Science news

• On board plane flying through the jet stream

  29-09-2016 23:36 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Science editor David Shukman goes on board the plane measuring the jet stream to find out how it affects our weather.
  
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• Rosetta spacecraft's crash landing explained

  29-09-2016 23:04 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The Rosetta probe, which has been beaming back spectacular pictures of a comet, is to end its journey by crash landing.
  
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• [Working Life] Doing science while black

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: Edward J. Smith
  
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• [This Week in Science] Spiral arms in a disk around a young star

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: Keith T. Smith
  
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• [This Week in Science] Sites and circuits to recognize friends

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: Peter Stern
  
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• [This Week in Science] Rock deformation goes magnetic

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: Brent Grocholski
  
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• [This Week in Science] Repairing the breaks you make

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: Guy Riddihough
  
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• [This Week in Science] Recreating optics in graphene

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: Jelena Stajic
  
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• [This Week in Science] Receptor propagates protein aggregation

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: Pamela J. Hines
  
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• [This Week in Science] Progression at a standstill

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: Lindsey Pujanandez
  
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• [This Week in Science] Patterns of global genetic diversity

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: Andrew M. Sugden
  
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• [This Week in Science] Organ cross-talk for insulin secretion

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: Beverly A. Purnell
  
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• [This Week in Science] On the path toward a vaccine

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: Kristen L. Mueller
  
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• [This Week in Science] More function with 3D printing

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: Phil Szuromi
  
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• [This Week in Science] Modeling hepatitis A in mice

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: Kristen L. Mueller
  
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• [This Week in Science] Mapping the local Milky Way

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: Kip Hodges
  
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• [This Week in Science] Engineering antitumor activity

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: Leslie K. Ferrarelli
  
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• [This Week in Science] CRISPR editing illuminates function

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: Laura M. Zahn
  
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• [This Week in Science] Bees have good moods, too

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: Sacha Vignieri
  
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• [This Week in Science] A histone brake on tumor growth

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: Guy Riddihough
  
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• [Review] Multiprocess 3D printing for increasing component functionality

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Layer-by-layer deposition of materials to manufacture parts—better known as three-dimensional (3D) printing or additive manufacturing—has been flourishing as a fabrication process in the past several years and now can create complex geometries for use as models, assembly fixtures, and production molds. Increasing interest has focused on the use of this technology for direct manufacturing of production parts; however, it remains generally limited to single-material fabrication, which can limi
  
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• [Research Article] The linker histone H1.0 generates epigenetic and functional intratumor heterogeneity

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Tumors comprise functionally diverse subpopulations of cells with distinct proliferative potential. Here, we show that dynamic epigenetic states defined by the linker histone H1.0 determine which cells within a tumor can sustain the long-term cancer growth. Numerous cancer types exhibit high inter- and intratumor heterogeneity of H1.0, with H1.0 levels correlating with tumor differentiation status, patient survival, and, at the single-cell level, cancer stem cell markers. Silencing of H1.0 promo
  
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• [Research Article] Pathological α-synuclein transmission initiated by binding lymphocyte-activation gene 3

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Emerging evidence indicates that the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) may be due to cell-to-cell transmission of misfolded preformed fibrils (PFF) of α-synuclein (α-syn). The mechanism by which α-syn PFF spreads from neuron to neuron is not known. Here, we show that LAG3 (lymphocyte-activation gene 3) binds α-syn PFF with high affinity (dissociation constant = 77 nanomolar), whereas the α-syn monomer exhibited minimal binding. α-Syn-biotin PFF binding to LAG3 initiated α-syn PFF
  
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• [Report] Ventral CA1 neurons store social memory

  29-09-2016 22:21
  The medial temporal lobe, including the hippocampus, has been implicated in social memory. However, it remains unknown which parts of these brain regions and their circuits hold social memory. Here, we show that ventral hippocampal CA1 (vCA1) neurons of a mouse and their projections to nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell play a necessary and sufficient role in social memory. Both the proportion of activated vCA1 cells and the strength and stability of the responding cells are greater in response to a
  
