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The synthesis of sequence-regulated copolymers continues to challenge polymer chemists. Here step-growth radical polymerisation of designed abc and abcc monomers leads to vinyl copolymers with repeating ABC and ABCC sequences.
Microwave generation from nanoscale devices is important for future wireless technology, but the power generated in such devices can be small. Dussaux and coworkers have developed a powerful microwave emitter using magnetic vortices induced by spin transfer in a MgO-based magnetic tunnel junction.
Different types of correlations in quantum mechanical systems are crucial for quantum information processing. Xu and colleagues determine the sizes of classical correlations, entanglement and other types of quantum correlations in an optical setup.
Many animals communicate through gestures, some caterpillars use scraping and drumming signals to ward off unwanted neighbours. Here, Scottet al. demonstrate that "leg-like" structures used by some caterpillar species to communicate evolved from legs that their ancestors used to walk.
Quantum communication applications require memories capable of storing multiple qubits. To implement scalable architectures for this purpose, Usmani and coworkers turn to a rare-earth doped silicate, in which they demonstrate coherent and reversible mapping of 64 optical modes at the single photon level.
During development Sox transcription factors play important roles in the determination of cell fate. In this study Bhattaram and colleagues show that Sox4, Sox11 and Sox12 act redundantly in mouse development and are important for the maintenance of neural and mesenchymal progenitor cells.
Ageing associated diseases are the subject of intense study. In this article Serrano and colleagues demonstrate that Sirt1 over-expression in mice prevents both ageing associated diseases and liver cancer.
Oxygen is necessary for mitochondrial respiration; however it can also result in the formation of toxic reactive species that can cause DNA damage. Using cells defective in respiration these authors demonstrate that mitochondria protect a cell from these harmful effects of oxygen.
Mechanoreceptors are important for detecting external stimuli. In this study a putative receptor identified inDrosophilais shown to be potentially important for hearing and the amplification of mechanotransduction.
Plant and bacteria symbiosis in some species results in the coordinate formation of nitrogen fixing nodules and infection of the plant host. Using mutantLotus japonicusplants, Madsen and colleagues have determined the role of 16 different genes in these two processes.