Contents
25 June 2021
Vol 372, Issue 6549
Vol 372, Issue 6549
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
In Brief
In Depth
- Delta variant triggers new phase in the pandemic
Scientists are probing why a fresh set of viral mutations is taking the world by storm.
- For WHO leader, a ‘feeling that we're failing’
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had expected more social responsibility in the face of a global crisis.
- Botox depression treatment raises eyebrows
Researchers cast doubt on study claiming strong evidence for the unusual treatment.
- At DOE, efforts to address climate and diversity dovetail
Proposed urban integrated field laboratories would reach out to minority communities.
- Advertisers could come for your dreams, researchers warn
Inserting ads into dreams may one day be feasible.
- What went wrong with CureVac's mRNA vaccine?
Company blames variants of the coronavirus, but type of RNA may have been key.
Feature
- A change in the air
Atmospheric science is overwhelmingly white. These Black scientists ignited a change.
Working Life
Letters
Books et al.
- Cultivating discerning citizens
A pair of psychologists confront the obstacles that threaten to undermine scientific literacy
- Envisioning the emotive mind
A neuroscientist recounts a career spent searching for insight into our psychic struggles
Policy Forum
- Inclusion in citizen science: The conundrum of rebranding
Does replacing the term “citizen science” do more harm than good?
Perspectives
- Two-dimensional ferroelectricity by design
A synthetic ferroelectric is made from a van der Waals assembly of boron nitride
- Repeat after Me(CP2)!
A motif of dinucleotide repeats in the genome may be associated with Rett syndrome
- Hybrid immunity
COVID-19 vaccine responses provide insights into how the immune system perceives threats
- The chains of stress recovery
Ubiquitination primes the cell for recovery from heat stress
- The complex landscape of recent human evolution
Archaic hominins in the Middle East underscore local demographic diversity in the last half million years
- Amping up HIV antibodies
High serum titers of neutralizing antibody can protect humans against HIV
- David B. Wake (1936–2021)
Pioneering evolutionary biologist and amphibian advocate
Association Affairs
- Fellowship highlights need for science communicators
Mass Media internships provide new careers and skills
Research Articles
- The lysosomal Rag-Ragulator complex licenses RIPK1– and caspase-8–mediated pyroptosis by Yersinia
The lysosomal metabolic signaling regulator Rag-Ragulator instructs the host inflammatory response to the pathogenic bacterium Yersinia.
- Ubiquitination is essential for recovery of cellular activities after heat shock
Distinct stress-induced ubiquitination patterns prime eukaryotic cells for recovery from different environmental stressors.
- MeCP2 is a microsatellite binding protein that protects CA repeats from nucleosome invasion
The Rett syndrome protein MeCP2 is a DNA microsatellite CA repeat–binding protein that regulates chromatin architecture.
- Ubiquitination of G3BP1 mediates stress granule disassembly in a context-specific manner
Ubiquitinating a key stress granule protein weakens the stress granule–specific RNA-protein interaction network, resulting in granule disassembly.
Review
- Transformative climate adaptation in the United States: Trends and prospects
A Review highlights the many ways to help build greater urban resilience to climate change.
Reports
- mRNA vaccination boosts cross-variant neutralizing antibodies elicited by SARS-CoV-2 infection
Previous infection results in enhanced vaccine-induced immune protection against variant B.1.351 and other variants.
- Prior SARS-CoV-2 infection rescues B and T cell responses to variants after first vaccine dose
Previous infection results in enhanced variant cross-protective T and B cell responses to a single BNT162b2 vaccine dose.
- A Middle Pleistocene Homo from Nesher Ramla, Israel
A previously unrecognized group of hominins represents the last surviving populations of Middle Pleistocene Homo.
- Middle Pleistocene Homo behavior and culture at 140,000 to 120,000 years ago and interactions with Homo sapiens
Middle Pleistocene Homo technologies at Nesher Ramla, Israel, provide evidence for cultural interactions with Homo sapiens.
- MBD5 and MBD6 couple DNA methylation to gene silencing through the J-domain protein SILENZIO
Two CG-specific DNA methyl readers redundantly repress methylated genes and transposons by recruiting a molecular chaperone protein in Arabidopsis.
- Face masks effectively limit the probability of SARS-CoV-2 transmission
Face masks are highly effective at preventing SARS-CoV-2 transmission because, in most environments, airborne virus abundance is limited.
- First-principles design of a single-atom–alloy propane dehydrogenation catalyst
Single rhodium atoms on a copper surface enable facile carbon-hydrogen bond activation and coke-free propane dehydrogenation.
- Discovery of a Cooper-pair density wave state in a transition-metal dichalcogenide
Josephson tunneling microscopy is used to detect an unusual state in NbSe2, a layered superconductor.
- A tautomeric ligand enables directed C‒H hydroxylation with molecular oxygen
Ligand optimization enables palladium-catalyzed heteroarene hydroxylation adjacent to carboxylic acid substituents.
- Stacking-engineered ferroelectricity in bilayer boron nitride
Parallel-stacked bilayers of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) exhibit ferroelectric switching even though bulk hBN is not ferroelectric.
- Interfacial ferroelectricity by van der Waals sliding
Parallel-stacked bilayers of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) exhibit ferroelectric switching even though bulk hBN is not ferroelectric.
- Pressure-driven fusion of amorphous particles into integrated monoliths
Numerous amorphous nanoparticles are turned into a complete monolith by pressure-driven fusion through dynamic water channels.
About The Cover
COVER Digitally reconstructed skull of a hominin from 130,000 years ago. This previously unrecognized Homo group, identified at Nesher Ramla, Israel, sheds light on Neanderthal origins and the evolutionary history of the Homo lineage. Late members of this group inhabited the Levant contemporaneously with Homo sapiens and interacted with them. See pages 1395, 1424, and 1429.
Illustration: Ariel Pokhojaev, Rachel Sarig, Hila May, Israel Hershkovitz
