This press release contains:
---Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Astrophysics: A Christmas Day explosion
Immunology: Giving HIV the VIP treatment
Comment: Expert survey predicts large permafrost thaw
Climate science: Time to retire the CLAW hypothesis
Genetics: New genes that regulate blood-cell formation
Geophysics: Why seismic activity varies along the San Andreas fault
Geophysics: Chemical bonding strengthens faults
And finally... Mind the pseudogap
---Mention of papers to be published at the same time with the same embargo
---Geographical listing of authors
Editorial contacts: While the best contacts for stories will always be the authors themselves, in some cases the Nature editor who handled the paper will be available for comment if an author is unobtainable. Editors are contactable via Ruth Francis on +44 20 7843 4562. Feel free to get in touch with Nature's press contacts in London, Washington and Tokyo (as listed at the end of this release) with any general editorial inquiry.
---PDFs for the Articles, Letters, Progress articles, Review articles, Insights and Brief Communications in this issue will be available on the Nature journals press site from 1400 London time / 0900 US Eastern Time on the Friday before publication.
---PDFs of News & Views, News Features, Correspondence and Commentaries will be available from 1400 London time / 0900 US Eastern Time on the Monday before publication
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[1] & [2] Astrophysics: A Christmas Day explosion (pp 69-74; N&V)
Two very different explanations for an unusual burst of gamma-rays seen on Christmas Day 2010 are given in Nature this week. The Christmas gamma-ray burst (GRB), also known as GRB 101225A, is one of the longest GRBs observed by NASA’s Swift satellite.
Sergio Campana and colleagues propose that a comet crashing onto a neutron star may have caused the explosion. They suggest that the peculiarities of GRB 101225A, such as the brightness and the length of the burst, result from the tidal disruption of a minor body around an isolated neutron star, followed by the material falling onto the star.
An alternative and more conventional explanation provided by Christina Thöne and co-workers is that GRB 101225A is associated with a supernova. A late ‘blip’ in the observed light is consistent with a faint supernova, perhaps resulting from a helium star/neutron star merger. Using a template of a supernova associated with a GRB, the researchers estimate the distance of the supernova, but they are unable to unambiguously identify its host galaxy.
CONTACT
Sergio Campana (INAF – Osservatorio astronomico di Brera, Merate, Italy) Author paper [1]
Tel: +39 039 597 1018; E-mail: [email protected]
Christina Thöne (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía and CSIC, Granada, Spain) Author paper [2]
Tel: +34 644 154 492; E-mail: [email protected]
Enrico Costa (INAF – Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, Rome, Italy) N&V author
Tel: +39 064 993 4004; E-mail: [email protected]
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[3] Immunology: Giving HIV the VIP treatment (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature10660
*** This paper will be published electronically on Nature's website on 30 November 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 01 December, but at a later date. ***
A strategy that induces the lifelong production of a human antibody against HIV in mice carrying a human adaptive immune system provides protection from HIV infection. In the technique — which is analogous to gene therapy — called vectored immunoprophylaxis (VIP), the vector encodes the antibody genes that direct the expression of HIV-neutralizing antibodies in the host. These results are published in Nature this week and raise the possibility that this approach may provide an effective preventative treatment for HIV in humans.
A number of broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV have been identified, but whether conventional vaccines might be able to elicit similar antibodies is unclear. David Baltimore and colleagues present an alternative approach — VIP — as a means of eliciting the production of antibodies through the use of a specialized adenovirus-associated virus vector. They show that humanized mice receiving a single injection of VIP seem to be fully protected from HIV infection, even when challenged with a high dose of HIV. Given the level of protection demonstrated in the present study, the authors suggest that successful translation of this approach to humans may be achievable.
CONTACT
David Baltimore (California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 626 395 3581; E-mail: [email protected]
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Comment: Expert survey predicts large permafrost thaw (pp 32-33)
As Arctic temperatures rise, the permafrost will thaw, releasing greenhouse gases that will accelerate the warming of the planet. But no one knows by how much or how quickly. Forty-one international experts seek to pin that down in a Comment piece in Nature. Permafrost thaw will release the same order of magnitude of carbon as deforestation, they calculate, but its effect on climate will be 2.5 times bigger.
