Volume 575 Issue 7784, 28 November 2019

When the time is right, the country should consider inviting researchers from around the world to study the latest finds from its ancient past.

Attacks on scholars are on the rise at the same time as universities find themselves at the centre of student protests.

Local experts — not rich donors — must design and control studies, says Francisca Mutapi.

Strange headpieces might have been protection for the souls of those who died young.

One massive molecule draws on two types of coding found throughout living organisms.

Researchers wrangle tiny plastic spheres into imitating the synchronized swimming of a group of microbes.

Human tunes from every culture fall into four categories with well-defined features.

Mass screening turns up a therapy that holds promise for treating a highly aggressive class of tumours.

A bacterium that infects a wealth of crops and ornamental plants landed in Europe from California.

Levels of nitrous oxide, which promotes global warming, are galloping upwards at a rate higher than previously estimated.

The latest science news, in brief.

Ancient cats come hot on the heels of a stunning human-coffin find as Egypt keeps research on the artefacts to itself, for now.

A growing number of research agencies are assigning money randomly.

A study of protein databases shows that discoverers who are second to publish still end up getting a substantial portion of the recognition.

Meteorologists say international standards for wireless technology could degrade crucial satellite measurements of water vapour.

China has diverted US government funds to bolster its military and economic aims, a US Senate panel says.

Ocean warming threatens to wipe out corals, but scientists are trying to protect naturally resilient reefs and are nursing some others back to health.

The MineRL competition encourages coders to devise programs that learn by example.

Barbara Kiser reviews five of the week’s best science picks.

The lack of galactic grandmothers in visions of the future reflects ageism and sexism in the here and now. By Sylvia Spruck Wrigley

A swift increase in scientific productivity has outstripped the country’s ability to promote rigour and curb academic misconduct; it is time to seize solutions.

The growing threat of abrupt and irreversible climate changes must compel political and economic action on emissions.

Nature’s biennial doctoral-student survey reveals struggles for work–life balance, career guidance and emotional support.

Microscopy has been a trade-off until now: the bigger the sample, the lower the resolution. But picking out cellular detail in mouse brains and more is becoming increasingly possible.

Jean-Pierre Bourguignon uses his office art to inspire himself in boosting collaboration and creativity.

The discovery of a mechanism that guards against a type of cell death called ferroptosis reveals a system that regenerates a ubiquitous protective component of biological membranes, and might offer a target for anticancer drugs.

A molecular catalyst dispersed on carbon nanotubes has been found to catalyse the electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide to methanol — a liquid fuel and industrially useful bulk chemical.

A previously unknown bacterial toxin has now been characterized. The protein is secreted into neighbouring cells, depleting them of essential energy-carrying molecules and so leading to the cells’ demise.

A crystal’s surface has been found to behave as a distinct material that has temperature-dependent electrical polarization — despite the rest of the crystal being non-polar.

Bacteria move along gradients of chemical attractants. Two studies find that, in nutrient-rich environments, bacteria can grow rapidly by following a non-nutritious attractant — but expanding too fast leaves them vulnerable.

Scientists have engineered semiconducting nanocrystals called quantum dots that lack toxic heavy metals and are highly efficient light emitters. These nanostructures might be used in displays, solar cells and light-emitting diodes.

The authors review the advantages and future prospects of neuromorphic computing, a multidisciplinary engineering concept for energy-efficient artificial intelligence with brain-inspired functionality.

Radial-velocity measurements of a Galactic B-type star show a dark companion that seems to be a black hole of about 68 solar masses, in a widely spaced binary system.

Strong coupling between a gated semiconductor quantum dot and an optical microcavity is observed in an ultralow-loss frequency-tunable microcavity device.

Imaging studies show that topological protection in the quantum Hall state in graphene is undermined by edge reconstruction with a dissipation mechanism that comprises two distinct and spatially separated processes—work generation and entropy generation.

A method of engineering efficient and stable InP/ZnSe/ZnS quantum dot light-emitting diodes (QD-LEDs) has improved their performance to the level of state-of-the-art cadmium-containing QD-LEDs, removing the problem of the toxicity of cadmium in large-panel displays.

Individual cobalt phthalocyanine derivative molecules immobilized on carbon nanotubes effectively catalyse the electroreduction of CO₂ to methanol via a domino process with high activity and selectivity and stable performance.

A synthetic route to the Ginkgo biloba metabolite (−)-bilobalide is described.

Since the 1980s, rapid warming of the Indo-Pacific warm pool has altered global rainfall pattern by changing the residence time of the Madden–Julian Oscillation, decreasing it by 3–4 days over the Indian Ocean and increasing it over the Indo-Pacific by 5–6 days.

A genome-wide association study of mosaic loss of chromosome Y (LOY) in UK Biobank participants identifies 156 genetic determinants of LOY, showing that LOY is associated with cancer and non-haematological health outcomes.

Pioneering bacterial cells use chemotaxis along self-generated attractant gradients to facilitate rapid colonization of nutrient-replete environments.

To successfully colonize a habitat in the presence of competing chemotactic bacterial populations, the winner is required to expand its range at a speed given by the habitat size and the population doubling time.

The authors show that NLRP3 inflammasome is activated in microglia of patients with fronto-temporal dementia and in a mouse model of tau pathology, and that the loss of NLRP3 inflammasome function decreases tau pathology and improves cognition in mice.

The bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa attacks competing bacteria using the toxin Tas1, which pyrophosphorylates adenosine nucleotides to generate (p)ppApp, thereby depleting ATP and disrupting multiple cellular functions.

Alternative cell death pathways are revealed in the absence of caspase-8-dependent apoptosis and MLKL-dependent necroptosis.

The enzymatic activity of caspase-8 controls apoptosis, necroptosis and pyroptosis, and prevents tissue damage during embryonic development and adulthood in mice.

A synthetic lethal CRISPR–Cas9 screen identifies ferroptosis suppressor protein 1 as a key ferroptosis-resistance factor, the expression of which correlates with ferroptosis resistance in hundreds of cancer cell lines.

In the absence of GPX4, FSP1 regenerates ubiquinol from the oxidized form, ubiquinone, using NAD(P)H and suppresses phospholipid peroxidation and ferroptosis in cells.

Imaging and sequencing approaches are combined to show that extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) in cancer is circular and has unique chromatin structure that amplifies oncogene output.

Time-resolved electron microscopy reveals the mechanism by which the origin recognition complex loads pairs of MCM helicases around DNA prior to bidirectional replication.