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• [Report] Unexpected rewards induce dopamine-dependent positive emotion–like state changes in bumblebees

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Whether invertebrates exhibit positive emotion–like states and what mechanisms underlie such states remain poorly understood. We demonstrate that bumblebees exhibit dopamine-dependent positive emotion–like states across behavioral contexts. After training with one rewarding and one unrewarding cue, bees that received pretest sucrose responded in a positive manner toward ambiguous cues. In a second experiment, pretest consumption of sucrose solution resulted in a shorter time to reinitiate fo
  
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• [Report] Spiral density waves in a young protoplanetary disk

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Gravitational forces are expected to excite spiral density waves in protoplanetary disks, disks of gas and dust orbiting young stars. However, previous observations that showed spiral structure were not able to probe disk midplanes, where most of the mass is concentrated and where planet formation takes place. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, we detected a pair of trailing symmetric spiral arms in the protoplanetary disk surrounding the young star Elias 2-27. The arms exte
  
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• [Report] Priming HIV-1 broadly neutralizing antibody precursors in human Ig loci transgenic mice

  29-09-2016 22:21
  A major obstacle to a broadly neutralizing antibody (bnAb)–based HIV vaccine is the activation of appropriate B cell precursors. Germline-targeting immunogens must be capable of priming rare bnAb precursors in the physiological setting. We tested the ability of the VRC01-class bnAb germline-targeting immunogen eOD-GT8 60mer (60-subunit self-assembling nanoparticle) to activate appropriate precursors in mice transgenic for human immunoglobulin (Ig) loci. Despite an average frequency of, at most
  
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• [Report] MAVS-dependent host species range and pathogenicity of human hepatitis A virus

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Hepatotropic viruses are important causes of human disease, but the intrahepatic immune response to hepatitis viruses is poorly understood because of a lack of tractable small- animal models. We describe a murine model of hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection that recapitulates critical features of type A hepatitis in humans. We demonstrate that the capacity of HAV to evade MAVS-mediated type I interferon responses defines its host species range. HAV-induced liver injury was associated with interfer
  
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• [Report] High-resolution lithosphere viscosity and dynamics revealed by magnetotelluric imaging

  29-09-2016 22:21
  An accurate viscosity structure is critical to truthfully modeling lithosphere dynamics. Here, we report an attempt to infer the effective lithospheric viscosity from a high-resolution magnetotelluric (MT) survey across the western United States. The high sensitivity of MT fields to the presence of electrically conductive fluids makes it a promising proxy for determining mechanical strength variations throughout the lithosphere. We demonstrate how a viscosity structure, approximated from electri
  
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• [Report] High-resolution interrogation of functional elements in the noncoding genome

  29-09-2016 22:21
  The noncoding genome affects gene regulation and disease, yet we lack tools for rapid identification and manipulation of noncoding elements. We developed a CRISPR screen using ~18,000 single guide RNAs targeting >700 kilobases surrounding the genes NF1, NF2, and CUL3, which are involved in BRAF inhibitor resistance in melanoma. We find that noncoding locations that modulate drug resistance also harbor predictive hallmarks of noncoding function. With a subset of regions at the CUL3 locus, we d
  
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• [Report] Electron optics with p-n junctions in ballistic graphene

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Electrons transmitted across a ballistic semiconductor junction are expected to undergo refraction, analogous to light rays across an optical boundary. In graphene, the linear dispersion and zero-gap band structure admit highly transparent p-n junctions by simple electrostatic gating. Here, we employ transverse magnetic focusing to probe the propagation of carriers across an electrostatically defined graphene junction. We find agreement with the predicted Snell’s law for electrons, including t
  
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• [Report] Drosophila insulin release is triggered by adipose Stunted ligand to brain Methuselah receptor

