Volume 511 Issue 7510, 24 July 2014

Soaring construction costs for ITER are jeopardizing alternative fusion projects.

Exploring how species adapt to climate change requires long-term studies, not snapshots.

Its scientists have much to offer the world, but are being held back by scattered administration and changing policies, argues Pablo Astudillo Besnier.

The week in science: Spacecraft chases duck-shaped comet; Darwin’s library online; and a new journal for workplace fatigue.

AIDS conference tries to draw inspiration from lost scientists.

Climate experts decry demise of emissions-control system.

Flood of genetic locations linked to schizophrenia helps spark financial boost to research field.

Proposals for two accelerators could see country become collider capital of the world.

Scientists seek fresh approaches to deciphering red planet’s history.

Fuelled by venture capital and a lot of hope, alternative fusion technologies are heating up.

When California's governor enlisted the aid of two palaeoecologists, their careers took an unusual turn.

By 2050, the number of people over the age of 80 will triple globally. These demographics could come at great cost to individuals and economies. Two groups describe how research in animals and humans should be refocused to find ways to delay the onset of frailty.

Kevin Padian considers two books on tree diagrams and what they can represent.

The largest genome-wide analysis of schizophrenia performed so far has identified more than 100 genetic regions that contribute to disease risk, establishing new leads for understanding this form of mental illness. See Article p.421

An analysis of landforms in the Bolivian Andes suggests that surface uplift has shaped the climate and landscape. This contrasts with previous work suggesting that climate controls topography and deformation along the mountain range.

Data on three generations of Antarctic fur seals suggest that climate change is reducing the survival of less-fit individuals with low genetic variation, but that overall seal numbers are falling. See Letter p.462

Lakes that form in thawing permafrost emit substantial amounts of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. It emerges that large quantities of carbon can also be stored in sediments at the lake bottoms. See Letter p.452

The transcription factor Myc has been posited to cause a cell-wide increase in gene expression. But two studies show that Myc, when modulated by other transcription factors, can amplify select targets. See Letters p.483 and p.488

Topological insulators are materials known for their remarkable electron-transport properties. They now emerge as excellent sources of electron spins for manipulating tiny magnets. See Letter p.449

Schizophrenia is a highly heritable genetic disorder, however, identification of specific genetic risk variants has proven difficult because of its complex polygenic nature—a large multi-stage genome-wide association study identifies 128 independent associations in over 100 loci (83 of which are new); key findings include identification of genes involved in glutamergic neurotransmission and support for a link between the immune system and schizophrenia.

Focusing on two ill-characterized subtypes of medulloblastoma (group 3 and group 4), this study identifies prevalent genomic structural variants that are restricted to these two subtypes and independently bring together coding regions of GFI1 family proto-oncogenes with active enhancer elements, leading to their mutually exclusive oncogenic activation.

The exosome complex contains two catalytic subunits which degrade RNA in either a distributive (Rrp6) or a processive (Rrp44) manner—previous structures indicated how RNA could be directed to Rrp44, but the path taken to Rrp6 was unclear; here the location of the Rrp6 catalytic domain and the RNA 3′ end are determined and it is found that the RNA lies in an opposite orientation from that of the Rrp44-containing exosome structure, suggesting that the fate of an RNA may be influenced by the manner in which cofactors present it.

The observation of high-velocity warm molecular hydrogen in the galaxy IC 5063 supports the proposal that the powerful jets of particles launched by active galactic nuclei can both accelerate and heat the molecular outflows that influence the evolution of galaxies.

The quantized changes in the photon number parity of a microwave cavity can be tracked on a short enough timescale, and with sufficiently little interference with the quantum state, for this parity observable to be used to monitor the occurrence of error in a recently proposed protected quantum memory.

Charge flowing in a thin film of the topological insulator bismuth selenide at room temperature can lead to spin accumulation in the insulator and a resultant strong spin-transfer torque on an adjacent thin film of ferromagnetic nickel–iron alloy, potentially offering a means of controlling the orientation of the alloy’s magnetization.

