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Volume 505 Issue 7483, 16 January 2014

Northern bald ibises flying in V formation during a human-led migratory flight. Some bird species have refined their flying skills to the extent that they can fly in near-perfect V, but why they adopt such a tactic has been a matter of conjecture. One suggestion is that by flying in a V the birds are able to minimize energy costs, and now an analysis of data captured from free-flying migratory ibises suggests that there are energetic benefits. The data also reveal a sophisticated and dynamic process of in-flight control. Birds in the V phase their wing-beats to path-match, allowing a trailing bird to exploit the aerodynamic upwash from the bird in front. A bird flying directly behind, however, flaps with opposite phasing in order to minimize the detrimental downwash from the leader’s wings. All this must require the birds to have developed a range of phasing strategies to cope with the dynamic wakes produced by flapping wings. Cover: Markus Unsd.

Editorial

  • A planned database collating medical information for England’s population is a laudable exercise, with huge potential for research. But people’s right to opt out has been greatly downplayed.

    Editorial

    Advertisement

  • As cold weather rages, it is easy to forget the difference between weather and climate.

    Editorial
  • An endangered species helps scientists to learn why migrating birds fly in a familiar formation.

    Editorial
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World View

  • Electronic devices that track our emotions, heart rate or brain waves should be regulated to protect individual privacy, says Stephen Fairclough.

    • Stephen Fairclough
    World View
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Research Highlights

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Seven Days

  • The week in science: Astronomers glimpse super-deep galaxies, India marks polio-free milestone, and Italian police investigate animal activism.

    Seven Days
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News

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Correction

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News Feature

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Comment

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Books & Arts

  • Eric Hand views a planetarium show on dark matter and dark energy that is both dislocating and transfixing.

    • Eric Hand
    Books & Arts
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Correspondence

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News & Views

  • A data-set compilation suggests that measurements of river erosion into rock depend on the observation timescale, casting doubt on whether terraces and other incised landforms faithfully record changes in climate and tectonics. See Letter p.391

    • Roman A. DiBiase
    News & Views
  • In-air measurements of northern bald ibises flying in a V formation show that the birds conform to predictions for saving energy by regulating their relative body position and synchronizing their flapping motion. See Letter p.399

    • Florian T. Muijres
    • Michael H. Dickinson
    News & Views
  • Stars of spectral type 'Be' are often found with neutron stars or other evolved analogues, but a black-hole companion has never been spotted before. Optical emission from a black hole's surroundings has given it away. See Letter p.378

    • M. Virginia McSwain
    News & Views
  • The transcription enzyme RNA polymerase stalls at DNA lesions, hindering their repair. Accessory factors dislodge the enzyme by pushing it forwards, but a study finds that pulling it backwards may also be effective. See Article p.372

    • Irina Artsimovitch
    News & Views
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Introduction

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Review Article

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Article

  • Rare copy-number variants (CNVs) conferring risk of schizophrenia or autism affect fecundity of carriers in Iceland, and carriers of these CNVs who do not suffer disease or have not been diagnosed with intellectual disability show phenotypes in brain structure and cognitive abilities between those of non-carrier controls and patients with schizophrenia.

    • Hreinn Stefansson
    • Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg
    • Kari Stefansson
    Article
  • Many DNA processes require chromosomes to be held together by a ring-shaped complex called cohesin, but despite the importance of this protein, its interaction with DNA has not been reproduced in vitro; here, using purified yeast proteins, cohesin loading is successfully recapitulated, offering mechanistic insight into how the loader complex mediates topological cohesin binding.

    • Yasuto Murayama
    • Frank Uhlmann
    Article
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Letter

  • A black hole with mass 3.8 to 6.9 times that of the Sun is found to be orbiting the nearby Be-type star MWC 656; the black hole is encircled by an accretion disk and X-ray quiescent, implying that Be binaries with black-hole companions are difficult to detect in conventional X-ray surveys.

    • J. Casares
    • I. Negueruela
    • S. Simón-Díaz
    Letter
  • A single-flask, catalytic enantioselective conversion of terminal alkenes into a number of chiral products is described: this tandem diboration/cross-coupling reaction works on a broad range of substrates, requires small amounts of commercially available catalysts, and provides products in high yield and high selectivity.

    • Scott N. Mlynarski
    • Christopher H. Schuster
    • James P. Morken
    Letter
  • Global carbon budgets reveal that inland waters emit substantial amounts of carbon, which is believed to originate from the terrestrial biosphere; however, here the carbon emitted from the Amazon River system is shown to originate from temporary wetlands in the flooded area itself, such as flooded forests.

    • Gwenaël Abril
    • Jean-Michel Martinez
    • Fabio Roland
    Letter
  • In mice, chronic stimulation by repetitive sounds, whisker deflection, motor activity or seizures during a postnatal developmental critical period, leads to permanent reductions in brain microvascular density, an effect that impairs oxygen delivery to neurons but can be prevented by blocking nitric oxide signalling.

    • Christina Whiteus
    • Catarina Freitas
    • Jaime Grutzendler
    Letter
  • The airway mucin Muc5b (but not Muc5ac) is required for mucociliary clearance, defence against bacterial infection in the airways and middle ear, and maintenance of immune homeostasis in the lungs; Muc5b deficiency causes accumulation of apoptotic macrophages, impairment of phagocytosis and reduced production of interleukin-23, leading to infection and inflammation.

    • Michelle G. Roy
    • Alessandra Livraghi-Butrico
    • Christopher M. Evans
    Letter
  • The regularly spaced arrangement of plant organs around the stem known as phyllotaxis depends on auxin-based inhibitory fields; this study identifies another hormone-based inhibitory field downstream of auxin which is generated by movement of the cytokinin signalling inhibitor ARABIDOPSIS HISTIDINE PHOSPHOTRANSFER PROTEIN 6 and regulates the periodicity of organ production.

    • Fabrice Besnard
    • Yassin Refahi
    • Teva Vernoux
    Letter
  • A highly specific chemical crosslinking method is used to trap a complex between an acyl carrier protein and a fatty acid dehydratase during fatty acid biosynthesis; subsequent X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations techniques enable the detailed study of this complex.

    • Chi Nguyen
    • Robert W. Haushalter
    • Michael D. Burkart
    Letter
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Corrigendum

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Erratum

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Technology Feature

  • Instruments for studying microbes under biological containment cannot be readily removed from labs for servicing. A US facility is finding ways around that problem.

    • Vivien Marx

    Collection:

    Technology Feature
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Feature

  • Scientists who specialize in uncommon diseases can find a research focus with a purpose.

    • Heidi Ledford
    Feature
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Career Brief

  • Conference committees with women enlist more female speakers, says study.

    Career Brief
  • Prospective biomedical postgraduate students ignore long-term salary prospects, according to analysis.

    Career Brief
  • Irish fellowships aim to retain and reclaim early-career female researchers.

    Career Brief
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Futures

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Insight

  • The regular Insight 'Frontiers in biology' highlights important advances in biology. This year, the Reviews discuss cancer predisposition genes, analysing brain function at the level of neural projections, the organization of interneurons, the haematopoietic stem-cell niche in bone marrow, mitochondrial research, endogenous RNA and the roles of piRNA.

    Insight
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