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A technique based on compressed imaging with a streak camera is reported that can videotape transient events in two dimensions with temporal resolution down to tens of picoseconds, and its usefulness is demonstrated using single laser shots applied to a variety of physical phenomena.
To determine the origin of adult tissue-resident macrophages, a mouse lineage tracing study has revealed that these cells derive from erythro-myeloid progenitors in the yolk sac that are distinct from fetal and adult haematopoietic stem cells.
El Niño events can transfer subsurface heat to the eastern North Pacific with a delay of several months, causing the intensification of tropical cyclones; the mechanism may lead to insights into past variations in tropical cyclone intensity and enhance seasonal predictions.
Argon and luminescence dating of fossil shell infills from Trinil in Java, where Homo erectus lived, reveals that the hominin-bearing deposits are younger than previously thought; perforated shells, a shell tool and an engraved shell indicate that Homo erectus ate freshwater mussels, used their shells as tools and was able to create abstract engravings.
X-ray structures of the human TRAAK mechanosensitive potassium channel reveal how build-up of tension in the lipid membrane can convert the channel from a non-conducting wedge shape associated with an inserted lipid acyl chain that blocks the pore to an expanded cross-sectional shape that prevents lipid entry and thus permits ion conduction.
Regeneration and plasticity after spinal cord injury are limited by inhibitory proteoglycans; here, modulation of a receptor for proteoglycans in rats is shown to lead to functional recovery after injury.
Mice lacking the mechanically activated ion channel Piezo2 in both sensory neurons and Merkel cells are almost totally incapable of light-touch sensation while other somatosensory functions, such as mechanical nociception, remain intact, implying that other mechanically activated ion channels must now be identified to account for painful touch sensation.
A new role for the endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) is identified in fly larvae, where it is shown to be essential for the secretion and long-range signalling of the embryonic development morphogen Hedgehog.
A high-velocity outflow of molecular gas from a starburst galaxy has been observed to extend about ten kiloparsecs; its velocity is consistent with the momentum flux from stellar radiation pressure, showing that bursts of star formation can eject large amounts of cold gas from the central regions of galaxies, curtailing star formation.
Angelman syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by disrupted function of the maternal copy of the imprinted UBE3A gene; here, targeting a long non-coding RNA that is responsible for silencing the paternal copy of UBE3A with antisense oligonucleotides is shown to partially restore UBE3A expression in the central nervous system and correct some cognitive deficits in a mouse model of the disease.
Four different XNAs — polymers with backbone chemistries not found in nature, namely, arabino nucleic acids, 2′-fluoroarabino nucleic acids, hexitol nucleic acids and cyclohexene nucleic acids — are found to be able to support the evolution of synthetic enzymes (XNAzymes) that catalyse several chemical reactions.
Electron cryomicroscopy reveals the three-dimensional structure of F-actin at a resolution of 3.7 Å in complex with tropomyosin at a resolution of 6.5 Å; the stabilizing interactions and the effects of disease-causing mutants are also investigated.
Analysis of data obtained by probe spacecraft shows that ultrarelativistic electrons in the Van Allen radiation belts are prevented from entering a sharply defined region around the Earth, possibly owing to a combination of slow natural inward diffusion and pitch angle scattering.
A simulation of the evolution of El Niño Southern Oscillation in the past 21,000 years in a state-of-the-art climate model shows the complex response mechanisms of El Niño to external climate forcings and poses further challenges to our understanding and projection of El Niño in the future.
A combination of genome-wide exome and transcriptome analysis, mass spectrometry and computational structural modelling are used here to identify immunogenic neo-antigens in two mouse tumour cancer cell lines; mice vaccinated with predicted immunogenic peptides yielded therapeutically useful cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses.
Deep-genome and single-cell sequencing analyses of patient-derived breast cancer xenografts reveal extensive, dynamic and reproducible changes in intra-tumoral mutational clonal composition on engraftment and serial propagation.
Malaria-carrying mosquitoes nearly disappear in the dry season, yet they reappear suddenly following the first rains; using surveys of mosquito densities, the authors characterize the population dynamics of the three main vector species and use these to infer persistence by long-distance migration in two species and aestivation in the third.
The radiation-damage-free structure of the photosystem II membrane protein complex, which oxidizes water into dioxygen in an oxygen evolving complex, has been determined by an X-ray free electron laser at a resolution of 1.95 Å; one of the substrate oxygen atoms in this reaction is now identified.
A multilayer photonic structure is described that strongly reflects incident sunlight while emitting heat selectively through an atmospheric transparency window to outer space; this leads to passive cooling under direct sunlight of 5 degrees Celsius below ambient air temperature, which has potential applications in air-conditioning and energy efficiency.