Recent years have seen carbon being released from massive tundra fires and bubbling out of Arctic lakes. Northern soils are thought to hold around 1,700 billion tonnes of organic carbon — around four times more than all the carbon ever emitted by modern human activity and twice as much as is currently in the atmosphere. As the Arctic warms, microbes in the soil decompose this ancient carbon and spit out carbon dioxide and methane. Models aren't very good at tracking this release: most project that the extent of permafrost warming will depend on the temperature of the air above, for example. But in reality, permafrost can warm much more quickly. If ice wedges melt, the ground can collapse, which accelerates permafrost thaw and causes trees to lean over as if drunk.
Edward Schuur, Benjamin Abbott and the other members of the Vulnerability of Permafrost Carbon Research Coordination Network predicted how much of the permafrost is likely to thaw, how much carbon that will release, and how much of that carbon will be in the form of methane, which has a much greater effect on warming than carbon dioxide. Their collective estimate is that the amount of carbon released by 2100 will be 1.7–5.2 times greater than reported in several recent modelling studies. These levels “are cause for serious concern", they write. "The scientific community needs to collect more data and develop more sophisticated models to test the hypotheses presented by this survey."
CONTACT
Edward Schuur (University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA)
Tel: +1 352 392 7913; E-mail: [email protected]
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[4] Climate science: Time to retire the CLAW hypothesis (pp 51-56)
An influential hypothesis of biological regulation of Earth’s climate involving ocean ecosystems might be ready for retirement, according to a Review in this week’s Nature. The proposed feedback loop links marine biochemistry, atmospheric chemistry, cloud physics and climate. Failure to find strong evidence to support this hypothesis suggests that more complex processes are involved in marine regulation of climate.
In 1987, the CLAW hypothesis (named after its authors) proposed a feedback loop whereby cloud reflectance is regulated by sulphur emissions from oceanic phytoplankton. Despite intensive research investigating the required mechanisms, strong evidence does not exist to support any of the critical steps required by CLAW, Patricia Quinn and Timothy Bates argue. Instead, they suggest that the forces driving climate regulation are far more complex, with important contributions from organic and non-organic compounds. The authors infer that improvements in our understanding of the various processes involved in climate regulation have led to the demise of the visionary CLAW hypothesis.
CONTACT
Patricia Quinn (NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Seattle, WA, USA)
Tel: +1 206 526 6892; E-mail: [email protected]
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[5] Genetics: New genes that regulate blood-cell formation (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature10659
*** This paper will be published electronically on Nature's website on 30 November 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 01 December, but at a later date. ***
A catalogue of genes associated with blood-cell development is described in Nature this week. The research may provide a platform for understanding the function of known and new genes in controlling blood-cell development, specifically in the regulation of platelets.
Platelets are involved in processes that cause bleeding to stop and have tightly controlled count and volume. To understand better the molecular mechanisms involved in this regulation, Nicole Soranzo and co-workers performed a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies followed by biological and functional assessment. They identified 53 novel genomic regions associated with platelet count and volume. Using model organisms to assess gene function, the authors show that 11 newly identified genes are novel regulators of blood-cell formation.
This study uncovers the roles of genes involved in key processes of human blood-cell production. The authors anticipate that their findings could assist platelet research, improve the understanding of blood stem-cell biology, and help to identify therapeutic targets for treating blood disorders.
CONTACT
Nicole Soranzo (Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton, UK)
Tel: +44 1223 492364; E-mail: [email protected]
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[6] Geophysics: Why seismic activity varies along the San Andreas fault (pp 87-90)
Differences in seismic activity along the San Andreas fault seem to be related to strength variations in the lower crust and upper mantle, research in this week’s Nature suggests. Fluid influx is implicated as the driving force behind the processes that determine these properties. The findings may help to explain why motion along the fault results in earthquakes on some segments and less harmful creep on others.
To understand the processes associated with the dynamics of the San Andreas fault, Michael Becken and colleagues use an electromagnetic geophysical method to image subsurface conductivity profiles. Included in these profiles are a zone of pronounced tremors and the area of transition between segments of locked and creeping behaviour of the San Andreas fault. The data provide evidence of fluids migrating into the creeping section that seem to originate from a region that is also responsible for stimulating tremors.
The results are consistent with the hypothesis that high fluid pressures may be responsible for the weakening of faults.
CONTACT
Michael Becken (GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany)
Tel: +49 251 8336137; E-mail: [email protected]
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[7] Geophysics: Chemical bonding strengthens faults (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature10589
*** This paper will be published electronically on Nature's website on 30 November 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 01 December, but at a later date. ***
How contacting surfaces on earthquake faults can strengthen over time is elucidated in Nature this week. Increases in frictional strength, or frictional ageing, are due to chemical processes that cause the surfaces to bond. This discovery may provide a basis for a better understanding of static friction along fault lines.
