Skip to main content

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.

Volume 498 Issue 7455, 27 June 2013

Darwin speculated that bipedalism might have contributed to humans� unique ability to throw things so well. Although some primates, including our closest relatives chimpanzees, will throw objects now and then, their throws do not come close to matching the speed and accuracy achieved by even young human boys. Neil Roach and colleagues analysed the biomechanics of collegiate baseball players� throwing motion in order to better understand the evolution of this novel behaviour. Their findings show that adaptations in the human upper body allow us to store and release elastic energy in the shoulder in a catapult-like fashion. Evidence of these key shifts in morphology that make this energy storage possible is preserved in the hominin fossil record. From these fossils, the authors infer that the ability to throw objects with high speed probably arose with Homo erectus, and may have had a crucial role in early hunting. Cover: Corbis

Editorial

  • More than 50 years after the WI-38 cell line was derived from a fetus, science and society has still to get to grips with the ethical issues of using human tissue in research.

    Editorial

    Advertisement

  • Better sequencing techniques are enabling some scientists to take personal genomics literally.

    Editorial
  • Modern sleep patterns cause ill health, so it is time to work out how much rest we really need.

    Editorial
Top of page ⤴

World View

Top of page ⤴

Research Highlights

Top of page ⤴

Seven Days

  • The week in science: Indonesian fires spew hazardous haze, Los Alamos scientist admits releasing classified nuclear data, and Fermilab names next leader.

    Seven Days
Top of page ⤴

News

Top of page ⤴

Correction

Top of page ⤴

News Feature

  • In 1962, Leonard Hayflick created a cell strain from an aborted fetus. More than 50 years later, WI-38 remains a crucial, but controversial, source of cells.

    • Meredith Wadman
    News Feature
Top of page ⤴

Comment

  • To establish the true role of sleep, researchers must gather real-world data from thousands, even millions, of people, says Till Roenneberg.

    • Till Roenneberg
    Comment
  • Sam Dupont and Hans Pörtner call for experiments of greater complexity that can probe how plummeting pH will affect marine ecosystems as the climate warms.

    • Sam Dupont
    • Hans Pörtner
    Comment
Top of page ⤴

Books & Arts

  • Joanne Baker enjoys a biography of the doughty French inventor of the bull's-eye lens, the secret of the modern lighthouse.

    • Joanne Baker
    Books & Arts
  • Audio sculptor Bill Fontana creates recordings of particle generators as artist-in-residence at CERN, Europe's particle-physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. Ahead of his opening lecture, Fontana talks about probing the links between the speeds of sound and light, and chasing vibrations in gases, liquids and solids.

    • Jascha Hoffman
    Books & Arts
Top of page ⤴

Correspondence

Top of page ⤴

Obituary

Top of page ⤴

News & Views

  • Thousands of atoms in a gas can share a single Rydberg excitation. Quantum entanglement between such an excitation and a single photon has now been realized deterministically. See Letter p.466

    • Matthias Weidemüller
    News & Views
  • An area of injured heart in zebrafish embryos repairs itself using cells from neighbouring areas. The regenerating cells seem to originate from an intermediate progenitor-cell population. See Letter p.497

    • Kenneth R. Chien
    News & Views
  • For time immemorial, clothes have been used for thermal insulation. Cloaking devices have now been demonstrated that insulate from heat while maintaining its flow, thus hiding objects from heat sensors.

    • Ulf Leonhardt
    News & Views
  • In fruitfly larvae, neural stem cells generate different cell types at different times. It emerges that these temporal progressions are controlled by multiple cascades of gene transcription factors. See Articles p.449 & p.456

    • Stefan Thor
    News & Views
  • Purifying and positioning carbon nanotubes are challenges for the synthesis of electronic devices based on these nanomaterials. Recent advances in such areas reveal trends that are beating an exciting path towards transistor technology.