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Animals adapt their growth rate and body size to available nutrients by a general modulation of insulin–insulin-like growth factor signaling. In Drosophila, dietary amino acids promote the release in the hemolymph of brain insulin-like peptides (Dilps), which in turn activate systemic organ growth. Dilp secretion by insulin-producing cells involves a relay through unknown cytokines produced by fat cells. Here, we identify Methuselah (Mth) as a secretin-incretin receptor subfamily member requir
  
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• [Report] Cyclin A2 is an RNA binding protein that controls Mre11 mRNA translation

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Cyclin A2 activates the cyclin-dependent kinases Cdk1 and Cdk2 and is expressed at elevated levels from S phase until early mitosis. We found that mutant mice that cannot elevate cyclin A2 are chromosomally unstable and tumor-prone. Underlying the chromosomal instability is a failure to up-regulate the meiotic recombination 11 (Mre11) nuclease in S phase, which leads to impaired resolution of stalled replication forks, insufficient repair of double-stranded DNA breaks, and improper segregation o
  
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• [Report] Ballistic miniband conduction in a graphene superlattice

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Rational design of long-period artificial lattices yields effects unavailable in simple solids. The moiré pattern in highly aligned graphene/hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) heterostructures is a lateral superlattice with high electron mobility and an unusual electronic dispersion whose miniband edges and saddle points can be reached by electrostatic gating. We investigated the dynamics of electrons in moiré minibands by measuring ballistic transport between adjacent local contacts in a magnetic
  
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• [Report] An Anthropocene map of genetic diversity

  29-09-2016 22:21
  The Anthropocene is witnessing a loss of biodiversity, with well-documented declines in the diversity of ecosystems and species. For intraspecific genetic diversity, however, we lack even basic knowledge on its global distribution. We georeferenced 92,801 mitochondrial sequences for >4500 species of terrestrial mammals and amphibians, and found that genetic diversity is 27% higher in the tropics than in nontropical regions. Overall, habitats that are more affected by humans hold less genetic
  
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• [Policy Forum] Growing pains for global monitoring of societal events

  29-09-2016 22:21
  There have been serious efforts over the past 40 years to use newspaper articles to create global-scale databases of events occurring in every corner of the world, to help understand and shape responses to global problems. Although most have been limited by the technology of the time (1) [see supplementary materials (SM)], two recent groundbreaking projects to provide global, real-time “event data” that take advantage of automated coding from news media have gained widespread recognition: In
  
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• [Perspective] Social memory goes viral

  29-09-2016 22:21
  It is a curious feature of studies of recognition memory that the experimental subjects are almost always tested alone. They may be asked to scan a set of landscape pictures and later recognize having seen them before or to study a set of words or faces. For a social species such as ourselves—and mammals in general—being tested alone is a curious state of affairs. Social memory, social comparisons, and reciprocity have been a major driving force in brain evolution (1), and the effect of soci
  
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• [Perspective] James W. Cronin (1931–2016)

  29-09-2016 22:21
  James W. Cronin, who shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1980 with Val L. Fitch for the discovery of an unexpected breakdown in the symmetries of charge (C) and parity (P), died on 25 August 2016. Their work help explain the conundrum as to why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe. An outstanding experimentalist and gifted data analyst, Cronin's talents led to major discoveries in the fields of particle and cosmic-ray physics.
  Author: Alan A. Watson
  
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• [Perspective] Immune receptor for pathogenic α-synuclein

  29-09-2016 22:21
  In neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, specific proteins misfold into β sheet–rich conformations that aggregate. For Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia, the hallmark pathology is neuronal inclusions of aggregated α-synuclein called Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites. The spreading of these lesions in the brain is at least partly the result of prionlike self-propagation and cell-to-cell transfer of pathogenic α-synuclein assemblies (1). Inoculat
  
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• [Perspective] Detecting structure in a protostellar disk

  29-09-2016 22:21
  It is now well accepted that stars form from clouds of gas and dust that collapse under their own gravity (1). However, if all the material fell directly onto the young protostar, it would spin up so much that it would ultimately tear itself apart. Instead, most of the material will initially form a thin, rotationally supported, protostellar disk. On page 1519 of this issue, Pérez et al. (2) present a high-resolution image of such a disk, using the Atacama Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).
  
