Contents
Vol 362, Issue 6410
Special Issue
Diving within Saturn’s rings
Introduction to special issue
Research Articles
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
Products & Materials
- New Products
A weekly roundup of information on newly offered instrumentation, apparatus, and laboratory materials of potential interest to researchers.
In Brief
In Depth
- BepiColombo set to probe Mercury's mysteries
European-Japanese mission will examine idea that innermost planet formed out past Mars.
- Trio earns physics Nobel for turning lasers into tools
Prize honors discoveries that led to optical tweezers and short, powerful bursts of laser light.
- Cancer immunotherapy sweeps Nobel for medicine
Prize goes to discoveries that unleash immune system.
- New science minister's activism sparks debate
Biologist Elena Álvarez-Buylla has spoken out against transgenic maize.
- Airlines fight effort to force them to carry lab animals
U.S. Department of Transportation weighs whether to investigate complaint by leading research organization.
Feature
- Sky rivers
Streams of stars falling into our galaxy trace its history and mass. They may even record encounters with clumps of dark matter.
Working Life
Letters
Books et al.
- Junk food, junk science?
A nutrition expert aims a critical eye at the research and marketing practices of food companies
- Mythical androids and ancient automatons
Technology tales from classical literature reveal the storied history of artificial intelligence
Policy Forum
- Agricultural research, or a new bioweapon system?
Insect-delivered horizontal genetic alteration is concerning
Perspectives
- Marsupial responses to global aridification
Tooth evolution in Australian kangaroos was a late response to climate change in the Neogene
- Smoothening out the patches
New roles are discovered for cholesterol transport in a key developmental signaling pathway
- Activating plasmonic chemistry
Plasmonic photocatalysts can reduce activation barriers and unlock reaction pathways
- Metropolitan versus small-town influenza
Analysis of infectious disease data reveals the driving factors of infection dynamics
- Cancer origins—genetics rules the day
Similar cancers from different source tissues share molecular mechanisms
- Quantum oscillations in an insulator
Even without a Fermi surface, a Kondo insulator exhibits magnetoresistance oscillations
- Preserving microbial diversity
Microbiota from humans of all cultures are needed to ensure the health of future generations
Research Article
- Two Patched molecules engage distinct sites on Hedgehog yielding a signaling-competent complex
The cryo–electron microscopy structure of a key complex involved in regulating a pathway important in development and cancer is elucidated.
Reports
- Glacial lake outburst floods as drivers of fluvial erosion in the Himalaya
A very well monitored Himalayan glacial lake outburst flood shows the power of these large events to drive erosion.
- Slab2, a comprehensive subduction zone geometry model
Slab2 is a comprehensive model of all seismically active subduction zones on Earth.
- Rapid change of superconductivity and electron-phonon coupling through critical doping in Bi-2212
Angle-resolved photoemission uncovers an interplay between various types of interaction in a cuprate superconductor.
- Quantum oscillations of electrical resistivity in an insulator
In the insulator YbB12, both resistivity and magnetic torque show quantum oscillations, albeit with different effective masses.
- Quantifying hot carrier and thermal contributions in plasmonic photocatalysis
A Ru-Cu alloy plasmonic photocatalyst substantially reduced the thermal activation barrier for ammonia decomposition.
- Rapid Pliocene adaptive radiation of modern kangaroos
Kangaroos show unexpected patterns of diversification in response to past changes in climate.
- Urbanization and humidity shape the intensity of influenza epidemics in U.S. cities
Seasonal flu epidemics are more diffuse in larger cities and more intense in smaller cities, where climate has a stronger influence on transmission.
- Impacts of species richness on productivity in a large-scale subtropical forest experiment
In a replicated experiment in a subtropical forest, higher tree species diversity promoted productivity and carbon storage.
- The role of education interventions in improving economic rationality
An experiment with secondary school students shows that education enhances economic rationality measured with decision problems.
- Gene editing restores dystrophin expression in a canine model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Successful CRISPR correction of a dystrophin mutation in dogs increases dystrophin protein expression in skeletal and heart muscle.
- Reprogramming normal human epithelial tissues to a common, lethal neuroendocrine cancer lineage
Prostate and lung cancers convert to a drug-resistant, lethal form of cancer through the same reprogramming mechanism.
About The Cover

COVER Cassini's final wide-angle view of Saturn and its rings, taken on 13 September 2017, 2 days before the spacecraft burned up in the planet's atmosphere. The Sun is at an oblique angle on the far side of Saturn, which casts a dark shadow across the rings. This color mosaic was produced from multiple images taken with Cassini's Imaging Science Subsystem. See page 44.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute