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Working memory is vital for individuals to carry out everyday activities. Fougnie and colleagues ask subjects to perform memory tasks and find that the precision of working memory varies independently across trials and items, which is inconsistent with the assumptions of standard models of memory.
Mineral cave deposits—speleothems—provide a record of past rainfall changes. This study presents a speleothem data-set from southwestern Oregon, revealing winter climate change over the past 13,000 years with abrupt transitions between warm-dry and cold-wet regimes influenced by solar forcing.
Multiple sclerosis is characterized by the activation of microglia cells. Davalos et al. investigate the early stages of neuroinflammation in mice and reveal that the plasma protein fibrinogen induces microglial clustering around the brain vasculature, which facilitates lesion formation and focal axonal damage.
Proton exchange membrane fuel cells are good potential power sources for mobile devices but require very pure H2 production at low temperatures. Yu et al. report the use of a CuZnGaOx catalyst capable of producing CO-free H2from methanol via a non-syngas direct steam-reforming route at 150–200 °C.
Optical activity resulting from electronic transitions in chiral inorganic materials is rare. Liu et al. report the synthesis of amino acid-derived amphiphile templated chiral TiO2fibres, which exhibit an optical response to polarized light resulting from valence to conduction band electronic transitions.
The Strecker synthesis is an established method for the production of α-amino acids. Here, a scalable catalytic asymmetric Strecker reaction is reported that allows one-pot synthesis of enantiomerically pure α-amino acids.
Field-effect transistors based on semiconductor nanocrystals are promising candidates for low-cost, flexible electronics. This work demonstrates fabrication on flexible substrates and low-voltage operations of integrated circuits based on nanocrystal transistors, including amplifiers and ring oscillators.
Integrated photonic devices rely on single-mode waveguides, as inter-mode coupling prevents multimode waveguides from being efficiently bent for on-chip schemes. Using transformation optics, Gabrielliet al. overcome this limitation and show a multimode waveguide bend with minimal inter-mode coupling.
Understanding charge transport and the fundamental limits on conductivity in polymer semiconductors is important for improving device performance. Wanget al. report a transport regime close to band-like conduction and the observation of the Hall effect in an electrochemically-doped polymer semiconductor.
Metamaterial cloaks can manipulate light to effectively hide objects from view, but they mostly rely on rigid structures that are tailored specifically for the chosen object. Shin et al.demonstrate an elastic, smart metamaterial cloak that can adapt to a range of deformations and object sizes.
Vascular endothelial-cadherin is a junctional protein implicated in the control of vascular permeability. Orsenigo et al.find that vascular endothelial-cadherin is phosphorylated in veins but not in arteries of mice, and that this sensitizes vessels to rapid changes in permeability in response to inflammatory mediators.
Crystalline material may be stabilized by complementary DNA interactions but its subsequent capacity for structural transformation is poorly understood. Here, by tuning the DNA handshaking between two sets of nanoparticles, a Martensitic transformation within the binary colloidal crystals is observed.
Although cellulose is abundant in the biosphere, its potential as a source of biofuel depends on finding efficient ways to degrade it. Blifernez-Klassen et al. show that phototrophic microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtiican metabolize cellulose, indicating its potential as a catalyst for biofuel production.
Chaotic dynamics can arise in quantum systems as well as classical ones, leading to its own interesting phenomena. Using an all-optical approach, Lemos et al. study the quantum-kicked harmonic oscillator and its nonlinear dynamics, controlling and mapping the transition into quantum chaotic behaviour.
The cre-loxP system is widely used for the generation of conditional gene knockouts. Here Heffner et al.systematically characterize cre recombinase activity in tissues of embryonic and adult cre-driver mouse strains and provide an online resource for scientists.
Controlled nanoscale reduction of graphene oxide could aid the development of graphene-based electronics. Here, a relatively mild technique is reported that uses a platinum-coated atomic force microscope tip to catalyse the reduction of graphene oxide to graphene.
Integration of different compounds with silica is important for developing small-scale optical devices, yet the high temperatures needed to build silica waveguides impose limits. Here, a room-temperature, self-assembly approach is shown, which produces long microwires containing nanodiamonds or organic dyes.
Control of spin statistics by spin injection from ferromagnetic electrodes has been shown to achieve only weak effects in organic optoelectronic devices. Wang et al.use instead polarization of spins after injection, at high magnetic fields and low temperatures, achieving a 50% change in device characteristics.
Metamaterials using split-ring resonators can display negative refractive index, yet the same effect for closed rings has remained elusive. Kanté et al.overcome this by using closely spaced coupled nanorings that exploit symmetry breaking to show broadband negative refractive index at optical frequencies.