Articles

Ultrafast lasers are important in many fields of science, but they typically have high power consumption. Here Eigenwillig et al.realize picosecond laser pulses directly from a semiconductor-based laser. Due to the low repetition rate, high-energy pulses are generated at low average power.

It has been hypothesized that the steroidal alkaloid dendrogenin A (DDA) is a natural metabolite. de Medina et al.show that DDA is produced in mammalian tissues from 5,6α-epoxy-cholesterol and histamine metabolism, and that the compound displays cell differentiation and anti-tumour activities.

CpG oligodeoxynucleotides stimulate innate immune signalling and are of significant interest as therapeutics. Here the authors show that at high doses, these molecules induce an opposite, tolerogenic effect, acting through a previously uncharacterized Toll-like receptor-dependent pathway.

OP9 is a yet-uncultivated bacterial lineage found in anaerobic environments. Dodsworth et al. use single-cell genomics and metagenomics to construct two near-complete OP9 genomes, revealing a fermentative metabolism and supporting the designation of OP9 as candidate phylum 'Atribacteria'.

Dogs may have been domesticated much earlier than previously thought, perhaps by initially scavenging with humans. Here Zhang et al. present genetic evidence that genes positively selected during dog domestication show extensive parallelism with human analogues.

Among various pigmentation patterns on caterpillars, sequential spot markings are often used for aposematic colouration. Fujiwara et al. show using genetic and functional analyses that periodic upregulation of Wnt1 in response to ecdysteroid causes twin-spot markings on lepidopteran larvae.

Artificially engineered tissues may be useful for regenerative therapies but their fabrication tends to be complicated. Stevens et al. present a technique for the precise organization of microstructurally complex tissues that works with a variety of cell types and does not require sophisticated equipment.

High-quality narrow bandwidth single-photon states with tunable frequency are essential for quantum and atomic technologies. Using a whispering gallery mode resonator, Förtsch et al. build such a source with wavelength tuning across 100 nm and controllable narrow bandwidth.

In conventional superconductors, the critical temperature is proportional to the superconducting energy gap, but this is not so in unconventional superconductors. Anzai et al. identify an alternative relationship involving nodal and antinodal gaps in an underdoped cuprate superconductor.

Silicon carbide is a polymorphic material with over 250 known crystal structures. Here the authors show that such polymorphism can be used as a degree of freedom for engineering optically addressable and coherently interacting spin states, including many with room-temperature quantum coherence.

Although ferroelectrics are generally insulating, their domain walls can show electrical conductivity. Here Sluka et al. observe a highly conducting free-electron gas at charged domain walls in ferroelectric BaTiO₃.

Metal-air batteries are promising for energy storage because of their high theoretical energy density, but their realization is hampered by the lack of efficient and robust air catalysts. Li et al. construct stable zinc-air batteries using novel catalysts for oxygen reduction and evolution reactions.

Lithium air batteries have among the highest energy storage capacities, but their effective lifetime is short when using liquid electrolytes. Zhang et al. realize a lithium air battery with much improved cycling stability in ambient air by combining a solid electrolyte and a gel cathode.

Fossils of small dinosaurs are less common than their large-bodied counterparts, but whether this relates to preservational biases remains unclear. Evans et al.describe a new pachycephalosaur and provide the first evidence that small-bodied dinosaur diversity is strongly underestimated.

Ataxia telangiectasia is a genetic disease that results in various pathological disorders. In this study, the authors develop an in vitromodel of Ataxia telangiectasia using human induced pluripotent stem cells, and find that physiological defects can be alleviated by small molecule read-through compounds.

Graphene holds great potential for use in photodetectors, owing to its ability to absorb light over a wide range of wavelengths. Here Zhang et al. report a large photoresponsivity of 8.6 AW-1 over a broad wavelength range in pure monolayer graphene.

Aberrant production of oestrogens by adipose stromal cells is a driving factor in oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. Here the authors discover that oestrogen synthesis in adipose tissue is regulated by mechanical stress, and reveal how this effect is mediated.

Mutations in polyglutamine proteins are implicated in neurodegenerative disorders. Okazawa and colleagues now demonstrate that mutant polyQ proteins interact directly with the ATPase TERA, resulting in reduced DNA double-strand break repair, which is a feature of neurodegenerative diseases.

Transmission-blocking interventions aim to interrupt progression of Plasmodium parasites from the vertebrate host to the mosquito. Blagborough et al. demonstrate that only partially reducing transmission can be sufficient to eliminate experimental Plasmodiuminfection in successive mosquito and mice populations when biting rates are low.

Hermaphrodites develop and maintain male and female reproductive organs in a single individual. Chong et al. show that a DM domain transcription factor is required for male germ cell regeneration and maintains ‘maleness’ in a hermaphrodite, the planarian flatworm Schmidtea mediterranea.