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Volume 516 Issue 7531, 18 December 2014

The 2014 edition of Nature’s 10 � a list of 10 people who mattered in science this year selected by Nature’s team of editors � looks behind the major events and discoveries to the human endeavour that makes science work. This year’s picks include Andrea Accomazzo, flight director of the Rosetta mission that landed the Philae spacecraft on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko; Radhika Nagpal, who contributed to the rapid advances being made in artificial intelligence and robotics and Sjors Scheres wins a spot on the list for his work on cryo-electron microscopy. Nature’s list also includes: Pete Frates, the retired baseball player who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and is credited with turning the Ice Bucket Challenge into the social media phenomenon of the year; Sheik Humarr Khan, who dedicated himself to understanding and fighting the Ebola virus disease in Sierra Leone, and who died from the disease in July; Masayo Takahashi, who led the first clinical trial of cells derived from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells; Kopillil Radhakrishnan, head of the Indian Space Research Organization; David Spergel, who identified problems with the reported discovery of gravitational waves from the infant universe; Maryam Mirzakhani, the mathematician who became the first female winner of the prestigious Fields Medal prize for mathematics; and Suzanne Topalian, whose work has been crucial in bringing a technique known as cancer immunotherapy from laboratory to clinic. Cover: CGI illustration by Peter Crowther Associates/ Début Art.

Editorial

  • Scientists must push to preserve a small part of a large US survey that provides essential information on the ever-changing scientific workforce.

    Editorial

    Advertisement

  • Pressures in all stages of the news-making process can lead to hype in science reporting.

    Editorial
  • Climate negotiations in Lima stumbled on transparency, but there is time to adjust.

    Editorial
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World View

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Research Highlights

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Social Selection

  • Scientists, press officers and journalists online are pointing fingers in light of a paper that traces the origins of exaggerated claims in health news.

    • Chris Woolston
    Social Selection
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Seven Days

  • The week in science: Activists harm Nazca lines; Large Hadron Collider heads towards reboot; and Russia promises nuclear reactors for India.

    Seven Days
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News

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Correction

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News

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News Feature

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Comment

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Books & Arts

  • Aaron Hirsh celebrates the 75th anniversary of the marine-biology classic by Ed Ricketts, the bohemian scientist who inspired John Steinbeck.

    • Aaron Hirsh
    Books & Arts
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Correspondence

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Obituary

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News & Views

  • An iron catalyst has been developed that mediates bond formation between a wide range of alkene reactants, opening up short synthetic routes to compounds that were previously accessible only through arduous pathways. See Article p.343

    • Steven L. Castle
    News & Views
  • The development of RNA-based devices called toehold switches that regulate translation might usher in an era in which protein production can be linked to almost any RNA input and provide precise, low-cost diagnostics.

    • Simon Ausländer
    • Martin Fussenegger
    News & Views
  • Intensive longitudinal sampling of malaria mosquitoes in the African semi-desert reveals that three morphologically indistinguishable species have distinctive strategies for surviving the dry season. See Letter p.387

    • Nora J. Besansky
    News & Views
  • New analysis reveals the conservation gains that could be achieved by expanding the global network of protected areas — but also how this may be undermined by land-use change and a lack of international coordination. See Letter p.383

    • Thomas M. Brooks
    News & Views
  • Magnetoelectric materials allow magnetism to be controlled by an electric field. The discovery of an indirect path for switching electrical polarization in one such material brings this idea close to practical use. See Letter p.370

    • Kathrin Dörr
    • Andreas Herklotz
    News & Views
  • Crystal structures of the complete RNA polymerases from influenza A and B viruses provide insight into how these enzymes initiate RNA synthesis, and reveal targets for antiviral drug design. See Articles p.355 & p.361

    • Robert M. Krug
    News & Views
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Article

  • Highly substituted carbon–carbon bonds are constructed using a simple iron catalyst and an inexpensive silane: more than 60 examples of this reaction — in which heteroatom-substituted olefins are reacted with electron-deficient olefins — are presented.

    • Julian C. Lo
    • Jinghan Gui
    • Phil S. Baran
    Article
  • Polycomb group proteins are known to maintain gene repression during development; however, when autism susceptibility candidate 2 (AUTS2) associates with some Polycomb group complexes, these complexes have an unexpected gene activation role, offering new insight into the role of AUTS2 in neurological disorders.

    • Zhonghua Gao
    • Pedro Lee
    • Danny Reinberg
    Article
  • The crystal structure of the bat-specific influenza A polymerase in complex with the viral RNA promoter is presented, revealing how binding of the 5′ end of the viral RNA is required to activate or enhance the polymerase allosterically.

