Volume 544 Issue 7650, 20 April 2017

Cutting the budget for applied research in foreign aid would make the United States less competitive.​

Online data sharing through wearable devices motivates people to do more exercise.

The best way to encourage conservation is to share our success stories, not to write obituaries for the planet, says Nancy Knowlton.

The week in science: 14–20 April 2017.

Threat of a far-right president galvanizes researchers to put politics first.

Chemists will navigate molecular wagons along a tiny golden track.

A better understanding of this pedestrian problem could lead to improved surgeons’ knots and fibres.

Conservative academics face a growing tension between their politics and the liberal atmosphere on many US campuses.

Partnerships see some success in eliminating illnesses, but challenges, such as access to treatments, remain.

A simple process seems to explain how massive genomes stay organized. But no one can agree on what powers it.

Beth Simone Noveck urges researchers to work out how technology can improve public institutions.

Without data on how artificial intelligence is affecting jobs, policymakers will fly blind into the next industrial revolution, warn Tom Mitchell and Erik Brynjolfsson.

Anne Harrington savours Robert Sapolsky's tome on humanity's vacillations.

Barbara Kiser reviews five of the week's best science picks.

There's some deviant thinking behind perception, discovers Douwe Draaisma.

Experimental physicist key to the detection of gravitational waves.

It emerges that a fungal infection killing salamanders has many potential reservoirs, and that environmentally resistant spores transmit disease. Urgent interventions are needed to save susceptible populations from extinction. See Letter p.353

Graphene has been used as a 'transparent' layer that allows single crystals of a material to be grown on a substrate, and then lifted off — in much the same way that baking paper lets cakes be removed easily from tins. See Letter p.340

Molecules that inhibit the synthesis of the ataxin 2 protein can ameliorate the effects of two neurodegenerative diseases in mouse models, raising hopes for the success of this approach in clinical trials. See Letters p.362 & p.367

Bacterial residents of the human body often provide beneficial effects, but some can be harmful. The action of gut bacteria has been found to be tightly linked to neurodegeneration in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease.

Surface lakes and streams are forming on Antarctica's ice shelves, making them susceptible to instability and possible collapse. But rivers could mitigate this effect by efficiently exporting meltwater to the ocean. See Letters p.344 & p.349

The structure of the angiotensin II type 2 receptor reveals a potential mode of self-blocking action. This might explain its lack of signalling, and opens up avenues of investigation into its function and role in disease. See Article p.327

Frequent dispersal and short-lived local transmission clusters fuelled the 2013–2016 Ebola virus epidemic in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Postsynaptic synaptotagmin-1 and synaptotagmin-7 mediate calcium-dependent exocytosis of AMPA receptors during long-term potentiation.

The biosynthesis of oxetanocin A involves OxsB, a B₁₂-dependent S-adenosylmethionine radical enzyme, which catalyses an unusual ring contraction of a 2′-deoxyadenosine phosphate.

Crystal structures of two complexes of the angiotensin II receptor AT₂R with distinct tightly bound ligands reveal an active-like state of the receptor, in which helix VIII adopts a non-canonical position that blocks binding of G proteins and β-arrestins.

An Earth-sized planet is observed orbiting a nearby star within the liquid-water, habitable zone, the atmospheric composition of which could be determined from future observations.

Using stereolithography 3D printers, a silica nanocomposite is shaped and then fused to produce non-porous, very smooth, highly transparent fused silica glass components.

Conventional epitaxy is of limited application, but by placing a monolayer of graphene between the substrate and the so-called epilayer grown on top, its scope can be substantially extended.

On the Nansen Ice Shelf in Antarctica, a surface river that terminates in a waterfall can drain the ice shelf’s entire annual meltwater in just one week, potentially preventing the meltwater from hastening the catastrophic collapse of the shelf.

Surface water and its drainage across the surface of Antarctic ice is shown to be widespread, large-scale and to have persisted for decades.

The authors investigated the disease ecology of the fast-spreading fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans in fire salamanders; on the basis of their research, they call for Europe-wide monitoring systems and conservation strategies for threatened species.

Analysis of calcified dental plaque (calculus) specimens from Neanderthals shows marked regional differences in diet and microbiota and evidence of self-medication in one individual, and identifies prevalent microorganisms and their divergence between Neanderthals and modern humans.

Antisense oligonucleotides against ATXN2 improved motor neuron function and restored firing frequency in cerebellar Purkinje cells in mouse models of spinocerebellar ataxia type 2.

A decrease in ataxin-2 levels leads to a reduction in the aggregation of TDP-43, markedly increased lifespan and improved motor function in a transgenic mouse model of TDP-43 proteinopathy.

Dependence on exogenous serine means that tumour growth is restricted in mice on a low-serine diet; this effect on tumour growth can be amplified by antagonizing the antioxidant response.

DNA repair by break-induced replication begins with the Rad51-mediated invasion of single-stranded DNA into a double-stranded donor template; this study shows that successful recombination between highly mismatched substrates can occur when only five consecutive bases can be paired and that mismatch correction is most efficient near the invading end of the recipient strand.

Don't delay — start saving early and fatten your pension pot.

Exercise caution.

Damage to the surface of the cornea causes pain and loss of vision, but regenerative therapies are providing a clearer, brighter future.

Loss of the stem cells that constantly renew the surface of the cornea causes pain and, in some cases, blindness. Advances in transplantation and cell culture are helping to restore vision to even the most severely affected people.