Perspectives

The 4D Nucleome Network aims to map the spatial and dynamic organization of the human and mouse genomes to gain insight into the structure and biological functions of the nucleus.

The human microbiome is a tension between microbes evolving to compete within the host ecosystem, and hosts trying to keep them under control.

The current and expected environmental consequences of built dams and proposed dam constructions in the Amazon basin are explored with the help of a Dam Environmental Vulnerability Index.

A review of mineral exploration data and demand forecasts suggests that new international governance links are needed to ensure efficient and responsible future sourcing of minerals for sustainable development.

The objective of the Paris climate agreement is to limit global-average temperature increase to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to further pursue limiting it to 1.5 degrees Celsius; here, the adequacy of the national plans submitted in preparation for this agreement is assessed, and it is concluded that substantial enhancement or over-delivery on these plans is required to have a reasonable chance of achieving the Paris climate objective.

This work highlights the critical challenges in experimental design and interpretation due to important combinatorial effects of host and microbial genes, and calls for the development of minimal reporting requirements to improve the interpretation and reproducibility of experimental biology.

The potential of soils to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions has not been exploited; here we discuss and recommend research and technology developments to implement mitigation practices.

Targets for reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide are related to regional changes in climate extremes rather than to changes in global mean temperature, in order to convey their urgency better to individual countries.

Careful management of nitrogen fertilizer usage is required to ensure world food security while limiting environmental degradation; an analysis of historical nitrogen use efficiency reveals socio-economic factors and technological innovations that have influenced a range of past national trends and that suggest ways to improve global food production and environmental stewardship by 2050.

Instead of containing stable and chemically unique ‘humic substances’, as has been widely accepted, soil organic matter is a mixture of progressively decomposing organic compounds; this has broad implications for soil science and its applications.

Soil biodiversity sustains human health and its loss can be mitigated by sustainable management.

Formal criteria must be met to define a new human-driven epoch; the geological evidence appears to do so, with 1610 and 1964 both likely to satisfy the requirements for the start of the Anthropocene.

Acceleration in discovery of rare genetic variants possibly linked with disease may mean an increased risk of false-positive reports of causality; this Perspective proposes guidelines to distinguish disease-causing sequence variants from the many potentially functional variants in a human genome, and to assess confidence in their pathogenicity, and highlights priority areas for development.

Developments in quantum cryptography show that it is possible to protect secrets — from those with superior technology, those who profess to provide our security and even those who manipulate us without our knowledge — under surprisingly weak assumptions.

A checklist of criteria to determine the readiness of high-throughput ‘omics’-based tests for guiding patient therapy in clinical trials is discussed; the checklist, developed by the US National Cancer Institute in collaboration with additional scientists with relevant expertise, provides a framework to evaluate the strength of evidence for a test and outlines practical issues to consider before using the test in a clinical setting, with an aim to avoid premature advancement of omics-based tests in clinical trials.