Volume 488 Issue 7413, 30 August 2012

Violent opposition to nanotechnology should be countered with public awareness.

A chief scientific adviser is no substitute for a ruling elite that is actually engaged with science and engineering, argues Colin Macilwain.

The week in science: Eulogies for Neil Armstrong; more disappointing trial results for Alzheimer’s drugs; and China’s plans for telescopes in the Antarctic.

Deadly virus may be poised to spread to neighbouring states.

Heavy-ion facility at risk of premature closure as committee sets budget priorities.

US task force finds that public-health benefits of the procedure outweigh risks to individuals.

Genetics and healthy diets matter more for longevity.

Carbon releases lag behind Amazon deforestation.

Africa refits redundant satellite dishes for radio astronomy.

Physicists are planning the powerful accelerators they will need to study the Higgs boson and its interactions in detail.

Nature assesses the aftermath of a series of nanotechnology-lab bombings in Mexico — and asks how the country became a target of eco-anarchists.

The Higgs boson is not the end of the story. There is more to map in the new world of extreme physics, says Jon Butterworth.

Climate scientists should learn from the naysayers and pull together to get their message across, says Chris Rapley.

William Bynum applauds a life of physician and scientific poet Erasmus Darwin, Charles's intriguing grandfather.

Andrew King enjoys a personal account of the impact of sound on life, evolution and the brain.

Media artist Jon McCormack uses computer algorithms to imagine the future of native Australian species. As he prepares two new works — Codeform and Fifty Sisters — for the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria, he talks about digital evolution and virtual ecosystems.

Physicist and radar pioneer who created the famous Jodrell Bank radio telescope.

An index assessing the health of the oceans gives a global score of 60 out of 100. But the idea that a single number can encompass both environmental status and the benefits that the oceans provide for humans may prove controversial. See Article p.615

In multiple sclerosis, the body's own immune cells attack the brain and spinal cord. But how they get there from peripheral tissues has been a mystery. Surprisingly, the lungs might be a key transit point. See Letter p.675

A study reveals cyclic changes in the rate of burial of biogenic calcium carbonate at the Pacific ocean floor 43 million to 33 million years ago, as Earth exited a warm 'greenhouse' state to become an ice-capped planet. See Article p.609

Use of an ultra-high-intensity X-ray laser has allowed X-ray and optical waves to be mixed in a diamond sample. The effect paves the way to studying the microscopic optical response of materials on an atomic scale. See Article p.603

The transformation of skin cells into stem cells is a fascinating but poorly understood process. At last, the molecular characters underlying the initial steps have been revealed. See Letter p.652

Four billion years from now, the Andromeda galaxy will have a close encounter with the Milky Way. The two galaxies will commence a dance of disruption that will, over the course of another two billion years, lead to their complete union.

Mice receiving low doses of certain antibiotics gain weight and accumulate fat. This could be because some gut bacteria survive the treatment better than others, shifting digestion towards greater energy provision. See Article p.621

A free-electron laser provides a sufficiently intense source of X-rays to allow X-ray and optical wave mixing, here demonstrated by measuring the induced charge density and associated microscopic fields in single-crystal diamond.

A detailed reconstruction of the calcium carbonate compensation depth—at which calcium carbonate is dissolved—in the equatorial Pacific Ocean over the past 53 million years shows that it tracks ocean cooling, increasing as the ocean cools.

This study develops a wide-ranging index to assess the many factors that contribute to the health and benefits of the oceans, and the scores for all costal nations are assessed.

Treatment of young mice with low levels of antibiotics results in increases in adiposity and causes both a change in the composition of the intestinal microbial community and an alteration in the activity of microbial metabolic pathways, leading to increased short-chain fatty acid production.

This versatile and scalable ‘patterned regrowth’ fabrication process produces one-atom-thick sheets containing lateral junctions between electrically conductive graphene and insulating hexagonal boron nitride, paving the way for flexible, transparent electronic device films.

