This press release contains:
Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Planetary science: Comets made a splash on Earth
Biology: Defence mechanisms in age-related macular degeneration
Climate science: The soft side of Snowball Earth
Neurobiology: Rescuing a mouse model of spinal muscular atrophy
Physics: The colour of Brownian motion
Quantum physics: Cooling nanomechanical resonators with light
Carbon cycle: Environmental control of soil organic matter
And finally... Mind over matter with added feeling
Mention of papers to be published at the same time
Geographical listing of authors
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[1] Planetary science: Comets made a splash on Earth (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature10519
*** This paper will be published electronically on Nature's website on 05 October 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 06 October, but at a later date. ***
A population of water-ice-rich comets in the Solar System that are a potential source of the water in Earth’s oceans are identified in this week’s Nature. These findings substantially expand the reservoir of Earth ocean-like water and support the theory of a common water source for the bodies of the inner Solar System.
The source of Earth's volatile substances, especially water, has been a subject of debate for decades. Previous research implies that early Earth was dry, and models suggest that water was delivered by asteroid impact, with no more that 10% coming from comets. Observations from the Herschel Space Observatory discover Earth-like water on the Jupiter-family comet 103P/Hartley 2, which originated in the Kuiper belt (beyond the orbit of Neptune). Paul Hartogh and colleagues determine that the ratio of hydrogen isotopes in 103P/Hartley 2 is consistent with that of the Earth’s oceans.
CONTACT
Paul Hartogh (Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany)
Tel: +49 555 697 9342 or tel: +49 172 562 0769; E-mail: [email protected]
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[2] Biology: Defence mechanisms in age-related macular degeneration (pp 76-81; N&V)
The role of a known polymorphism associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in the elderly in Western societies, is uncovered in Nature this week. The findings reveal mechanisms involved in AMD pathology in mice that could be exploited in the prevention and treatment of AMD and similar diseases.
Individuals with a polymorphism known as H402 in complement factor H (CFH), a protein that mediates anti-inflammatory responses, have a 6–7-fold increased risk of developing AMD. However, the functional consequences of this polymorphism in AMD have been unclear, until now. Christoph Binder and colleagues demonstrate that CFH in mouse retina neutralizes a build-up of malondialdehyde, a product of oxidative stress associated with AMD, thereby preventing an inflammatory response. Variation in the DNA sequence of CFH caused by the H402 variant can reduce its ability to bind to these pro-inflammatory products and prevent this protective effect from being elicited.
CONTACT
Christoph Binder (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria)
Tel: +43 140 400 6441; E-mail: [email protected]
Victor Perez (University of Miami, FL, USA) N&V author
Tel: +1 305 326 6302; E-mail: [email protected]
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[3] Climate science: The soft side of Snowball Earth (pp 93-96)
New research challenges the snowball Earth hypothesis, which assumes that the planet was covered with thick ice for millions of years, about three-quarters of a billion years ago. An analysis published in Nature this week supports the idea that the initial glaciation was much less severe than has been thought.
In the hard-snowball Earth scenario, a dramatic warming event, thought to be fuelled by high atmospheric CO2 levels, eventually defrosted the Earth. However, isotopic analysis of rocks laid down after this glaciation allows Pierre Sansjofre and colleagues to report that partial pressure of atmospheric CO2 was much lower than previously assumed and insufficient to cause extreme warming. This finding supports the idea that the snowball Earth may not have been as cold as previously hypothesized.
CONTACT
Pierre Sansjofre (Sorbonne Paris Cité and Université Paris Diderot, France)
Tel: +33 1 83 95 75 22; E-mail: [email protected]
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[4] Neurobiology: Rescuing a mouse model of spinal muscular atrophy (pp 123-126)
Rescue of a spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) — a neuromuscular disease characterized by degeneration of motor neurons — mouse model is reported in Nature this week.
