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This press release is copyright Nature.
VOL.458 NO.7234 DATED 05 MARCH 2009
This press release contains:
· Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Earth science: Satellite watches Earth’s surface recover after quake
HIV: Microbicide curbs virus transmission in monkeys
Astrophysics: Binary black hole system discovered
Microbiology: Antibiotic design questioned
And finally… We cannot live by scepticism alone
· Mention of papers to be published at the same time with the same embargo
· Geographical listing of authors
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[1] Earth science: Satellite watches Earth’s surface recover after quake (pp 64-68)
The European Space Agency’s Envisat satellite has ‘watched’ the Earth’s surface ‘heal’ itself after the 2003 Iranian Bam earthquake. The images of deformation and recovery of the Earth’s crust are revealed in a paper in this week’s Nature — the first time this phenomenon has been observed directly.
Stress changes due to earthquake slip have long been thought to cause ‘dilatancy’ in the fault zone — a process whereby shearing of the granular material or 'gouge' within the fault increases its porosity and volume. Scientists have not previously measured the resulting volume decrease following an earthquake, as the material 'heals'.
The earthquake that devastated Bam, Iran, in 2003 ruptured a buried fault located directly beneath the city. The earthquake had large slip at depths of 3 to 7 kilometres but very little at the surface. Eric Fielding and colleagues used a remote sensing technique called InSAR to build up a compilation of radar images of 3.5 years of deformation at the surface following the earthquake. The images reveal subsidence above the fault which the authors interpret to be caused by a reversal of dilatancy generated during the earthquake.
CONTACT
Eric Fielding (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 818 354 9305; E-mail: [email protected]
[2] HIV: Microbicide curbs virus transmission in monkeys (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature07831
***This paper will be published electronically on Nature's website on 04 March at 1800 London time / 1300 US Eastern time (which is also when the embargo lifts) as part of our AOP (ahead of print) programme. Although we have included it on this release to avoid multiple mailings it will not appear in print on 05 March, but at a later date. ***
A widely used antimicrobial compound can protect monkeys from infection with an HIV-like virus. The findings reported online this week in Nature suggest that similar interventions could one day be used to block HIV transmission in humans.
Microbicides have been considered a great hope in preventing HIV transmission but results from trials have proved disappointing. Ashley Haase and colleagues take a new approach, focusing on the inflammatory response rather than the virus itself.
The team first looked at how simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) — a virus closely related to HIV — establishes infection in monkeys in the early stages after vaginal exposure. They find that the hosts’ own inflammatory response to the virus, rather than helping, actually fuels the infection by recruiting the very CD4+ T cells that the virus targets. Blocking this inflammatory response by treating with the antimicrobial compound glycerol monolaurate (GML) suppressed infection even after repeated virus exposure. The researchers hope that their new approach will lead to the development of a safe and inexpensive microbicide to prevent HIV transmission in women.
CONTACT
Ashley Haase (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA)
Pat Schlievert (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA) Co-author
These authors can be contacted through:
Nick Hanson (Media Relations Associate, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA)
Tel: +1 612 624 2449; Mobile: +1 651 235 2265; E-mail: [email protected]
[3] Astrophysics: Binary black hole system discovered (pp 53-55; N&V)
Researchers have identified a possible binary black hole system. The find is reported in this week’s Nature.
It’s accepted that most large galaxies harbour black holes at their centre, and that most galaxies have undergone some kind of merger in their lifetime. But whilst binary black hole systems should be common, they have proved hard to find. Todd Boroson and Tod Lauer now present strong evidence for the presence of a galaxy that contains two black holes, which orbit each other every 100 years or so.
CONTACT
Todd Boroson (National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, AZ, USA)
Tel: +1 520 318 8352; E-mail: [email protected]
Tod Lauer (National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, AZ, USA)
Tel: +1 520 318 8290; E-mail: [email protected]
Jon Miller (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA) N&V author
Tel: +1 734 764 4185; E-mail: [email protected]
[4] Microbiology: Antibiotic design questioned (pp 83-86; N&V)
Antibiotics designed to target the essential type II fatty acid synthesis (FASII) pathway are unlikely to be successful, a Nature paper suggests.
Antimicrobial drugs that block the FASII pathway are being mooted as a potential treatment for infection caused by multiresistant Gram-positive bacteria, such as Streptococcus pneumoniae. However, the strategy underpinning this development may be fundamentally flawed, Claire Poyart and colleagues say. Many Gram-positive pathogens can bypass the block by using fatty acids derived from the host, rendering the antibiotics ineffective.
CONTACT
Claire Poyart (Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France)
Tel: +33 1 58 41 15 60; Email: [email protected]
Please note this author will be available from Monday 02 March.
