Volume 502 Issue 7472, 24 October 2013

Sexual harassment is a stain on science — and we must all take a stand against it.

Chemists present a way to infer the enigmatic temperature variations inside a reactor.

Education in the Arab world must equip students with more than textbook learning as they go forward into an uncertain future, says Rana Dajani.

The week in science: Spain bails out its largest scientific body, Russian lake yields massive meteorite, and the United Nations appoints 26 science advisers.

Bid to use common anaesthetic for executions threatens to cut off supply to US hospitals.

South American SciELO project weighs up future after 15 years of free publishing.

Researchers fear that continuing budget fights will further harm government-funded science.

Campaigners want subsidies to be focused on conservation.

An influential US experiment prepares to release its first results.

Researchers will fly jet towards giant artificial particle cloud to test safety device.

Even one of the best known dinosaurs has kept some secrets. Here is what palaeontologists most want to know about the famous tyrant.

By scanning blobs of brain activity, scientists may be able to decode people's thoughts, their dreams and even their intentions.

Stalled Antarctic field work as a result of the US government shutdown has jeopardized early-career scientists and their projects, says Gretchen E. Hofmann.

Rigorous analyses are needed to establish the benefits of the knowledge economy, says former Irish government science adviser Patrick Cunningham.

Nathaniel Comfort assesses Craig Venter's vision of nature-as-machine.

A study on natural disasters puts fizz into the physics, finds Roger Bilham.

Bernie Fanaroff probes a study on how radio telescopes have opened up our understanding of the Universe.

Robert P. Crease applauds the story of three great physicists who struggled to maintain their integrity during the Third Reich.

Stuart Pimm follows a fellow biologist's evolution from wide-eyed wonder to a life chasing snakes in the field.

Gail Whiteman welcomes a take on climate economics that is strong on strategy.

Christopher I. Beckwith assesses a study probing Central Asia's pivotal role in Islam's golden age.

Andrea Tone assesses a history of the mass release of US psychiatric patients into an uncertain future.

Nobel-prizewinning economist whose work inspired cap-and-trade.

A complete hominin cranium found at the archaeological site of Dmanisi shows remarkably primitive morphology, prompting its discoverers to propose that early forms of the genus Homo evolved as a single, highly variable lineage.

A detailed astrophysical model has been laid out that not only reproduces the far-infrared–radio correlation for galaxies that are actively forming stars, but also predicts how the correlation is modified at high redshift.

Two related nuclear receptors mediate circadian fat metabolism in two different tissues using a lipid messenger as an intermediary. This signalling pathway might be relevant to the understanding of metabolic disorders. See Letter p.550

The discovery of a new way of controlling a class of complex-oxide materials, known as the Ruddlesden–Popper series of structures, may lead the way to making electronically tunable microwave devices. See Letter p.532

Sophisticated microscopy analysis of conodont elements suggests that these mysterious fossil structures are not, as has been previously suggested, evolutionary precursors to vertebrate teeth. See Letter p.546

Carbon monoxide molecules are typically coupled together using metal catalysts. The discovery that boron, a non-metal, mediates such a reaction is startling, and raises the prospect of potentially useful carbon–carbon bond-forming processes.

Spectroscopic measurements of 43 candidates for distant galaxies have confirmed one to be the most remote galaxy securely identified to date — and it forms stars more than 100 times faster than the Milky Way. See Letter p.524

The olfactory receptors and neurons that recognize the insect repellent DEET have been identified in Drosophila melanogaster, enabling identification of new insect repellents in a chemical screen and offering another research avenue against diseases transmitted by insects.

By combining lineage tracing with intravital microscopy, the position of a stem cell within its extended mouse hair follicle niche is shown to control its long-term fate and behaviour; laser ablation to remove restricted cell populations shows that bulge stem cells are dispensable for hair regeneration, and non-hair epithelial cells may change their fate to compensate and sustain hair growth.

RNAs undergo many types of post-transcriptional modification, including methylation of ribosomal RNAs; here the structure of the archaeal box C/D ribonucleoprotein complex bound to substrate RNA is determined, showing that the two methylation guide sequences exist in different contexts and revealing sequential regulation of methylation at the two sites.

A deep near-infrared spectroscopic survey of 43 photometrically-selected galaxies with redshift z > 6.5 detects a near-infrared emission line from only a single galaxy; this line is likely to be Lyman α emission at a wavelength of 1.0343 μm, placing this galaxy at z = 7.51.

The density of states in a two-dimensional superconductor has an energy gap that behaves analogously to that in a high-transition-temperature copper oxide superconductor as a function of charge carrier density, suggesting that such behaviour could be a general property of two-dimensional superconductivity.

A new family of tunable microwave dielectrics with unparalleled performance at frequencies up to 125 GHz at room temperature has been created, using dimensionality to add and control a local ferroelectric instability in a system with exceptionally low dielectric loss.

A technique of NMR thermometry that relies on the inverse relationship between NMR linewidths and temperature can be used to map non-invasively the gas temperatures inside catalytic reactors, offering unprecedented capabilities for testing the approximations used in reactor modelling.

The future of El Niño and its impact on precipitation in a warming world is clearer than previously appreciated.

A study of tooth evolution comparing fossil euconodonts and paraconodonts using X-rays reveals that paraconodonts do not contain vertebrate hard tissues like enamel and dentine and therefore euconodont and vertebrate teeth arose independently and convergently.

How the liver communicates with peripheral tissues to achieve metabolic homeostasis is poorly defined; here the authors show that the nuclear hormone receptor PPARδ regulates de novo lipogenesis in the liver and orchestrates fat use by muscle via a circulating lipid.

The maize COMPACT PLANT2 locus encodes a Gα subunit; its interaction with leucine-rich receptors suggests a new mode of G-protein signalling that acts through single-pass rather than seven-pass G-protein-coupled transmembrane receptors.

Here, a protein known as MX2 is shown to be a major effector of interferon-α-mediated resistance to HIV-1 infection: susceptibility of the HIV-1 virus to inhibition by MX2 is dictated by the Capsid region of the viral Gag protein, and inhibition occurs at a late post-entry step of infection.

MX2 is shown to be an interferon-induced inhibitor of HIV-1 infection, and this antiviral activity may involve the inhibition of nuclear import of subviral complexes.

In eukaryotic cells, a subset of microtubules undergoes acetylation, resulting in stabilization: here, clathrin-coated pits are shown to control microtubule acetylation through a direct interaction between the α-tubulin acetyltransferase αTAT1 and the clathrin adaptor AP2, promoting directional cell migration.

Microbes have already been engineered to produce diesel fuels, and now the microbial production of components of petrol (gasoline) including short-chain alkanes has been achieved using Escherichia coli strains metabolically engineered with components of fatty acid biosynthesis pathways.

Here, by developing a high-affinity camelid antibody fragment that stabilizes the active state of the β₂-adrenoceptor, the X-ray crystal structures of the receptor in complex with three agonists, including adrenaline, were determined.

Scientific organizations can help researchers — especially in developing countries — to make contacts and boost their skills.

Success involves acknowledging past accomplishments as well as looking ahead to future value, says Yoshimi Rii.

A lucky break.

Transcriptional programs dictate cell identity during development. This Insight highlights recent advances in transcriptional and epigenetic regulation during development and disease, including the mechanisms behind reprogramming and DNA demethylation, the role of chromosome topology, links to metabolism and small molecule drug discovery.