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Coney Island Polar Bear Clubs New Years Day swim on 1 January 2016. Its like summer out there�, said one participant. Future climate change is projected to render many parts of the world increasingly inhospitable to human habitation. Why then, has it been so difficult to marshal broad public support for climate mitigation? Patrick Egan and Megan Mullin use population-weighted analysis of US weather conditions to show that most Americans are now experiencing milder winters, without substantially more uncomfortable summers or other negative changes. Egan and Mullin suggest that current weather patterns are serving as a poor source of motivation for the US population to demand a policy response to climate change. Things could change though. Projections of future US weather indicate that conditions will probably worsen, so public concern may rise. Cover: Reuters/Andrew Kelly
China, with its freedom from the ethical pressures experienced by researchers elsewhere, is poised to become the go-to country for work on non-human primates.
Data transparency is key to accounting for how local governments and the private sector are contributing to global emissions reduction, say Angel Hsu and colleagues.
Pivotal moments in the history of academic refereeing have occurred at times when the public status of science was being renegotiated, explains Alex Csiszar.
Three studies investigate the bacteria in the guts of malnourished children and find that, when this microbiota is transferred into mice, supplements of certain microbes or sugars from human breast milk can restore normal growth.
American attitudes to changing weather, and therefore to climate change, have been analysed on the basis of US migration patterns since the 1970s. The findings have implications for the success of global climate policies. See Letter p.357
The discovery of a modified version of the base adenine, known as N6-methyladenine, in mouse DNA puts paid to the theory that cytosine derivatives are the only modified bases in mammals. See Article p.329
Structures of the serotonin transporter protein SERT in complex with two different antidepressants shed light on how these drugs act, and point to possible targets for future drug development. See Article p.334
The intracellular NOD1 and NOD2 receptors have been found to activate innate inflammation when a condition known as endoplasmic reticulum stress is induced by bacterial infection. See Letter p.394
Bone marrow endothelial cells have dual roles in the regulation of haematopoietic stem cell maintenance and in the trafficking of blood cells between the bone marrow and the blood circulatory system; this study shows that these different functions are regulated by distinct types of endothelial blood vessels with different permeability properties, affecting the metabolic state of their neighbouring stem cells.
The prevalence of N6-adenine DNA methylation in mammals was previously unknown; this study reveals that N6-methyladenine can be found in mouse embryonic stem cells, especially at subfamilies of young (<1.5 million years old) LINE-1 transposons.
X-ray crystal structures of the human serotonin transporter (SERT) bound to the antidepressants (S)-citalopram or paroxetine show that the antidepressants lock the protein in an outward-open conformation, and directly block serotonin from entering its binding site; the structures define the mechanism of antidepressant action in SERT and pave the way for future drug design.
The galaxy NGC 1600 is found to contain an enormous black hole of 17 billion solar masses—the first black hole of such a size to be found in an environment outside the richest clusters of galaxies.
Scanned Josephson tunnelling microscopy is used to image Cooper pair tunnelling from a superconducting microscope tip to the quantum condensate of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x, thus revealing the spatially modulated density of Cooper pairs predicted from several theories of the cuprate pseudogap phase.
For adsorption processes, gas uptake usually increases with increasing pressure; however, here the phenomenon of negative gas adsorption is demonstrated in a metal–organic framework, which undergoes a sudden hysteretic structural deformation and pore contraction, releasing guest molecules.
Here, a method is described by which to generate all possible stereoisomers of certain amino alcohols—a protocol that should see use in drug discovery and development, where it is important to determine the differing effects of stereoisomeric drug candidates.
Population-weighted analysis of US weather conditions shows that the nation’s weather has generally become more pleasant since 1974, possibly explaining the lack of broad public support for action on climate change; projections of future US weather indicate that conditions will probably worsen.
A tremor source on the San Andreas Fault produced an unusual sequence of low-frequency earthquakes until it was disrupted by the 2004 Parkfield earthquake; the peculiar recurrence pattern has now been modelled, showing that such slip behaviour occurs when the tremor asperity size is close to the critical nucleation size of earthquakes.
New excavations in Liang Bua, where the remains of the ‘Hobbit’ (Homo floresiensis) were discovered, show that this diminutive human species used this cave between 190,000 and 50,000 years ago, and not until as recently as 12,000 years ago as previously interpreted; modern humans have been present in Australia since around 50,000 years ago, so whether Homo floresiensis survived long enough to witness the arrival of modern humans is still an open question.
Two-photon calcium imaging and electron microscopy were used to explore the relationship between structure and function in mouse primary visual cortex, showing that layer 2/3 neurons are connected in subnetworks, that pyramidal neurons with similar orientation selectivity preferentially form synapses with each other, and that neurons with similar orientation tuning form larger synapses; this study exemplifies functional connectomics as a powerful method for studying the organizational logic of cortical networks.
Circadian rhythms in the intracellular concentration of magnesium ions act as a cell-autonomous timekeeping component to determine key clock properties and tune cellular metabolism both in a human cell line and in a unicellular alga.
Notch signalling in endothelial cells of the bone induces change in the capillaries and mesenchymal stem cells of the environment to support haematopoietic stem cell amplification.
The asymmetric distribution of mTORC1 and c-Myc in the first division of daughter cells of activated CD8 T cells affects the proliferation, metabolism and differentiation potential of their progeny.
A novel link between the unfolded protein response and NOD1/2 innate immune signalling, showing that NOD1/2 are required for ER-stress-induced IL-6 production in response to infection with Brucella abortus.
The proteasome-associated enzyme USP14 regulates protein degradation by removing ubiquitin from proteins; here it is shown that USP14 removes ubiquitin chains from in vitro generated cyclin B conjugates en bloc and within milliseconds, before the proteasome has a chance to initiate degradation, and proceeds until a single chain remains.