Articles in 2012

As models of authorship and collaboration change in the digital age, we must rely on trust to filter the products of research, says Jerome Ravetz.

Cocaine use causes lasting changes in behaviour by altering the strength of connections between neurons. The finding that these changes can be reversed in mice suggests strategies that could be used to treat drug addiction. See Letter p.71

A view of robotics reveals ethics has not kept up with technology, finds Braden Allenby.

Where political leadership on climate change is lacking, scientists must be prepared to stick their heads above the parapet.

Researchers go back to basics in search for new approach to overcoming genital herpes.

Female scientists hoping to become entrepreneurs face obstacles — but there are organizations that can help.

Tightrope walkers use poles to keep their balance. A study reveals that agama lizards use their tails much like balancing poles as they leap through the air — and that some dinosaurs may have done the same. See Letter p.181

Temporal cloaking hides an event in time from being detected; here this is achieved by speeding up one end of a probe beam and slowing down the other to create a ‘time hole’ and to close it afterwards so that the signal amplitude of an event is much reduced.

Protective efficacy of novel vaccine candidates in rhesus monkeys opens new paths for the development of an HIV-1 vaccine.

Simulations reproduce previously unexplained features of Titan’s methane cycle, attributing them to atmospheric instabilities and cold-trapping of methane in the polar regions.

FBXO11 is identified as the F-box protein that normally targets BCL6 for degradation, and FBXO11 deletions or mutations that prevent this function and thus stabilize BCL6 are found in B-cell lymphomas.

Five experiments as hard as finding the Higgs.

The Arctic Oscillation, rather than the Beaufort High, is the main factor affecting the freshening of the Arctic Ocean since the 1990s.

Comparison of real lizards with a robotic version and a dinosaur model shows that lizards use their tails to control body pitch in aerial motion by means of transfer of angular momentum from the body to the tail.

Genome-wide mapping of oestrogen receptor-α binding sites in primary breast cancer tissues shows that oestrogen receptor binding is dynamically regulated and that the expression of genes near differentially bound regulatory regions is associated with clinical outcome.

Molecular chirality can be used to control interfacial tension in multi-component mixtures of chiral molecules, and tuning the chirality makes it possible to produce and manipulate self-assembling complex chiral structures.

First placebo-controlled trial of implanted electrodes is positive.

The only known natural example of the material that won last year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry comes from an ancient meteorite.

Nature looks ahead to the key findings and events that may emerge in 2012.

Critics say controversy over publication of mutant-H5N1 research highlights biosecurity weaknesses.