter p.80

Nature constructs macromolecules with a precision that chemists have struggled to achieve. So a strategy that offers simple routes to large molecules, starting from small templates, could be the next big thing in synthesis. See Letter p.72

Using photonic chips to control single photons in waveguides is a promising route to technologies based on the photons'quantum properties. The ability to measure entanglement on such chips is a key step in that direction.

With age comes wisdom, or so they say. The reality is that, with age, the ability to store memories declines. One way of tackling this problem might be to raise neuronal levels of the signalling molecule EphB2. See Article p.47

Computers use transistor-based logic gates as the basis of their functions, but molecular logic gates would make them much faster. A report of DNA-based logic gates could be a first step towards molecular computing.