Volume 537 Issue 7619, 8 September 2016

Science fiction fights the past as much as it faces the future.

An archive of material from all sides of the UK genetic-modification controversy is up and running and welcomes contributions, says Vivian Moses.

The week in science: 2–8 September 2016

NASA must avoid spreading Earth microbes to suspected water in hillside streaks.

Research begins at the unabashedly international Francis Crick Institute.

Controversial US guidelines attempt to rein in rogue stem-cell clinics.

Likelihood of stopgap spending measure grows.

Samples of the cell line do not match its 50-year-old source ― but how the mix-up occurred is a mystery.

A long-running investigation of exceptional children reveals what it takes to produce the scientists who will lead the twenty-first century.

Advances in catalyst research could create a superhighway to clean energy sources and a more-sustainable chemical industry.

The United Nations must reframe action on antimicrobial resistance as the defence of a common resource, argue Peter S. Jørgensen, Didier Wernli and colleagues.

Simon J. James looks back at the richly varied contribution of the science-fiction writer and science popularizer.

Sidney Perkowitz scans the impacts of Star Trek on science, technology and society.

Nobel-winning inventor of femtochemistry and statesman.

The development of a drug that mimics the pain-relieving activity of opioid compounds, but has fewer side effects, points to an effective strategy for the discovery of many types of drug. See Article p.185

An experimental technique has been developed to measure water flow through carbon nanotubes. Measurements reveal that flow can be almost frictionless, posing challenges for computer simulations of nanofluidics. See Letter p.210

An analysis of direct human impacts across Earth's land surface using global satellite images and ground surveys reveals the scale of the 'human footprint' on the world and its changes between 1993 and 2009.

Interactions between young stars and their parent molecular clouds are poorly understood. High-resolution observations of the Orion nebula now reveal these interactions, which have implications for star formation. See Letter p.207

Spliceosome complexes remove non-coding sequences from RNA transcripts in two steps. A structure of a spliceosome after the first step reveals active-site interactions and evolutionary constraints on these non-coding regions. See Article p.197

There was thought to be little in common between fish fin bones and the finger bones of land-dwellers. But zebrafish studies reveal that hox genes have a surprisingly similar role in patterning the two structures. See Letter p.225

A light-actuated liquid crystal polymer material system precisely manipulates liquid drops through capillary forces, and can be formed into a variety of shapes.

Computational docking to the the μ-opioid-receptor identifies PZM21, a novel selective biased agonist that generates substantial affective analgesia in mice without altering respiration or inducing drug reinforcement.

The cryo-electron microscopy structure of the rabbit voltage-gated calcium channel Ca_v1.1 complex at a nominal resolution of 3.6 ångströms.

Cryo-EM reveals the configuration of substrate pre-mRNA within the active spliceosome and suggests how remodelling occurs prior to exon ligation.

The solution structure of SecB, a molecular chaperone that exhibits strong antifolding activity, in complex with alkaline phosphatase and maltose-binding protein captured in their unfolded states.

One-arcsecond-resolution millimetre-wave images enable the surface of the Orion Bar molecular cloud to be resolved, revealing a fragmented ridge of high-density substructures, photoablative gas flows and instabilities that suggest that the cloud edge has been compressed by a high-pressure wave expanding into the molecular cloud, in contrast to predictions from static equilibrium models.

The pressure-driven flow rate through individual carbon nanotubes is precisely determined from the hydrodynamics of emerging water jets, revealing unexpectedly large and radius-dependent surface slippage.

Two small-molecule iron catalysts are shown to be capable of facilitating the targeted C–H oxidative modification of amino acids and peptides with preservation of α-centre chirality (a challenging synthesis), producing a diverse range of amino acids and peptides.

A 1.3-million-year-long climate history from the Lake Malawi basin in eastern Africa displays a trend towards progressively wetter conditions superimposed on strong 100,000-year eccentricity cycles of temperature and rainfall since the Mid-Pleistocene Transition around 900,000 years ago.

Hoxa- and Hoxd-deficient zebrafish generated using Crispr/Cas with fate mapping have reduced fin rays and increased endochondral elements, establishing homology between the developmental programs that create fin rays and the wrists and digits of mammals.

A selective inhibitor of the kinetoplastid proteasome (GNF6702) is identified that is highly efficacious in vivo, clearing the parasites that cause leishmaniasis, Chagas disease and sleeping sickness from mice, highlighting the possibility of developing a single class of drugs for these neglected diseases.

Hypoxia in germinal centres regulates B cell class switching via its effects on mTOR complex 1 and activation-induced cytosine deaminase activity.

The long non-coding RNA Morrbid controls myeloid cell lifespan and regulates apoptosis by repressing the adjacent pro-apoptotic Bcl2l11 gene in cis.

Recognition of the X chromosome by the dosage compensation complex in Drosophila relies on the sequence and shape of PionX sites.

Biochemical reconstitution of a synthetic human kinetochore with 21 protein subunits and centromeric nucleosomal DNA unveils fundamental principles of kinetochore organization and function.

Tedious daily work might feel frustrating, but idle thoughts can drum up just the right spark of scientific inspiration.

An astronomer explains how he came to crunch data for Hollywood.

A difficult theory to displace.

The first medical interventions were often individualized but ineffective, because doctors lacked an understanding of disease biology. As medicine became more scientific, physicians started grouping patients by disease. Now, genetic insights let doctors consider their patients' unique make-up when prescribing treatments.

Remarkable progress in sequencing technologies and data handling is making personalized genome analysis an increasingly common feature of health care.

After a series of setbacks, genetic therapies are finally moving beyond small academic trials towards approval as treatments.

Personalized prescribing is gaining momentum, but is there enough evidence for it to become standard clinical practice?

Precision oncology has not been shown to work, and perhaps it never will, says Vinay Prasad.

Living with a rare disease but no concrete diagnosis can be difficult. Genetic sequencing may finally provide a solution.

When data-gathering precision-medicine projects build trust with their users, patients and researchers both benefit.

The US Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) aims to gather health data on at least one million volunteers. Kathy Hudson, deputy director for science, outreach and policy at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), led its creation, and spoke to Nature about the challenges she faced.

It may not be possible to protect the identity of genomic data. But how much of a problem is that?