Volume 553 Issue 7688, 18 January 2018

Specialized metallic inks make picture-perfect images on rewritable paper.

Two hypervirulent ribotypes of the enteric pathogen Clostridium difficile, RT027 and RT078, have independently acquired unique mechanisms to metabolize low concentrations of the disaccharide trehalose, suggesting a correlation between the emergence of these ribotypes and the widespread adoption of trehalose in the human diet.

Cryo-EM structures of Pol III preinitiation complexes are presented, comprising Pol III and the transcription factor TFIIIB bound to a natural promoter in different functional states.

Detailed structures of yeast RNA polymerase III and its initiation complex shed light on how the transcription of essential non-coding RNAs begins and allow comparisons with other RNA polymerases.

The star formation histories of galaxies, as encapsulated in their integrated optical spectra, depend on the mass of the black holes present at their centres.

Interferometric images of the surface of the giant star π¹ Gruis reveal few but large convective cells, consistent with existing models of stellar surface convection.

Droplets covered with surfactants that respond to multiple stimuli can assemble into hierarchical assemblies or non-spherical, patchy structures, mimic systems of mechanical gears, and even harbour sequences of chemical reactions.

Equilibrium climate sensitivity—which remains the largest uncertainty in climate projections—is constrained to a ‘likely’ range of 2.2–3.4 K by taking into account the variability of global temperature about long-term historical warming.

Deep-ocean O2 concentrations over the past 3.5 billion years are estimated using the oxidation state of iron in submarine basalts and indicate that deep-ocean oxygenation occurred in the Phanerozoic.

Assessment of the impact of armed conflict on large herbivores in Africa between 1946 and 2010 reveals that high conflict frequency is an important predictor of wildlife population declines.

Travel time to cities in 2015 is quantified in a high-resolution global map that will be useful for socio-economic policy design and conservation research.

In hybrid inviability between Xenopus laevis and Xenopus tropicalis, genomic regions on two X. laevis chromosomes are incompatible with the X. tropicalis cytoplasm and are mis-segregated during mitosis, leading to unbalanced gene expression at the maternal to zygotic transition, followed by cell-autonomous catastrophic embryo death.

A high-throughput assay is used to analyse 40,000 potential extracellular domain interactions of a large family of plant cell surface receptors (LRR-RKs) and provide a cell surface interaction network for these receptors.

Immune checkpoint blockade with anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 agents produces a high response rate in patients with desmoplastic melanoma.

REV-ERBs, nuclear hormone receptors that regulate transcription as part of the circadian clock cell machinery, inhibit autophagy and lipogenesis in premalignant and malignant cells and impair tumour growth in vivo.

A regulatory mechanism that limits the number of complete protein molecules that can be synthesized from a single mRNA molecule of the human AMD1 gene encoding adenosylmethionine decarboxylase 1.

The crystal structure of a channel-forming O-antigen polysaccharide ABC transporter suggests a novel biopolymer translocation mechanism.

Ancient marine animal gave birth to live young.

China’s scientific landscape is shifting fast. Where can you fit in?