Journal Articles

Zoology: How the sponge got its skeleton

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Zoology: How the sponge got its skeleton

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525428b

Sponges build their skeletons using specialized cells that transport and assemble structural beams like construction workers — a novel way of producing a skeleton compared to other animals.Sponge skeletons are made of rod-like silica structures called spicules that are cemented to rocks and to

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Neuroscience: Sound switches on worm cells

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Neuroscience: Sound switches on worm cells

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525428c

Ultrasound has been used to stimulate individual brain cells in a worm. If the technique works in mice, it could be a less invasive way of studying specific neurons.Neuroscientists currently implant probes into animal brains to stimulate cells that have been engineered to become

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Neuroscience: Electric zaps help spinal-cord rehab

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Neuroscience: Electric zaps help spinal-cord rehab

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525428d

Electrically stimulating a damaged spinal cord as part of rehabilitation therapy may enhance improvements in movement.Steve Perlmutter at the University of Washington in Seattle and his team bruised the spinal cords of rats to partially paralyse the animals' forelimbs. They then used a neural–computer

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Evolution: Ancient lung parts found in fish

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Evolution: Ancient lung parts found in fish

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525428e

A fish species found in the Indian Ocean has a vestigial lung, suggesting that its ancestors had working lungs before they shifted to life in deep waters.The coelacanth fish Latimeria chalumnae is descended from ancient coelacanths that lived in shallow waters. Paulo Brito

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Planetary science: A balmy climate on exoplanets?

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Planetary science: A balmy climate on exoplanets?

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525429a

Certain planets outside our Solar System could have wind patterns that produce habitable climates.Ludmila Carone at the University of Leuven in Belgium and her team used climate models to investigate atmospheric temperatures and wind patterns on planets with Earth-like atmospheres. The chosen planets closely

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Plant ecology: Orchid shapes trick male insects

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Plant ecology: Orchid shapes trick male insects

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525429b

Orchids have adapted the shape of their flowers to attract pollinating wasps.These flowering plants lure male insect pollinators by producing chemicals that mimic the pheromones of their female counterparts, but the effect of flower shape on pollinators has been unclear. To look at this,

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Agriculture: Ecological impact of crops drops

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Agriculture: Ecological impact of crops drops

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525429c

The environmental impact of maize (corn) and cotton crops on US freshwater ecosystems has been decreasing over the past decade, mainly because of the use of genetically modified plants that require less added pesticide.Sangwon Suh and Yi Yang at the University of California, Santa

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Genetics: How Inuit genomes have adapted

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Genetics: How Inuit genomes have adapted

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525429d

The genomes of indigenous people in Greenland (pictured) show how they have adapted to thousands of years of frigid temperatures and a diet that is rich in fatty seafood.Rasmus Nielsen at the University of California, Berkeley, and his colleagues analysed the genomes

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The week in science: 18–24 September 2015

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

The week in science: 18–24 September 2015

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/525430a

Volkswagen caught up in emissions scandal; crowdfunding to sequence the beaver; and Australia gets new science minister.

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Lost generation looms as refugees miss university

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Lost generation looms as refugees miss university

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/525433a

Author: Declan Butler

Educational void risks hampering reconstruction in Middle East.

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Brain stimulation in children spurs hope — and concern

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Brain stimulation in children spurs hope — and concern

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/525436a

Author: Linda Geddes

Treatment of developing brains offers greater scope for improvement but also intensifies risks.

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The hidden risks for ‘three-person’ babies

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

The hidden risks for ‘three-person’ babies

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/525444a

Author: Garry Hamilton

The powerhouses of the cell may have more roles than expected. Could that generate problems for mitochondrial replacement therapies?

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Energy: Reimagine fuel cells

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Energy: Reimagine fuel cells

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525447a

Author: John P. Lemmon

Combine energy generation and storage to ensure that networks remain robust as more renewable technologies are adopted, urge John P. Lemmon.

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Military science: Inventions of war

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Military science: Inventions of war

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525451a

Author: Ann Finkbeiner

Ann Finkbeiner assesses a study of DARPA, the agency that readies US technologies for coming conflicts.

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Space travel: When Soviets ruled the great beyond

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Space travel: When Soviets ruled the great beyond

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525452a

Author: Tim Radford

Tim Radford is thrilled by an unprecedented exhibition marking the USSR's cold war feats in space.

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Theatre: Lab's labour's lost

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Theatre: Lab's labour's lost

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525454a

Author: Philip Ball

Philip Ball appraises Nicole Kidman's stage turn as crystallographer Rosalind Franklin.

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Middle East: Popular uprising spreads science

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Middle East: Popular uprising spreads science

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525455a

Authors: Muath Alduhishy & Mouhannad Malek

Hundreds of young Arab people are establishing initiatives to promote science in Arabic and raise scientific literacy across the Middle East, free of the censorship and bureaucracy of government and religious authorities (see Nature Middle Easthttp://doi.org/7p8; 2015).They are publishing and translating

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Amateur scientists: Citizen projects can minimize conflicts

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Amateur scientists: Citizen projects can minimize conflicts

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525455b

Author: James W. Pearce-Higgins

Well-structured schemes for citizen scientists can minimize the potential for conflicts of interest (Nature524, 265;10.1038/524265a2015).Projects such as the UK Breeding Bird Survey (go.nature.com/keyvpu), run by the British Trust for Ornithology, use volunteer-friendly protocols and specify

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Carbon: Resolve ambiguities in China's emissions

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

Carbon: Resolve ambiguities in China's emissions

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525455c

Author: Fei Teng

As the former chair of the Consultative Group of Experts organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to help developing countries to produce carbon-emission inventories, I question the claim that China's emissions from coal have been overestimated (see Nature524,

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China: Overhaul rules for hazardous chemicals

Nature - Tue, 09/22/2015 - 23:00

China: Overhaul rules for hazardous chemicals

Nature 525, 7570 (2015). doi:10.1038/525455d

Authors: Zhenwu Tang, Qifei Huang & Yufei Yang

The huge chemical explosion at the Chinese port of Tianjin on 12 August is another in the country's long list of industrial accidents involving chemicals. In 2010–14, more than 2,000 people were killed in 326 such accidents (J. Ren and Y. Mu Chem. Enterp.

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