Observations and modelling show that the deep thermokarst lakes that formed in Siberia and Alaska when the permafrost warmed in the Holocene epoch changed from climate-warming methane sources to climate-cooling carbon sinks about 5,000 years ago.

The age distributions of zircons (found in magmatic rocks) enable magma fluxes in the Earth’s crust to be calculated, providing insight into geological processes such as ore deposit formation and volcanic eruptions.

Three decades of data on Antarctic fur seals show that reduced prey availability due to climate change leads to selection for increased heterozygosity in breeding females.

Two presynaptically secreted isoforms of the protein Punctin in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans determine the postsynaptic accumulation of acetylcholine versus GABA receptors, raising the question of whether the related human punctin-2 gene, which has been associated with schizophrenia, may also control synaptic organization.

Sensory modality-specific thalamic inputs are shown to instruct the differentiation and function of postsynaptic target neurons in the cortex, thus controlling the development and functional segregation of cortical circuits.

The structure and receptor-binding characteristics are presented of the haemagglutinin (HA) from an avian H10N2 virus that closely resembles an isolate from recent human fatalities; although avian H10 has a marked preference for the avian receptor, it is already able to bind to the human receptor, and its structure in complex with the human receptor shows similarities to HA from pandemic H1 and H7 viruses.

Exposing mice with the BRAF (V600E) mutation to levels of ultraviolet radiation that mimic mild sunburn in humans is shown to induce mutations in the tumour suppressor Trp53 (TP53 in humans), accelerating the development of melanoma; these results support the use of sunscreen in individuals at risk of this cancer.

Inducing changes in the levels of the MYC oncoprotein is shown to activate and repress specific sets of target genes that are characteristic of tumour cells, providing an insight into the mechanism by which MYC can stimulate tumorigenesis in contrast to its physiological role.

Global transcriptional and epigenomic analyses in diverse cell types reveal that the primary action of Myc is to up- and downregulate transcription of distinct groups of genes, rather than to amplify transcription of all active genes; general RNA amplification, when observed, is better explained as an indirect consequence of Myc’s action on cellular physiology.

Bacteria can coat everything from thermal springs to teeth. Researchers are looking for antibiotics that can subvert the signalling that the microbes use to carve their niche.

Universities seek to recreate the success of one institution's mentorship programme for minorities in science.

Survey discloses US institutions' compensation, programmes and services for postdocs.

Distant memories.

Australia and New Zealand both rely on assessment schemes to improve research quality, yet the money associated with each is very different. By Julie Gould.

Systematic evaluation of scientific research might strengthen public support, but could it also stifle innovation? The issues were debated at a symposium in Melbourne.

Young researchers and interdisciplinary science might be getting short-changed by research assessment in Australia and New Zealand.

Despite its limitations, Excellence in Research for Australia was the right assessment tool at the right time, says Margaret Sheil.

Australia and New Zealand are experimenting with ways of assessing the impact of publicly funded research.

Changing the way we measure and reward research could enrich academia and improve outcomes for society, says Alan Finkel.

The lack of financial reward from Australia's national system of research assessment is obscuring the real issue, says Brian Schmidt.

Jane Harding is deputy vice-chancellor for research and professor of neonatology at the University of Auckland, which is New Zealand's most well-funded university under the Performance-Based Research Fund. She discusses the country's approach to assessing science and measuring impact, and describes why she prefers a model that grades the individual not the research group.

The issue of how to evaluate the fruits of academic research confronts scientists and policymakers all over the world. Each country has its own set of circumstances depending on its research infrastructure and wealth as well as its economic, environmental and developmental objectives. Australia and New Zealand might be neighbours, but their programmes of research assessment are very different. Focusing on the tools and methods used to measure the quality and impact of science in Australia and New Zealand should inform similar debates throughout the scientific world.