Volume 548 Issue 7668, 24 August 2017

Antiskyrmion offers promise for superfast spintronic computers.

A former Google engineer’s memo on diversity reveals psychological blind spots, not biological differences, says Debbie Chachra.

The week in science: 18–24 August 2017.

Mixing artificial intelligence with climate science helps researchers to identify previously unknown atmospheric processes and rank climate models.

Brightness of exploding stars may vary more than researchers realized.

Scientists say the move will reduce the country’s capacity to predict future ecosystem changes.

Simulations follow how swirls in a fluid transfer and dissipate energy.

Efforts to relocate artefacts to sites of origin could stall after gold robbery at national park.

Scientists investigate why mountain slopes can slip slowly for years and then suddenly speed up, with potentially fatal effects.

Replicating our work took four years and 100,000 worms but brought surprising discoveries, explain Gordon J. Lithgow, Monica Driscoll and Patrick Phillips.

Henry Nicholls relishes a book on how the biologist's home became a lab for dazzling experimentation.

Kierán Suckling extols a study of looming threats to the country's publicly owned territory.

Alexandra Witze applauds a documentary on the twin NASA probes as they sail out of the Solar System.

Biologist who unravelled how animal behaviour develops.

Cells called astrocytes promote and maintain neuronal function. The discovery that astrocytes vary in their gene expression, protein levels, cellular structure and function suggests that they are specialized to support distinct circuits.

Four probable detections of gravitational waves have so far been reported, each associated with the merger of two black holes. Analysis of the signals allows formation theories of such black-hole systems to be tested. See Letter p.426

The gene-editing technology CRISPR–Cas has been used in human embryos grown in vitro to correct a disease-associated mutation. The introduction of editing components at fertilization aided repair efficiency. See Article p.413

Single-molecule magnets have potential data-storage applications, but will need to work at a much higher temperature than has been possible. Two studies suggest that this goal could be met in the near future. See Letter p.439

Analysis of wing variation within and between fly species reveals an unexpectedly slow evolutionary rate. Variations due to mutation and interspecific differences are similar, perhaps as a result of complex genetic interactions. See Letter p.447

An analysis of 12,000-year-old Antarctic ice revises our understanding of natural methane emissions to the atmosphere, and constrains estimates of the sensitivity of natural methane sources to abrupt climate-warming events. See Letter p.443

A major cause of death and disease in babies is the failure of their developing immune systems to block life-threatening infections. A clinical trial reports that the use of a probiotic can help to prevent such infections. See Article p.407

A synbiotic preparation of Lactobacillus plantarum and fructooligosaccharide was found to significantly reduce sepsis and infections of the lower respiratory tract in a trial involving rural Indian newborns.

CRISPR–Cas9 genome editing is used to induce a DNA repair response and correct a disease-causing heterozygous mutation in human embryos with reduced mosaicism and preferential repair using the wild-type copy of the gene.

An atomic model of the primed pre-fusion SNARE–complexin–synaptotagmin-1 complex in neuronal exocytosis accounting for vesicle priming and cooperation in synchronizing and activating evoked release on the sub-millisecond timescale.

The spins of the black holes involved in each of the four mergers that have been detected in gravitational waves so far were either small or not aligned with the binary orbit.

Large haloes of diffuse molecular gas discovered around high-redshift starburst galaxies show that galactic feedback, coupled to turbulence and gravity, extends the starburst phase instead of quenching it.

A finely tuned growth strategy to generate nanowire networks that fulfil all the prerequisites for braiding may lead to a demonstration of Majorana braiding.

Magnetic hysteresis is observed in a dysprosocenium complex at temperatures of up to 60 kelvin, the origin of which is the localized metal–ligand vibrational modes unique to dysprosocenium.

Measurements from Antarctic ice suggest that geological methane emissions are much lower than previously thought, and that methane emissions from hydrates and permafrost in response to climate warming are minimal.

A detailed analysis of fly wing phenotypes reveals a strong positive relationship between variation produced by mutation, standing genetic variation, and evolutionary rate over the past 40 million years.

Myofibroblast-derived R-spondin 3 orchestrates regeneration of antral stomach epithelium via Wnt signalling in Axin2⁺ stem cells.

An artificial recombination locus, Polylox, that can generate hundreds of thousands of individual barcodes is used to trace the fates of haematopoietic stem cells in mice.

The cytoplasmic DNA sensor cGAS detects DNA in ruptured micronuclei and activates an innate immune response.

The authors report a link between mitosis, the formation of micronuclei and DNA-damage-induced cGAS-dependent inflammation.

Mouse models of breast carcinoma and other solid tumours show that selective cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6 (CDK4/6) inhibitors not only induce tumour cell cycle arrest but also promote anti-tumour immunity.

A vaccine-driven approach shows that the prominent stimulant features of the psychoactive profile of fenethylline can be attributed to amphetamine, with synergistic support from theophylline, and no direct contributions from the parent drug molecule.

The authors report the crystal structure of the β₂ adrenergic receptor in complex with compound 15, an allosteric modulator that binds to an alternative binding pocket.

Chemical probes and screening libraries can easily get mixed up or messed up, causing misleading results for unwary biologists.

When set up properly, individual development plans can be powerful tools for shaping a career.

Science is all about sorting the wheat from the chaff, says John Kirwan.

The road to change.

Can regenerative medicine help to avoid leg amputation in patients with critical limb ischaemia?

Many people with critical limb ischaemia have no option but to have the affected limb amputated. Can regenerative medicine offer an alternative?