Alexandra Gruss (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Paris, France) Co-author
Tel: +33 1 34 65 21 68; Email: [email protected]
Eric Brown (McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada) N&V author
Tel: +1 905 525 9140 ext: 22392; E-mail: [email protected]
And finally… We cannot live by scepticism alone (pp 30-31)
Scientists have been too dogmatic about scientific truth, but sociologists have fostered too much scepticism, says sociologist Harry Collins.
In an Essay in this week’s Nature, Collins takes forward the debate between scientists and sociologists that came to be known as ‘The Science Wars’. He says that researchers who study the practice of science have become overly cynical about science when they say that science is just a form of faith or politics. These social scientists need to “work out what is right about science not just what is wrong — we cannot live by scepticism alone”, he says. “The prospect of a society that entirely rejects the values of science and expertise is just too awful to contemplate.”
At the same time, Collins calls on natural scientists to recognize the limits of their practice, too. “Science’s findings are to be preferred to religion’s revealed truths, and braver than the logic of scepticism, but they are not certain,” he writes. “They are a better grounding for society precisely because they are provisional. It is open debate among those with experience that is the ultimate value of the good society.”
CONTACT
Harry Collins (Cardiff University, UK)
Tel: +44 29 2087 4047; Alternative Tel: +44 29 2031 6603; E-mail: [email protected]
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE…
[5] Molecular basis of transport and regulation in the Na1/betaine symporter BetP (pp 47-52)
[6] Electronic acceleration of atomic motions and disordering in bismuth (pp 56-59)
[7] Temperature-induced A–B intersite charge transfer in an A-site-ordered LaCu3Fe4O12 perovskite (pp 60-63)
[8] Innate immune recognition of infected apoptotic cells directs TH17 cell differentiation (pp 78-82; N&V)
[9] The rate of N-WASP exchange limits the extent of ARP2/3-complex-dependent actin-based motility (pp 87-91)
[10] Protein structure determination in living cells by in-cell NMR spectroscopy (pp 102-105; N&V)
[11] High-resolution multi-dimensional NMR spectroscopy of proteins in human cells (pp 106-109; N&V)
ADVANCE ONLINE PUBLICATION
***These papers will be published electronically on Nature's website on 04 March at 1800 London time / 1300 US Eastern time (which is also when the embargo lifts) as part of our AOP (ahead of print) programme. Although we have included them on this release to avoid multiple mailings they will not appear in print on 05 March, but at a later date. ***
[12] Germline-encoded amino acids in the ab T-cell receptor control thymic selection
DOI: 10.1038/nature07812
[13] Natural variation in a neural globin tunes oxygen sensing in wild Caenorhabditis elegans
DOI: 10.1038/nature07820
[14] AMPK regulates energy expenditure by modulating NAD1 metabolism and SIRT1 activity
DOI: 10.1038/nature07813
GEOGRAPHICAL LISTING OF AUTHORS…
The following list of places refers to the whereabouts of authors on the papers numbered in this release. For example, London: 4 - this means that on paper number four, there will be at least one author affiliated to an institute or company in London. The listing may be for an author's main affiliation, or for a place where they are working temporarily. Please see the PDF of the paper for full details.
AUSTRALIA
Sydney: 9
CANADA
Toronto: 6
FRANCE
Lille: 4
Paris: 4
Strasbourg: 14
GERMANY
Cologne: 5
Duisburg: 6
Frankfurt: 5, 10
Munich: 6
JAPAN
Ibaraki: 10
Kawaguchi: 10, 11
Kobe: 11
Kyoto: 7, 10, 11
Tokyo: 10, 11
Toyoake: 10
Tsurumi-ku: 10, 11
Uji: 7, 11
Wako-shi: 10
Yokohama: 10
SWEDEN
Gothenburg: 13
SWITZERLAND
Lausanne: 14
UNITED KINGDOM
Cambridge: 5, 13
Glasgow: 10
London: 9
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Arizona
Tucson: 3
California
Berkeley: 1
Pasadena: 1
Riverside: 1
Colorado
Aurora: 12
Denver: 12
Maryland
Frederick: 2
Massachusetts
Boston: 14
Cambridge: 14
Minnesota
Minneapolis: 2
New York
New York: 8
Wisconsin
Madison: 2
PRESS CONTACTS…
From North America and Canada
Katherine Anderson, Nature New York
Tel: +1 212 726 9231; E-mail: [email protected]
Katie McGoldrick, Nature Washington
Tel: +1 202 737 2355; E-mail: [email protected]
From Japan, Korea, China, Singapore and Taiwan
Mika Nakano, Nature Tokyo
Tel: +81 3 3267 8751; E-mail: [email protected]
From the UK/Europe/other countries not listed above
Jen Middleton, Nature London
Tel: +44 20 7843 4502; E-mail [email protected]
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