Volume 488 Issue 7409, 2 August 2012

Scientists unhappy with policy are right to take to the streets.

After a generation of denial, research leaders are finally treating scientific fraud with the seriousness it deserves, says Colin Macilwain.

The week in science: Nine physicists net $3 million each in new prize; India curbs tiger tourism; and Uganda suffers an outbreak of ebolavirus

The master builders that underlie tumour growth may inform treatment strategies.

Drug watchdog wins right to regulate controversial therapies.

Risk of accidental reintroduction shadows rinderpest eradication effort.

The Curiosity rover prepares to plunge down to Mars.

Former executive sues manufacturer of pill meant to rejuvenate cells.

Population biologists turn to pre-publication server to gain wider readership and rapid review of results.

Physicists, chemists and mathematicians in the United Kingdom are furious about funding reforms that they say threaten blue-skies research.

Advocates of 'cliodynamics' say that they can use scientific methods to illuminate the past. But historians are not so sure.

NASA must put more of its money into thrifty missions led by principal investigators, says Daniel N. Baker.

Christof Koch marvels at a journey that explains mind–body theory through a fantastical lens.

Ivan Semeniuk follows the gaze of artists from cultures that have interpreted the heavens for millennia.

A complete insect fossil from the Devonian period has long been sought. The finding of a candidate may improve our patchy understanding of when winged insects evolved. See Letter p.82

Careful analysis reveals that the global uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions by carbon sinks has doubled during the past 50 years — but the fractions of this absorbed by land and by sea remain unclear. See Letter p.70

A mutant repeating DNA sequence produces a toxic RNA molecule that causes the neuromuscular disorder myotonic dystrophy type 1. An ‘antisense’ therapy that targets this RNA in cell nuclei shows promise in mice. See Letter p.111

A rare gene variant has been found that decreases the peptide deposition seen in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. The mutation may also slow the normal cognitive decline that occurs with age. See Letter p.96

A fine marriage between atomic and optical physics has produced a medium that is transparent to single photons but opaque to multiple photons. The finding heralds the development of devices such as single-photon switches. See Letter p.57

The small genomes of some bacteria could provide the first complete understanding of a biological system. A new computer model brings this goal closer, by calculating every process in a dividing Mycoplasma cell.

Whole-genome sequencing of medulloblastoma samples reveals several recurrent mutations in genes not previously implicated in the disease, many of which affect components of the epigenetic machinery in different disease subgroups.

Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumour in children; having assembled over 1,000 samples the authors report that somatic copy number aberrations are common in medulloblastoma, in particular a tandem duplication of SNCAIP, a gene associated with Parkinson’s disease, which is restricted to subgroup 4α, and translocations of PVT1, which are restricted to Group 3.

A cold, dense atomic gas is found to be optically nonlinear at the level of individual quanta, thereby opening possibilities for quantum-by-quantum control of light fields, including single-photon switching and deterministic quantum logic.

A device based on a carbon nanotube is used to emulate the rich physics of the one-dimensional electronic systems known as Luttinger liquids, providing a new platform for studying quantum critical phenomena.

An extremely large, negative refractive index is produced in a two-dimensional electron gas by exploiting its kinetic inductance, which is a manifestation of acceleration of the electrons by electromagnetic fields.

A comprehensive carbon dioxide mass balance analysis shows that net global carbon uptake has increased by about 0.05 billion tonnes per year over the past 50 years and that in that time the global carbon uptake has almost doubled, making it unlikely that land and ocean carbon sinks have decreased on a global scale.

A reconstruction of temperatures along the Wilkes Land coast of Antarctica during the early Eocene epoch shows that the climate supported the growth of near-tropical forests and that winters were very mild and essentially frost-free.

The change in number of terrestrial vertebrate species or endemics with sampled area is characterized by universal curves whose properties depend only on the mean geographic range size of species.

The fossil of a complete insect from the Late Devonian period (approximately 365 million years ago) is presented; it was terrestrial, but its features suggest that modern winged insects had already started to diversify at that early date.

Sequencing of the Arabidopsis thaliana root microbiome shows that its composition is strongly influenced by location, inside or outside the root, and by soil type.

Roots of land plants are populated by a specific microbiota capable of modulating plant growth and development; here large-scale sequencing analysis shows that the bacterial community inhabiting Arabidopsis roots is influenced by soil type and plant genotype, and that plant cell-wall features serve as colonization cue for a subcommunity of the root microbiota.

A coding mutation in APP, the gene that encodes the amyloid-β precursor protein, is found to protect against Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline in the elderly without Alzheimer’s disease.

Medulloblastoma is the most common brain tumour in children; using whole-genome sequencing of tumour samples the authors show that the clinically challenging Group 3 and 4 tumours can be tetraploid, and reveal the expression of the first medulloblastoma fusion genes identified.

Medulloblastoma is the most common brain tumour in children; using exome sequencing of tumour samples the authors show that these cancers have low mutation rates and identify 12 significantly mutated genes, among them the gene encoding RNA helicase DDX3X.

Nuclear-retained transcripts containing expanded repeats are shown to be sensitive to antisense silencing, and in a transgenic mouse model of myotonic dystrophy type 1, systemic administration of ASOs causes a rapid knockdown of the toxic RNA in skeletal muscle, correcting some hallmark features of the disease.

A genomic map of nearly 300,000 potential cis-regulatory sequences determined from diverse mouse tissues and cell types reveals active promoters, enhancers and CCCTC-binding factor sites encompassing 11% of the mouse genome and significantly expands annotation of mammalian regulatory sequences.

Mentors should understand what causes misconduct among trainees — and keep in mind some possible remedies, argues William Neaves.

European universities aim to eliminate gender bias

Agreement will let US postdocs join European research teams.

Europe signs agreements with stakeholders of a unified research area.

Interactive art.