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Volume 496 Issue 7446, 25 April 2013

A macrophage attacking bacteria. Macrophages are phagocytic cells found in blood, lymph and in all mammalian tissue types. They have many and diverse roles in normal development, homeostasis, tissue repair and the immune response to pathogens. Their diversity means that they are involved in almost every human disease and are prime therapeutic targets because their function can be augmented or inhibited to alter disease outcome. A Review in this issue discusses macrophage physiology in terms of the homeostatic mechanisms by which macrophages contribute to physiological and pathophysiologic adaptations in mammals. Cover: SCIEPRO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Editorial

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World View

  • Warnings about the emergence of another influenza virus may elicit scepticism, but we should not be complacent, cautions Peter Horby.

    • Peter Horby
    World View
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Research Highlights

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Seven Days

  • This week in science: Ricin-laced letters sent to politicians; Antares rocket completes its maiden test flight; and Nobel laureate François Jacob dies.

    Seven Days
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News

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News Feature

  • There are almost as many firearms in the United States as there are citizens. Garen Wintemute is one of few people studying the consequences.

    • Meredith Wadman
    News Feature
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Comment

  • On the 60th anniversary of the double helix, we should admit that we don't fully understand how evolution works at the molecular level, suggests Philip Ball.

    • Philip Ball
    Comment
  • Gordon Fishell describes how he rebuilt his mouse research programme following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Sandy.

    • Gordon Fishell
    Comment
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Spring Books

  • Highlights of this season's releases.

    Spring Books
  • Michael Pollan's latest book will be eaten up by the conscious consumers he created, says Nathan Myhrvold.

    • Nathan Myhrvold
    Spring Books
  • Suzanne Alonzo relishes a synthesis of the extraordinary variations among males and females of the same species.

    • Suzanne Alonzo
    Spring Books
  • Ted Nield relishes a deft tracing of the relationship between the rise of geology and the novel in the turbulent nineteenth century.

    • Ted Nield
    Spring Books
  • Pedro Ferreira ponders a vision of the Universe in which time is paramount.

    • Pedro Ferreira
    Spring Books
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Correspondence

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News & Views Forum

  • Physicists have come up with a way to characterize and command untrusted quantum systems. Two experts discuss the significance of these findings for fundamental science and for practical quantum computation and cryptography. See Article p.456

    • Stefano Pironio
    • Dorit Aharonov
    News & Views Forum
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News & Views

  • The ability of sodium chloride to induce enzymatic activity that leads to the generation of pathogenic TH17 immune cells implicates salt as a possible factor that might exacerbate autoimmune disease. See Letters p.513 & p.518

    • John J. O'Shea
    • Russell G. Jones
    News & Views
  • The discovery of a particle that looked like the Higgs boson marked a milestone for physics. Results reported since then are strikingly consistent with expectations for the Higgs particle of the minimal standard model of particle physics.

    • Frank Wilczek
    News & Views
  • More than 30 years since the AIDS pandemic began, there is still no effective vaccine. But analysis of broadly acting, potent human antibodies obtained from single cells suggests a rational approach to vaccine development. See Article p.469

    • Hugo Mouquet
    • Michel C. Nussenzweig
    News & Views
  • A new approach has been used to image magnetic fields in living cells of magnetotactic bacteria. The technique could be applied to study the dynamics of magnetism in other biological systems. See Letter p.486

    • Mihály Pósfai
    • Rafal E. Dunin-Borkowski
    News & Views
  • The reported sequence of the zebrafish genome, together with the production of mutant strains representing more than one-third of all its protein-coding regions, will accelerate the characterization of human genes. See Letters p.494 & p.498

    • Alexander F. Schier
    News & Views
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Review Article

  • A discussion of progress in macrophage biology, examining their classification, diverse lineages, identities and regulation, their roles in regulating normal physiology and development, and their identification as therapeutic targets in human diseases.

    • Thomas A. Wynn
    • Ajay Chawla
    • Jeffrey W. Pollard
    Review Article
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Article

  • A scheme is described that enables characterization and classical command of large quantum systems; it provides a test of whether a claimed quantum computer is truly quantum, and also advances towards a goal of quantum cryptography, namely the use of untrusted devices to establish a shared random key, with security based on the validity of quantum physics.

