Articles in 2014

Governments that want the natural sciences to deliver more for society need to show greater commitment towards the social sciences and humanities.

Mass drug distribution intended to reduce cases with Ebola-like symptoms.

Nature looks at what the New Year holds for science.

From Gradzilla to coffee consumption: the research enterprise quantified for the year to come.

Website where scientists flock to upload manuscripts before peer review has doubled its holdings in six years.

A guide to the popular, free statistics and visualization software that gives scientists control of their own data analysis.

Super-pressure technology could keep γ-ray telescope aloft for 100 days or more around Antarctica.

Water is becoming more scarce as populations increase, potentially leading to conflict. The age of hydro-diplomacy is upon us, says Jan Eliasson.

Researchers aim to set aside differences in search for life on distant spheres.

Scientists call for independent environmental assessment.

A feat achieved for the first time in humans could be a step towards a cure for infertility.

Collective behaviour in animal groups can improve individual perception and decision-making, but the neural mechanisms involved have been hard to access in classic models for these phenomena; here it is shown that Drosophila’s olfactory responses are enhanced in groups of flies, through mechanosensory neuron-dependent touch interactions.

The long elusive mammalian meiosis-specific kinetochore factor has been identified in mice; MEIKIN—which plays an equivalent role to the yeast proteins Spo13 and Moa1—ensures mono-orientation, protects sister chromatid cohesion and recruits the kinase PLK1 to the kinetochores.

Up to half of children with severe developmental disorders of probable genetic origin remain without a genetic diagnosis; here, in a systematic and nationwide study of 1,133 children with severe, undiagnosed developmental disorders, and their parents, exome sequencing and array-based detection of chromosomal rearrangements reveals novel genes causing developmental disorders, increasing the proportion of children that can now be diagnosed to 31%.

The full complement of transcriptional regulators that affect synthesis of the plant secondary cell wall remains largely undetermined; here, the network of protein–DNA interactions controlling secondary cell wall synthesis of Arabidopsis thaliana is determined, showing that gene expression is regulated by a series of feed-forward loops to ensure that the secondary cell wall is deposited at the right time and in the right place.

The integrative analysis of epigenetic footprints along consecutive stages of neural progenitors derived from human ES cells reveals regulatory mechanisms that orchestrate stage-specific differentiation.

Lineage-tracing experiments identify a rare, undifferentiated population of quiescent cells in the mouse distal lung that are activated through a Notch signalling pathway to repair the epithelium after bleomycin- or influenza-mediated injury; inappropriate Notch signalling may be a major contributor to failed regeneration within the lungs of patients with chronic lung disease.

Convalescent plasma therapy is trialled to fight Ebola, but could also be used for new and emerging pathogens.

Top medical journals filter out poor papers but often reject future citation champions.

Footage from German and Italian labs makes its way to television reports.