Volume 550 Issue 7677, 26 October 2017

The US Department of Energy should classify and dispose of nuclear rubbish according to risk.

Online platforms can help to steer emergency response and ensure money is well spent.

Considering game theory and the role of physical forces could lead to better treatments for cancer, says Robert Austin.

The week in science: 20–26 October 2017.

Juno probe discovers surprising activity in the giant planet’s interior.

Discovery raises questions about how a light 'supercurrent' might behave.

Precision tools expand the number of ‘base editors’ available for manipulating DNA and RNA.

The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, lander and rover will track how lunar dust might scupper settlement.

Researchers seek approval from regulators for this quicker, easier treatment.

US-registered Central European University faces another year of uncertainty over whether it can continue to operate in Hungary.

Aid organizations have been piloting a nimble approach to cut through the fog of war.

Killing off cells that refuse to die on their own has proved a powerful anti-ageing strategy in mice. Now it's about to be tested in humans.

As an ambitious project to map all the cells in the human body gets officially under way, Aviv Regev, Sarah Teichmann and colleagues outline some key challenges.

The scientific and religious revolutions that began 500 years ago were not causally related, but were both stimulated by printing, argues David Wootton.

Anthony King navigates a show on catastrophe, from nuclear apocalypse to γ-ray bursts.

Laser and optics pioneer whose work led to magnetic resonance imaging.

Epithelial stem cells maintain the skin's epidermis and promote wound healing in response to injury. Scientists from two fields discuss implications of the discovery that these stem cells harbour a memory of previous injuries, which enables skin to respond rapidly to subsequent assaults. See Article p.475

Laser experiments and computer simulations have been used to analyse the jiggling of atoms in compressed solids. The results take us closer to designing materials that can withstand extreme conditions. See Letters p.492 & p.496

The cellular origins of a precancerous condition called Barrett's oesophagus have been unclear. Tracking and analysis of epithelial cells at the affected site could shed light on the problem. See Letter p.529

An ultrasensitive balance has been developed to weigh single or multiple cells, at high time and mass resolution — revealing fast and subtle mass fluctuations during the cell cycle and viral infection. See Letter p.500

When a particle-laden droplet evaporates on a solid surface, the particles form a ring-like deposit. The explanation for this phenomenon, provided in 1997, has led to advances in many areas of science and engineering.

The petals of a range of flowers harbour repeated patterns of nanostructures that show similar levels of disorder across species. This degree of disorder produces a blue halo of scattered light that helps bees to find flowers. See Article p.469

Disordered nanoscale striations on petals, tepals and bracts have evolved multiple times among flowering plants and provide a salient visual signal to foraging bumblebees (Bombus terrestris).

After acute inflammation, epithelial stem cells retain a memory that accelerates restoration of the skin barrier during subsequent tissue damage, and this enhancement is dependent on the AIM2 inflammasome and its downstream effectors.

Small molecules are identified that inhibit the ubiquitin-specific protease USP7 with high affinity and specificity as explained by co-crystal structures, and are shown to reduce tumour growth in mice.

A structural phase transition in a monolayer of molybdenum ditelluride has been shown experimentally to be driven forwards and backwards by electrostatic doping.

The limits of dislocation-mediated metal plasticity are studied by using in situ computational microscopy to reduce the enormous amount of data from fully dynamic atomistic simulations into a manageable form.

In situ femtosecond X-ray diffraction measurements reveal that the dominant mechanism of shock-wave-driven deformation in tantalum changes from twinning to dislocation slip as pressure increases.

A picobalance consisting of an optically excited microcantilever has been developed and used to measure the masses of individual healthy and virus-infected cells at high temporal and mass resolutions in culture conditions.

Plough marks in Pine Island Bay, West Antarctica, left by the keels of drifting icebergs 12,000 years ago provide evidence that marine ice-cliff instability can drive rapid ice-sheet retreat.

An approach to ecological interactions that integrates coevolutionary dynamics and network structure, showing that selection in mutualisms is shaped not only by the mutualistic partners but by all sorts of indirect effects from other species in the network.

Spatial and temporal modelling of a large dataset of Plasmodium falciparum prevalence rates reveals cycles and trends of malaria transmission in sub-Saharan Africa over a 115 year period.

Application of network control theory to the neuronal connectome of Caenorhabditis elegans, allowing prediction of the involvement of individual neurons in locomotion.

Identification of a transmembrane protein, Mfsd2b, that is essential for the export of the signalling molecule sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) from red blood cells and platelets.

Barrett’s oesophagus—a metaplasia that can be induced by persistent acid reflux, and predisposes patients to oesophageal cancer—arises from a population of basal cells at the gastro-oesophageal junction.

The development of selective ubiquitin-specific protease-7 (USP7) inhibitors GNE-6640 and GNE-6776, which induce tumour cell death and reveal differential kinetics of Lys-48 and Lys-63-linked ubiquitin chain depolymerization by USP7.

A cryo-electron microscopy structure of the chromatin remodelling factor Chd1 bound to a nucleosome leads to a model for DNA translocation by its ATPase motor.

G-protein-coupled receptors and their G protein partners are studied by single-molecule imaging in living cells, which reveals hot spots on the cell membrane where receptors and G proteins interact and signal.

Nature's 2017 PhD survey reveals that, despite many problems with doctoral programmes, PhD students are as committed as ever to pursuing research careers.

It's the latest in travel technology.

Fractures that fail to heal properly often cause long-term disability, but new cell-based therapies may help.

A bone fracture that fails to heal after initial treatment can lead to prolonged disability. Regenerative therapies might help to restart the bone-healing process, getting the people affected back in action.