On the basis of data from other subglacial environments and simulations of the accumulation of methane hydrate in Antarctic sedimentary basins, it seems there could be unsuspected, large stores of methane beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

A laboratory study of the frictional properties of the igneous rock gabbro at seismically relevant slip rates suggests that the initial weakening of a fault surface during earthquake rupture may be associated with hotspots and macroscopic streaks of melt, which partially unload the rest of the slip interface.

A premature stop codon in the DMRT3 gene has a major effect on the pattern of locomotion in horses, and the Dmrt3 transcription factor is critical in the development of a coordinated locomotor network in mice, suggesting that it has an important role in configuring the spinal circuits that control stride.

Both heterozygous loss and homozygous loss of Tsc1 in mouse cerebellar Purkinje cells (PCs) result in autistic-like behaviours, which can be prevented by treatment with the mTOR inhibitor, rapamycin; these findings demonstrate critical roles for PCs in autistic-like behaviours in mice.

Parp1 and Tet2 mediate essential epigenetic remodelling events in an early phase of induced pluripotent stem cell reprogramming, thus directing subsequent induction of the pluripotency loci.

Mutations in isocitrate dehydrogenases IDH1 and IDH2 are common in human gliomas and acute myeloid leukaemias; here, mice that carry the IDH1(R132H) mutation are described, in a new model that should help in investigating the links between mutant IDH1 and leukaemia.

Exomes, transcriptomes and copy-number alterations in a sample of more than 70 primary human colonic tumours were analysed in an attempt to characterize the genomic landscape; in addition to finding alterations in genes associated with commonly mutated signalling pathways, recurrent gene fusions involving R-spondin family members were also found to occur in approximately 10% of colonic tumours, revealing a potential new therapeutic target.

In vivo and in vitro studies show that the stem-cell E3 ubiquitin ligases RNF43 and ZNRF3 act as tumour suppressors in colorectal cancer models, and are involved in the negative regulation of the cancer-associated Wnt signalling pathway through limiting the cell-surface expression of Wnt receptors.

Double-stranded RNA-dependent protein kinase (PKR) is shown to be a key regulator of the inflammasome; PKR is central for caspase-1 activation and the release of interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-18 and high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) in response to a diverse range of stimuli.

A Lewis rat model of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis is used to show that on their way to the CNS, encephalitogenic T-cell blasts are temporarily resident in the lung, where they reprogram their gene-expression profile and functional properties to enable them to transgress the blood–brain barrier into the CNS.

The prokaryote signalling intermediate cyclic di-(3′:5′)-guanosine monophosphate is shown to be the morphogen responsible for stalk cell differentiation and, thus, the transition from slug migration to fructification in the amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum.

Nature's 2012 Salary and Satisfaction Survey suggests that many scientists are content with their work, but uneasy about finances.

The bitter taste of success.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) has become synonymous with cervical cancer, but its actual footprint is much bigger, by James Mitchell Crow.

Two vaccines seem to be so effective in preventing HPV infection that mass vaccination has been introduced for girls. But will long-term studies show falls in cervical cancer?

Vaccines on the market aren't practical for the developing world — where cervical cancer hits hardest — but researchers are trying to make ones that are.

Pap tests have been a mainstay of cervical cancer screening, but new tests, vaccines and knowledge might be changing that, including when and how frequently to test.

HPV-associated cancers in men are on the rise. By not vaccinating boys we are failing to gain maximum health benefit, argues Margaret Stanley.

Sub-Saharan countries lag behind in screening and treatment for human papillomavirus. But national efforts and the introduction of low-tech methods could change that.

Linking specific types of HPV with cervical cancer and developing effective vaccines against should be celebrated. But there are gaps in our understanding of these viruses and how they cause disease.

A Nobel prizewinner for pinning cervical cancer on human papillomavirus, Harald zur Hausen still investigates viruses. Nature Outlook talks to the medical doctor–turned–virologist about other possible culprits.

It is tempting to characterize the human papillomavirus (HPV) story as a triumph of science. It might have taken 30 years from identification of HPV as the cause of cervical cancer to the first vaccine reaching the market, but there is still much to understand about HPV biology and an urgent need to improve on existing vaccines and diagnostic tests. The story of HPV is still being written.