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.
Two papers in Nature this week highlight the extent to which human activity is influencing global climate, and underline the need for continued scrutiny of the problem.
The week in science: Errors — and resignations — announced in ‘faster-than-light’ neutrino experiment; new rules for US biosecurity research; and cuts to science in Spanish and Canadian budgets.
Counterproductive financial incentives divert time and resources from the scientific enterprise. We should spend the money more wisely, says Paula Stephan.
The complexity in patterns of human mobility, migration and communication has been difficult to unpack. Researchers have now come up with a simple theory that captures the intricacy of such phenomena. See Letter p.96
A reconstruction of temperature from proxy records shows that the rise in global mean temperature closely resembled, but slightly lagged, the rise in carbon dioxide concentration during the last period of deglaciation. See Article p.49
The brain's parietal cortex seems to orchestrate decision-making without single neurons performing 'solos'. Rather, decision-specific motifs emerge as highly organized sequences of short-lived neuronal activity. See Article p.62
Lasers are often described in terms of a light field circulating in an optical resonator system. Now a laser has been demonstrated in which the field resides primarily in the atomic medium that is used to generate the light. See Letter p.78
Certain drugs that are used to treat cancer affect blood-vessel formation in tumours. But it seems that these antiangiogenic drugs can reduce the efficiency of other anticancer agents and increase the tumours' aggressiveness.
Whole-genome sequences from a marine fish that has adjusted to life in fresh water give hints about general genetic mechanisms that drive the evolution of adaptations to new environmental niches. See Article p.55
By harnessing the quantum nature of light and guiding the light through a network of circuits integrated in a glass chip, it is possible to mimic fundamental particles undergoing a quantum walk.
A reconstruction of global surface temperature is used to show that deglacial temperature is correlated with and generally lags carbon dioxide concentration, a result that contributes to the explanation of the temperature change that occurred at the end of the most recent ice age.
A reference genome sequence for threespine sticklebacks, and re-sequencing of 20 additional world-wide populations, reveals loci used repeatedly during vertebrate evolution; multiple chromosome inversions contribute to marine-freshwater divergence, and regulatory variants predominate over coding variants in this classic example of adaptive evolution in natural environments.
The neural circuit dynamics in the mouse posterior parietal cortex are found to involve sequences of neural activation rather than longer-lived sustained neural activity states.
A genome-wide analysis determines the contribution of DNA breaks and nuclear interactions to the formation of random versus recurrent translocations; whereas random translocations follow nuclear interaction profiles, the frequency of recurrent translocations is directly proportional to the amount of DNA damage at translocation partners.
The pulsating star OGLE-BLG-RRLYR-02792 is known to be a member of an eclipsing binary system, and its mass is now determined to be only 0.26 times that of the Sun, meaning that it cannot be a classical RR Lyrae pulsator.
A superradiant laser with less than one intracavity photon is shown to synchronize its lasing medium spontaneously and simultaneously isolate it from the environment, producing emitted light with a linewidth ten thousand times smaller than the quantum limit for non-superradiant optical lasers.
Seamless integration of decoherence protection into quantum logic gates has enabled high-fidelity execution of a quantum algorithm with individual spins in a hybrid quantum system.
Orbitally triggered decomposition of soil organic carbon in terrestrial permafrost is suggested as an explanation for a series of sudden and extreme global warming events that occurred about 55 million years ago.
The discovery of a new species of Tyrannosaurus relative from the Early Cretaceous of China, some 125 million years old—the largest feathered creature known, living or extinct—has implications for early feather evolution.
A new approach, the d:l-amino-acid model, is used to quantify the distributions and turnover times of living microbial biomass, endospores and microbial necromass, and to determine their role in the sub-seafloor carbon budget.
Transplanting bone marrow from wild-type mice into MECP2-lacking mice results in wild-type microglial engraftment, extends lifespan and reduces symptoms of disease such as breathing and locomotor abnormalities, implicating microglia in the pathophysiology of Rett syndrome.
DLL4–Notch signalling suppresses endothelial sprouting and angiogenic growth through crosstalk with the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway; VEGF receptor 2 has been thought to have a crucial role in this crosstalk, but now VEGF receptor 3 is shown to be the more important modulator.
The ORC1 BAH domain is shown to be a module that recognizes a histone modification associated with replication origins, providing insight into the aetiology of Meier–Gorlin syndrome.
A family of small molecules called ‘ciliobrevins’ are described that can rapidly and reversibly modulate the AAA+ ATPase motor dynein, which transports cargo molecules along microtubule tracks.
Public and private institutions have added new rules to ensure transparency and reveal conflicts of interest. For many, following the rules has become harder.