Volume 529 Issue 7587, 28 January 2016

Our affection for national parks is well founded, but many more areas need protection.

Self-doubt is a pernicious affliction that can overwhelm researchers.

Indian scientists must develop domestic genetically modified crops rather than rely on unsuitable foreign technology, says Anurag Chaurasia.

Studies about the diversity of indoor insects, fairy-tale origins and insightful dog gazes attracted attention on social media.

The hottest year; a new frog genus; and the loss of Marvin Minsky.

Deep-learning software defeats human professional for first time.

Pet project hunts genetic links to behaviour by polling owners on their companions’ quirks.

Some welcome his latest report as a fresh way to solve a black-hole conundrum; others are unsure of its merits.

But it is unclear how well the results match the condition in humans.

Warming in the Pacific Ocean helps to shatter past records, and could bring even faster temperature rises.

Local expertise is required to provide detailed emissions reports.

Songbirds are a culinary delicacy in Cyprus — but catching and eating them is illegal. Even so, the practice is on the rise and could be threatening rare species.

It may not be sexy, but quality assurance is becoming a crucial part of lab life.

Stephan Lewandowsky and Dorothy Bishop explain how the research community should protect its members from harassment, while encouraging the openness that has become essential to science.

Matt Ridley reassesses Richard Dawkins's pivotal reframing of evolution, 40 years on.

Philip Ball browses remnants of the celebrated library of mathematician and occultist John Dee.

The enzyme Cas9 is used in genome editing to cut selected DNA sequences, but it also creates breaks at off-target sites. Protein engineering has now been used to make Cas9 enzymes that have minimal off-target effects. See Article p.490

The development of a voltage sensor in which a microbial rhodopsin protein is fused with a fluorescent protein enables the neuronal activity of single cells in live animals to be measured with unprecedented speed and accuracy.

Birds and mammals generate heat to regulate body temperature, but most non-avian reptiles cannot. The discovery of endothermy during the reproductive period of a tegu lizard sheds light on the evolution of this characteristic.

A simultaneous comparison of the RNA molecules expressed by Salmonella bacteria and human cells during infection reveals how a bacterial small RNA alters the transcript profiles of both the bacteria and the host cells. See Article p.496

The discovery of multiple stellar populations — formed at different times — in several young star clusters adds to the debate on the nature and origin of such populations in globular clusters from the early Universe. See Letter p.502

The cells that insulate neuronal processes with a myelin membrane sheath are damaged during stroke. Data now show that an influx of calcium ions mediated by the TRPA1 protein contributes to myelin injury. See Letter p.523

Sweat analysis is an ideal method for continuously tracking a person's physiological state, but developing devices for this is difficult. A wearable sweat monitor that measures several biomarkers is a breakthrough. See Letter p.509

Targets for reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide are related to regional changes in climate extremes rather than to changes in global mean temperature, in order to convey their urgency better to individual countries.

A computer Go program based on deep neural networks defeats a human professional player to achieve one of the grand challenges of artificial intelligence.

A high-fidelity variant of Streptococcus pyogenes CRISPR–Cas9 is reported that lacks detectable off-target events as assessed by genome-wide break capture and targeted sequencing methods.

Using dual RNA-seq technology to profile RNA expression simultaneously in the bacterial pathogen Salmonella and its host during infection reveals molecular phenotypes of small noncoding RNAs in the infection process.

Three massive star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds show clear evidence of burst-like star formation that occurred a few hundred million years after their initial formation era; such clusters could have accreted sufficient gas to form new stars while orbiting in their host galaxies’ gaseous disks throughout the period between their initial and more recent bursts of star formation.

Quantum entanglement is thought to offer great promise for improving measurement precision; now a spin-squeezing implementation with cold atoms offers levels of sensitivity unavailable with any competing conventional method, sensing microwave induced rotations a factor of 70 beyond the standard quantum limit.

By merging plastic-based skin sensors with silicon integrated circuits, a flexible, wearable perspiration analysis system is presented that measures skin temperature and the metabolites and electrolytes in human sweat and analyses the information in situ.

Here we report a lithium-ion all-climate battery that very efficiently heats itself up in extremely cold environments by diverting current through a strip of metal foil to generate heat of resistance and then reverts to normal high-power operation.

Core isotope measurements in the equatorial Pacific Ocean reveal that although atmospheric dust deposition during the last ice age was higher than today’s, the productivity of the equatorial Pacific Ocean did not increase; this may have been because iron-enabled greater nutrient consumption, mainly in the Southern Ocean, reduced the nutrients available in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, and hence also productivity there.

Ischaemia damages nerve myelin by depriving neurons and their myelinating oligodendrocytes of oxygen and glucose; here it is shown that ischaemic damage is caused through the H⁺-dependent activation of TRPA1 channels, and not via glutamate receptors of the NMDA type, as previously thought, providing a new mechanism and promising therapeutic targets for diseases as diverse and prevalent as cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, stroke and multiple sclerosis.

The role of mitochondria in haematopoietic stem-cell maintenance has not been examined in detail; here mitofusin 2, which modulates mitochondrial fusion and tethering of endoplasmic reticulum to the mitochondria, is shown to be necessary for the maintenance of haematopoietic stem cells with extensive lymphoid potential.

The transcription factor Foxo1 is shown to be involved in the determination of distinct subsets of regulatory T (T_reg) cells, and the differentiation of activated phenotype T_reg cells is associated with the repression of the Foxo1-dependent transcriptional program; constitutively active Foxo1 expression triggers depletion of activated T_reg cells in peripheral tissues and leads to CD8 T-cell-mediated autoimmunity and anti-tumour immunity.

The cryo-electron microscopy structure of human TAP transporter, a peptide transporter central to MHC class I antigen presentation and cellular immunity, in complex with the herpes simplex virus protein ICP47.

WebStructural details of how oncogenic human papilloma viruses induce cancer by targeting the tumour suppressor p53 for ubiquitin-mediated degradation.

The first structure of fully active HOIP of the RBR family of RING-type E3 ligases in its transfer complex with an E2~ubiquitin conjugate provides insights into its mechanism of action, including the ideal alignment of the E2 and E3 catalytic centres for ubiquitin transfer and the allosteric regulation of the RBR family.

The first high-resolution, cryo-electron microscopy structure of mammalian RNA polymerase II, in the form of a transcribing complex comprising DNA template and RNA transcript.

In the face of routine rejection, many scientists must learn to cope with the insidious beast that is impostor syndrome.

Louis Picker pursued an unusual HIV vaccine that is now in clinical trials, and was once considered a fool's errand.

A moment to reflect.