Volume 569 Issue 7755, 9 May 2019

The elite panel that guides the US government is undermined by wavering financial support. More-secure backing is in the national interest.

Technology companies are running a campaign to bend research and regulation for their benefit; society must fight back, says Yochai Benkler.

Blue-tinged Cherenkov radiation could help to illuminate quantum interactions between light and matter.

The spontaneous flaps of a running dinosaur’s ‘wings’ might have paved the way for true powered flapping.

Magma-ocean theory of Moon’s origin could explain why Earth and its satellite are chemically so similar.

A small molecule is identified that puts the brakes on the Cas9 enzyme.

Untimely break-up of sea ice triggered the birds’ relocation.

Clean fuel could be produced using concentrated solar energy.

PlanetNet algorithm has helped scientists to understand a storm on the giant planet.

The week in science: 3–9 May 2019.

Sites that allow the study of human remains have long existed in the United States and have started to appear recently in other countries.

The National Academy of Sciences has come under pressure to address misconduct in recent years.

Five months into the job, Kelvin Droegemeier tells Nature what it’s like to work with the US president.

Under a draft proposal, patients would be able to buy some therapies without regulatory approval.

Landmark United Nations-backed report finds that agriculture is one of the biggest threats to Earth’s ecosystems.

Strains used for scientific purposes are more like hemp than the marijuana sold in dispensaries, suggests a study.

As the Belt and Road Initiative spreads to central and eastern Europe, China’s investments in research and technology are raising concerns in the West.

From a secretive space facility to plans for new telescopes, South America is starting to see the scientific impacts of China’s global infrastructure expansion.

Build a global network for mapping, modelling and managing agriculture, biodiversity, trade and nutrition, argue Guido Schmidt-Traub, Michael Obersteiner and Aline Mosnier.

The shocking announcement of genetically modified babies creates an opportunity to overhaul the nation’s science, argue Ruipeng Lei and colleagues.

Huw Lewis-Jones relishes a scientific and poetic journey underground.

Elie Dolgin profiles a compelling collaboration between scientists and composers in Paris.

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the week’s best science picks.

Theoretical physicist who discovered topological phases of matter.

Users of the open-source software have posted more than 5 million comments on scholarly sites.

Researchers are realizing that the DNA–protein complex doesn’t just have one form but many.

Be prepared for delays to start dates, unexpected fees — and even visa refusals — when moving abroad for career opportunities.

Brown fat in mammals burns stored calories by producing heat, in a process that is controlled by nerves infiltrating this tissue. A protein that regulates innervation of brown fat and heat generation has been discovered.

Knowing the gene-expression pattern of individual cells can unlock their identity. A refined method for generating cellular RNA profiles offers a way to obtain such data at a high level of spatial resolution in intact tissues.

Experiments show how an all-optical version of an artificial neural network — a type of artificial-intelligence system — could potentially deliver better energy efficiency can conventional computing approaches.

The global rise in the prevalence of obesity has been seen as an urban problem. A large-scale study challenges this view by showing that weight gain in rural areas is the main factor currently driving the obesity epidemic.

Humans have altered the natural flow of rivers, adversely affecting biodiversity and the services that these watercourses provide. The mapping of millions of kilometres of rivers reveals the extent of human interference.

Single barium atoms trapped in a solid xenon matrix can be imaged and counted by scanning with a focused laser, providing a possible tagging technique for the neutrinoless-double-β-decay experiment nEXO.

An optical version of a brain-inspired neurosynaptic system, using wavelength division multiplexing techniques, is presented that is capable of supervised and unsupervised learning.

A comprehensive assessment of the world’s rivers and their connectivity shows that only 37 per cent of rivers longer than 1,000 kilometres remain free-flowing over their entire length.

The transcriptional landscape of cell populations of the mouse bone marrow microenvironment, mapped at single-cell resolution, reveals cellular heterogeneity in this niche as well as substantial transcriptional remodelling under stress conditions.

The newly identified calsyntenin 3β protein has a role in the innervation of thermogenic fat through a mechanism of communication—which is unique to mammals—between thermogenic adipocytes and sympathetic neurons.

Histone H4 is released from neutrophil extracellular traps and induces membrane lysis in vascular smooth muscle cells, leading to the destabilization of atherosclerotic plaques.

A rare type of supernova—triggered by the collapse of a rapidly rotating single star—could have provided more than 80 per cent of the r-process elements in the Universe.

Composite cathodes created by anionic redox reactions of bromine and chlorine intercalated into graphite, combined with water-in-salt electrolyte and graphite anodes, provide aqueous lithium-ion batteries with improved energy density.

The atomic structure of H₂O is documented at several million atmospheres of pressure and temperatures of several thousand degrees, revealing shockwave-induced ultrafast crystallization and a novel water ice phase, ice XVIII, with exotic superionic properties.

A newly described Jurassic scansoriopterygid reveals that membranous wings and the styliform element were widespread in this clade, which suggests that a distinctive wing architecture evolved near the split between the Scansoriopterygidae and the paravian lineages.

Contrary to the view that urbanization is a major driver of the global rise in obesity, the global increase in body-mass index is shown to be mostly due to increases in the body-mass indexes of rural populations.

A genetic screen for factors required by the Arabidopsis RNA-binding protein FCA identifies FLL2 as necessary in the formation of FCA nuclear bodies, and thus a role for FLL2 in liquid–liquid phase separation.

Interferon-γ induces ferroptotic cell death in tumours by suppressing cystine uptake and promoting lipid peroxidation.

The polarity protein LLGL2 supports tumour growth in breast cancer by promoting leucine uptake and adaptation to nutrient stress.

Clustered protocadherin ectodomains spontaneously assemble to form a zipper-like lattice of alternating cis and trans interactions at membrane contact sites, which probably represents their mode of function in neuronal self-recognition.

The MT₁ melatonin receptor differs markedly from 5-HT receptors and shows atypical ligand entry; its structure with various ligands sheds light on receptor specificity.

Structural and functional studies show that the MT₂ melatonin receptor, unlike the MT₁ receptor, contains an extracellular opening for ligand entry, shedding light on receptor subtype specificity.