Reviews & Analysis

If a pregnant mouse lacks vitamin A, her offspring are born with smaller lymph nodes and have impaired immune responses as adults — a finding that adds immune development to this vitamin's list of key functions. See Letter p.123

During the cell-death program known as apoptosis, cells break up into membrane-bound fragments. It emerges that this process is controlled by the protein pannexin 1 and can be deregulated by an antibiotic. See Article p.329

The identification of specialized endothelial-cell populations in the blood vessels of bones, and their signalling pathways, reveals how the vasculature contributes to bone formation. See Article p.323 & Letter p.376

Genetic variation in a non-protein-coding region of the gene FTO is implicated in obesity. A study finds evidence that, rather than affecting FTO itself, variations in this region influence expression of a distant gene, IRX3. See Letter p.371

A tiny sample of a mineral included in a diamond confirms predictions from high-pressure laboratory experiments that a water reservoir comparable in size to all the oceans combined is hidden deep in Earth's mantle. See Letter p.221

Hybridization can cause two species to fuse into a single population. New observations suggest that two species of Darwin's finches are hybridizing on a Galapagos island, and that a third one has disappeared through interbreeding.

A marriage between theory and experiment has shown that ultracold erbium atoms trapped with laser light and subjected to a magnetic field undergo collisions that are characterized by quantum chaos. See Letter p.475

Multiplication of repetitive DNA sequences is often the cause of neurodegenerative diseases. A four-stranded structure has been found to form in one such expansion in the gene C9orf72, altering gene function in four ways. See Article p.195

The power of a cosmic lens to magnify and split the light from a distant, mass-accreting giant black hole into four components has allowed researchers to measure the black hole's spin. See Letter p.207

Variation in an evolutionarily conserved sexual-differentiation gene, doublesex, has been found to explain how females of one species of butterfly mimic the colour patterns of several toxic species to avoid predation. See Letter p.229

An elastic membrane cast around a three-dimensional printed model of a specific heart allows diverse aspects of cardiac function to be monitored and modified, and paves the way to new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches.

A systematic and painstaking analysis reveals that much of the complexity and variability of the courtship song of male fruit flies can be accounted for by simple rules that relate sensory experience to motor output. See Letter p.233

An optomechanical device has been designed that converts radio-frequency electrical signals into laser light. The system could allow computers to share data in a future quantum network based on optical fibres. See Letter p.81

In a study that showcases the potential of semisynthetic drug design, structural modification of an existing antibiotic with little activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis has generated a new class of effective antitubercular lead.

Might it be possible to create mirrors for space telescopes, using nothing but microscopic particles held in place by light? A study that exploits a technique called optical binding provides a step towards this goal.

Predicting the long-term evolution of influenza is difficult. But a model incorporating the effects of deleterious and beneficial mutations has met the more tangible goal of predicting year-to-year frequencies of viral groups. See Article p.57

How tiny aerosol particles form and grow from vapours produced by vegetation has been a mystery. The finding that highly oxygenated products form directly from volatile organic compounds may offer the solution. See Letter p.476