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This press release is copyright Nature.
VOL.458 NO.7235 DATED 12 MARCH 2009
This press release contains:
· Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Human evolution: ‘Peking Man’ older than thought
Cancer: Link between cancer and dietary restriction
Earth science: Was the Wenchuan quake an indicator of crustal shortening?
Commentary: The smart way to beat hunger
Neuroscience: Sorting senses in the fruitfly
Quantum physics: Real time light–matter mix
And finally… A new super-battery!
· Mention of papers to be published at the same time with the same embargo
· Geographical listing of authors
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[1] Human evolution: ‘Peking Man’ older than thought (pp 198-200; N&V)
The bones of Zhoukoudian Homo erectus, commonly known as ‘Peking Man’, may be 200,000 years older than previously thought, according to a new dating analysis published in this week’s Nature. The research indicates that early hominins lived in the region throughout glacial and interglacial periods, and may have implications for our understanding of when migration occurred into Asia.
The ‘Peking Man’ fossils were discovered in the 1920s during cave excavations in Zhoukoudian, near Beijing, and later assigned to the species Homo erectus. The cave site has yielded the remains of at least 40 individuals and is the largest single source of Homo erectus fossils in the world. Scientists have used various techniques to try and date the finds, but a lack of suitable methods for cave deposits has limited their accuracy.
Guanjun Shen and colleagues used a relatively new dating method, based on the radioactive decay of aluminium and beryllium isotopes in quartz grains, which enabled them to get a more precise age for the fossils. The analysis dated the finds to around 750,000 years old — some 200,000 years older than previous estimates — and indicates a hominin presence in the area through glacial–interglacial cycles. The results should help to build a more reliable chronology of human evolution in East Asia.
CONTACT
Guanjun Shen (Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China)
Tel: +86 1351 250 1968; E-mail: [email protected]
Russell Ciochon (The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA) N&V author
Tel: +1 319 335 2751; E-mail: [email protected]
[2] Cancer: Link between cancer and dietary restriction (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature07782
***This paper will be published electronically on Nature's website on 11 March at 1800 London time / 1400 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 12 March, but at a later date. ***
A signalling pathway that influences how sensitive cancer cells are to the beneficial effects of dietary restriction (DR) is described in this week’s Nature.
Dietary restriction can extend lifespan, and reduce cancer incidence and growth. But some types of cancer cell are more sensitive to the anti-growth effects of DR than others, Nada Kalaany and David Sabatini report. The effect hinges on the activity of the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) pathway. If the pathway is active, DR has no effect on cancer cells. However, if the pathway is inactive, tumours are sensitive to DR.
Therapies that mimic the effects of DR are currently being investigated as anti-cancer agents. But as several cancers carry alterations that lead to activation of the PI3K pathway, this study suggests that the approach won’t work in many cases. The findings may help to predict which cancers will respond to DR.
CONTACT
David Sabatini (Whitehead Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 258 6407; E-mail: [email protected]
[3] Earth science: Was the Wenchuan quake an indicator of crustal shortening? (pp 194-197)
The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China’s Sichuan province may indicate that brittle crustal shortening is a primary driver for uplift of the Longmen Shan mountains on the edge of the Tibetan plateau. The study, reported in this week’s Nature, is likely to fuel the controversy about how such mountain ranges form.
The deadly magnitude-7.9 earthquake occurred in the Longmen Shan mountain range. Judith Hubbard and John Shaw present balanced geologic cross-sections to show that crustal shortening, structural relief and topography are strongly correlated in this area. The results suggest that this mountainous area was formed by crustal shortening, rather than lower crustal flow, and that the earthquake was an active manifestation of this process. Only a small amount of crustal shortening has been measured before, so the new data help make crustal shortening a plausible theory for the formation of this mountain range.
CONTACT
Judith Hubbard (Harvard Univeristy, Cambridge, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 495 0498; E-mail: [email protected]
John Shaw (Harvard Univeristy, Cambridge, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 495 8008; E-mail: [email protected]
Commentary: The smart way to beat hunger (pp 148)
An old proverb says that if you give a man a fish, he will eat for a day, but if you teach him to fish, he will eat for a lifetime. In a Commentary in Nature this week, Pedro Sanchez questions why most food-aid programmes in Africa have yet to learn this simple lesson.
The cost of buying a tonne of US maize, shipping it to Africa and then distributing it is US$812. Providing fertilizer, hybrid seed and support to grow an extra tonne of maize costs only $135. But food programmes, for the most part, ship food internationally rather than spending money on agricultural development, despite the fact that promoting sustainable agriculture would be six times cheaper.
“The predominant policies to tackle hunger epitomize a ‘band-aid’ approach — quick fixes that fail to address the causes of hunger,” says Sanchez. Acute hunger — caused by famine, war and natural disasters — affects only 10% of those who are hungry, whereas 90% are chronically hungry, most of whom live on rural farms. Investing in farming would allow poor farmers to feed themselves, providing a sustainable exit from the poverty trap. Even buying maize locally and distributing it ($320 a tonne) would save vast sums of money and help prop up struggling farmers, says Sanchez.
