Volume 508 Issue 7497, 24 April 2014

NASA’s decision to renege on SOFIA project casts doubts over its reliability as a partner.

The United States must tread carefully when building a health-data system.

Iranian scientists must be allowed to interact abroad without fear of persecution, says Elise Auerbach.

The week in science: NIH allows reuse of rejected grant ideas; China’s land pollution revealed; and NASA’s LADEE probe crashes into the Moon.

Conclusions on stockpiling of antiviral drugs challenged.

Smaller-than-expected tremor has scientists scrambling to redefine rules for areas of extreme seismic stress.

China begins work on super-secure network as ‘real-world’ trial successfully sends quantum keys and data.

Gene-silencing technique yields promising treatments for liver-linked disorders.

Biologists are directing the evolution of corals to prepare them to fight climate change.

A new generation of industrial plants can make liquid fuels from almost any organic scraps — from corn stalks and wood chips to urban rubbish.

Research into how genetic variants can guide successful treatments must become part of routine medical practice and records, says Geoffrey Ginsburg.

Beatrix Potter's meticulous artistry served mycology and entomology as well as children's fiction, reveals Linda Lear.

Scott Carney assesses a study of banked human blood, sperm and milk.

Tim Kruger examines an argument against injecting aerosols into the atmosphere to counter climate change.

Copper-based materials have been found that efficiently convert carbon monoxide and water to ethanol using electricity. The discovery is a major advance towards storing renewable energy in the form of a liquid fuel. See Letter p.504

Researchers have found evidence that the representation of auditory and tactile information in the brains of blind people shows strong similarities to the way in which visual information is represented in sighted people.

Trogocytosis, a process in which one cell 'takes a bite' out of another, had previously been seen only in immune cells. But the phenomenon has now been found in Entamoeba histolytica, as a way for this parasite to kill host cells. See Letter p.526

Comparisons of Y-chromosome sequences in various mammals reveal abundant gene loss early in the chromosome's evolution but remarkable gene stability across the Y chromosomes of extant species. See Articles p.488 & p.494

The isotopic composition of oxygen in sea water correlates with changes in global mean sea level. Microfossils carrying oxygen-isotope signals have been used to extend sea-level records as far back as 5 million years ago. See Article p.477

Knowledge of the sperm-specific protein that is required for the attachment of sperm to eggs during fertilization in mammals has led to the identification of the protein's receptor on the egg's plasma membrane. See Article p.483

Acceleration in discovery of rare genetic variants possibly linked with disease may mean an increased risk of false-positive reports of causality; this Perspective proposes guidelines to distinguish disease-causing sequence variants from the many potentially functional variants in a human genome, and to assess confidence in their pathogenicity, and highlights priority areas for development.

A novel approach to the estimation of sea level and deep-sea temperature has been used to determine these quantities over the past 5.3 million years; this approach, based on oxygen isotope records from the eastern Mediterranean, shows that temperature and sea-level histories are broadly correlated but also show intriguing temporal offsets.

The egg receptor for Izumo, a sperm cell-surface protein required for male fertility, is identified here and renamed Juno; these findings show that the Izumo–Juno interaction is conserved within mammals, and open new opportunities for the development of fertility treatments and contraceptives.

Using high-throughput genome and transcriptome sequencing, Y chromosome evolution across 15 representative mammals is explored, with results providing evidence for three independent sex chromosome originations in mammals and birds.

A study comparing the Y chromosome across mammalian species reveals that selection to maintain the ancestral dosage of homologous X–Y gene pairs preserved a handful of genes on the Y chromosome while the rest were lost; the survival of broadly expressed dosage-sensitive regulators of gene expression suggest that the human Y chromosome is essential for male viability.

A universal set of logic gates in a superconducting quantum circuit is shown to have gate fidelities at the threshold for fault-tolerant quantum computing by the surface code approach, in which the quantum bits are distributed in an array of planar topology and have only nearest-neighbour couplings.

The electrochemical conversion of CO and H₂O into liquid fuel is made feasible at modest potentials with the use of oxide-derived nanocystalline Cu as the catalyst.

High-resolution three-dimensional simulations of hydrothermal flow beneath fast-spreading ridges predict two interacting flow components — shallow on-axis flow and deeper off-axis flow — that merge to feed axial vent sites, reconciling previously incompatible models favouring only one flow component.

Lithospheric damage, combined with transient mantle flow and migrating proto-subduction, is proposed to explain the apparent emergence of plate tectonics three billion years ago; modelling confirms that tectonic plate boundaries and fully formed tectonic plates can arise under conditions characteristic of Earth but not of Venus.

Experimental data collected from 40 grasslands on 6 continents show that nutrients and herbivores can serve as counteracting forces to control local plant diversity; nutrient addition reduces local diversity through light limitation, and herbivory rescues diversity at sites where it alleviates light limitation.

Experimental eutrophication weakens the stabilizing effects of plant diversity on the productivity of natural grasslands.

Entamoeba histolytica, the causative agent of fatal diarrhoeal disease in children in the developing world, is shown here to kill human cells by biting off and ingesting pieces of cells, in a process reminiscent of the trogocytosis seen between immune cells; ingestion of bites is required for killing and this mechanism is used both in tissue culture and during invasion of intestinal explants.

Reduced activity of the calcium-transporting ATPase SERCA2a is a hallmark of heart failure; here, microRNAs that downregulate SERCA2a function are identified, and antagonism of one, miR-25, is shown to halt heart failure in mice.

Transcription factor Foxc1 is a key regulator of haematopoietic stem/progenitor cell niche formation.

Phosphorylation of Akt at its carboxy-terminal tail is an essential layer of Akt activation to regulate its physiological functions.

Although nectar is known to be important, for example in plant–insect interactions, little has been known about the mechanism of its secretion; sucrose phosphate synthases are now reported to be essential for the synthesis of the sucrose component of nectar and the transporter protein SWEET9 is shown to mediate sucrose export into the extracellular space of the nectary.

The three-dimensional structure of the type IV secretion system encoded by the Escherichia coli R388 conjugative plasmid.

A confluence of budget disappointments has confounded US scientists and left many uncertain about their future.

Plasma physicist-turned-educator turns his sights on public office.

A greater total workload makes women more vulnerable to burnout, finds study.

Agencies collaborate to hasten foreign scientists' admission.

Study concludes that more scientists should use social media in their work.

Captive audience.