Volume 505 Issue 7485, 30 January 2014

Europe’s proposed climate targets fire the starting gun on the long build-up to Paris 2015.

Celebrating the many achievements of crystallography.

The formation of the UN Scientific Advisory Board is an important step towards integrating global sustainability efforts, says Owen Gaffney.

The week in science: Supernova sighted in nearby galaxy, new dolphin species discovered in Brazil, and China’s Moon rover in trouble.

South Korean researcher reveals the fallout he faced from his tip-offs about former cloning fraudster Woo Suk Hwang.

West Virginia radio observatory seeks money from partners to fend off closure by the National Science Foundation.

Just squeezing or bathing cells in acidic conditions can readily reprogram them into an embryonic state.

Critics fear that Europe’s proposed energy goals and emissions cuts are too soft.

Switch to food and fragrances risks consumer rejection.

Researchers rally as government shuns international ties.

From aiding drug design to analysing soil samples on Mars, crystallography has helped to propel much of modern science over the past 100 years.

100 years of crystallography.

Powerful X-ray lasers are getting to the heart of matter.

Planning for large facilities should incorporate the views of all crystallographers, says Paolo G. Radaelli.

Georgina Ferry celebrates the egalitarian, collaborative culture that has so far produced two female Nobel prizewinners.

Francis S. Collins and Lawrence A. Tabak discuss initiatives that the US National Institutes of Health is exploring to restore the self-correcting nature of preclinical research.

Graham Farmelo enjoys a 'biography' of the general theory of relativity.

Chris Frith explores a masterful model of how consciousness plays out in the theatre of the brain.

Alison Abbott reviews an exhibition that reveals a lag in applying academic knowledge to medical practice.

Daniel Cressey celebrates the pending refit of the Glass Lab — an innovative crossroads of science and art at MIT.

Synchrotrons have long been the preferred X-ray sources for crystallography, but competition has arrived with the advent of X-ray free-electron lasers. A synchrotron expert and an advocate of free-electron lasers discuss the prospects of the respective source types for applications in structural biology.

Three studies have characterized the full complement of RNA folding in cells. They find large numbers of secondary structures in RNA, some of which may have functional consequences for the cell. See Letters p.696, p.701 & p.706

Differentiated cells have been reprogrammed to an embryonic-like state using a physical stimulus. This treatment generates a new cell population that contributes to both the embryo and the placenta. See Article p.641 & Letter p.676

Brown dwarfs are celestial objects that lack the mass to become fully fledged stars. High-resolution maps of one such object add to the evidence that these exotic worlds have highly dynamic weather and climate. See Letter p.654

Mating competition between males often has harmful consequences for females. But it seems that fruit flies alter their behaviour among kin, with brothers being less aggressive and females reproducing for longer as a result. See Letter p.672

Magnetic monopoles — particles carrying a single magnetic charge — have never been seen. Analogues of these entities have now been produced in an ultracold cloud of rubidium atoms. See Letter p.657

Unexpected diversity in the asteroids in the main asteroid belt holds clues to mixing via planetary migration in the early Solar System.

Evolutionary study of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) repertoires and expression patterns in 11 tetrapod species identifies approximately 11,000 primate-specific lncRNAs and 2,500 highly conserved lncRNAs, including approximately 400 genes that are likely to have ancient origins; many lncRNAs, particularly ancient ones, are actively regulated and may function mainly in embryonic development.

One of two papers describing a reprogramming phenomenon called stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency (STAP) — in STAP, lineage-committed adult somatic cells are reprogrammed to pluripotency by transient exposure to low-pH treatment, and extensive analysis of the molecular features and developmental potential of STAP cells indicates that they represent a unique state of pluripotency.

Human protein ANP32E is a histone chaperone that promotes removal of H2A.Z from chromatin.

A map of the surface of a brown dwarf reveals features that suggest patchy clouds, providing the mechanism for the dispersal of atmospheric dust as brown dwarfs cool with age.

Dirac magnetic monopoles are created, directly imaged and identified in real space in the synthetic magnetic field produced by a spinor Bose–Einstein condensate.

Intermolecular Coulombic decay driven by resonant Auger decay can be used to produce low-energy electrons selectively from chosen molecular or atomic sites and with tunable energies, with possible applications in radiation therapy.

Intermolecular Coulombic decay transfers excess energy to neighbouring molecules, which then lose a low-energy (and, hence, genotoxic) electron; here the process is experimentally confirmed to be site-selective and highly efficient, possibly enabling more targeted radiation therapy.

A tropical cyclone activity index that allows for a direct comparison between the modern instrumental record and long-term palaeotempest (prehistoric tropical cyclone) records shows that present low levels of storm activity on the mid west and northeast coasts of Australia are unprecedented over the past 550 to 1,500 years.

Relatedness can affect fitness through modulation of intrasexual competition in Drosophila melanogaster; male competition and female harm are lower when three related males compete over an unrelated female than when three unrelated males compete, but when two brothers and an unrelated male compete, the unrelated male sires twice as many offspring as either brother, suggesting that minorities of unrelated competitors may be able to infiltrate coalitions of relatives.

One of two papers describing a reprogramming phenomenon called stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency (STAP) — in STAP, lineage-committed adult somatic cells are reprogrammed to pluripotency by transient exposure to low-pH treatment, and extensive analysis of the molecular features and developmental potential of STAP cells indicates that they represent a unique state of pluripotency.

Here a genome-wide RNAi library screen is used to identify components of the signalling pathway that allow transformation of Trypanosoma brucei spp., the protozoan parasite responsible for important human and livestock diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, from proliferative slender forms to arrested stumpy forms which are transmitted to the tsetse fly vector.

A new approach to accurately determine mutation frequencies with RNA virus populations called circular sequencing (CirSeq) has been developed; a study of the genetic composition of populations of poliovirus shows the fitness landscape for each nucleotide variant in an evolving RNA virus.

The specificity of interferon effectors across an expanded range of viruses is studied, with results indicating that positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses are more susceptible to interferon-stimulated gene activity than negative-sense RNA or DNA viruses; in addition, the DNA sensor cGAS is shown to have an unappreciated role in RNA virus inhibition.

RNA adopts vast and complicated secondary structures in the living cell; reported here is a new approach, structure-seq, that characterises RNA structure in vivo on a genome-wide scale at nucleotide resolution and should be applicable to any organism.

Understanding how RNA structure influences its function has been hampered by a lack of approaches that can accurately quantify RNA structure in vivo; here, RNA structure is revealed on a global scale and with nucleotide-level resolution, showing that there is less structure within cells than expected from in vitro and in silico analyses.

An RNA secondary structure (RSS) map of coding and noncoding RNA from a human family (two parents and their child) is produced; this reveals that approximately 15% of all transcribed single nucleotide variants (SNVs) alter local RNA structure, and these SNVs are depleted in certain locations, suggesting that particular RNA structures are important at those sites.

Researchers trained in X-ray crystallography are still in demand, but must diversify their skill sets to be competitive.

Neuroscientist uses insights into human decision-making to advise on public policy.

A cosmic ride.