From gadgets to the smart grid

Nature. doi:10.1038/526S90a

Author: Sujata Gupta

Batteries are key to powering portable devices and developing a modern energy network. Researchers are scrambling to develop iterations that can overcome the current limitations. By Sujata Gupta, infographic by Nigel Hawtin.

Perspective: The energy-storage revolution

Nature. doi:10.1038/526S92a

Author: George Crabtree

Lithium-ion batteries enabled smartphones to flourish. The next innovation will upend transportation and the grid, says George Crabtree.

Lithium batteries: To the limits of lithium

Nature. doi:10.1038/526S93a

Author: Eric C. Evarts

Researchers are developing a type of battery that has ten times the power of conventional batteries.

Technology: A solid future

Nature. doi:10.1038/526S96a

Author: Jim Motavalli

Swapping the liquid electrolyte in batteries for a safer solid-state interior is bringing electric cars to the mass market.

Electrochemistry: Liquid assets

Nature. doi:10.1038/526S98a

Author: Neil Savage

Flow batteries, which release electricity through fluid-based reactions, could revolutionize renewable-energy storage.

Recycling: Lazarus batteries

Nature. doi:10.1038/526S100a

Author: Erica Gies

Battery recycling can be hard, energy intensive and uneconomic. But soon, dead power cells could be more easily resurrected.

Energy storage: Power revolution

Nature. doi:10.1038/526S102a

Author: Peter Fairley

Electrical grids increasingly depend on intermittent renewable sources. To smooth the supply out, utilities companies are testing alternatives to storing energy in conventional batteries.

Batteries: 4 big questions

Nature. doi:10.1038/526S105a

Author: Katherine Bourzac

The energy density of batteries will need to be substantially increased and their cost decreased if renewable energy is to replace fossil fuels. Here are four important questions.

El Niño and intense tropical cyclones

Nature 526, 7575 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature15546

Authors: Il-Ju Moon, Sung-Hun Kim & Chunzai Wang

arising from F.-F. Jin, J. Boucharel & I.-I. Lin Nature516, 82–85 (2014); doi:10.1038/nature13958The El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) influences global climate as well as extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and tropical cyclones, leading to

Correction

Nature 526, 7575 (2015). http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/526640f

An editing error in the Correspondence by A. C.Lewiset al. (Nature526, 195;10.1038/526195c2015) attributed 29,000 UK deaths to particulate matter from diesel, rather than from all sources.

Photonics: Random sudoku light

Nature 526, 7575 (2015). doi:10.1038/526643a

Authors: Toni Eichelkraut & Alexander Szameit

A clever approach has been used to imprint a phase pattern on a laser beam. The pattern is not only random at each point, but also depends on information stored elsewhere in the pattern.

Plant biology: Pigments on the move

Nature 526, 7575 (2015). doi:10.1038/526644a

Authors: Diane C. Bassham

In plant cells, the pigment anthocyanin is transported to a membrane-bounded organelle called the vacuole for storage. A previously unidentified transport pathway involving vacuolar-membrane extensions mediates this process.

Ecology: Foraging further

Nature 526, 7575 (2015). doi:10.1038/526646a

Author: Jennifer R. Gardiner

King penguins on the Crozet archipelago in the southern Indian Ocean travel south to forage for food around the Antarctic Polar Front, where cold Antarctic waters meet warmer sub-Antarctic seas (pictured, a king penguin diving). Writing in Nature Communications, Bost et al. report

Chemical biology: Protein modification in a trice

Nature 526, 7575 (2015). doi:10.1038/526646b

Authors: Heather Maynard

Organometallic reagents have been developed that chemically modify proteins and peptides specifically at cysteine amino-acid residues — potentially offering a general route to making therapeutically useful compounds. See Letter p.687

50 & 100 Years Ago

Nature 526, 7575 (2015). doi:10.1038/526649a

50 Years AgoIt may not be generally realized that work is in progress on the colossal project of constructing a 40-in. diameter, 300 miles long, Trans-Alpine oil pipeline to convey oil from the Adriatic to the heart of Germany ... Among the many practical

Abundant molecular oxygen in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko

