Volume 468 Issue 7320, 4 November 2010

An upcoming mission to Jupiter should include a piece of the famous astronomer.

The number of papers being retracted is on the rise, for reasons that are not all bad.

Researchers must take a more aggressive approach to counter shoddy journalism and set the scientific record straight, says Simon L. Lewis.

The week in science.

Moratorium on schemes to reduce global warming clashes with reports urging more research.

With a raft of agreements emerging from Nagoya, the next step is finding the cash to move beyond the blueprint.

A twist in the plot for the Universe's most powerful explosions suggests a detour en route to forming a black hole.

End of the line for international funding agency that brought former Soviet weapons scientists in from the cold.

Global effort will catalogue information languishing in drawers and basements.

Draft regulations will pave the way for copycat antibodies and other large molecules.

Supercomputer will drive model to analyse effects of wildfire on world climate.

Behind the walls of the J. Craig Venter Institute, Ham Smith and Clyde Hutchison quietly worked to bring a synthetic cell to life.

Marine scientists are prowling the Bering Sea to learn how climate affects minute sea creatures and the lucrative fishery that depends on them.

Bernd Pulverer reflects on his experience at The EMBO Journal of publishing referees' reports, authors' responses and editors' comments alongside papers, as other EMBO publications adopt the same policy.

The inner strengths of psychologist Elliot Aronson are on display in his honest autobiography, finds W. F. Bynum.

Michael Sargent examines the evidence that pre-birth experiences shape our lives.

Carl Zimmer comes around to the idea that science and movies can enjoy a happy union.

Much research in theoretical physics is inspired at least in part by the idea of unifying all of the fundamental forces of nature. An analysis of how gravity affects other forces at subnuclear scales has major implications for that idea. See Article p.56

Data from several recent studies on the dynamics of regulatory T cells — which suppress excessive immune responses — do not add up. Collective analysis of the observations may reconcile the differences between them.

Impaired insulin action, combined with its insufficient secretion, can cause diabetes. In a surprising extension of this notion, decreased insulin action in the kidney's podocyte cells may contribute to renal complications in diabetes.

Hybrid quantum systems have been suggested as a potential route to building a quantum computer. The latest research shows that they offer a robust solution to developing a form of random access memory for such a machine.

Many bacteria and archaea protect themselves from viruses and other invasive genomes through a genetic interference pathway. The small RNAs that guide this defence specify the direct cleavage of foreign DNA. See Article p.67

The protein angiotensinogen must undergo conformational changes to be cleaved into a precursor of the hormone angiotensin, which increases blood pressure. Oxidative stress seems to mediate this structural alteration. See Letter p.108

Star-forming galaxies trace cosmic history. Recent observational progress has led to the discovery and study of the earliest known galaxies, corresponding to a period when the Universe was only ∼800 million years old. Intense ultraviolet radiation from these early galaxies probably induced a major event in cosmic history: the reionization of intergalactic hydrogen.

Within quantum electrodynamics electric charge is energy dependent, and there is a previous claim that charge is affected by gravity (general relativity) with the implication that the charge is reduced at high energies. But that claim has been very controversial. This author reports an analysis demonstrating that quantum gravity corrections to quantum electrodynamics have a quadratic energy dependence that results in the electric charge vanishing at high energies.

Using newly derived genome sequences of 137 marine microbial isolates as well as previously obtained genome and metagenome data, this study presents a functional analysis of picoplankton residing in the ocean's surface layer.

CRISPR/Cas is a microbial immune system that is known to protect bacteria from virus infection. These authors show that the Streptococcus thermophilus CRISPR/Cas system can prevent both plasmid carriage and phage infection through cleavage of invading double-stranded DNA.

High-speed atomic force microscopy can be used to record the structure and dynamics of biomolecules simultaneously. These authors use this method to directly observe the dynamics of the motor protein myosin V moving along actin filaments, with unprecedented time resolution. The high-resolution movies provide evidence supporting the 'swinging lever-arm' model of myosin motility, and provide important insights into the mechanism of motor movement.

