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No one died as a result of Japan's latest nuclear incident and environmental damage seem have been mostly avoided. But is this testimony to successful plant design or a warning of impending disaster?
A project that gives Congolese pygmies new ways to tell logging companies about the trees that are important to them, and their own radio station to discuss community issues, is really putting their interests on the map, says Michael Hopkin.
Part of The Simpsons' greatness is a willingness to find the humour in absolutely everything — including science. Executive producer Al Jean, the show's head writer and a Harvard mathematics graduate, talks to Nature about how to get a laugh out of Euler's formula.
Alan Krensky has been put in charge of a controversial new office responsible for charting the progress of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. Meredith Wadman catches up with him in his first few days on the job.
Things are heating up in the Amazon as the burning season begins. In Brazil, a 30-year-old study of forest fragments is itself threatened by farming, logging and hunting, say William Laurance and Regina Luizão.
In their battle for survival, soil microorganisms produce a vast arsenal of toxic molecules. One such toxin contains a unique sequence of atoms, and its biosynthesis includes some unexpected steps.
T helper-17 cells, which are involved in immune responses, arise from a pool of precursor cells. It emerges that their differentiation is partly mediated by the IL-21 protein, which originates from the helper cells themselves.
The spectrum of stellar radiation available to an organism is altered by the atmosphere and water on the planet it inhabits. Study of this relationship can outline the limits to photosynthesis.
Origami, the ancient Japanese art of paper folding, is mathematically deeper than it looks. Delving into its complexities allows the construction of elaborate and useful structures from simple, flat templates.
In early embryos, a concentration gradient of the Bicoid protein affects pattern formation. Studies of living embryos reveal a surprising level of accuracy in the Bicoid gradient. But is it accurate enough?
In multiple sclerosis, the immune system attacks 'self' tissues. Ten years after the discovery of one target of this autoimmunity, work with mice identifies it as a guardian protein produced in response to inflammation.
Forces determine how particles move and behave. But so can symmetry, and exchange symmetry can be used to control the interactions of ultracold atoms. This could be a big step towards practical quantum computation.
Damaged or foreign DNA stimulates immune responses by inducing the production of interferon proteins. New evidence indicates that this response is mediated by a cytosolic DNA sensor known as DAI.
A recurrent mutation found in the akt1 gene has been identified in breast, ovarian and colorectal tumours. The crystal structure of the mutant protein is determined and it is found that the protein displays in increased plasma membrane localization and functions as an oncogene in vitro and in a mouse model for leukaemia.
A new, transcription-independent function for c-Myc is identified. It is found that c-Myc can bind factors involved in DNA replication, thereby causing DNA damage and affecting cell proliferation. This process may also contribute to oncogenesis.
An optical lattice of double-well potentials is used to isolate and manipulate arrays of paired 87Rb atoms, inducing controlled entangling interactions within each pair. Repeated interchange of spin between atoms occupying different vibrational levels occurs with a coherence time of more than ten milliseconds. This observation demonstrates the essential component of a quantum gate important for quantum computation.
A carbon nanocomposite paper-like material is demonstrated that has superior performance in stiffness, strength and flexibility. This graphene oxide paper is based on nanoscale graphene oxide sheets that are interlocked and tiled together in a near-parallel fashion.
A study that compares observed changes in precipitation over land averaged across latitudinal bands with changes simulated by climate models finds that human activity has had a detectable influence on the latitudinal pattern of precipitation change. Such human-induced changes contributed to the increase in precipitation in the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes and the decrease in precipitation in the Northern Hemisphere tropics and subtropics that occurred over the twentieth century.
Results from the PESCADOR seismic experiment in the southern Gulf of California observe large differences in rifting style and magmatism over short lateral distances, concluding that variation in mantle 'fertility', rather than temperature, most likely accounts for the observed range in magmatism.
Variations in expression of the gene ORMDL3 were found to be associated with development of childhood asthma, suggesting this gene should be examined in more patient groups.
The small heat shock protein αB-crystallin is a major immune target in multiple sclerosis patients. This paper provides evidence that αB-crystallin is an anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective factor and that the immune response against it promotes disease by limiting its availability.
Interleukin (IL)-17 expressing helper T cells (TH17) have recently been identified as a effector subset involved in tissue inflammation. In this paper, it is shown that the cytokine IL-21 is induced downstream of IL-6 by a STAT3 dependent mechanism and participates in inducing TH17 cell differentiation in an autocrine and ROR-γ dependent manner
TH17 cells are a recently defined subset of pro-inflammatory helper T cells that are induced by the cytokines IL-6 and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β. TH17 can also be induced by an alternative pathway in which TGF-β cooperates with IL-21.
The closest homologue of GNOM in Arabidopsis thaliana, GNOM-LIKE1 (GNL1) performs the regulation of endoplasmic reticulum–Golgi transport in plants.
GNL1 localizes to and acts primarily at Golgi stacks, regulating COPI-coated vesicle formation. GNOM can functionally substitute for GNL1, but not vice versa. Hence the ARF–GEFs of the GBF1 class perform a conserved role in the endoplasmic reticulum–Golgi trafficking which is done by GNOM and GNL1 in plants
In animals, GBF proteins function at the Golgi and in endosome recycling. Whereas in plants, the Arabidopsis thaliana GBF protein called GNOM is thought to only act at recycling endosomes. A related Arabidopsis GBF protein, GNOM-LIKE1 (GNL1), functions at the Golgi and is also required for internalization of the auxin efflux carrier PIN2 from the plasma membrane in the presence of brefeldin A.
BAK1, a plant leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase, is involved in plant hormone signalling. This protein is now ascribed another function, it is involved in bacterial flagellin-triggered defence responses.
DNA is a potent activator of immune responses during infection and tissue damage. This paper identifies the cytoplasmic DNA sensor as the interferon-inducible protein DLM1/ZBP1 which they have renamed DAI.
