This press release contains:
· Summaries of newsworthy papers:
Ecology: Health check for the global ocean
Infectious disease: Genetic signals of malaria resistance
Organic chemistry: A short-cut to hormone-based drugs
Physics: A new spin on quantum computing
Physics: Quantum signature of radiation pressure
And finally… Masers come of age
· Geographical listing of authors
[1] Ecology: Health check for the global ocean (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature11397
An index designed to measure the health of the world’s oceans has given an overall global score of 60 out of 100, suggesting that there is substantial room for improvement. The assessment, reported in Nature this week, considers a wide range of factors that contribute to the health of the oceans and the benefits that they provide to humans. This measure could help to increase public understanding of ocean health around the world.
Oceans have an important role in supporting aspects of human life, from providing food, livelihoods and recreational opportunities to regulating global climate. Efforts to manage the state of the oceans, addressing the needs of both humans and nature, require a means of measuring ocean health. Benjamin Halpern and colleagues created a comprehensive ocean health index, which includes assessments of biodiversity and protection of costal areas, and calculated scores for every coastal country. They find that developed nations are doing better than developing ones, but there is wide variation and notable exceptions — some developed countries, such as Poland and Singapore, scored poorly, whereas Suriname and Seychelles, both developing countries, had relatively high scores.
The authors propose that their index might provide a powerful tool for informing decisions about how to use or protect ocean ecosystems.
CONTACT
Benjamin Halpern (National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Santa Barbara, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 805 892 2523; E-mail: [email protected]
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[2] Infectious disease: Genetic signals of malaria resistance (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature11334
Two new genetic variants associated with resistance to severe malaria are identified in a study published in Nature this week. These genetic variants may confer resistance by affecting certain steps involved in disease development. The variants may represent candidates for the development of medical control measures against malaria.
Christian Timmann and colleagues found the two new association signals in a genome-wide association study in 2,645 patients with malaria and 3,050 unaffected individuals from Ghana, West Africa. One of the variants lies within the ATP2B4 gene on chromosome 1, which encodes a protein with an important role in the physiology of red blood cells, the host cells of malaria parasites. The other variant is on chromosome 16 and may affect a gene for the protein MARVELD3, which is expressed in cells lining the blood vessels and may affect how infected blood cells cross this barrier.
Contrary to some claims that genome-wide association studies do not identify actionable signals, the association signals reported by Timmann and colleagues lend themselves to a straightforward elaboration by cellular biology and, depending on its outcome, possibly to medical application.
CONTACT
Christian Timmann (Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany)
Tel: +49 404 281 8516; E-mail: [email protected]
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[3] Organic chemistry: A short-cut to hormone-based drugs (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature11411
A highly efficient method for making prostaglandins ― natural, hormone-like chemicals that have pharmaceutical applications ― is reported online this week in Nature. Some synthetic analogues of prostaglandin are ‘billion dollar’ drugs; the prostaglandin analogue latanoprost, which is used to treat glaucoma and ocular hypertension, generates approximately $1.6 billion in sales each year.
Prostaglandins regulate a broad range of activities in the body, including blood circulation, digestion and reproduction. Despite their wide use in the pharmaceutical industry, laboratory syntheses of these compounds are not very efficient. Varinder Aggarwal and colleagues now report a concise synthesis of prostaglandin PGF2a, which relies on the use of an organocatalyst, a small organic molecule, to catalyse a key step in the process. It should be possible to modify the authors’ synthetic route to obtain other known prostaglandin-based drugs in a more cost-effective manner and to make it easier to discover new biologically active prostaglandin analogues.
CONTACT
Varinder Aggarwal (University of Bristol, UK)
Tel: +44 117 954 6315; E-mail: [email protected]
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[4] Physics: A new spin on quantum computing (pp 357-360)
Detection of a single nuclear spin is demonstrated in this week’s Nature. The results show that the relatively long-lived nuclear spin state of an individual metal atom embedded within a single-molecule magnet can be read electronically. Nuclear spins may have the potential to form building blocks for quantum computing, and the work may pave the way for the development of completely new devices with interesting capabilities.
Nuclear spins are being increasingly considered as the active elements of a quantum computer: in contrast to electronic spins, they are well isolated from the environment, a favourable condition for achieving stable quantum coherence, which in turn is an attractive property for quantum computation. The device demonstrated by Wolfgang Wernsdorfer and colleagues may now bring such applications closer to being reality. They observe long nuclear spin lifetimes (tens of seconds) and are able to determine the dynamics of spin states.
The authors conclude that these findings may open new avenues for devices in which memory, logic, and possibly quantum logic may be implemented.