    • Ben W. Reichardt
    • Falk Unger
    • Umesh Vazirani
    Article
  • Longitudinal sampling is used to map the evolution of an HIV-1 virus from the time of infection, and the co-evolution of a broadly neutralizing antibody in the same infected patient; the findings have important implications for HIV vaccine development.

    • Hua-Xin Liao
    • Rebecca Lynch
    • Barton F. Haynes
    Article
  • Small-angle scattering of X-rays or neutrons is more readily applied to macromolecular complexes than is X-ray crystallography, and is particularly useful for protein complexes with high flexibility; here new quantitative metrics are presented that will allow solution-derived structures to be validated and assessed for mass, resolution and accuracy.

    • Robert P. Rambo
    • John A. Tainer
    Article
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Letter

  • Microwave stimulation of a superconducting artificial three-level atom is used to demonstrate high-fidelity, non-Abelian geometric transformations, the results of which depend on the order in which they are performed.

    • A. A. Abdumalikov Jr
    • J. M. Fink
    • S. Filipp
    Letter
  • A diamond chip with nitrogen–vacancy centres is used for magnetic imaging of living magnetotactic bacteria with sub-cellular spatial resolution.

    • D. Le Sage
    • K. Arai
    • R. L. Walsworth
    Letter
  • A project to identify the phenotypes of disruptive mutations in every zebrafish protein-coding gene has so far revealed potentially disruptive mutations in more than 38% of the protein-coding genes, and the phenotypic consequences of each allele can be assessed using a novel multi-allelic phenotyping scheme.

    • Ross N. W. Kettleborough
    • Elisabeth M. Busch-Nentwich
    • Derek L. Stemple
    Letter
  • A high-quality sequence assembly of the zebrafish genome reveals the largest gene set of any vertebrate and provides information on key genomic features, and comparison to the human reference genome shows that approximately 70% of human protein-coding genes have at least one clear zebrafish orthologue.

    • Kerstin Howe
    • Matthew D. Clark
    • Derek L. Stemple
    Letter Open Access
  • The public health burden of dengue is unknown; here cartographic approaches are used to provide insight into the global, regional and national burden of dengue, with the finding that the global number of infections per year is around 390 million, more than three times the estimate of the World Health Organization.

    • Samir Bhatt
    • Peter W. Gething
    • Simon I. Hay
    Letter
  • Transcriptional profiling of developing TH17 cells identifies serum glucocorticoid kinase 1 (SGK1) as an essential node downstream of IL-23 signalling, and transcriptional analysis shows that a modest increase in salt concentration induces SGK1 expression, promotes IL-23 receptor expression and enhances TH17 cell differentiation, accelerating the development of autoimmunity.

    • Chuan Wu
    • Nir Yosef
    • Vijay K. Kuchroo
    Letter
  • Increased salt concentrations are shown to induce murine and human TH17 cells by a mechanism that depends on activation of p38/MAPK, NFAT5 and SGK1; mice kept on a high-salt diet develop a more severe experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis due to increased induction of TH17 cells.

    • Markus Kleinewietfeld
    • Arndt Manzel
    • David A. Hafler
    Letter
  • The X-ray crystal structure of a high-affinity phosphate importer in an inward-facing, occluded state in the presence of phosphate is reported; this is the first structure of a membrane protein involved in inorganic phosphate uptake and the first crystal structure of a eukaryotic MFS transporter.

    • Bjørn P. Pedersen
    • Hemant Kumar
    • Robert M. Stroud
    Letter
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Feature

  • Options abound for scientists who want to get in touch with their inner artist, whether professionally or as a hobby.

    • Virginia Gewin
    Feature
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Correction

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Career Brief

  • President's budget proposes 7% pay rise for entry-level NIH-funded postdocs.

    Career Brief
  • Report finds US full-time non-tenure-track faculty posts are on the rise.

    Career Brief
  • Applications from China to US graduate schools decline for first time in years, says report.

    Career Brief
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Futures

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