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• [Perspective] Constraining lithospheric flow

  29-09-2016 22:21
  The motion of Earth's tectonic plates—the lithosphere—is driven by the subduction of relatively cold and dense oceanic plates into the mantle. The resulting forces drive the motions of continental plates, but the manner in which this happens depends on the effective viscosities of the lithosphere and mantle. On page 1515 of this issue, Liu and Hasterok (1) discuss a novel method of constraining viscosities of the lithosphere from geophysical data.
  Author: Boris J. P. Kaus
  
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• [Perspective] Bee happy

  29-09-2016 22:21
  In his book, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Charles Darwin noted that “Even insects express anger, terror, jealousy, and love by their stridulation.” Almost 150 years later, spurred by an interest in the evolutionary roots of emotional (affective) processes and their underlying mechanisms, there has been a sudden upsurge of research into the question of whether insects and other invertebrates may indeed have emotion-like states (1–4). Recent work has focused on negative
  
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• [Perspective] A latitudinal gradient for genetic diversity

  29-09-2016 22:21
  The tropics have by far the highest species diversity on Earth. Over two-thirds of terrestrial vertebrates occur in tropical moist forests (1). The species diversity is also highest in the tropics for several other taxa, such as vascular plants and arthropods, and in other realms, including freshwater and marine ecosystems. These latitudinal gradients were described decades ago (2), but recent work has yielded detailed knowledge of species-richness patterns. For example, Hurlbert and Jetz sugges
  
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• [Letter] Scientists stand with Standing Rock

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Authors: Stephanie R. Januchowski-Hartley, Anne Hilborn, Katherine C. Crocker, Asia Murphy
  
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• [Letter] Illegal wildlife trade: Look to the elephants

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Author: George Wittemyer
  
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• [Letter] Build habitats, not fences, for caribou

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Authors: Gilbert Proulx, Roger A. Powell
  
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• [In Depth] Will Nobel Prize overlook LIGO's master builder?

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Next week, the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics will be announced, and many scientists expect it to honor the detection of ripples in space called gravitational waves, reported in February by scientists working with the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). If other prizes are a guide, the Nobel will go to the troika of physicists who 32 years ago conceived of LIGO: Rainer Weiss of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and Ronald Drever and Kip Thorne of the Ca
  
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• [In Depth] Rosetta ends 2-year comet mission with final descent

  29-09-2016 22:21
  All good things must come to an end, and so it will be on 30 September when the Rosetta spacecraft makes its planned soft landing onto the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the culmination of 2 years of close-up studies. Solar power has waned as 67P's orbit takes it and Rosetta farther from the sun, and so the mission team decided to go on a last data-gathering descent before the lights go out. This last data grab is a bonus after a mission that is already changing theorists' views abo
  
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• [In Depth] Fossil fishes challenge ‘urban legend’ of evolution

  29-09-2016 22:21
  The diverse group of fishes called teleosts, or ray-finned fish, today has 30,000 species, more than all living mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians combined. For more than a decade, many researchers have assumed that teleosts' dizzying array of body types evolved because their immediate ancestor somehow duplicated its entire genome, leaving whole sets of genes free to take on other functions. Now, an examination of the fish fossil record challenges that view. Despite a genome duplication ab
  
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• [In Depth] Deep Space Network glitches worry scientists

  29-09-2016 22:21
  Earlier this year, the Cassini spacecraft screwed up an orbital maneuver at Saturn because of a problem with its radio connection to Earth. The incident was one of several recent glitches in the Deep Space Network (DSN), NASA's complex of large radio antennas in California, Spain, and Australia. For more than 50 years, the DSN has been the lifeline for nearly every spacecraft beyond Earth's orbit, relaying commands from mission control and receiving data from the distant probe. On 30 September,
  
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