Browse Articles

Co-immunoprecipitation provides static and qualitative information about protein–protein interactions. Lee et al.create real-time movies of single protein–protein interactions during co-immunoprecipitation, and use them to assess the dynamics of mutant Ras proteins derived from tumours.

Arrays of III–V semiconductor nanopillars are promising photovoltaic materials due to their favourable optical properties, however, they show low power conversion efficiencies. Mariani et al. fabricate a GaAs nanopillar solar cell achieving an efficiency of 6.63% owing to surface passivation.

New influenza neuramidase inhibitors may increase preparedness against influenza outbreaks. Vavricka et al.confirm the catalytic mechanism of neuramidase and show that it can be inhibited irreversibly with covalent inhibitors.

Bilingual infants possess a unique ability to rapidly acquire the grammar of both of their native languages. Gervain and Werker find that bilingual infants achieve this by using characteristic prosodic cues associated with different word orders.

The fabrication self-sorting supramolecular gels, containing co-existing homomolecular assemblies with similar physical and chemical properties, is challenging. Here pH-controlled self-sorting gelators are reported, where the order of assembly of each component is predetermined by gelator pK_a.

Although theory indicates that deception and punishment are successful social strategies, there is little evidence for either in the wild. This study presents the first systematic evidence of tactical deception and punishment of reproductive cheating in a wild primate, the gelada (Theropithecus gelada).

A full understanding of the penetration of solar wind plasma into the Earth’s magnetosphere, during geomagnetically quiet times, remains elusive. Using multi-spacecraft data, Shi et al.find unexpected entry of the solar wind into the high-latitude magnetosphere and suggest a probable entry mechanism.

Measuring acoustic phonons across the Brillouin zone reveals important information on electrical and thermal transport in materials. Temnov et al.generate giant acoustic strain pulses in gold/cobalt bilayers and monitor their nonlinear reshaping in the gold layer with plasmonic interferometry.

Topological insulators are bulk insulators with conductive boundary states, and until now have been based only on inorganic materials. Wang et al.use first-principles calculations to predict a class of organic topological insulators based on organometallic lattices exhibiting robust topological edge states.

Slow and careful reading is encouraged to improve word decoding accuracy. Breznitz and colleagues show that a few weeks of training in accelerated reading can improve reading, for several months, in typical and dyslexic adults.

Neural plasticity can be mediated by cognitive processes or sensory inputs to the brain. Cardin et al.use fMRI to study individuals who vary in hearing and sign language abilities, and find that sensory and cognitive experiences cause plasticity in anatomically and functionally distinguishable cortical areas.

Single layers of group-VI transition metal dichalcogenides have emerged as direct bandgap semiconductors in the two-dimensional limit. The authors show that monolayer molybdenum diselenide is an ideal system enabling electrostatic tunability of charging effects in neutral and charged electron-hole pairs, so-called excitons.

It is known that the spin-excitation spectrum of the undoped parents of iron-pnictide superconductors contains a pronounced magnon peak, but it is unclear whether this survives doping into the superconducting state. Schmitt et al.report resonant inelastic X-ray scattering spectra that suggest it does.

The branched inflow of warm Atlantic Water to the Arctic has been known for more than a hundred years, yet what controls the relative strengths of the two pathways remains poorly understood. Here, the authors identify the role of atmospheric circulation over the northern Barents Sea in controlling inflow.

Electricity can be generated by moving wires in magnetic fields, but this is not the only method. Moon et al. develop an electrochemical device that produces an AC current in a controlled manner by mechanically modulating water bridges sandwiched between two conducting plates.

Measuring atomic spectra in high magnetic fields is important for understanding astrophysical objects such as white dwarfs, but laboratory fields are too small to do so. Murdin et al. study the analogous spectra of phosphorous-doped silicon, whose material properties scale the equivalent field to far lower values.

The bacterial tetracycline resistance protein Tet(O) binds to the ribosome, preventing tetracycline from inhibiting translation. Using cryo-electron microscopic reconstruction, the authors present an atomic model of Tet(O) bound to the 70S ribosome, and reveal how Tet(O) promotes antibiotic resistance.

It has been thought that the evolution of mammals similar to modern grass-eating horses in South America ∼38 million years ago was a response to the spread of grasslands. This study uses microscopic plant silica fossils from southern Argentina to show that these presumed grass-eating mammals evolved in forests, not grasslands.

Commensal bacteria in gut lumen are known to interact with the enteric nervous system. Mao and colleagues test the effects of Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Bacteroides fragilis ex vivo, in the myenteric plexus, and find that the polysaccharide A is necessary for intestinal sensory neuron sensitization.

Insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 regulates many physiological functions including growth and metabolism. Ni et al.show that human natural killer cells secrete IGF-1 and that IGF-1 enhances the development and cytotoxicity of these cells.