Volume 499 Issue 7459, 25 July 2013

In the fight to combat antibiotic resistance, researchers should strengthen their advocacy.

As it faces a glut of unemployed graduates despite labour shortages, China should end its worship of qualifications over skills, argues Qiang Wang.

The week in science: Elusive tar drop caught on film, Alan Turing set for UK pardon, and plan for Antarctic reserves fails.

Region abandoned owing to stalled approval process.

Researchers race to track spread of coronavirus.

Initiative aims to clarify description of mesenchymal cells.

Studies refute the existence of very small embryonic-like cells endorsed by the Vatican.

US physicists hope to rejuvenate a classic technology to support key neutrino experiments.

Experts say Shanghai sea wall will cripple wetland habitat.

Health officials are watching in horror as bacteria become resistant to powerful carbapenem antibiotics — one of the last drugs on the shelf.

Microbiologists are trying to work out whether use of antibiotics on farms is fuelling the human epidemic of drug-resistant bacteria.

Methane released by melting permafrost will have global impacts that must be better modelled, say Gail Whiteman, Chris Hope and Peter Wadhams.

Ben Sheldon applauds a life of the schoolmaster who broke new ground on Darwin's finches and speciation.

Daniel Cressey delves into a sceptics' history of monster hunters and their mythical quarry.

Dane Maxwell is the specialist in Hawaiian traditional culture advising the US National Solar Observatory and its partners as they build the world's largest solar observatory atop Haleakala on the island of Maui. He talks about the sacred mountain, known as the house of the Sun, and local responses to the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST).

Chemist who pioneered mathematical methods to solve crystal structures.

An outbreak of avian H7N9 influenza in humans was reported in early 2013. Structural and infection studies are helping to reveal how these viruses can adapt to infect, and potentially transmit in, new species. See Letters p.496 & p.500

Whenever a medium's dispersion and nonlinear properties appear hand in hand, particle-like entities known as solitons can form. These have now been observed in a gas of strongly interacting fermionic atoms. See Article p.426

Activation of the signalling molecule SHP2 is implicated in driving several cancers. In a newly described class of bone-progenitor cells, however, it seems that the protein acts as a tumour suppressor. See Letter p.491

Observations obtained by the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile's Atacama Desert have revealed properties of the cold molecular phase of the wind that is being blown out of a nearby starburst galaxy. See Letter p.450

The first crystal structures of class B G-protein-coupled receptors have been solved. They reveal features that might inform drug-development strategies for diseases ranging from osteoporosis to diabetes. See Articles p.438 & p.444

Fabrication techniques developed for graphene research allow the disassembly of many layered crystals (so-called van der Waals materials) into individual atomic planes and their reassembly into designer heterostructures, which reveal new properties and phenomena.

Solitons — solitary waves that maintain their shape as they propagate — in a strongly interacting superfluid of fermionic lithium atoms are found to have an effective mass more than 50 times larger than the theoretically predicted value, a sign of strong quantum fluctuations.

Uncultivated archaeal and bacterial cells of major uncharted branches of the tree of life are targeted and sequenced using single-cell genomics; this enables resolution of many intra- and inter-phylum-level relationships, uncovers unexpected metabolic features that challenge established boundaries between the three domains of life, and leads to the proposal of two new superphyla.

Approximately 30% of known drugs target G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), but all the published structures of GPCRs to date are from the class A family of GPCRs; here the first X-ray crystal structure of a member of the class B family of GPCRs, the human corticotropin-releasing factor receptor 1, is determined.

The X-ray crystal structure of the human glucagon receptor, a potential drug target for type 2 diabetes, offers a structural basis for molecular recognition by class B G-protein-coupled receptors.

Observations of the galaxy NGC 253 show that the cool molecular wind from the central starburst region limits star-formation activity and the final stellar content.

The age of the representative Martian meteorite NWA 5298 is determined using spatially correlated electron-beam nanostructural and uranium–lead isotopic measurements of microminerals, resolving a paradox of different age interpretations for the evolution of Martian crust.

Electronic sensor foils only 2 μm thick are extremely light, 27-fold lighter than office paper, durable and flexible and conform to curvilinear surfaces for many innovative applications.

Long-term time series of surface ocean-atmosphere heat fluxes show that the mid-latitude North Atlantic ocean may influence atmospheric variability on multidecadal timescales.

A modelling study of the mechanisms of extinction within ecological networks reveals how even a small reduction in the population size of a species may lead to the loss of its ecological functionality—that is, to its functional extinction—by causing extinction of other organisms in the food web, often only indirectly connected to the focal species, revealing the value of conservation strategies that target a broader ecological network.

High-coverage sequencing of 79 (wild and captive) individuals representing all six non-human great ape species has identified over 88 million single nucleotide polymorphisms providing insight into ape genetic variation and evolutionary history and enabling comparison with human genetic diversity.

In monkeys performing a visual spatial attention task, stimulation of neurons in the lateral geniculate nucleus and recording of shock-evoked responses from monosynaptically connected primary-visual-cortex neurons shows that attention enhances neuronal communication by increasing the efficacy of presynaptic input, increasing synchronous responses, and by decreasing redundant signals.

Vascularized, functional human liver is generated from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) by transplantation of liver buds created in vitro (iPSC-LBs); hepatic cells self-organized into three-dimensional iPSC-LBs, and human vasculatures in iPSC-LB transplants became functional by connecting to host vessels, stimulating maturation of iPSC-LBs into tissue resembling adult liver and performing liver-specific functions.

Here, mTORC1-dependent lipogenic programming is shown to be important for regulatory T-cell function, in part through the upregulation of the effector molecules CTLA4 and ICOS.

Deletion of Ptpn11 in a newly defined mesenchymal progenitor population in the perichondral groove of Ranvier leads to metachondromatosis by increasing Indian hedgehog expression and activating hedgehog signalling, a process that can be reversed with the use of hedgehog pathway inhibitors.

An examination of the receptor-binding properties of the H7N9 virus, which has recently emerged in China, shows that the virus has acquired the ability to bind the human α-2,6-linked sialic acid receptor while retaining binding to the avian α-2,3-linked receptor, and therefore does not have the preference for human versus avian receptors characteristic of pandemic viruses.

An initial characterization of the receptor-binding properties of the novel avian influenza A (H7N9) shows that the virus has acquired the ability to bind human receptors while retaining the ability to bind avian receptors; the virus infects epithelial cells in the human lower respiratory tract and type II pneumocytes in the alveoli, and hypercytokinaemia was seen in infected patients.

Tumours are made up of disparate cell populations that often resist treatment — but understanding this heterogeneity could provide ways to improve chemotherapy.

Scientists willing to take a risk are setting up individual research operations in rented lab space.

EU aims to ease migration barriers for researchers and students.

Follow-up study aims to provide crucial longitudinal data.

Flaws in papers have become less likely to slip through, says study.

The path to redemption.