    • Alexander Pflug
    • Delphine Guilligay
    • Stephen Cusack
    Article
  • Atomic resolution crystal structures of influenza A and B polymerases are presented; comparison of these structures provides mechanistic insight into influenza polymerase functions, explaining the processes of cap-snatching and cap-dependent priming, which are unique to segmented negative-strand RNA viruses.

    • Stefan Reich
    • Delphine Guilligay
    • Stephen Cusack
    Article
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Letter

  • Hubble Space Telescope observations of the stellar cluster NGC 1651, which is approximately two billion years old, show that the colour–brightness distribution of stars old enough to have left the main sequence can be explained only by a single-age population, despite having a feature usually interpreted to indicate an age spread of more than 300 million years.

    • Chengyuan Li
    • Richard de Grijs
    • Licai Deng
    Letter
  • Multiferroic devices that can switch magnetization with electric field at room temperature are desirable, but in BiFeO3 the required direct 180-degree switch is thermodynamically forbidden; here it is shown that such switching is possible because the kinetics of the switching process favours a two-step sequence of partial switching.

    • J. T. Heron
    • J. L. Bosse
    • R. Ramesh
    Letter
  • The dynamics of two correlated electrons can be reconstructed from the quantum interference of low-lying doubly excited states in helium, as observed in attosecond transient-absorption spectra, and can be controlled by tuning the interaction with a visible laser field of variable intensity.

    • Christian Ott
    • Andreas Kaldun
    • Thomas Pfeifer
    Letter
  • Internationally coordinated expansion of the global protected area network to 17% could triple the average protection of species ranges and ecoregions; if projected land-use changes and consequent habitat loss until 2040 occur, currently feasible protection levels will not be achievable, and more than 1,000 threatened species face reductions in the range of over 50%.

    • Federico Montesino Pouzols
    • Tuuli Toivonen
    • Atte Moilanen
    Letter
  • Malaria-carrying mosquitoes nearly disappear in the dry season, yet they reappear suddenly following the first rains; using surveys of mosquito densities, the authors characterize the population dynamics of the three main vector species and use these to infer persistence by long-distance migration in two species and aestivation in the third.

    • A. Dao
    • A. S. Yaro
    • T. Lehmann
    Letter
  • It has been known for some time that limbs share at least some of their molecular patterning mechanism with external genitalia; here, this connection is examined in a variety of species, revealing that once-shared developmental trajectories could help to explain the observed patterning similarities.

    • Patrick Tschopp
    • Emma Sherratt
    • Clifford J. Tabin
    Letter
  • Cold exposure activates brown adipose tissue (BAT) through the sympathetic nervous system, and previous studies have reported inhibitory effects of the purinergic transmitter adenosine in BAT from hamster or rat; here adenosine/A2A signalling is shown to be involved in sympathetic activation of human and murine brown adipocytes to allow protection of mice from diet-induced obesity.

    • Thorsten Gnad
    • Saskia Scheibler
    • Alexander Pfeifer
    Letter
  • The in vitro generation, from pluripotent stem cells, of three-dimensional human gastric organoids (hGOs) that contain a physiological gastric epithelium comprising both progenitor and differentiated cell types, and have expected functional characteristics is described, as is modelling the pathophysiological response of the human stomach to Helicobacter pylori using these hGOs.

    • Kyle W. McCracken
    • Emily M. Catá
    • James M. Wells
    Letter
  • An extensive analysis of HERVH (a primate-specific endogenous retrovirus) expression in human pluripotent stem cells is presented, identifying a sub-population of cells within cultured human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells that has characteristics of naive-state cells — the study provides evidence for a new primate-specific transcriptional circuitry regulating pluripotency.

    • Jichang Wang
    • Gangcai Xie
    • Zsuzsanna Izsvák
    Letter
  • A protein degradation pathway is found at the inner nuclear membrane that is distinct from, but complementary to, endoplasmic-reticulum-associated protein degradation, and which is mediated by the Asi protein complex; a genome-wide library screening of yeast identifies more than 20 substrates of this pathway, which is shown to target mislocalized integral membrane proteins for degradation.

    • Anton Khmelinskii
    • Ewa Blaszczak
    • Michael Knop
    Letter
  • A link between an intracellular stress response, bacterial infection and triggering of the innate immune response is shown in Caenorhabditis elegans; exposure to the pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa caused activation of the transcription factor ATFS-1 and innate immunity that is regulated by the mitochondrial unfolded protein response.

    • Mark W. Pellegrino
    • Amrita M. Nargund
    • Cole M. Haynes
    Letter
  • The CRISPR/Cas system has been used to induce the Eml4Alk chromosomal inversion in mice, a characteristic chromosomal rearrangement seen in human non-small cell lung cancers; the mice developed lung cancer and responded to the ALK inhibitor crizotinib, which is used to treat lung cancer patients with the EML4–ALK rearrangement; this general strategy can be used to engineer other disease-associated chromosomal rearrangements in mice and potentially in other organisms.

