Volume 490 Issue 7419, 11 October 2012

To make progress in clinical genomics, institutions must work out how to pass on data.

Collaboration between geneticists and economists has the potential to bear fruit.

For the Oxford Martin Commission on Future Generations to be heard, it should learn from previous mistakes, argues Ehsan Masood.

The week in science: Drug hope for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Europe’s nuclear plants need safety upgrade and a well-preserved mammoth is revealed in Siberia.

Researchers awarded prestigious prize for their work on reprogramming mature cells to a pluripotent state.

Award for methods that ‘revolutionized’ atomic physics.

Chemist charged with fraud shows system under pressure.

Use of population-genetic data to predict economic success sparks war of words.

Launch of system that keeps data local aims to address privacy fears.

Food-safety bodies slam feeding study that claims increased cancer incidence in rats.

National Science Foundation policy may harm tenure seekers.

A special section of Nature traces the emerging links between stress and mental illness.

Scientists are testing the idea that the stress of modern city life is a breeding ground for psychosis.

Most people bounce back from trauma — but some never recover. Scientists are trying to work out what underlies the difference.

A stark warning about the societal costs of stress comes from links between shortened telomeres, chronic stress and disease, say Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Elissa S. Epel.

Trauma affects people differently. Epigenetics may be partly to blame, says Eric J. Nestler.

Meredith Wadman lifts the blanket on the creeping medicalization of sleep in the United States.

Amy Maxmen views a prizewinning film that shines a light into the dark corners of US psychiatric care.

The unexpected finding that neurons can co-release two neurotransmitter molecules, dopamine and GABA, through a common mechanism provides a further advance in our understanding of the nervous system. See Letter p.262

A variant of a classical reaction has been used to generate short-lived chemical species called arynes, allowing the one-step synthesis of structurally complex benzene derivatives from simple precursors. See Article p.208

Fossilized remains of an arthropod from the Cambrian period provide an unusual example of preservation of the brain and nervous system, and shed new light on when and how these tissues evolved. See Letter p.258

Observations of the migration patterns of Norwegian red deer show that some animals ride waves of greener vegetation as spring spreads across the landscape, whereas others jump ahead in anticipation of this higher-quality food.

Analyses of two recent earthquakes of great magnitude show how complex the breaking of the oceanic lithosphere can be, how it is linked to earlier great events and how it triggers seismicity worldwide. See Letters p.240, p.245 & p.250

The discovery of different classes of neuronal progenitor cell, destined to give rise to neurons in specific layers of the cerebral cortex, could presage the revision of a 50-year-old model of brain development.

Deficiencies in methods reporting in animal experimentation lead to difficulties in reproducing experiments; the authors propose a set of reporting standards to improve scientific communication and study design.

Graphene’s numerous highly desirable properties mean that it has many possible applications in various technologies and devices; these are reviewed and analysed here.

A brief survey of the molecular mechanisms that give the vesicle cycle in intact synapses its efficiency.

The de novo generation of benzynes—through a hexadehydro-Diels–Alder reaction—followed by their in situ elaboration is reported; the reaction is metal-free and reagent-free, and reveals new modes of intrinsic benzyne reactivity.

Heat stroke triggers necrotic cell death and neurodegeneration in Caenorhabditis elegans, but hormetic preconditioning at a mildly elevated temperature strongly protects C. elegans from necrosis induced by several insults, including heat, and shields mammalian neurons from heat cytotoxicity, suggesting that this protective mechanism is conserved.

In live neonatal mice, waves of spontaneous retinal activity are present and can propagate patterned information capable of guiding activity-dependent development of complex intra- and inter-hemispheric circuits throughout the visual system before the onset of vision (before eye opening).

The activity of somatostatin-expressing inhibitory neurons (SOMs) in the superficial layers of the mouse visual cortex increases with stimulation of the receptive-field surround, thereby contributing to the surround suppression of pyramidal cells.

A thin, spherical shell with a clumpy structure around the red giant star R Sculptoris is shown to contain a spiral structure, implying that the star is a binary system that underwent a thermal pulse 1,800 years ago, ejecting three times more mass than expected

A simple method to observe grain boundaries in graphene is reported, using ultraviolet irradiation in humid conditions followed by optical microscopy.

The two earthquakes of respective magnitudes 8.6 and 8.2 that occurred off the coast of the Sumatra subduction zone on 11 April 2012 are shown to be part of a continuing boost of the intraplate deformation between India and Australia that followed the Aceh 2004 and Nias 2005 megathrust earthquakes.