SMA is caused by a mutation in SMN1, a gene necessary for the survival of motor neurons. No effective treatment exists for SMA currently, but restoration of SMN, the protein encoded by SMN1, in spinal-cord motor neurons is thought to be necessary for therapy. Adrian Krainer and colleagues use specially developed antisense nucleotides in a mouse model of SMA to restore the expression of SMN2— an almost identical copy of the SMN1 gene. Surprisingly, they discover that systemic administration of antisense nucleotides is far more effective than direct delivery to the brain, and extends the median lifespan of mice with severe SMA by 25-fold.
These findings suggest that increasing the expression of SMN in the peripheral tissues has an important effect on long-term survival. Moreover, the antisense oligonucleotides used in this work represent a promising drug candidate for SMA.
CONTACT
Adrian Krainer (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, NY, USA)
Tel: +1 516 367 8417; E-mail: [email protected]
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[5] Physics: The colour of Brownian motion (pp 85-88; N&V)
An elusive component of the random movement of particles known as Brownian motion is reported in Nature this week. Measurements of the Brownian fluctuations of a trapped colloidal particle immersed in a liquid reveal a ‘coloured’ noise spectrum, arising from the interaction between the particle and its surrounding medium. The ability to observe such details in thermal noise could be exploited for the development of new types of sensors and particle-based assays in lab-on-a-chip applications.
The thermal force that drives a particle in Brownian motion is assumed to be random and characterized by a white noise spectrum. However, a coloured component can arise from hydrodynamic self-interactions — feedback from the disturbance created in the surrounding fluid by the particle itself. Observation of this hydrodynamic ‘memory’ has remained elusive for single-particle systems, because it is often assumed that the disturbance decays too quickly to produce measurable effects. Sylvia Jeney and colleagues prove that this is not the case, observing clear evidence for a coloured noise spectrum in the Brownian fluctuations of a microsphere held in a strong optical trap.
CONTACT
Sylvia Jeney (University of Basel, Switzerland)
Tel: +41 21 6935356; E-mail: [email protected]
Ulrich Keyser (University of Cambridge, UK) N&V author
Tel: +44 1223 337272; E-mail: [email protected]
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[6] Quantum physics: Cooling nanomechanical resonators with light (pp 89-92; N&V)
Scientists have achieved cooling of an on-chip nanomechanical resonator down to its quantum ground state using lasers. These findings present a step towards optical measurement and control of a nanomechanical object in the quantum regime, and are published in Nature this week.
It has been a long-standing goal in the field of cavity optomechanics to cool down a mechanical resonator to its quantum ground state by using light. Oskar Painter and colleagues use laser beams at a specific frequency to remove thermal vibrations from a nanomechanical resonator formed in a silicon microchip, cooling it down to its quantum ground state. This finding, together with other recent advances, opens the way to testing quantum-mechanical principles in macroscopic mechanical systems.
CONTACT
Oskar Painter (California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 626 395 8008; E-mail: [email protected]
Florian Marquardt (Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany) N&V author
E-mail: [email protected]
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[7] Carbon cycle: Environmental control of soil organic matter (pp 49-56)
An important, long-standing interpretation of soil carbon cycling and stability is outdated, according to a Perspective published in Nature this week. The influence of a range of factors on carbon stability must be widely recognised if we are to improve predictions of the soil organic mass response to global warming, say the authors.
Soil organic matter contains more than three times as much carbon as either the atmosphere or terrestrial vegetation. Some of this matter is very stable, whereas other forms decompose readily; however, the reasons for this variation are poorly understood. Models can help to explore how the sensitive pool of carbon might respond to climate change, but current models are based on assumptions about soil biogeochemistry that have been challenged or disproved. Michael Schmidt and colleagues propose that recent advances could be used in a new generation of experiments and soil carbon models.
Rather than being a property of molecular structure, soil organic matter stability is strongly influenced by environmental and biological controls, say the authors. They suggest that these insights into the mechanisms involved in soil organic carbon stability need to be recognised to improve attempts to model this vital component of the Earth system. Such insights have implications for fundamental research, land management, and climate change prediction and mitigation.
