Volume 497 Issue 7448, 9 May 2013

Federal regulators could learn much from California’s low-carbon fuel programme.

Confidence is rising among scientists defending animal research. It should be encouraged.

The country's air-pollution crisis offers a lesson in the power of civil society, says Qiang Wang.

The week in science: Somali famine death toll estimated, mental disorders redefined, and coronavirus cases on the rise.

Obama boosts ‘stockpile stewardship’ funds at energy labs.

Three projects seek to track changes in Atlantic overturning circulation currents.

Russia and Qatar prepare to dominate market as gas price inflation puts researchers under pressure.

University finds evidence of fakery in Jamaican dance data.

Yaniv Erlich shows how research participants can be identified from 'anonymous' DNA.

Prosthetic arms are getting ever more sophisticated. Now they just need a sense of touch.

Researchers trying to work out whether global warming will cause more wars need to stop fighting and work together, urges Andrew R. Solow.

Lawrence D. Burns explains how networks of driverless, shared cars will revolutionize motoring.

Draconian access requirements are squandering the potential of imaging technology to advance human palaeontology, cautions Jean-Jacques Hublin.

Melvin Konner sorts through a philosopher's box of tools for the musing mind.

Felice Frankel relishes an inspired handbook on the art and science of picturing data.

Daniel Cressey tours scientists and artists who are showcasing elusive environmental shifts.

The elusive pear shapes of certain nuclei, which are challenging to predict theoretically, have at last been measured precisely. Two experts offer their views on what the results mean for nuclear physics and particle physics. See Article p.199

Detection of the trace neutral fraction of hydrogen gas that stretches between the nearby Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies has allowed resolved spectral imaging of this elusive intergalactic medium. See Letter p.224

At last, the crystal structure is revealed for the catalytically active mTOR kinase enzyme, a master regulator of cell growth. The structure indicates a gatekeeper mechanism that controls substrate access to the active site. See Article p.217

In a finding that could have implications for vaccine design, memory immune cells at mucosal surfaces have been shown to respond to encounters with pathogens by issuing signals that recruit other memory cells to the site.

Fusion of muscle cells called myoblasts underlies the generation and maintenance of skeletal muscle throughout an animal's life. Emerging data indicate that cell death acts as a signal to enhance these processes in mammals. See Letter p.263

Inflammation-activated signalling pathways in the brain's hypothalamus control the production of ageing-related hormones. This finding provides a link between inflammation, stress responses and systemic ageing. See Article p.211

An experimental study of certain short-lived isotopes of radon and radium has found clear octupole deformation in the nuclei of the latter — that is, these nuclei are pear-shaped; the results enable discrimination between differing theoretical approaches to octupole correlations.

Motor patterns underlying the rodent exploratory behaviours whisking and sniffing are coordinated by respiratory centres in the ventral medulla; a distinct region in the ventral medulla provides rhythmic input to the facial motor neurons that drive scanning by the vibrissae, and input from the pre-Bötzinger complex coordinates whisking with sniffing and basal breathing.

Activation of IKK-β and NF-κB in the hypothalamus of mice is shown to accelerate the ageing process, leading to shortened lifespan; inhibition of hypothalamic or brain IKK-β and NF-κB delays ageing and increases lifespan, and NF-κB activation results in a reduction of GnRH levels, whereas NF-κB inhibition leads to GnRH-induced neurogenesis to mediate ageing retardation.

Co-crystal structures of a number of complexes involving truncated mammalian target of rapamycin, a phosphoinositide 3-kinase-related protein kinase, reveal an intrinsically active kinase conformation and show how rapamycin–FKBP12 directly blocks substrate recruitment to the kinase domain.

About half of the gas stretching between the galaxies M31 and M33 is shown to be composed of clouds, with the rest distributed in an extended, diffuse component.

The fair-sampling loophole is closed in a Bell inequality violation experiment with entangled photons, making the photon the first physical system for which all the main loopholes have been closed.

The non-Fermi-liquid regime that emerges in MnSi under high pressures displays a Hall signal that can be traced to topologically non-trivial spin configurations at low pressures — a well-understood skyrmion lattice — empirically suggesting a route towards a breakdown of Fermi liquid theory in pure metals.

A model of the four main outlet glaciers that drain the Greenland Ice Sheet predicts that they will contribute 19 to 30 millimetres to sea-level rise by 2200 in a mid-range future warming scenario, and 29 to 49 millimetres in a more extreme scenario.

M-CSF, a myeloid cytokine released during infection and inflammation, instructs myeloid lineage fate in single haematopoietic stem cells by directly inducing PU.1, a known myeloid lineage master regulator; this shows that specific cytokines can act directly on haematopoietic stem cells to instruct a change of cell identity.

This study shows that Dis3l2 is the 3′–5′ exonuclease that mediates the degradation of uridylated precursor let-7 microRNA; this is the first physiological RNA substrate identified for this new exonuclease, which causes the Perlman syndrome of fetal overgrowth and Wilms’ tumour susceptibility when mutated.

The neonatal heart has a high regenerative capacity that is lost in adult life; the transcription factor Meis1 has been identified as a relevant proliferative switch for this transition, providing a potential therapeutic target for adult heart regeneration.

The CRISPR/Cas system known to aid bacterial defences by targeting invading DNA can also act to evade eukaryotic defences through a different class of small RNAs downregulating an endogenous immunogenic bacterial lipoprotein.

By using high-throughput sequencing of T-cell receptors, this study shows that thymus-derived regulatory T (T_reg) cells constitute most T_reg cells in all lymphoid and intestinal organs, including the colon, suggesting that thymic T_reg cells and not induced T_reg cells dominantly control tolerance to the gut’s antigens such as commensal microbiota.

The apoptotic event of phosphatidylserine exposure and its recognition by the receptor BAI1 has an unexpected new role as a signal enhancing mouse myoblast fusion, an insight with relevance to some congenital muscle diseases and muscle injury treatments.

The crystal structure of an inward-facing, nucleotide-free folate energy-coupling factor transporter from Lactobacillus brevis at a resolution of 3 Å suggests a transport model that involves a substantial conformational change of the substrate-specific binding protein, FolT.

The crystal structure of a nucleotide-free energy-coupling factor transporter from Lactobacillus brevis at a resolution of 3.5 Å suggests a plausible working model for the transport cycle of such transporters.

Thomas M. Schofield details the stages on his path to a career in research.

Canadian government urged to increase support for scientists.

US adjuncts need to know whether they qualify for Obamacare, says education union.

Report calls for schemes to boost student exchanges across Europe.

Lack of a PhD has not hindered researcher's zeal for resurrecting the extinct passenger pigeon.

How to save the Universe.