Volume 483 Issue 7389, 15 March 2012

A proposed change to Germany's constitution is needed for the future health of the universities.

Ongoing controversy over work at Japan's Tohoku University must be resolved.

Plans to replicate Britain's Science Media Centre in the United States are fraught with danger, warns Colin Macilwain.

The week in science: Success for China’s neutrino experiment; South Africa edges ahead in race to host Square Kilometre Array; and Nobel prizewinning chemist Sherwood Rowland dies.

But Russian researchers are sceptical of ambitious schemes.

As the next IPCC assessment nears, scientists use palaeoclimatic data to hone their models.

Low-cost mission will tap into the unexplored upper reaches of the X-ray spectrum.

A UN analysis sets out global water-management concerns ahead of Earth Summit.

Yet reforms to funding systems and more support for basic research are needed, say scientists.

Investigations highlight need for a national, independent body to oversee research ethics.

Since the 1960s, researchers have been scrutinizing a handful of patients who underwent a radical kind of brain surgery. The cohort has been a boon to neuroscience — but soon it will be gone.

The enduring quest for a coffee bean without the buzz.

Martin Schwab and Anita Buchli suggest ways to jump-start the stalled development of therapies for neurological diseases.

The Royal Society International Seminar Consortium describes what the next decade of mental-health drug development should look like.

Robert Stickgold revels in a lively account of a quest to quantify consciousness.

Francis Halzen is exhilarated by a trek through stories of research and exploration in Antarctica.

Computer scientist Erik Demaine uses origami to advance computational geometry and create art. His paper sculptures, made with his father, artist Martin Demaine, are now on show at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California; from August, the exhibition will tour the United States. He explains the challenges of folding together mathematics and art.

An acid has been found to catalyse the formation of a common chemical group, the spiroacetals, and to control which mirror-image isomer of the group is made. The key to success is the acid's bulky molecular structure. See Letter p.315

The drive to improve digital memory through ever-shrinking electronic circuitry will ultimately face a bottleneck. Researchers propose exploiting the room 'inside' memory elements as a solution.

Genetic mutations can cause a type of heart disease called dilated cardiomyopathy, by predisposing the organ to enlarge and function poorly. It has now been found that 27% of cases are due to mutations that disrupt the muscle protein titin.

The synthesis of analogues of graphene by two different means provides insight into the origins of massless particles and paves the way for studies of materials with exotic topological properties. See Letters p.302 & p.306

After training, animals and humans can make their thoughts interact directly with computers. A study provides evidence that the corticostriatal system of the brain is essential for this learning process.

The naturally occurring antibiotic lasalocid A contains a chemical structure that is not expected to form readily. The enzyme that catalyses the formation of this structure has been identified, and its activity is a revelation. See Letter p.355

A genome-wide, high-resolution study of DNA-binding sites for proteins that transcribe DNA into RNA reveals details about how this process occurs in vivo. See Article p.295

Genetic programs homologous to three vertebrate signalling centres are present in the hemichordate Saccoglossus kowalevskii and may be components of a complex, ancient genetic regulatory scaffold for deuterostome body patterning that degenerated in amphioxus and ascidians, but was retained to pattern divergent structures in hemichordates and vertebrates.

Ultra-high-resolution mapping of the eukaryotic transcription machinery across the yeast genome reveals several unifying principles of pre-initiation complexes at coding and non-coding genes.

A tunable optical lattice is used to engineer massless and massive Dirac fermions and realize the topological transition at which two Dirac points merge and annihilate each other.

The formation of massless Dirac fermions is demonstrated in a highly tunable molecular graphene lattice, and particular distortions of the lattice are shown to endow the fermions with mass or engage the fermions with artificial electric and magnetic fields.

Using DNA origami enables the high-yield production of chiral structures containing nanoparticles arranged in helices, with a tunable optical response.

Spiroacetals are found in a broad range of biologically active compounds, including small insect pheromones and more complex macrocycles; a confined imidodiphosphoric-acid catalyst is now reported that is able to facilitate the stereoselective synthesis of small, unfunctionalized spiroacetals.

A quantitative mixing model coupled with new isotopic carbon data from Mongolia, northwest Canada and Namibia reveals that Neoproterozoic era carbonate isotopic anomalies can be accounted for by a primary perturbation to the surface carbon cycle, making other explanations unlikely.

Activation of EDA and activin A signalling, and inhibition of SHH signalling pathways together increase the number of cusps on cultured mouse cheek teeth, showing that a substantial increase in complexity requires multiple changes in developmental regulation.

Although pathogens and parasites have short life cycles that let them evolve rapidly, victims can match or overcome exploiter evolution when coevolution involves multiple traits.

A novel study in rodents suggests that corticostriatal plasticity is necessary for abstract skill learning.

The mechanisms by which the ångström-scale molecular properties of cells are translated to micrometre-scale macroscopic properties have not been well understood, but this study shows that when multivalent proteins interact with each other, they undergo a switch-like phase separation, which is concomitant with a transition from small complexes to huge polymeric assemblies, as the concentration increases.

The Petunia hybrida ABC transporter PDR1 functions in strigolactone export from the roots and is important for regulating symbiosis and axillary branch development.

Goblet cells in the small intestine act as passages delivering small antigens to tolerance-inducing dendritic cells in the lamina propria.

Mice deficient in the lipid sensor GPR120 develop obesity, glucose intolerance and fatty liver when fed a high-fat diet, and a loss-of-function variant in the GPR120 gene strongly contributes to increased obesity in human.

The X-ray crystal structure of the epoxide hydrolase Lsd19 in complex with its substrate and product analogue is determined, providing insight into a general mechanism of enzyme-catalysed formation of polyether natural products.

The epoxidase PaaABCE, which converts phenylacetyl-CoA into its ring-1,2-epoxide, is shown to be also able to mediate the NADPH-dependent removal of that epoxide, ensuring that the intracellular concentrations of the toxic epoxide does not exceed a certain ‘acceptable’ concentration.

Environmental concerns and more stringent laws are providing opportunities for environmental toxicologists.

Following the ‘road not taken’ philosophy, stem-cell specialist earns award and start-up money.

How to square a circle.

Graphene is phenomenally strong, thin, flexible, transparent and conductive — and applications beckon.

Flecks of graphene are easy to make. But producing sheets of pristine, electronics-quality material is another matter.

Trying to shoehorn graphene into a digital circuit isn't working. But there may be another potential path to glory.

Graphene could make an ideal basis for a medical repair kit.

Transparency across the spectrum combined with electronic prowess makes graphene an ideal photonic material.

Nature Outlook talks to the first director of the MIT's Centre for Graphene Devices and Systems, which was created in July 2011 to foster collaboration among academic, industrial and government groups studying this form of carbon.

Exploring graphene's chemical properties reveals a world of potential away from the purely two-dimensional, says Rodney Ruoff.

Silicon is more than an incumbent technology competing with graphene — it also has a history researchers should remember.

Owing to its extraordinary electronic and optical properties, this super-strong form of carbon could radically advance technologies ranging from transistors to touch screens to solar cells to bionic implants. But first, materials scientists must figure out how to make large, pristine sheets of graphene economically.