CONTACT
Michael Schmidt (University of Zürich, Switzerland)
Tel: +41 44 635 5140; E-mail: [email protected]
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[8] And finally... Mind over matter with added feeling (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature10489
*** This paper will be published electronically on Nature's website on 05 October 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 06 October, but at a later date. ***
A brain–machine interface that translates brain signals into movements, such as controlling a computer display, can also incorporate artificial tactile feedback to the brain. Monkeys operating this interface are able to discriminate between objects using signals sent from the interface to the part of the brain involved in touch perception, research in this week’s Nature shows. These results could represent a step towards development of neuroprostheses that incorporate feedback of artificial somatic perceptions.
The brain–machine–brain interface demonstrated by Miguel Nicolelis and colleagues enables bidirectional communication between a primate brain and an external actuator. Using microwires implanted into two parts of the brain, objects can be controlled by brain activity and an artificial tactile signal is returned back to the brain. Two monkeys controlled cursors with their brains to distinguish between three visually identical objects on a computer screen according to touch feedback signals from the objects that stimulated the somatosensory cortex.
CONTACT
Miguel Nicolelis (Duke University, Durham, NC, USA)
Tel: +1 919 684 4580; E-mail: [email protected]
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE…
[9] Endonuclease G is a novel determinant of cardiac hypertrophy and mitochondrial function (pp 114-118)
[10] Pathogenic exon-trapping by SVA retrotransposon and rescue in Fukuyama muscular dystrophy (pp 127-131; N&V)
ADVANCE ONLINE PUBLICATION
*** These papers will be published electronically on Nature's website on 05 October 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 06 October, but at a later date. ***
[11] Low-Mach-number turbulence in interstellar gas revealed by radio polarization gradients
DOI: 10.1038/nature10446
[12] Anendogenous tumour-promoting ligand of the human aryl hydrocarbon receptor
DOI: 10.1038/nature10491
[13] Metabolic priming by a secreted fungal effector
DOI: 10.1038/nature10454
[14] Crystal structure of a bacterial homologue of the bile acid sodium symporter ASBT
DOI: 10.1038/nature10450
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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
Epping: 11
Hobart: 11
Sydney: 11, 12
AUSTRIA
Vienna: 2, 6
BELGIUM
Wilrijk: 7
BRAZIL
Belém: 3
Campinas: 6
Natal: 8
São Paulo: 3
CANADA
Edmonton: 10
CZECH REPUBLIC
Prague: 9
FRANCE
Paris: 1, 3
Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy: 3
GERMANY
Berlin: 9
Bremen: 7
Düsseldorf: 13
Erlangen: 5
Freising: 7
Göttingen: 13
Hannover: 7
Heidelberg: 12
Jena: 2, 7
Kaiserslautern: 12
Katlenburg-Lindau: 1
Ladenburg: 12
Leipzig: 12
Marburg: 13
Martinsried: 13
Oldenburg: 7
Potsdam: 13
Tübingen: 13
ISRAEL
Rehovot: 7
ITALY
Florence: 7
Rome: 9
JAPAN
Aichi: 10
Kobe: 10
Kyoto: 9, 14
Tokushima: 10
Tokyo: 10
NORWAY
Ås: 7
POLAND
Warsaw: 1
SPAIN
Barcelona: 9
Lleida: 9
Madrid: 1
SWITZERLAND
Basel: 5
Lausanne: 5, 8
Zürich: 7, 12
THE NETHERLANDS
Dwingeloo: 11
Leiden: 11
Nijmegen: 11
UNITED KINGDOM
Birmingham: 9
Didcot: 14
Harefield: 9
London: 9, 14
Newcastle: 7
Oxford: 2
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
California
Berkeley: 7
Carlsbad: 4
La Jolla: 2
Los Angeles: 3
Pasadena: 1, 6
Massachusetts
Boston: 9
Maryland
Baltimore: 2, 12
Michigan
Ann Arbor: 1
North Carolina
Durham: 8
New York
Cold Spring Harbor: 4
Ithaca: 7
New York: 10
Oregon
Corvallis: 7
Wisconsin
Madison: 11
Milwaukee: 9
PRESS CONTACTS…
From North America and Canada
Neda Afsarmanesh, Nature New York
Tel: +1 212 726 9231; 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
Rebecca Walton, Nature, London
Tel: +44 20 7843 4502; E-mail: [email protected]
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