Volume 522 Issue 7556, 18 June 2015

A Republican US presidential candidate speaks on climate change, but will his party listen?

Funding agencies should highlight their roles as risk managers to underpin public trust.

The ‘post-normal science’ framework would make regulatory decisions about research in humans more effective, says Frederick Grinnell.

Food guidelines should not be based on surveys of what people eat and drink, says report.

Neutrinos switch their flavours; biomedical research using chimps may be stymied in the US; and common Eurasian bird is in population freefall.

Comet lander has enough power to do experiments but needs a better communications link.

Researchers hope that a more pluralistic parliament will put an end to interference and slipping standards.

Regulators asked to consider ageing a treatable condition.

Proposed updates to national-security regulations would restrict collaboration with foreign scientists and industry.

Although the wonder material is being made in record volume, commercial success is elusive.

Microbiologists are finding new ways to explore the vast universe of unknown microbes in the hunt for antibiotics.

A wave of innovative flat materials is following in the wake of graphene — but the most exciting applications could come from stacking them into 3D devices.

Public awareness, rigorous risk research and aligned targets will help policy-makers to increase resilience against natural hazards, say Susan L. Cutter and colleagues.

Regional targets and improved market mechanisms could enable the nation's carbon dioxide emissions to peak by 2030, say Zhu Liu and colleagues.

Ian T. Baldwin assesses three books on the rich array of plant behaviours, from sensing to communication.

Composer Sara Lowes has teamed up with materials scientist Cinzia Casiraghi at the University of Manchester, UK. The result, Lowes' six-part Graphene Suite, premieres next week at the Graphene Week 2015 conference in Manchester, part of the European Union's decade-long, €1-billion (US$1.1-billion) Graphene Flagship research programme. Lowes and Casiraghi talk crotchets, carbon chemistry and the commonalities between women in science and women in music.

Analysis of Kepler data has yielded the smallest known mass for an exoplanet orbiting a normal star. Its mass and size are similar to those of Mars, setting a benchmark for the properties of exoplanets smaller than Earth. See Letter p.321

Two studies show that the engulfment of certain intracellular membranous structures by vesicles called autophagosomes regulates the structures' degradation in a selective, receptor-protein-mediated manner. See Letters p.354 & p.359

Simulations reveal that microwaves propagating through a waveguide can travel around sharp bends in the device without being reflected. The finding might open the way to technologies that exploit this uncommon phenomenon.

Stimulating neurons in the brain's hippocampus that are normally activated by pleasurable experiences protects mice from the depressive consequences of stress. See Letter p.335

The finding that feedbacks between the ocean's carbon cycle and climate may become larger than terrestrial carbon–climate feedbacks has implications for the socio-economic effects of today's fossil-fuel emissions.

Aggregates of α-synuclein protein can form in various cell types and cause different neurodegenerative disorders. The existence of strains with distinct structural conformations might explain this variability. See Letter p.340

Boron's unusual properties inspired big advances in chemistry. A compound in which boron binds two carbon monoxide molecules reveals another oddity — the element forms bonds similar to those of transition metals. See Letter p.327

A review of western boundary currents in the Pacific Ocean explores their far-reaching influence on the El Niño/Southern Oscillation, the Indonesian Throughflow, Asian monsoons, and ocean circulation in the South China Sea, and concludes that major conceptual and technical progress will be needed to close the regional mass budget and provide robust projections of Pacific western boundary currents in a changing climate.

Spatial working memory is known to involve the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus, but the specificities of the connection have been unclear; now, a direct path between these two areas is defined that is necessary for the encoding of spatial cues in mice, but is not required for the maintenance or retrieval of these cues.

The description of a compound (DDD107498) with antimalarial activity against multiple life-cycle stages of Plasmodium falciparum and good pharmacokinetic and safety properties, with potential for single-dose treatment, chemoprotection and prevention of transmission.

Transit timing reveals the masses for the three small planets orbiting the star Kepler-138.

Observations are reported of a permanent, asymmetric dust cloud around the Moon, caused by impacts of high-speed cometary dust particles on eccentric orbits, as opposed to particles of asteroidal origin following near-circular paths striking the Moon at lower speeds.