CONTACT
Wolfgang Wernsdorfer (Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France)
Tel: +33 4 76 88 79 09; E-mail: [email protected]
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[5] Physics: Quantum signature of radiation pressure (AOP)
DOI: 10.1038/nature11325
Observations of two-way interactions between a light field and an atomic cloud inside an optical cavity reported in Nature this week may provide opportunities for quantum optical devices. Applications of the observed quantum optical effects may include optomechanical sensors, fundamental tests of quantum mechanics at macroscopic scales, and mechanical links between quantum devices.
A surprising property of light is that it exerts a force on massive objects, an effect known as radiation pressure. This is already exploited in various applications, such as optical tweezers. However, the quantum signature of this force, which lies at the heart of exciting quantum optical applications, has remained obscured by noise. Daniel Brooks and colleagues produce an optomechanical system ― an atomic cloud that interacts with the radiation field in a cavity ― that reveals this elusive signature.
They find that the collective motion of ultracold atoms is largely driven by quantum fluctuations in radiation pressure, and they observe that the atomic motion acts back on the light field in the cavity (a quantum effect known as ponderomotive squeezing). The authors conclude that these findings may provide opportunities for low-power quantum optical devices, and the control and measurement of motion in quantum gases.
CONTACT
Daniel Brooks (University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 510 642 7437; E-mail: [email protected]
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[6] And finally... Masers come of age (pp 353-356; N&V)
Improvements to masers ― the microwave-frequency precursors to lasers ― reported in this week’s Nature may enhance the potential of the maser as a general tool for high-sensitivity measurements in science and technology. The maser’s relative obscurity to date has mainly been due to the inconvenience of the conditions required to operate the devices. The latest developments allow these devices to operate in more favourable conditions, opening up the possibility for masers to be applied more widely in areas such as molecular biology, radio astronomy and quantum computing.
Masers are successfully used in certain niche applications ― for example, in deep space communication; however, their application more widely has been limited as they typically require vacuum and/or low temperatures, and sometimes controlled magnetic field operating conditions. Mark Oxborrow and colleagues overcome these problems and have now developed a solid-state maser that can work at room temperature, in air, and in the Earth’s magnetic field.
The authors suggest that their device could be used to perform highly sensitive and precise measurements across a vast range of scientific disciplines.
CONTACT
Mark Oxborrow (National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, UK)
Tel: +44 208 943 6339; E-mail: [email protected]
Aharon Blank (Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel) N&V author
Tel: +972 4829 3718; E-mail: [email protected]
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE…
[7] Passenger deletions generate therapeutic vulnerabilities in cancer (pp 337-342; N&V)
[8] A massive, cooling-flow-induced starburst in the core of a luminous cluster of galaxies (pp 349-352)
[9] More extreme swings of the South Pacific convergence zone due to greenhouse warming (pp 365-369)
[10] Recurrent R-spondin fusions in colon cancer
DOI: 10.1038/nature11282
[11] Tumour suppressor RNF43 is a stem-cell E3 ligase that induces endocytosis of Wnt receptors
DOI: 10.1038/nature11308
[12] Caspase-11 increases susceptibility to Salmonella infection in the absence of caspase-1
DOI: 10.1038/nature11419
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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
Aspendale: 9
Melbourne: 9
CANADA
Montreal: 8
Vancouver: 1
CHILE
Santiago: 8
COOK ISLANDS
Avarua: 9
FRANCE
Grenoble: 4
Paris: 9
Strasbourg: 4
GERMANY
Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen: 4
Garching: 8
Hamburg: 2
Kiel: 2
Lübeck: 2
München: 8
GHANA
Kumasi: 2
NETHERLANDS
Utrecht: 11
NEW CALEDONIA
Noumea: 9
UNITED KINGDOM
Bristol: 3
Exeter: 9
London: 6
Teddington: 6
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Alaska
Fairbanks: 1
Alabama
Huntsville: 8
Arizona
Tucson: 8
California
Berkeley: 5, 8
Davis: 8
Monterey: 1
Pasadena: 8
Santa Barbara: 1
South San Francisco: 10, 12
Stanford: 12
Colorado
Boulder: 5, 8
Connecticut
New Haven: 8
Florida
Gainesville: 8
St Petersburg: 1
Hawaii
Honolulu: 9
Illinois
Argonne: 8
Chicago: 8
Maryland
Baltimore: 8
College Park: 8
Greenbelt: 8
Massachusetts
Boston: 1, 7
Cambridge: 8
Woods Hole: 1
Michigan
Ann Arbor: 8
Minnesota
Minneapolis: 8, 10
St Paul: 1
Missouri
Kansas City: 8
New Jersey
Piscataway: 1
New York
New York: 1, 7
North Carolina
Durham: 1
Ohio
Cleveland: 8
Oregon
Corvallis: 1
Pennsylvania
University Park: 8
Rhode Island
Providence: 1
Texas
Houston: 7
Virginia
Arlington: 1
Washington
Seattle: 1, 9
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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
Eiji Matsuda, 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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