The magnitude 8.7 earthquake that occurred off the coast of the Sumatra subduction zone on 11 April 2012 is shown to have had an extraordinarily complex four-fault rupture; these great ruptures represent large lithospheric deformation that may eventually lead to a localized boundary between the Indian and Australian plates.

Although strong remote aftershocks are exceedingly rare, their rate increased fivefold during the six days following the 2012 east Indian Ocean earthquake, perhaps as a result of the strike-slip nature of the 2012 event or a build up of close-to-failure nucleation sites.

Global yields of major crops are analysed using climate, irrigation and new nutrient data to show that large production increases are possible from closing yield gaps to 100% of attainable yields, and that changes in management practices needed to close yield gaps vary considerably by region and current intensity.

An arthropod specimen from an early Cambrian deposit in China shows a nervous system very similar to that of modern insects and crustaceans, suggesting that insect and crustacean nervous systems evolved from a relatively complex ancestral one, and that simple animals, such as branchiopod shrimps, have evolved a marked reduction in the complexity of their nervous systems.

Activation of midbrain dopamine neurons rapidly inhibits action potential firing in both direct- and indirect-pathway striatal projection neurons through VMAT2-dependent vesicular release of the inhibitory transmitter GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid).

A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of phenotypic variation for height and body mass index in human populations using 170,000 samples shows that one single nucleotide polymorphism at the FTO locus, which is associated with obesity, is also associated with phenotypic variation.

Optogenetic neuronal control of freely moving Caenorhabditis elegans to drive the animals up virtual ‘optical’ gradients combined with real-time tracking demonstrates that a single pair of interneurons is technically sufficient to determine such guided locomotion.

Two types of human ES-cell-derived otic progenitors are shown to have the ability to differentiate in vitro into hair-cell-like cells and auditory neurons, and to engraft, differentiate and improve auditory-evoked response thresholds when transplanted into an auditory neuropathy model; this indicates that it may be possible to use cell-based therapeutic strategies to recover damaged sensory circuitry in deafness.

Using intravital microscopy, this study visualizes HIV-1-infected T cells within the lymph nodes of humanized mice, demonstrating that infected cells have reduced motility and long membrane processes; treating infected mice with a lymphocyte egress inhibitor prevents HIV-1 from spreading to the circulation during the course of treatment.

Activation of the non-canonical, pro-inflammatory caspase-11 by Salmonella typhimurium is shown to contribute to bacterial spread and pathogenesis by the induction of macrophage cell death.

The field of connectomics is pulling neuroscience into a speedy, high-throughput lane that is generating vast amounts of data.

Depression is rife among graduate students and postdocs. Universities are working to get them the help they need.

Interdisciplinary mentorship must evolve to keep pace with innovative programmes, argues Katherine Mackey.

Wish you were here?

The 62nd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting opened with a talk by Brian Schmidt, who shared the 2011 physics prize for the shocking revelation that the Universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. Fifteen years after Schmidt's initial discovery, the 'dark energy' invoked to explain this cosmic acceleration is still a mystery.

In the spirit of the Lindau Meeting, we present a dialogue between a Nobel laureate and a young researcher. This interchange started online, where it continues to unfold. Here is a digest of this conversation, which has developed across time and space.

Five laureates from the 2012 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting give us their thoughts on everything from the Higgs boson to climate change.

This year's Lindau meeting coincided with the biggest particle-physics discovery in a generation. Theoretical particle physicist Martinus Veltman, emeritus professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, shared the 1999 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the 'standard model' of particle physics — the theory that predicted the Higgs boson. Yet he has spent the past 30 years doubting whether the Higgs exists.

William Phillips is a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland. He was joint winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded for the development of laser cooling and trapping methods, and is still beguiled by the lure of the unknown.

Roy Glauber shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2005. He was cited for his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence, which explains why many experiments, using lasers for example, can only be understood if light is explicitly considered to be granular (composed of individual photons). His work laid the foundations of a field now known as quantum optics.

The first Mexican-born scientist to become a Nobel laureate in chemistry, Mario Molina shared the 1995 prize for his role in discovering the threat posed by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to Earth's ozone layer. An optimist who passionately pursued science from a young age, Molina now focuses on finding practical solutions to environmental challenges.

From subatomic particles to cosmic-scale phenomena, Nature Outlook Physics Masterclassuses the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting 2012 to launch an examination of some of the biggest breakthroughs in physics — including conversations between physics laureates and the young researchers who hope to emulate them.