Volume 565 Issue 7739, 17 January 2019

A vast analysis tackles a defining question of the digital age.

Dynamic computer modelling addresses the question of how early vertebrates got about on land.

If South Africa truly wants to encourage good research, it must stop paying academics by the paper, says David William Hedding.

The Měnglà virus can infect human cells but the risk of its transmission from bats to humans is unknown.

A bizarrely long-lived explosion fades after more than 1,000 days.

Engineered tweaks to the popular gene-editing system allow it to fight viral infection.

A crow species known for its problem solving can infer properties of breezy objects

Remains unearthed in Illinois represent the world’s oldest individual canine burials.

Area hit by a deadly quake in 2015 is at risk of even greater disaster.

Arrays sited in thin air could help to fill winter solar-power gap.

The week in science: 11–17 January 2019.

But country-wide structural and cultural changes must occur to truly improve the nation's research environment, scientists say.

For the second time in four years, the Indian Science Congress has been used as a platform for outlandish beliefs.

A government plan to overhaul research funding has drawn mixed reactions in a country that last awarded grants almost 10 years ago.

Sudden leadership changes at the National Ecological Observatory Network prompt the resignation of its top scientist and the dissolution of its advisory board.

Simple artificial-intelligence problem puts researchers up against a logical paradox discovered by famed mathematician Kurt Gödel.

Naming project aims to strengthen Indigenous connections to discoveries made at state’s many telescopes.

Trees are supposed to slow global warming, but growing evidence suggests they might not always be climate saviours.

Data from the Gaia spacecraft are radically transforming how we see the evolution of our Galaxy.

A new analysis of biomedical awards over five decades shows men receive more cash and more respect for their research than women do, report Brian Uzzi and colleagues.

Survey shows charges on emissions could be popular if revenues are given back to citizens, find Stefano Carattini, Steffen Kallbekken and Anton Orlov.

Conflict and conservation became unlikely bedfellows in Afghanistan, finds Thomas McCarthy.

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

US immigration policies and stance might be deterring attendance.

The Royal Society of Chemistry has a plan to boost retention and promotion of female academic researchers.

Researchers are creating their own podcasts on topics ranging from exoplanets to graduate-student finances.

A tenet of elementary biology is that mitochondria — the cell’s powerhouses — and their DNA are inherited exclusively from mothers. A provocative study suggests that fathers also occasionally contribute.

Identification of the enzyme that catalyses a site-specific modification of the protein actin reveals how this change modulates the function of the cell’s force-producing machinery.

Implants that electrically stimulate nerves continuously to treat disease can cause off-target effects and pain. An implant that uses light to modulate the activity of genetically modified nerve cells might offer a solution.

During the deaths of some massive stars, a narrow beam called a jet is launched through the stellar envelope, leaving an imprint that is difficult to detect. Such an imprint has now been seen in unprecedented detail.

What determines whether genetic mutations lead to cancer? Analyses of healthy cells in the human oesophagus reveal that a high level of genetic alterations arises as people age, yet this doesn’t usually result in cancer.

How Nature reported the death of Theodore Roosevelt in 1919, and a collection of inventions in 1969.

Metals can be strengthened by mechanisms that work on the atomic scale. These same mechanisms used at a much larger scale have been found to also strengthen materials that contain hierarchical, engineered substructures.

Inspired by the enhanced mechanical strength of microstructured metals, damage-tolerant architected materials are developed in which the internal structure is granular, with different regions having different lattice orientations.

In physiologically normal epithelia, age-related expansion of clones that carry mutations in NOTCH1 and other driver genes is accelerated by risk factors for developing oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma, such as alcohol consumption or smoking.

The cryo-electron microscopy structure of the gp120 component of the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein, in complex with the primary receptor CD4 and coreceptor CCR5, provides insight into the cell-entry mechanism of HIV-1.

Multi-epoch observations of a supernova associated with a γ-ray burst reveal spectral features at extremely high expansion velocities within the first day after the burst, indicative of a choked jet.

The thermal neutron capture cross-section of ⁸⁸Zr is measured to be 861,000 ± 69,000 barns, the second-largest neutron capture cross-section ever measured.

Quantized conductivity is observed along a Weyl orbit in wedge-shaped samples of the topological semimetal Cd₃As₂, providing evidence of the quantum Hall effect in three dimensions.

The nonlinear Hall effect is observed in bilayer WTe₂ in the absence of a magnetic field, providing a direct measure of the dipole moment of the Berry curvature.

Photoredox transformations are achieved with infrared light by using triplet fusion upconversion that converts infrared into visible light, enabling the use of photoredox chemistry on larger scales and through barriers that are impenetrable by visible light.

The differentiation of the inner ear in the lamprey Lethenteron camtschaticum and hagfish Eptatretus burgeri sheds light on the evolution of the semicircular canals of jawed vertebrates.

Quantitative explorations using biomechanics and robotics of the gait of Orobates, a stem amniote, indicate that the development of relatively erect, power-saving and balanced locomotion preceded the diversification of crown amniotes

A subcellular sorting approach enables quantitative analysis of subtypes of growth cones in the brain, and reveals subcellular relationships between local mRNA and local proteomes in developing projection neurons.

A closed-loop implantable bioelectronic device that can modulate peripheral neuronal activity is used to improve bladder function in a rat model of cystitis.

A transplantable mouse model of persistent cutaneous melanoma shows that immune-mediated tumour suppression can result in a state of melanoma–immune equilibrium, and that tissue-resident memory T cells are essential drivers of this equilibrium state.

SETD3 methylates mammalian actin at His73, and SETD3 deficiency impairs stimulus-induced contraction in primary human uterine smooth muscle cells and leads to maternal dystocia in mice.

Cryo-electron microscopy structures of feline calicivirus and its cellular receptor show that twelve copies of the minor capsid protein VP2 form a portal-like assembly arranged about a pore in the capsid shell.

Cryo-electron microscopy structures of bacterial RNAP–promoter DNA complexes, including structures of partially melted intermediates, suggest a universally conserved common mechanism for promoter DNA opening prior to gene expression.