Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Female blood-feeding mosquitoes in search of a meal are attracted by carbon dioxide exhaled in the breath of their vertebrate hosts. The CO2 detection machinery is a tempting target in the search for ways of disrupting disease transmission by insect vectors. Anandasankar Ray and colleagues have now identified volatile odorants that modify the CO2 detection pathway in the three deadliest mosquito species (Anopheles gambiae, Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus), and demonstrate the ability of odorants to disrupt CO2-mediated attraction behaviour. One compound has the novel property of causing ultra-prolonged activation of CO2-detecting nerve cells, with brief exposure resulting in prolonged disorientation. Others mimic or inhibit CO2 sensing. Compounds used in this proof-of-principle experiment, such as 2,3-butanedione, have properties that preclude use on humans, but this work could lead to the development of a new generation of insect repellents and lures that can work in small quantities. Cover background: A. Bradshaw/Getty.
Physicists have always thought quantum computing is hard because quantum states are incredibly fragile. But could noise and messiness actually help things along?
Medical advances cannot help those who deny they are at risk of HIV and avoid HIV tests. Salim S. Abdool Karim describes how such attitudes may be overcome.
Eduardo Reck Miranda is a composer and leading researcher in artificial intelligence in music, based at the University of Plymouth, UK. A revised version of his Sacra Conversazione — five movements for string orchestra, percussion and electronics — will be performed on 9 June in London. He explains what music can tell us about speech, physiology and cognition.
Mosquitoes harbouring the malaria parasite follow pulses of carbon dioxide exhaled by their human prey to track them down. A novel set of chemicals can distract these insects by disrupting their sense of smell. See Letter p.87
Quantum correlations have long been recognized as an informational resource for quantum communication and computation. It now seems that they can also do physical work. See Letter p.61
Humans must maintain a balanced composition for the trillions of commensal microbes that inhabit their gut, but how they do this is largely unclear. It now emerges that one factor is a molecular pathway in gut epithelial cells.
Evidence from strontium isotope ratios preserved in fossil teeth provides a glimpse into the group dynamics and ranging habits of the australopithecines that can be compared with the patterns for modern primates. See Letter p.76
Although some genetic mutations have clear effects, others have been considered neutral and inconsequential. Such cryptic mutations can nonetheless facilitate adaptation to new environments. See Letter p.92
The East Antarctic ice sheet, the largest in the world, lies seemingly frozen in time. Discovery of a rugged landscape buried beneath the thick ice provides evidence of a more dynamic past. See Letter p.72