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Although foldable structures have found a widespread use in daily life, for example as popup tents, their mathematical properties have been difficult to describe. Mouthuyet al. here present an analytical model that reproduces quantitatively the shape and buckling behaviour of foldable items.
Osteoblasts and endothelial cells have important roles in bone regeneration. Kim and colleagues identify the protein DJ-1 as an angiogenic and osteogenic signalling molecule involved in the cross-talk between these cells and show that DJ-1 promotes bone regeneration and fracture healing in mice.
Graphene oxide has been proposed as an alternative to precious metals for the catalysis of aerobic oxidative reactions; however, high catalyst loadings are needed. Here a simple base and acid treatment is shown to enhance its catalytic activity for the oxidative coupling of amines under ambient conditions.
The CRT1 gene in Arabidopsis confers effector-triggered immunity. Here Kang et al.show that CRT1 has a broader endonuclease role in plant innate immunity, including basal, non-host and systemic acquired resistance, and becomes partially localized to the nucleus upon immune receptor activation.
Cells must be able to sense and respond to changes in osmotic pressure, which can be lethal. Here, Naguro and colleagues reveal a role for the protein kinase ASK3 in sensing osmotic stress in the mouse kidney and show that ASK3 contributes to the regulation of blood pressure.
Metamaterials can be designed with anisotropy, which tailors their optical properties to enable interesting functionalities. Here, the anisotropy of a Maltese-cross metamaterial is actively controlled by an actuator, allowing for tunable birefringence and dichroism in the terahertz frequency region.
Sub-wavelength structures can be used to convert between light and plasmon polaritons. Genevetet al. design holographic plasmonic interfaces that couple vortex light beams to surface plasmons, allowing them to detect the orbital angular momentum of the beam with a simple silicon photodiode.
Lobopodians include stem-group arthropods and panarthropods, and date back to the early Cambrian. Ou et al. describe specimens of the early Cambrian lobopodian Onychodictyon ferox, revealing new head structures such as modified appendages, eyes, a terminal mouth and a sucking pharynx.
Polymer-based actuators, which deform in response to external stimuli, may advance the understanding of biological movement or realization of soft robotics. Here, Harada et al. report a photo-responsive supramolecular hydrogel that displays expansion–contraction abilities owing to host–guest interactions.
Combination of p- and n-doped graphene is important in optoelectronic applications, but spatially selective doping of graphene is challenging. This work reports large-scale growth of graphene monolayers with spatially modulation doping and built-in single-crystalline p–n junctions.
The coupling of magnetism and ferroelectricity is of relevance for applications such as sensing, but occurs only rarely in bulk materials. The large magnetically induced ferroelectric polarization observed here in CaMn7O12establishes a new approach to achieve a strong magnetoelectric coupling.
In Müllerian mimicry two or more harmful species share a similar appearance for mutual benefit. This study identifies a large Müllerian mimicry complex in North American velvet ants, where 65 species mimic each other through shared colour patterns gained as the result of independent evolution.
Nanowires with sharp interfaces between two different semiconducting materials could lead to useful nanoelectronic and nanophotonic structures. Hocevar et al.develop a method to integrate a gallium arsenide section in silicon nanowires with atomically sharp interfaces and no dislocations.
Luminescent proteins are important tools for biomedical imaging but tend to emit fairly little light. Saito et al.. describe a brighter version of a bioluminescent protein that can visualize intracellular dynamics of various signalling molecules with high spatial and temporal resolution.
The 3D self-assembly of nanocrystals could generate materials with unique optical and electronic properties. Barrowet al. report the DNA-mediated assembly of symmetrical 3D gold tetrahedra, pentamers and hexamers, and elucidate their plasmon modes.
T-bet and GATA3 regulate differentiation of T cells into Th1 or Th2 cell fates, but little is known about their functional interaction outside of the IFNγ and Il4/Il5/Il13 loci. Kanhere et al. map these factors across the genome in human T cells, revealing unappreciated breadth of function and interplay between them.
Endothelin-1 regulates cardiovascular development by acting on neural crest cells. Here endothelin-1-deficient mice are studied, revealing that preotic neural crest cells differentiate into coronary artery smooth muscle cells through endothelin-1-dependent mechanisms.
The mammalian transcription factors Oct4 and Pou2 are implicated in germ cell pluripotency induction and maintenance. Tapia and colleagues find that axolotl Pou2 and Oct4 reprogram mouse and human fibroblasts to a pluripotent state, suggesting ancestral Oct4 and Pou2 gene function is evolutionarily conserved.
Rivers receive more terrestrial carbon than they transport to the ocean, leaving carbon stored along the way. Here, with an estimate of carbon storage in the headwater rivers of the Rocky Mountains, the authors show that broad valley bottoms with old-growth forest store most of the above- and below-ground carbon.
Free-electron lasers enable diffractive imaging of single nanostructures, but algorithms, such as correlation analyses, are needed to determine their diffraction volume from accumulated data. Starodub et al.present such a method for X-ray diffractive imaging of nanometre-scale polystyrene dimers.