Nature 526, 7575 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature15707

Authors: A. Bieler, K. Altwegg, H. Balsiger, A. Bar-Nun, J.-J. Berthelier, P. Bochsler, C. Briois, U. Calmonte, M. Combi, J. De Keyser, E. F. van Dishoeck, B. Fiethe, S. A. Fuselier, S. Gasc, T. I. Gombosi, K. C. Hansen, M. Hässig, A. Jäckel, E. Kopp, A. Korth, L. Le Roy, U. Mall, R. Maggiolo, B. Marty, O. Mousis, T. Owen, H. Rème, M. Rubin, T. Sémon, C.-Y. Tzou, J. H. Waite, C. Walsh & P. Wurz

The composition of the neutral gas comas of most comets is dominated by H2O, CO and CO2, typically comprising as much as 95 per cent of the total gas density. In addition, cometary comas have been found to contain a rich array of other molecules, including sulfuric compounds and complex hydrocarbons. Molecular oxygen (O2), however, despite its detection on other icy bodies such as the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, has remained undetected in cometary comas. Here we report in situ measurement of O2 in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, with local abundances ranging from one per cent to ten per cent relative to H2O and with a mean value of 3.80 ± 0.85 per cent. Our observations indicate that the O2/H2O ratio is isotropic in the coma and does not change systematically with heliocentric distance. This suggests that primordial O2 was incorporated into the nucleus during the comet’s formation, which is unexpected given the low upper limits from remote sensing observations. Current Solar System formation models do not predict conditions that would allow this to occur.

Organometallic palladium reagents for cysteine bioconjugation

Nature 526, 7575 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature15739

Authors: Ekaterina V. Vinogradova, Chi Zhang, Alexander M. Spokoyny, Bradley L. Pentelute & Stephen L. Buchwald

Reactions based on transition metals have found wide use in organic synthesis, in particular for the functionalization of small molecules. However, there are very few reports of using transition-metal-based reactions to modify complex biomolecules, which is due to the need for stringent reaction conditions (for example, aqueous media, low temperature and mild pH) and the existence of multiple reactive functional groups found in biomolecules. Here we report that palladium(ii) complexes can be used for efficient and highly selective cysteine conjugation (bioconjugation) reactions that are rapid and robust under a range of bio-compatible reaction conditions. The straightforward synthesis of the palladium reagents from diverse and easily accessible aryl halide and trifluoromethanesulfonate precursors makes the method highly practical, providing access to a large structural space for protein modification. The resulting aryl bioconjugates are stable towards acids, bases, oxidants and external thiol nucleophiles. The broad utility of the bioconjugation platform was further corroborated by the synthesis of new classes of stapled peptides and antibody–drug conjugates. These palladium complexes show potential as benchtop reagents for diverse bioconjugation applications.

Decadal slowdown of a land-terminating sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet despite warming

Nature 526, 7575 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature15722

Authors: Andrew J. Tedstone, Peter W. Nienow, Noel Gourmelen, Amaury Dehecq, Daniel Goldberg & Edward Hanna

Ice flow along land-terminating margins of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) varies considerably in response to fluctuating inputs of surface meltwater to the bed of the ice sheet. Such inputs lubricate the ice–bed interface, transiently speeding up the flow of ice. Greater melting results in faster ice motion during summer, but slower motion over the subsequent winter, owing to the evolution of an efficient drainage system that enables water to drain from regions of the ice-sheet bed that have a high basal water pressure. However, the impact of hydrodynamic coupling on ice motion over decadal timescales remains poorly constrained. Here we show that annual ice motion across an 8,000-km2 land-terminating region of the west GIS margin, extending to 1,100 m above sea level, was 12% slower in 2007–14 compared with 1985–94, despite a 50% increase in surface meltwater production. Our findings suggest that, over these three decades, hydrodynamic coupling in this section of the ablation zone resulted in a net slowdown of ice motion (not a speed-up, as previously postulated). Increases in meltwater production from projected climate warming may therefore further reduce the motion of land-terminating margins of the GIS. Our findings suggest that these sectors of the ice sheet are more resilient to the dynamic impacts of enhanced meltwater production than previously thought.

Power struggle

Nature 526, 7575 (2015). doi:10.1038/526609a

The UK government’s decision to subsidize a nuclear power station while cutting support for renewables is short-sighted.

Massive UK baby study cancelled

Nature 526, 7575 (2015). http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/526620a

Author: Helen Pearson

Loss prompts rethink about design of future cradle-to-grave studies.