Reviews & Analysis

The seas are acidifying as a result of carbon dioxide emissions. It now emerges that this will alter the solubility of the shells of marine organisms called diatoms — and thereby change the distribution of nutrients and plankton in the ocean.

Neuronal fibres have been tracked as they regrow into the skin following nerve injury in mice. The analysis reveals that mis-wiring of pain-sensing fibres generates hypersensitivity to touch in skin associated with the injury.

For more than a century, scientists have pondered over mysterious fossils of an aquatic vertebrate, and argued about the type of creature this species represents. Newly analysed specimens might help to solve this puzzle.

Innovations have been developed that facilitate quantum teleportation between nodes in a quantum network that do not neighbour each other, paving the way for complex network configurations.

An immune molecule has an unexpected role in memory formation — specifically, in limiting the window of time in which newly forming memories can be contextually linked.

An aerial technique that can capture hidden signs of human modifications of ancient landscapes has provided data that will prompt a rethink about the types of settlement inhabited by early societies in the Amazon region.

The control of light–matter interactions as a way to manipulate and synthesize strongly correlated quantum matter is discussed, highlighting a field termed ‘strongly correlated electron–photon science’.

Oceanic plate carbon reservoirs are reconstructed and the fate of subducted carbon is tracked using thermodynamic modelling, challenging previous views and providing boundary conditions for future carbon cycle models.

Snippets from Nature’s past.

Sequences of the human genome have typically included gaps in repetitive regions of DNA. A combination of state-of-the-art technologies has now enabled researchers to generate the first complete human genome sequence.

It has been unclear how the brain creates stable visual experiences from the highly variable activity of individual neurons. Imaging from thousands of neurons across the entire mouse visual cortex provides an explanation.

The migration and growth of cancer cells at sites far from the initial tumour is usually fatal. Metabolic heterogeneity — variable expression of an enzyme in the initial tumour — is identified as an early step in this deadly process.

A microfluidic system achieves miniaturization without the need for extra equipment, bringing chip-based devices closer to mainstream commercial reality, with a framework that could be widely applied to diagnostics.

Two galaxies that are curiously lacking in dark matter — the most abundant matter in the Universe — might have formed when a collision between dwarf galaxies separated ordinary matter from its dark counterpart.

It emerges that high blood sugar deregulates the enzyme TET3 in the eggs of female mice, preventing it from properly modifying sperm-derived DNA when eggs are fertilized. This leads to metabolic defects in adult progeny.

Snippets from Nature’s past.

Infusion of cerebrospinal fluid from young mice into old mice restores memory recall in the aged animals by triggering production of the fatty myelin sheath that insulates neurons in the brain.

A rare event has been identified in a brief detection of X-rays. Serendipity only pays off when you know what to do with it, and researchers have used the finding to verify a long-standing theory about a class of exploding star.

Various theories have tried to explain the frequency and consistency of ‘hotspot’ mutations in many tumour-driving genes across different cancers. A model of the fitness benefit of these mutations shows that fundamental trade-offs occur between a tumour’s growth and its visibility to the immune system, with potential therapeutic implications.

How did the biological machinery for protein synthesis evolve from simple chemicals on ancient Earth? Experiments suggest an intriguing role for modified RNA nucleotides in directing stepwise peptide synthesis.