The X-ray source M33 X-7 hosts a rapidly spinning, 15.65M_¤ black hole orbiting an underluminous, 70M_¤ main-sequence companion in a slightly eccentric 3.45-day orbit. Hitherto, there has been no satisfactory explanation for the observed properties. These authors report simulations of evolutionary tracks which reveal that if M33 X-7 started as a primary body of 85M_¤–99M_¤ and a secondary body of 28M_¤–32M_¤, in a 2.8–3.1-day orbit, its properties can be consistently explained.

Holographic displays can produce truly three-dimensional (3D) images, but have so far been unable to update images fast enough. These authors have adapted a previous technique, based on holographic stereographic recording with a photorefractive polymeric material as the recording medium, to produce a quasi-real-time holographic display that can refresh its images every two seconds, and use it to demonstrate the possibility of 3D telepresence. Improvements could bring applications in telemedicine, prototyping, advertising, updatable 3D maps and entertainment.

The behaviour of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), about 21 kyr ago, remains uncertain, with different lines of evidence arguing for either no change or a sharp reduction. These authors present an analysis of flow-sensitive protactinium and thorium isotopes from the North and South Atlantic oceans, showing that the previously contradictory results can be integrated in a new framework supporting a reversed Atlantic MOC at the LGM.

Direct experimental tests of the conditions under which sex evolves have been rare. These authors evolve populations of a facultatively sexual rotifer in homogeneous and heterogeneous environments and show that the latter promotes sex.

Systemic amyloidosis is a serious disease caused by accumulation of amyloid fibrils in the viscera and connective tissues. Serum amyloid P component (SAP) is a normal plasma protein that concentrates within the amyloid deposits. These authors find that a combination of a drug that depletes circulating SAP and an antibody that targets residual SAP within the deposits results in clearance of amyloid deposits in a mouse model of the disease.

Progestins, used in contraceptives and hormone replacement therapy, have been linked to breast cancer. These authors provide a mechanistic basis for this association. They show in a mouse model that synthetic progestins can promote mammary tumour formation by inducing RANKL (receptor activator of NF-KB ligand), which acts on mammary epithelial cells through the RANKL receptor RANK.

Progestins, used in hormone replacement therapy and contraceptives, have been suggested to promote the development of breast cancer. These authors show that the ability of progestins to induce mammary tumours in mouse models is mediated by RANKL (receptor activator of NF-KB ligand). Inhibition of RANKL could reduce tumorigenesis in hormone-induced and other mouse mammary gland tumour models, suggesting a new therapeutic approach.

Angiotensins have a crucial role in blood pressure regulation and are generated by cleavage of a larger protein, angiotensinogen, by the enzyme renin. Structures of angiotensinogen alone and in complex with renin show that a large conformational change is required to expose the renin-cleavage site. The authors also show that this transition is regulated by oxidation and that women with pre-eclampsia have higher levels of the more active, oxidized, form.

Various biological processes are entrained by the day–night cycle to occur at a specific time of day. One way the circadian system exerts these effects is through post-transcriptional regulation. These authors show that a protein that transfers methyl groups onto several spliceosome subunits, PRMT5, is regulated by the light–dark cycle. Methylation of these subunits affects alternative splicing of some genes, thus making them subject to circadian control.

These authors identify the human enzyme responsible for menaquinone-4 biosynthesis, a naturally occurring form of vitamin K. They find that UbiA prenyltransferase containing 1, a human homologue of a prenyltransferase gene from Escherichia coli, encodes an enzyme that can convert vitamin K derivatives into menaquinone-4.

Although still highly desirable, tenure is not as prevalent as it was in some places — and that may not be a bad thing.

European body calls for reform of doctoral research programmes.

Purdue provides lab environment for those with disabilities.

Europe focuses on portable pension scheme.

Switzerland's universities and biotech and pharma prowess make it an attractive destination for researcher talent.

Ralph Eichler, ETH Zurich's head, explains Switzerland's appeal to researchers.

A slick operation.