    • Danilo Maddalo
    • Eusebio Manchado
    • Andrea Ventura
    Letter
  • The CRISPR/Cas system has been used in mice for genome editing to introduce genetic alterations found in human lung tumours, and these genome modifications resulted in mouse lung tumours showing different histopathologies depending on the genes altered; the CRISPR/Cas system offers improved and faster ways to create animal models of human diseases such as cancer.

    • Francisco J. Sánchez-Rivera
    • Thales Papagiannakopoulos
    • Tyler Jacks
    Letter
  • Genome-wide chromatin conformation capture (Hi-C) is used to investigate three-dimensional genome organization in Schizosaccharomyces pombe; small domains of chromatin interact locally on chromosome arms to form globules, which depend on cohesin but not heterochromatin for formation, and heterochromatin at centromeres and telomeres provides crucial structural constraints to shape genome architecture.

    • Takeshi Mizuguchi
    • Geoffrey Fudenberg
    • Shiv I. S. Grewal
    Letter
  • R-loops, which have been considered to be rare and potentially harmful transcriptional by-products, are now shown to be needed for antisense transcription and to induce repressive chromatin marks that reinforce pausing of transcription and thereby enhance its termination.

    • Konstantina Skourti-Stathaki
    • Kinga Kamieniarz-Gdula
    • Nicholas J. Proudfoot
    Letter
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Addendum

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Corrigendum

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Column

  • The Internet offers ways to broaden your contacts and assist you in your job search, says Peter Fiske.

    • Peter Fiske
    Column
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Futures

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Nature Index

  • By 2013 weighted fractional count, China is the second leading country for high-quality science output. Where that research takes place, and who China collaborates with, are shown below.

    Nature Index
  • For 65 years, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been a rich source of technological innovation, scientific discovery and aspiring minds. Making the leap from a regional to a global leader, researchers are taking the intellectual powerhouse to soaring new heights.

    Nature Index
  • Beijing, the political centre of China for nearly a millennia, has seen unprecedented growth in its research output, scientific impact and technological innovation in the last 15 years. And the momentum shows no signs of abating.

    Nature Index
  • Shanghai has long been the commercial and financial centre of China. Because of its leading life-science research institutions, the city has become the hub for multinational pharmaceutical companies establishing a presence in China.

    Nature Index
  • Hong Kong has enjoyed 17 years of prosperity and academic freedom since the transfer of sovereignty from the UK to China. But with political unrest and increasing competition from mainland cities, it needs to rethink its long-term strategy.

    Nature Index
  • Nanjing has long been a hotbed for scientific discovery and technological innovations. Now, through promoting materials science and astrophysics, the former capital city hopes to step out from the shadows of its neighbour and rival Shanghai.

    Nature Index
  • Wuhan is the booming capital of the eastern inland province of Hubei. The city is investing heavily in research and development and has become China's 'optics valley'.

    Nature Index
  • Hefei has kept a low profile for many years. However, as the University of Science and Technology of China continues to break new ground in the physical sciences, the city is moving into the global spotlight.

    Nature Index
  • Hangzhou, a tourist hotspot best known for its historical relics and natural scenery, has long been a source of inspiration for Chinese artists. Today the city is home to a new generation working at the intersection of science and e-commerce.

    Nature Index
  • Changchun has traditionally been a manufacturing centre, producing goods ranging from cars to processed food. In line with China's growth and reform, the city is diversifying its economy by leveraging its research base.

    Nature Index
  • Prone to infectious disease outbreaks, Guangzhou this year experienced one of its worst for dengue fever. By exploiting the data from thousands of clinical cases, researchers hope to reveal new approaches for prevention and control.

    Nature Index
  • Tianjin, a major transport hub 120 kilometres southeast of Beijing, is one of four municipalities under the direct administration of central government. By leveraging the innovation of its top universities, the city hopes to lead the nation in two emerging research areas.

    Nature Index
  • Shenzhen, a former fishing village, is something of a miracle in China's scientific development. It has become a dominant force in genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics, and is now heading for new frontiers.

    Nature Index
  • China's leading institutions for high-quality science, ordered by weighted fractional count (WFC) for 2013. Also shown are the total number of articles, and the change in WFC from 2012. Articles are from the 68 natural science journals that comprise the Nature Index (see 'A guide to the Nature Index', page S76).

    Nature Index
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Nature Index

  • The Nature Index 2014 China supplement examines a snapshot of results from the Nature Index, comparing the cities and institutions within the country that contributed to some of the highest quality research during the previous calendar year. The supplement uses data from the Nature Index on subject strengths and research output to provide analysis of institutions down to the work of individual researchers.

    Nature Index
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