    • Aaron D. Franklin
    News & Views
  • Cells can sense and respond to fluctuations in nutrient availability. Mutations that disrupt such lines of nutrient communication with the cellular growth machinery seem to contribute to the uncontrolled growth of cancer cells.

    • Suchithra Menon
    • Brendan D. Manning
    News & Views
    • Marian Turner
    News & Views
  • Whole-genome sequencing of human malaria parasites has revealed genomic regions that are associated with resistance to artemisinin-based drugs. The findings may help to explain the origin and spread of this worrying trend.

    • A. Taylor Bright
    • Elizabeth A. Winzeler
    News & Views
  • A micrometre-sized laser has been demonstrated in silicon, the most ubiquitous material of the electronics industry. The device operates at microwatt power levels and could open routes to compact photonic integrated circuits. See Letter p.470

    • Roel Baets
    News & Views
Top of page ⤴

Article

  • Drosophila neural stem cells and their proliferative progeny are both shown to change over time, thus increasing the diversity of their neuronal and glial progeny; such temporal patterning may also contribute to neuronal complexity in the human neocortex.

    • Omer Ali Bayraktar
    • Chris Q. Doe
    Article
  • Five transcription factors are sequentially expressed in a temporal cascade in Drosophila medulla neuroblasts of the visual system; cross-regulations between these transcription factors control the temporal transitions, and temporal switching of neural progenitors may be a common theme in neuronal specification, with different sequences of transcription factors being used in different contexts.

    • Xin Li
    • Ted Erclik
    • Claude Desplan
    Article
Top of page ⤴

Letter

Top of page ⤴

Corrigendum

Top of page ⤴

Feature

  • Draconian US federal budget cuts due to 'sequestration' are already having dramatic effects.

    • Virginia Gewin
    Feature
Top of page ⤴

Q&A

Top of page ⤴

Career Brief

  • Shorter grant-eligibility period aims to speed researchers' independence

    Career Brief
  • European universities suffering financially after recession, says report.

    Career Brief
  • Child-care cost support available for conference attendees.

    Career Brief
Top of page ⤴

Futures

Top of page ⤴

Brief Communications Arising

Top of page ⤴

Outlook

    • Apoorva Mandavilli
    Outlook
  • Leukaemias are cancers of the blood or bone marrow. But how do they form, and can they be treated?

    • Emily Elert
    Outlook
  • Technologies that rapidly sequence DNA reveal deep genetic diversity both within and among individuals with leukaemia.

    • Sarah DeWeerdt
    Outlook
  • Beginning treatment with a combination of drugs should help to stop drug resistance developing, says Charles L. Sawyers.

    • Charles L. Sawyers
    Outlook
  • Better designs for clinical trials and the use of combination therapies may improve leukaemia treatment.

    • Alla Katsnelson
    Outlook
  • Enzymes that modify gene expression without changing the DNA sequence are now viewed as central to the development of leukaemia — and may lead to new drugs.

    • Jessica Wright
    Outlook
  • Leukaemia treatments must eliminate the versatile cells that can bring the cancer back to life years later.

    • Cassandra Willyard
    Outlook
  • Leukaemia in children is highly curable, but many survivors suffer severe, even life-threatening, long-term effects. Scientists are seeking ways to deliver a safer cure.

    • Mary Carmichael
    Outlook
  • Stem cells from the umbilical cord are among the latest weapons in the fight against leukaemia.

    • Melinda Wenner Moyer
    Outlook
  • Bruce L. Levine and Carl H. June explore how to make engineered immune cells that can eradicate cancer widely available.

    • Bruce L. Levine
    • Carl H. June
    Outlook
Top of page ⤴

Nature Outlook

  • While survival rates for some types of leukaemia have improved dramatically, this family of blood cancers remains a potentially fatal disease. Research in epigenetics, immunotherapy, and cell transplants offers hope. And leukaemia is proving a testing ground for the theory of cancer stem cells — leading to knowledge that could advance cancer research overall.

    Nature Outlook
Top of page ⤴
Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Quick links