CONTACT
Pedro Sanchez: (Earth Institute at Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA)
Mobile (USA): +1 646 244 1720; Mobile (Kenya): +254 720 463 715; E-mail: [email protected]
[4] & [5] Neuroscience: Sorting senses in the fruitfly (pp 201-205; 165-171; N&V)
Fruitfly antennae contain specialized clusters of neurons that respond to deflection and vibration. The discovery, revealed in two Nature papers this week, aids our understanding of how mechano-sensory stimuli are processed and highlights the value of Drosophila as a model system for studying this.
The neurons are found in the Johnston’s organ, a hearing-related structure found in fruitfly antennae. Distinct groups of nerve cells respond to continuous deflections of the antenna, as provoked by wind or gravity, or to vibrating stimuli such as sounds, groups led by Kei Ito and David Anderson report.
The results highlight parallels between sensory processing in man and the fruitfly. Both organisms segregate mechano-perception into separate neuronal pathways within one organ — the human inner ear processes sound and balance, whilst Drosophila’s Johnston’s organ processes hearing and gravity.
CONTACT
Kei Ito (The University of Tokyo, Japan) Author paper [4]
Tel: +81 3 5841 2435; Mobile: +81 90 3452 6362; E-mail: [email protected]
David Anderson (California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA) Author paper [5]
Tel: +1 626 395 8374; E-mail: [email protected]
Ruth Eatock (Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA) N&V author
Tel: +1 617 573 4447; E-mail: [email protected]
A press briefing related to paper [4] will be held UNDER STRICT EMBARGO on Monday 9 March at 1500 (Japan Standard Time) located at:
Meeting Room 302, Life Sciences Research Building, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, The University of Tokyo, Japan.
Please contact the author, Kei Ito, for further information.
[6] Quantum physics: Real time light–matter mix (pp 178-181; N&V)
A method that should help researchers study the coupling of light and matter in real time is reported in this week’s Nature. It’s hoped the technique will offer insights into various quantum electrodynamic phenomena, such as black hole radiation.
Light has been coupled to matter before, but researchers have not been able to observe the process as it happens. Rupert Huber and colleagues developed a time-resolved measurement set-up in which strong light–matter coupling can be switched on in a semiconductor quantum well structure as fast as within one cycle of light. This enables researchers to directly monitor the conversion of bare photons into polaritons, a mixed light–matter mode.
CONTACT
Rupert Huber (University of Konstanz, Germany)
Tel: +49 7531884680; E-mail: [email protected]
Claire Gmachl (Princeton University, NJ, USA) N&V author
Tel: +1 609 258 3500; E-mail: [email protected]
[7] And finally… A new super-battery! (pp 190-193)
A new high energy, high power lithium-based battery is revealed in this week’s Nature. The battery discharges very quickly and its power density is around two orders of magnitude higher than that of a normal lithium-ion battery.
Standard batteries are generally thought of as having high energy storage but low power density, meaning they take a relatively long time to discharge their energy. The new battery, developed by Byoungwoo Kang and Gerbrand Ceder, resembles a supercapacitor in the sense that it is energy and power dense, and can discharge its electrical energy quickly.
The duo achieved this by tweaking LiFePO4, a compound widely used in batteries, which already gives relatively fast discharge rates. They coated it with a similar compound that is slightly deficient in iron, phosphorous and oxygen, and after heating, this forms a glassy coating which enhances the mobility of lithium ions.
CONTACT
Byoungwoo Kang (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 253 8127; E-mail: [email protected]
Gerbrand Ceder (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA)
Tel: +1 617 253 1581; E-mail: [email protected]
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE…
[8] Transparent dense sodium (pp 182-185; N&V)
[9] Direct observation of a pressure-induced metal-to-semiconductor transition in lithium (pp 186-189)
ADVANCE ONLINE PUBLICATION
***This paper will be published electronically on Nature's website on 11 March at 1800 London time / 1400 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 12 March, but at a later date. ***
[10] Compound vesicle fusion increases quantal size and potentiates synaptic transmission
DOI: 10.1038/nature07860
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.
CHINA
Beijing: 1
Changchun: 8
Nanjing: 1
FRANCE
Paris: 6
GERMANY
Cologne: 4, 5
Goettingen: 4
Konstanz: 6
Mainz: 8
Wurzburg: 4
ITALY
Pisa: 6
Trieste: 6
JAPAN
Tokyo: 4, 5
Toyonaka: 9
RUSSIA
Moscow: 8
SWITZERLAND
Manno: 8
Zurich: 8
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
California
Pasadena: 4, 5
Illinois
Chicago: 8
Indiana
West Lafayette: 1
Maryland
Bethesda: 10
Massachusetts
Cambridge: 2, 3, 7
New York
Stony Brook: 5, 8
Texas
Houston: 10
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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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