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Volume 523 Issue 7559, 9 July 2015

A three-dimensional view of dissolved iron across the South Pacific Ocean. Deep-sea hydrothermal vents are an important source of iron, an essential trace element that can limit marine productivity. Recent studies have questioned the long-standing view that most of the iron discharged from such vents is removed from seawater close to its source, and is therefore of limited importance for ocean biogeochemistry. Joseph Resing et al. report on the lateral transport of hydrothermal dissolved iron and other trace metals from the southern East Pacific Rise more than 4,000 km across the South Pacific Ocean. Using data from samples collected from 35 hydrographic stations between Manta, Ecuador and Papeete, Tahiti, the authors estimate an input of global hydrothermal dissolved iron to the ocean at least four times greater than previously reported. With the help of a model study, they suggest that physicochemical stabilization of iron enables hydrothermal activity to significantly affect the carbon cycle by supporting phytoplankton growth in the Southern Ocean. Cover: 3D graphics created by Reiner Schlitzer, Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany.

Editorial

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Books & Arts

  • Jon Butterworth relishes a tome on the research and the personalities that drove a century of smashing physics.

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Correspondence

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News & Views

  • An iron-rich plume of water from a hydrothermal vent has been found to extend more than 4,000 kilometres through the ocean. The finding has implications for the productivity of marine algae, and therefore for climate. See Letter p.200

    • Kazuhiro Misumi
    News & Views
  • The detection of a single molecule anchored to circulating extracellular vesicles allows late-stage pancreatic cancer to be identified from just one drop of a patient's blood. See Article p.177

    • Clotilde Théry
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  • A meta-analysis of changes in the abundance of tropical-forest birds reveals that the effect of selective timber harvesting varies with logging practices and species traits. The results offer a framework for managing impacts on biodiversity.

    • Joseph A. Tobias
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  • An unusually long burst of γ-rays zapped Earth in December 2011, lasting 4 hours. The cause of this burst is now proposed to be a peculiar supernova produced by a spinning magnetic neutron star. See Letter p.189

    • Stephen J. Smartt
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  • Dissection of the subcellular eye of microorganisms called warnowiid dinoflagellates reveals that this structure is composed of elements of two cellular organelles — the plastid and the mitochondrion. See Letter p.204

    • Thomas A. Richards
    • Suely L. Gomes
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  • Lenalidomide effectively treats a blood disorder caused by the 5q chromosomal deletion. A study shows that the drug binds to its target, CRBN, to promote the breakdown of an enzyme encoded by a gene in the 5q region. See Article p.183

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    • Hiroshi Handa
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Review Article

  • Feedback in the form of galactic-scale outflows of gas from star-forming, low-mass galaxies allowed ionizing radiation to escape from galaxies when the Universe was about 500 million years old, changing the hydrogen between galaxies from neutral to ionized.

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Article

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    • Raghu Kalluri
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  • Lenalidomide, a derivative of thalidomide, is an effective drug for myelodysplastic syndrome; lenalidomide binds the CRL4CRBN E3 ubiquitin ligase and promotes degradation of casein kinase 1a, on which the malignant cells rely for survival.

    • Jan Krönke
    • Emma C. Fink
    • Benjamin L. Ebert
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Letter

  • A new class of ultra-long-duration γ-ray bursts (GRBs) has recently been suggested, with durations in excess of 10,000 seconds, and now a supernova (SN 2011kl) has been found to be associated with the ultra-long-duration GRB 111209A, allowing a physical understanding of the nature of ultra-long-duration GRBs.

    • Jochen Greiner
    • Paolo A. Mazzali
    • Karla Varela
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  • Coherent energy transport is key to the operation of the photosynthetic machinery and the successful implementation of molecular electronics; self-assembled supramolecular nanofibres based on carbonyl-bridged triarylamines are now shown to transport singlet excitons over micrometre-scale distances at room temperature.

    • Andreas T. Haedler
    • Klaus Kreger
    • Richard Hildner
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  • Hydrothermal dissolved iron, manganese, and aluminium from the southern East Pacific Rise is transported several thousand kilometres westward across the South Pacific Ocean; global hydrothermal dissolved iron input is estimated to be more than four times what was previously thought and modelling suggests it must be physically or chemically stabilized in solution.

    • Joseph A. Resing
    • Peter N. Sedwick
    • Alessandro Tagliabue
    Letter
  • More than 15% of the bacterial domain consists of a radiation of phyla about which very little is known; here, metagenomics is used to reconstruct 8 complete and 789 draft genomes from more than 35 of these phyla, revealing a shared evolutionary history, metabolic limitations, and unusual ribosome compositions.

    • Christopher T. Brown
    • Laura A. Hug
    • Jillian F. Banfield
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  • As part of the Epigenome Roadmap Project, genome-wide maps of DNA methylation and transcriptomes together with genomic DNA sequencing of 18 different primary human tissue types from 4 individuals are presented; analysis reveals widespread differential methylation of CG sites between tissues, and the presence of non-CG methylation in adult tissues.

    • Matthew D. Schultz
    • Yupeng He
    • Joseph R. Ecker

    Collection:

    Letter Open Access
  • The analysis of more than 9,000 haemagglutinin sequences of human seasonal influenza viruses over a 12-year time period shows that the global circulation patterns of A/H1N1 and B viruses are different from those of the well characterised A/H3N2 viruses; in particular the A/H1N1 and B viruses are shown to persist locally across several seasons and do not display the same degree of global movement as the H3N2 viruses.

    • Trevor Bedford
    • Steven Riley
    • Colin A. Russell
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  • Analysis of a mouse model shows that during the course of an immune response, helper T cells undergo functional reprogramming to transdifferentiate into regulatory T cells; this T cell plasticity could possibly be exploited to develop better therapies for restoring immune tolerance in autoimmune diseases.

    • Nicola Gagliani
    • Maria Carolina Amezcua Vesely
    • Richard A. Flavell
    Letter
  • Fate-mapping hypoxic cells in the mouse heart identifies a rare population of cycling cardiomyocytes, which show characteristics of neonatal cardiomyocytes, including smaller size and mononucleation, and contribute to new cardiomyocyte formation in the adult heart.

    • Wataru Kimura
    • Feng Xiao
    • Hesham A. Sadek
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  • Only a subset of patients with melanoma responds to new immunotherapeutic therapies; here, β-catenin signalling is identified as an important pathway that confers resistance to this type of approach, with implications for future treatment strategies.

    • Stefani Spranger
    • Riyue Bao
    • Thomas F. Gajewski
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  • In Caulobacter crescentus, oscillating levels of the second messenger cyclic-di-GMP drive the cell cycle through regulation of the essential cell cycle kinase CckA; as its levels increase during the G1–S transition, cyclic-di-GMP binds to CckA to inhibit kinase and stimulate phosphatase activity, thereby enabling replication initiation.

    • C. Lori
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Feature

  • A scientific collaboration is vulnerable to derailment unless members learn to trust each other at the outset.

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  • Lab leaders discuss how to find the perfect graduate student for a research group.

    • Deborah J. Marsh
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