Volume 513 Issue 7518, 18 September 2014

Finalizing the European Research Area is still a vibrant and relevant goal.

Bacterial enzyme supercharges photosynthesis, promising increased yields for crops.

Scientists must step up and secure meaningful objectives if they are to protect both people and planet, says Mark Stafford-Smith.

The week in science: Swiss scientists regain access to EU grants, Canadian archaeologists find long-lost ship, and Japanese regulators move to restart nuclear power.

Researchers elsewhere can’t wait to test iPS cells in humans.

Touchdown site for Rosetta probe chosen unanimously.

United Nations meeting aims to spark enthusiasm for a 2015 emissions pact.

Artificial sweetener seems to change gut microbiome.

Mangalyaan aims to be Asia’s first successful Martian mission.

Genetic engineering lags behind conventional breeding in efforts to create drought-resistant maize.

Destructive lionfish are invading coral reefs in the Americas, but fishing competitions can help to keep the problem species in check.

The sciences can be a sanctuary for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals, but biases may still discourage many from coming out.

Effective clinical studies must consider all ethnicities — exclusion can endanger populations, says Esteban G. Burchard.

Confront economic differences to strengthen global research, urge P. Wenzel Geissler and Ferdinand Okwaro.

The first step in studying mental-health interventions across cultures is to adjust procedures to participants' needs, says Mónica Ruiz-Casares.

Richard B. Freeman and Wei Huang reflect on a link between a team's ethnic mix and highly cited papers.

Nathaniel Comfort wonders at the enduring trend of misrepresenting race.

Highlights of this season's releases

A history of how quantum theory has permeated Western culture refreshes Jim Baggott.

Steven Pinker's provocative treatise on language use and abuse would benefit from more data, finds Paul Raeburn.

Tim Lenton is intrigued by E. O. Wilson's sweeping perspective on humanity's past — and possible futures.

Nico Stehr ponders Naomi Klein's call for strategic mass action on climate change.

Jaron Lanier surveys four studies probing the vexed nexus of mind and digisphere.

Genome sequences and gene-expression data from representatives of five distinct lineages of African cichlid fish reveal signatures of the genomic changes that underlie the astounding cichlid diversity seen today. See Article p.375

Low-energy electrons have been found to mimic relativistic high-energy particles in cadmium arsenide. This defines the first stable '3D Dirac semimetal', which holds promise for fundamental-physics exploration and practical applications.

A comprehensive analysis of lethal coalitionary aggression in chimpanzees convincingly demonstrates that such aggression is an adaptive behaviour, not one that has emerged in response to human impacts. See Letter p.414

An oversized, supermassive black hole has been discovered at the centre of a densely packed conglomeration of stars. The finding suggests that the system is the stripped nucleus of a once-larger galaxy. See Letter p.398

Sophisticated genetic tools that make brain cells responsive to light have now been used in mice to trigger a memory connected with a particular place, and to switch its association from negative to positive, or vice versa. See Letter p.426

A catalyst that couples together three reactants to form just one compound out of several possibilities, as a single mirror-image isomer, should simplify the synthesis of biologically relevant molecules. See Article p.367

A catalytic process is reported that begins with a highly selective copper–boron addition to a monosubstituted allene, and in which the resulting boron-substituted organocopper intermediate then participates in a chemoselective, site-selective and enantioselective allylic substitution; this approach is used in the enantioselective synthesis of gram quantities of two natural products.

Genomes and transcriptomes of five distinct lineages of African cichlids, a textbook example of adaptive radiation, have been sequenced and analysed to reveal that many types of molecular changes contributed to rapid evolution, and that standing variation accumulated during periods of relaxed selection may have primed subsequent diversification.

Proteome analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) colorectal cancer specimens reveals that DNA- or RNA-level measurements cannot reliably predict protein abundance, colorectal tumours can be separated into distinct proteotypes, and that copy number alterations drive mRNA abundance changes but few extend to protein-level changes.

The anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) is a large E3 ligase that mediates ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis of cell cycle regulatory proteins; here the complete secondary structure architecture of human APC/C complexed with its coactivator CDH1 and substrate HSL1 is determined at 7.4 Å resolution, revealing allosteric changes induced by the coactivator that enhance affinity for UBCH10–ubiqutin.

Hubble Space Telescope, Keck telescope and Spitzer satellite data reveal the formation of the dense stellar core of a massive galaxy occurring three billion years after the Big Bang.

Dynamical modelling of the ultra-compact dwarf galaxy M60-UCD1 reveals the presence of a supermassive black hole; this suggests the object is a stripped galaxy nucleus and implies the existence of supermassive black holes in many other ultra-compact dwarf galaxies.

The drying of the Tethys Sea—the progenitor of the modern Mediterranean, Black and Caspian seas—weakened the northern extension of the African monsoon and led to the creation of the Sahara desert about 7 million years ago.

The slow gravitational collapse of early continents could have kick-started transient episodes of plate tectonics until, as the Earth’s interior cooled and oceanic lithosphere became heavier, plate tectonics became self-sustaining.

A sequencing study comparing ancient and contemporary genomes reveals that most present-day Europeans derive from at least three highly differentiated populations: west European hunter-gatherers, ancient north Eurasians (related to Upper Palaeolithic Siberians) and early European farmers of mainly Near Eastern origin.

A meta-analysis of studies on chimpanzees and bonobos across Africa shows that their conspecific aggression is the normal and expected product of adaptive strategies to obtain resources or mates and has no connection with the impacts of human activities.

Repeated exposure of the bacterium Escherichia coli to clinically relevant concentrations of ampicillin results in the evolution of tolerance—the ability to survive until the antibiotic concentration diminishes—through an extension of the lag phase, a finding that has implications for slowing the evolution of antibiotic resistance.

On the basis of whole-genome sequences of clonal lines derived from normal mouse tissues, variation in mutational patterns and load across different tissues are described and early embryonic cell divisions are reconstructed.

An optogenetic approach in mice was used to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying memory valence association; dentate gyrus, but not amygdala, memory engram cells exhibit plasticity in valence associations, suggesting that emotional memory associations can be changed at the circuit level.

A novel type of post-transcriptional regulation controls the expression of virulence genes in blood-stage malaria parasites.

Pharmacological fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF1) normalizes blood glucose in diabetic mice by means of an FGF receptor signalling pathway that is independent of its mitogenic activity.

mTORC1 is known to stimulate protein synthesis; now, it is shown to also promote the synthesis of proteasomes, which degrade proteins into the amino acids needed to create new proteins.

When healthy parents have a child with a genetic disorder, the cause is sometimes a new mutation. Tools are emerging to meet the challenge of finding such changes.

Europe's Starting Grants are ideal for young researchers with big ideas and what it takes to bring them to life.

Europe's universities are adopting tenure to draw recruits.

Degree-level education is rare in many nations, says report.

US research and development still suffering from budget battles.

Total recall.

Almost 20 years after the discovery of the first exoplanet this Insight brings together a selection of reviews discussing our current theoretical understanding of exoplanets and their atmospheres, the missions that led to exoplanet discovery and the instruments, both present and future, that characterize planetary atmospheres.