Transition metal–ligand fragments are often able to bind and release several carbon monoxide molecules, such as the catalysts used in industrial-scale acetic acid synthesis and the active sites of hydrogenase enzymes, but main-group elements have never shown an ability to bind more than one carbon monoxide molecule; here a boron-based compound stable to moisture and air is synthesized and shown to contain multiple carbon monoxide units bound to the central boron atom.

A new dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period of Chile (about 150 million years ago) has been discovered and identified as a primitive kind of theropod that, unusually, was herbivore.

Acute re-activation of a positive memory engram suppresses depression-like behaviour in mice exposed to chronic stress, mediated by a hippocampus–amygdala–nucleus-accumbens pathway.

Brain α-synuclein deposits are the hallmark of various distinct neurodegenerative diseases, and it is proposed that α-synuclein assemblies with different structural characteristics or 'strains' (ribbons or fibrils) could account for pathological differences between these diseases; here different human α-synuclein strains are injected into rat brain, and are shown to propagate in a strain-dependent manner and cause different pathological and neurotoxic phenotypes.

Tumours maximize their chance of metastasizing by evoking a systemic inflammatory cascade in mouse models of spontaneous breast cancer metastasis.

Whether neutrophils exert an anti- or pro-tumorigenic function has remained controversial; now, expression of the receptor molecule MET in neutrophils is shown to be required for their ability to restrict tumour growth in several mouse cancer models, with potential implications for human cancer therapy.

The protein FAM134B is an endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-resident receptor that facilitates ER autophagy, and downregulation of this protein (mutations of which are also known to cause sensory neuropathy in humans) results in expanded ER structures and degeneration of mouse sensory neurons.

In yeast, the novel protein Atg40 is enriched in the cortical and cytoplasmic endoplasmic reticulum (ER), and loads these ER subdomains into autophagosomes to facilitate ER autophagy; Atg39 localizes to the perinuclear ER and induces autophagic sequestration of part of the nucleus, thus ensuring cell survival under nitrogen-deprived conditions.

Many human genes undergo alternative cleavage and polyadenylation to generate messenger RNA transcripts with different lengths at the 3' untranslated regions (3' UTRs) but that encode the same protein; now it is shown that these alternative 3' UTRs regulate protein localization.

A hybrid solid–liquid phase transcription method and automated robotic platform synthesizes position-specific, fluorescence- or isotope-labelled RNA.

The body's organs are more complex than any factory. Attempts to mirror their physiology in the laboratory are getting closer to capturing their intricacies.

A bit of self-reflection can propel scientists into a career beyond the lab, says Christopher Taylor.

How having two mentors can lead to breakthrough research.

Comfort comes.

Three regions — North America, North & West Europe, and East & Southeast Asia — produced 91% of the overall 2014 output (WFC) in the Nature Index.

This region includes lots of strong institutions — from government agencies to universities — but curtailed funding raises concerns for the future.

Strong spending and recruitment keep countries in this region near the top of the world's output in the Index, and scientists from universities collaborate more with their neighbours.

While remaining strong in chemistry and physical sciences, buoyed by China's growing contribution, the region embarks on collaborations that could extend its reach.

Social change and economic stagnation create challenges for this region's biggest countries, but some of the smaller ones are shining.

Research is dominated by heavyweights Australia and New Zealand but shifts in science policy on both sides of the Tasman Sea are creating uncertainty about the future.

International projects — including an advanced particle accelerator and educational facilities — bolster this region's focus on chemistry and physical sciences.

India's dominance continues in this region, but its future funding is tenuous, while neighbouring smaller countries face more fundamental obstacles to scientific success.

There is scope for improvement with the volume and quality of research in this region, but some innovative programmes for study abroad might improve future publications.

Public health demands might drive advances in research, but scientists, working against the odds, must also strive to publish in global journals.

A description of the terminology and methodology used in this supplement, and a guide to the functionality available free online at natureindex.com.

The Index's leading countries and institutions for high-quality science, ordered by weighted fractional count (WFC) for 2014. Also shown are the total number of articles, and the change in WFC from 2013. Articles are from the 68 natural science journals that comprise the Nature Index (see Guide to the Nature Index, page S30).

The latest Nature Index supplement shows a continuing surge from China, whose contribution to the Index leapt 16% from the previous year. Analysis of the Index, combined with reportage of developments in policy and funding, shows who’s up and who’s on the cusp — as well as the patterns of collaboration within and across nine global regions.