Earthquakes are the result of frictional instabilities at faults. Although contacts between rock surfaces are known to strengthen over time, the underlying mechanism is not well understood. Robert Carpick and colleagues investigate how such strengthening happens by measuring the friction force between two surfaces made of silica (a major component of rocks). The experiments show that frictional ageing on the contacts between rock surfaces arises from the formation of chemical bonds. This finding is counter to some views that suggest strengthening occurs following increases in surface area contact due to creep along the rough rock faces.
CONTACT
Robert Carpick (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA)
Tel: +1 215 898 4608; E-mail: [email protected]
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[8] And finally... Mind the pseudogap (pp 75-78)
Research that may shed light on the mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity is published in Nature this week. A so-called pseudogap, a phenomenon that precedes superfluid pairing of atoms, is observed in an ultracold, two-dimensional atomic quantum gas. These findings could help explain the nature of the pseudogap in high-temperature superconductors, a major unresolved question in condensed matter physics with important technological implications.
Michael Köhl and co-workers study an ultracold atomic gas of fermions, a system that can in principle serve as an experimental simulator of two-dimensional superconductors. This is because pairing of fermions underlies both superconductivity and superfluidity. The authors report the first observation of a pairing pseudogap in this system above the superfluid transition temperature, a significant step in emulating the physics of correlated two-dimensional superconductors using ultracold atomic gases.
CONTACT
Michael Köhl (University of Cambridge, UK)
Tel: +44 1223 337479; E-mail: [email protected]
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ALSO IN THIS ISSUE…
[9] The oxidation state of Hadean magmas and implications for early Earth's atmosphere (pp 79-82; N&V)
*** This paper will be published electronically on Nature's website on 30 November 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 01 December, but at a later date. ***
[10] Atomic homodyne detection of continuous-variable entangled twin-atom states
DOI: 10.1038/nature10654
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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
Brisbane: 5
AUSTRIA
Vienna: 5
BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS
Virgin Gorda: 1
CHINA
Beijing: 7
CZECH REPUBLIC
Prague: 2
DENMARK
Copenhagen: 2
ESTONIA
Tartu: 5
FINLAND
Oulu: 5
Piikkiö: 2
Rovaniemi: 5
FRANCE
Lille: 5
Paris: 5
Villejuif: 5
GERMANY
Garching: 2
Greifswald: 5
Heidelberg: 10
Kiel: 5
Leipzig: 5
Lübeck : 5
Munich: 5
Münster: 6
Neuherberg: 5
Potsdam: 6
Regensburg: 5
Tautenburg: 2
GREECE
Athens: 5
ISRAEL
Rehovot: 10
ITALY
Bologna: 1
Bolzano: 5
Cagliari: 5
Catania: 1
Como: 1
Frascati: 1
Merate: 1, 2
Milano: 1, 5
Monte Porzio: 1
Naples: 1, 5
Palermo: 1
Pavia: 5
Piacenza: 5
Pisa: 1
Sassari: 5
Trieste: 1, 5
JAPAN
Tokyo: 5
Yokohama: 5
RUSSIA
Nizhnij Arkhyz: 2
SOUTH KOREA
Seoul: 2
Yongin: 2
SPAIN
Burjassot: 2
Granada: 2
Madrid: 2
SWITZERLAND
Lausanne: 5
THE NETHERLANDS
Amsterdam: 5
Groningen: 5
Leiden: 1, 5
Utrecht: 5
TURKEY
Adıyaman: 2
UKRAINE
Nikolaev: 2
UNITED KINGDOM
Bristol: 5
Cambridge: 5, 8
Edinburgh: 5
Hinxton: 5
Leicester: 2, 5
London: 5
Oxford: 5
Roslin: 5
Surrey: 2
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Alabama
Huntsville: 2
California
Berkeley: 2
Los Angeles: 3, 5
Pasadena: 3
Colorado
Denver: 6
Maryland
Baltimore: 1, 5
Columbia: 2
Greenbelt: 2
Massachusetts
Boston: 5
Cambridge: 10
Michigan
Ann Arbor: 5
Minnesota
Minneapolis: 5
New Mexico
Los Alamos: 2
New York
Troy: 9
Ohio
Cleveland: 5
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia: 7
University Park: 2
Rhode Island
Providence: 7
Washington
Seattle: 4, 5
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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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