Reviews & Analysis

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

Design rules for exotic materials known as polar metals have been put into practice in thin films. The findings will motivate studies of how a phenomenon called screening can be manipulated to generate new phases in metals. See Letter p.68

A protein in the pathogenic bacterium Legionella pneumophila has been found to attach the modifying molecule ubiquitin to human proteins, using a mechanism that, surprisingly, does not involve cellular E1 and E2 enzymes. See Letter p.120

Large amoeba-like organisms known as Rhizaria have often been overlooked in studies of ocean biology and biogeochemistry. Underwater imaging and ecological network analyses are revealing their roles. See Article p.465 & Letter p.504

Humans are better than computers at performing certain tasks because of their intuition and superior visual processing. Video games are now being used to channel these abilities to solve problems in quantum physics. See Letter p.210

Scrutiny of fossils sometimes uncovers an unexpected phylogenetic relationship. New analyses of the enigmatic fossil Tullimonstrum from 300 million years ago reveal it to be a vertebrate. See Letters p.496 & p.500

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.

An analysis of the evolution of river channels on Hawaii's Big Island shows that a key factor is the effect of local rainfall on bedrock strength — rather than its effect on river discharge, as is often assumed. See Letter p.223

Two studies find that the molecular machinery that initiates gene transcription prevents repair proteins from accessing DNA, resulting in increased mutation rates at sites of transcription-factor binding. See Letters p.259 & p.264

If stored information is erased from neural circuits in one brain hemisphere in mice, the lost data can be recovered from the other. This finding highlights a safeguarding mechanism at work in the brain. See Article p.459

In mammals, microglial cells of the central nervous system are responsible for the normal clearance of dead brain cells. TAM-receptor proteins have now been found to mediate this function. See Letter p.240

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

A reconstruction of 1,200 years of water's history in the Northern Hemisphere, based on proxy data, fuels the debate about whether anthropogenic climate change affected twentieth-century precipitation. See Letter p.94

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

Detailed measurements of radioisotopes in deep-sea deposits, plus modelling of how they reached Earth, indicate that many supernovae have occurred near enough to have potentially influenced evolution. See Letters p.69 & p.73

A system of four neutrons known as the tetraneutron is a hypothetical state in nuclear physics. The report of evidence for the fleeting existence of this state has implications for research into neutron stars.

The potential of soils to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions has not been exploited; here we discuss and recommend research and technology developments to implement mitigation practices.

A protein fragment released by filaments of the fungus Candida albicans destroys host cells. This is the first demonstration that human fungal pathogens other than moulds can release toxic peptides. See Article p.64

Gravimeters have applications ranging from oil exploration to the detection of underground tunnels, but size and lack of portability have limited their field use. A device the size of a postage stamp promises fresh opportunities. See Letter p.614