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The story of how humans peopled the planet once seemed so simple. Modern humans, it was thought, left Africa for Asia about 50,000 years ago, reached Europe 10,000 years later and then headed for the Americas. Meanwhile, the Neanderthals and other rivals faded into the background. But we now know that the picture was far more complicated than that. A series of special features in this issue of Nature sets out the latest thinking on where we came from and who we are. Cover by Kyle Bean.
Imperfect global biosafety standards and a threat to researchers' motivations from biosecurity concerns are among the significant risks in current flu research.
The week in science: US reports 4th ever case of ‘mad cow disease’; Japan’s Chikyu research vessel drills through earthquake fault; and a new system launches to alert scientists to research updates.
For decades, scientists thought that the Clovis hunters were the first to cross the Arctic to America. They were wrong — and now they need a better theory
We probably all carry genes from archaic species such as Neanderthals. Chris Stringer explains why the DNA we have in common is more important than any differences.
Einstein on the Beach, an opera by composer Philip Glass and theatre director Robert Wilson, changed ideas about what opera could do when it was first staged in 1976. As a new production opens at the Barbican Theatre in London, Glass talks about the work's gestation and evolution.
The latest studies of asteroid impacts on Earth and the Moon beginning about 450 million years after the formation of the Solar System provide insight into the duration, number and size of these events.
A biological clock synchronizes animal behaviour and physiology with Earth's 24-hour rotation. Drugs targeting the clock's 'gears' show promise for treating obesity and other metabolic disorders. See Article p.62 & Letter p.123
Interacting electrons that are confined to move in a one-dimensional structure do not simply jam together like cars in rush hour. Inelastic X-ray scattering shows that the electrons act as if they split into separate fractional entities. See Letter p.82
The protein Sema3A both restrains bone degradation and stimulates bone building in mice, suggesting a potential therapy for conditions such as osteoporosis. See Article p.69
Compounds of transition metals are often used to activate small molecules for chemical reactions. The discovery of unusual silicon-containing compounds raises the prospect of metal-free activators.
A genome-wide characterization of active translation of messenger RNA following inhibition of mTOR will transform our view of this signalling protein's regulatory role in cancer. See Article p.55 & Letter p.109
There have been conflicting claims about the composition of Earth's lower mantle. The latest Brillouin-spectroscopy data suggest that this section of the planet's interior may contain more silica than the upper mantle. See Letter p.90
The origin of the planet Mercury has been a continuing puzzle. Data from NASA's MESSENGER space probe, combined with ground-based observations, are delivering information on the planet's structure and evolution.
Ribosome profiling reveals specialized translation of the prostate cancer genome by oncogenic mTOR signalling; stringent inhibition of mTOR signalling reduces prostate cancer invasion and metastasis in a mouse model.
Synthetic REV-ERB agonists can alter the circadian expression of core clock genes in the hypothalami of mice, which changes the expression of metabolic genes in liver, skeletal muscle and adipose tissue, and results in increased energy expenditure.
Semaphorin 3A (Sema3A) is shown to function as a protector of bone, by synchronously inhibiting osteoclastic bone resorption and promoting osteoblastic bone formation.
The fossilized remnants of vaporized asteroids, called spherules, can be used to infer that the flux of asteroid impacts on Earth 3.5 billion years ago was much greater than it is now.
The Late Heavy Bombardment lasted much longer than previously thought, up to 1.7 billion years ago on Earth, with impacts on the Moon and Earth coming mostly from the E-belt-survivor Hungaria asteroids.
The splitting of the electron into distinct quasi-particles separately carrying the elementary particles’ spin and orbital angular momentum is observed in a one-dimensional Mott insulator.
Ordering in liquid-crystal applications is usually achieved using surfactants, but here, in modelled nanodroplets of liquid crystals and surfactants, the liquid crystals control the ordering effects, which resemble those seen in block copolymer ordering, such as spots and stripes.
Determination of the shear-wave velocities for silicate perovskite and ferropericlase under the pressure and temperature conditions of the deep lower mantle indicates that perovskite constitutes much more of the lower mantle than predicted by the conventional mantle model and is consistent with the chondritic Earth model.
The local mutation rate in Escherichia coli has evolved to reduce the risk of deleterious mutations, leading to a non-random occurrence of mutations and suggesting that DNA protection and repair mechanisms preferentially target more important genes.
Transplanted rod precursor cells restore visual function, from electrophysiology to behaviour, after transplantation into a mouse model of congenital night blindness.
mTORC1 is shown to regulate a translational program that requires the rapamycin-resistant 4E-BP family of translational repressors and consists almost entirely of mRNAs containing 5′ terminal oligopyrimidine or related motifs.
The plant pathogen Xanthomonas campestris effector, AvrAC, is shown to have uridine 5′-monophosphate transferase activity, enabling it to interfere with plant immune signalling by using this protein modification.
The identification of PILS proteins, putative auxin transport facilitators, suggests that intracellular auxin transport might be evolutionarily older than directional, cell-to-cell PIN-dependent auxin transport, and highlights the developmental importance of intracellular auxin transport.
The nuclear receptors REV-ERB-α and REV-ERB-β are indispensible for the coordination of circadian rhythm and metabolism; mice without these nuclear receptors show disrupted circadian expression of core circadian clock and lipid homeostatic gene networks.
Interactions between cyclic AMP and calcium signalling pathways mediated by the inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptor are shown to regulate hepatic gluconeogenesis in fasting and diabetes.
Two-step BK channel inactivation mediated by an intrinsically disordered BK β-subunit peptide involves a stereospecific binding interaction that precedes blockade.