Volume 537 Issue 7620, 15 September 2016

Questions abound over the deportation and subsequent house arrest of a physicist.

Assessing the contents of the toilet bowl in the name of crime prevention.

Human–animal embryos have great biomedical potential — but scientists will have to quell public alarm if funding for such work is restored, says Insoo Hyun.

The week in science: 9–15 September 2016

Adlène Hicheur’s ejection from Brazil to France remains unexplained.

From immunotherapies to diagnostics, an expert panel outlines research goals for broad initiative.

Panel rocked by investigations into surgeon — but its credibility stays intact.

Finding could alter conservation strategies for long-necked animals.

Long-term tracking of people who beat the virus reveal its remarkable longevity in the human body.

European mission will shed light on hidden asteroids, the Universe’s expansion and exoplanets.

Windows, desks and employees are being wired up in a quest to create healthy, evidence-based environments.

Diana Wall has built a career on overturning assumptions about underground ecosystems. Now she is seeking to protect this endangered world.

Big shifts in where research and development in food and agriculture is carried out will shape future global food production, write Philip G. Pardey and colleagues.

Alexandra Witze examines a book on the techheads behind commercial high-altitude travel.

Barbara Kiser reviews five of the week's best science picks.

Richard Fortey ponders a study that casts forests as exquisitely complex, multistorey networks.

Father of educational computing.

The isotopic compositions of objects that formed early in the evolution of the Solar System have been found to be similar to Earth's composition — overturning notions of our planet's chemical distinctiveness. See Letters p.394 & p.399

Bone analysis of aquatic tetrapods from around the time when these four-limbed vertebrates began to move onto land reveals that the large specimens were only juveniles, raising questions about how these animals developed. See Letter p.408

T cells of the immune system mount antiviral responses, but if a response fails, a chronic viral infection can develop. It now seems that a T-cell subset in lymphoid immune tissues can control chronic infection. See Letters p.412 & p.417

A free database describes genome sequences, gene expression and molecular modifications to DNA for more than 1,000 Arabidopsis thaliana plants, providing valuable information on the complex history and current variation of this species.

Nanocrystalline alloys have excellent low-temperature mechanical strength but poor high-temperature resistance to creep — deformation due to continuous stress. An alloy has been made that overcomes this problem. See Letter p.378

Dietary restriction is known to extend lifespan in many species. It has now been shown to reduce DNA damage and extend lifespan in mice modelling human DNA-repair disorders. See Letter p.427

Projections from the locus coeruleus, an area typically defined by noradrenergic signalling, to the hippocampus drive novelty-based memory enhancement through possible co-release of dopamine.

The X-ray crystal structures of human endothelin type B receptor in the ligand-free form and in complex with the endogenous agonist endothelin-1.

The methylation of adenosine residues on the long non-coding RNA XIST is essential for X-chromosome transcriptional repression during female mammalian development.

Observations of a white dwarf/cool star binary that emits from X-ray to radio wavelengths, AR Sco, reveal a close binary with a 3.56-h period, pulsing in brightness with a period of 1.97 min; these pulses are so intense that the optical flux of AR Sco can increase by a factor of four within 30 s, and the pulsing is detectable at radio frequencies.

A nanocrystalline copper–tantalum alloy with high strength and extremely high-temperature creep resistance is achieved via a processing method that creates clusters of atoms within the alloy that pin grain boundaries.

Gold and palladium nanoneedle electrocatalysts benefit from field-induced reagent concentration to improve the efficiency of carbon dioxide reduction in the synthesis of carbon-based fuels using renewable electricity.

A difficult synthesis is described that uses an organocopper catalyst and commercially available starting materials to give high yield and the mechanics of the reaction are elucidated through density functional theory.

Neodynium isotope data reveal that the Earth is enriched in material from red giant stars relative to its presumed meteoritic building blocks, refuting models of a hidden reservoir of ¹⁴²Nd-depleted material or a ‘super-chondritic’ Earth.

Calcium–aluminium-rich refractory inclusions without isotopic anomalies in neodymium and enstatite chondrites share a ¹⁴⁶Sm–¹⁴²Nd isotopic evolution with the modern Earth’s mantle, supporting a chondritic Sm/Nd ratio for Earth.

A species-wide study shows that the Hawaiian crow Corvus hawaiiensis is a highly proficient tool user, creating opportunities for comparative studies with tool-using New Caledonian crows and other corvids.

Analysis of fossil limb bones suggests that a mass-death deposit of the Devonian tetrapod Acanthostega may consist entirely of juveniles, throwing new light on the life history of this species and the evolution of terrestriality.

A population of partially exhausted CXCR5⁺ CD8⁺ T cells, induced by chronic virus infection and residing in B-cell follicles, is shown to control viral replication.

Chronic infection with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus promotes the establishment of a population of stem-like PD-1⁺ CD8⁺ T cells that reside in lymphoid tissues and preferentially expand when the PD-1 inhibitory pathway is blocked.

PGC1α suppresses melanoma metastasis and promotes growth and survival in primary tumours, whilst inhibition of PGC1α induces increased invasion and metastasis.

A restricted diet extends the lives and improves the health of mice with accelerated ageing due to an inability to repair DNA damage.

Numerous variables can torpedo attempts to replicate cell experiments, from the batch of serum to the shape of growth plates. But there are ways to ensure reliability.

Postdoc positions in industry can teach people skills that they would not learn in academia.

How a Virginian academic exposed lead contamination in Flint, Michigan.

Written from the heart.

Kidney cancer is being detected earlier thanks to modern diagnostic techniques, meaning more patients receive treatment.

Obese people have a higher incidence of kidney cancer, but are also more likely to survive the disease. Is the 'obesity paradox' real or an artefact of how studies are conducted?

Alcohol intake boosts the risk of cancers of the liver, breast and colon, but it seems to reduce the risk of kidney cancer.

We need to combine epidemiology and exposures research to fulfil the potential of precision medicine, say John Leppert and Chirag Patel.

Advanced tumours may have met their match with new drugs, but why have these treatments proved ineffective at stopping early-stage tumours from coming back?

Immunotherapies such as checkpoint inhibitors unleash the body's ability to defend itself against kidney cancer.

We need to focus on five main areas to make real progress in the treatment of kidney cancer, says Robert J. Motzer.