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Water and climate: Recognize anthropogenic drought

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

Water and climate: Recognize anthropogenic drought

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/524409a

Authors: Amir AghaKouchak, David Feldman, Martin Hoerling, Travis Huxman & Jay Lund

California's current extreme drought must be a lesson for managing water in a warmer, more densely populated world, say Amir AghaKouchak and colleagues.

Categories: Journal Articles

History of science: The crucible of change

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

History of science: The crucible of change

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/524412a

Author: Philip Ball

Philip Ball gets to grips with a revolutionary history of the scientific revolution.

Categories: Journal Articles

Digital privacy: Subverting surveillance

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

Digital privacy: Subverting surveillance

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/524413a

Author: Anthony King

Anthony King tours a playful exhibition that probes covert data collection and tracking.

Categories: Journal Articles

Science fiction: Cosmology boot camp

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

Science fiction: Cosmology boot camp

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/524414a

Author: John Gilbey

John Gilbey goes on the road in the US far west to refine the science in his fiction.

Categories: Journal Articles

Food production: Cut food waste to help feed world

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

Food production: Cut food waste to help feed world

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/524415a

Author: Don Gunasekera

Climate-proofing farms to help feed the world's expanding population needs to be complemented by global measures to cut food losses and waste (see Nature523, 396–397;10.1038/523396a2015).Roughly one-third of the food produced annually for human consumption — around

Categories: Journal Articles

Neuroanatomy: Forgotten findings of brain lymphatics

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

Neuroanatomy: Forgotten findings of brain lymphatics

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/524415b

Authors: Éva Mezey & Miklós Palkovits

Antoine Louveau and colleagues describe lymphatic vessels in the central nervous system (Nature523, 337–341;10.1038/nature144322015), suggesting that “the unique location of these vessels may have impeded their discovery to date”. However, these findings are not without precedent.

Categories: Journal Articles

Europe: Lifelong learning for all in biomedicine

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

Europe: Lifelong learning for all in biomedicine

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/524415c

Authors: Cath Brooksbank & Claire Johnson

Cross-disciplinary and team-based modern research is overwhelming established mechanisms for maintaining professional competency. This calls for a change to personnel training that is not limited to professors (see C. E.Leiserson and C.McVinneyNature523, 279–281;10.1038/523279a2015).

Categories: Journal Articles

History: Physicist's death changed war policy

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

History: Physicist's death changed war policy

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/524415d

Author: Min-Liang Wong

Just over 100 years ago, on 10 August, the 27-year-old British physicist Henry Moseley was killed in the First World War at the battle of Gallipoli. His work on the X-ray spectra of atoms had already explained the basis of Dmitri Mendeleev's periodic table of

Categories: Journal Articles

Offsets: Conservation served by flexibility

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

Offsets: Conservation served by flexibility

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/524415e

Authors: Jared J. Hardner, Raymond E. Gullison & Porter P. Lowry II

The debate over whether national protected areas are eligible for biodiversity-offset funding should factor in the different challenges and contexts for countries seeking to conserve their biodiversity (see M.Maronet al. Nature523, 401–403;10.1038/523401a2015).Offsets that

Categories: Journal Articles

Yoichiro Nambu (1921–2015)

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

Yoichiro Nambu (1921–2015)

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/524416a

Author: Michael S. Turner

Visionary theorist who shaped modern particle physics.

Categories: Journal Articles

Know your network

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

Know your network

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/nj7566-507a

Author: Peter Fiske

Seek and cultivate professional relationships to advance your career, says Peter Fiske.

Categories: Journal Articles

Trade talk: Impact assessor

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

Trade talk: Impact assessor

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/nj7566-508a

Author: Monya Baker

Arie Meir describes his route from a PhD in biophysics to a leadership position assessing projects for the philanthropic arm of Google.

Categories: Journal Articles

Under an uncaring sky

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

Under an uncaring sky

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/524510a

Author: William Meikle

Ill met by starlight.

Categories: Journal Articles

Questioning evidence of group selection in spiders

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

Questioning evidence of group selection in spiders

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature14595

Authors: Lena Grinsted, Trine Bilde & James D. J. Gilbert

arising from J. N. Pruitt & C. J. Goodnight Nature514, 359–362 (2014); doi:10.1038/nature13811Any field study showing convincing evidence of group selection would be a significant contribution to the field of evolutionary biology. Pruitt and Goodnight

Categories: Journal Articles

Group selection versus group adaptation

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

Group selection versus group adaptation

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature14596

Author: Andy Gardner

arising from J. N. Pruitt & C. J. Goodnight Nature514, 359–362 (2014); doi:10.1038/nature13811Pruitt and Goodnight describe how the ratio of aggressive versus docile females varies among naturally occurring colonies of the social spider Anelosimus

Categories: Journal Articles

Pruitt & Goodnight reply

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

Pruitt & Goodnight reply

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature14597

Authors: Jonathan N. Pruitt & Charles J. Goodnight

replying to L. Grinsted, T. Bilde & J. D. J. Gilbert Nature524, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature14595 (2015); A. Gardner Nature524, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature14596 (2015)In Pruitt and Goodnight we provided experimental evidence that group selection has contributed

Categories: Journal Articles

Materials science: Superlattice substitution

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

Materials science: Superlattice substitution

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/524418a

Authors: Daniel Vanmaekelbergh

What happens if some of the particles of a superlattice — an array of identical nanoscale crystals — are replaced with foreign ones? It emerges that the properties of superlattices can be radically altered in this way. See Letter p.450

Categories: Journal Articles

Particle physics: Positrons ride the wave

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

Particle physics: Positrons ride the wave

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/524422a

Authors: Philippe Piot

Experiments reveal that positrons — the antimatter equivalents of electrons — can be rapidly accelerated using a plasma wave. The findings pave the way to high-energy electron–positron particle colliders. See Letter p.442

Categories: Journal Articles

Photonics: A stable narrow-band X-ray laser

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

Photonics: A stable narrow-band X-ray laser

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/524424a

Authors: Linda Young

An atomic laser operating at the shortest wavelength yet achieved has been created by bombarding a copper foil with two X-ray pulses tuned to slightly different energies. The results may lead to ultrastable X-ray lasers. See Letter p.446

Categories: Journal Articles

The disruption of multiplanet systems through resonance with a binary orbit

Nature - Tue, 08/25/2015 - 23:00

The disruption of multiplanet systems through resonance with a binary orbit

Nature 524, 7566 (2015). doi:10.1038/nature14873

Authors: Jihad R. Touma & S. Sridhar

Most exoplanetary systems in binary stars are of S-type, and consist of one or more planets orbiting a primary star with a wide binary stellar companion. Planetary eccentricities and mutual inclinations can be large, perhaps forced gravitationally by the binary companion. Earlier work on single planet systems appealed to the Kozai–Lidov instability wherein a sufficiently inclined binary orbit excites large-amplitude oscillations in the planet’s eccentricity and inclination. The instability, however, can be quenched by many agents that induce fast orbital precession, including mutual gravitational forces in a multiplanet system. Here we report that orbital precession, which inhibits Kozai–Lidov cycling in a multiplanet system, can become fast enough to resonate with the orbital motion of a distant binary companion. Resonant binary forcing results in dramatic outcomes ranging from the excitation of large planetary eccentricities and mutual inclinations to total disruption. Processes such as planetary migration can bring an initially non-resonant system into resonance. As it does not require special physical or initial conditions, binary resonant driving is generic and may have altered the architecture of many multiplanet systems. It can also weaken the multiplanet occurrence rate in wide binaries, and affect planet formation in close binaries.

Categories: Journal Articles
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