Contents
03 January 2020
Vol 367, Issue 6473
Vol 367, Issue 6473
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
- U.S. military tests radiation belt cleanup in space
Radio waves could sweep belts clean of satellite-killing particles after nuclear sneak attack.
- Past megadroughts hit North and South America in tandem
Strong La Niña conditions drove deep medieval droughts.
- Study pushes emergence of measles back to antiquity
The virus may have entered the human population when cities grew large enough to sustain outbreaks.
- Computer scientist in line to become next NSF director
Sethuraman Panchanathan would succeed France Córdova.
- Congress again rejects Trump cuts, smiles on science agencies
2020 spending bill increases research budgets, but next year will be tougher as lawmakers will have less to spend.
- Global polio eradication falters in the final stretch
Vaccine-derived outbreaks may force a change in "endgame" strategy.
Feature
- Fighting words
Virologist Roberto Burioni has become a celebrity in Italy by sparring with vaccine skeptics.
Working Life
Letters
Books et al.
- Asimov at 100
From epic space operas to rules for robots, the prolific author's literary legacy endures
Policy Forum
- Sustainable minerals and metals for a low-carbon future
Policy coordination is needed for global supply chains
Perspectives
- Uncovering the ART of antimalarial resistance
A key mechanism of resistance to the antimalarial drug artemisinin is identified
- Majorana fermions go for a ride
Evidence for propagating Majorana quasiparticles is found in a topological superconductor
- Building a carnivorous trap
Experiments and computations reveal developmental origins of cup-shaped leaves
- Electrostatics affect the glow
Chromophore twisting is probed with unnatural amino acids
- Cancer in sub-Saharan Africa
Knowledge of cancer in Africa brings needed diversity to improve health worldwide
- Gene expression regulated by RNA stability
The factor responsible for autoregulation of tubulin RNA stability is identified
Review
Research Articles
- Oriented attachment induces fivefold twins by forming and decomposing high-energy grain boundaries
Step-by-step mechanisms for forming fivefold twinned nanoparticles are demonstrated in gold, platinum, and palladium.
- Massively multiplex chemical transcriptomics at single-cell resolution
A technique termed sci-Plex can screen the effects of multiple chemical treatments on gene expression in single cells.
- A Kelch13-defined endocytosis pathway mediates artemisinin resistance in malaria parasites
The function of a highly conserved parasite protein and its role in drug resistance are defined.
Reports
- A single photonic cavity with two independent physical synthetic dimensions
Generating synthetic dimensions in an optical cavity provides a platform to emulate a wide range of physics effects.
- Absence of evidence for chiral Majorana modes in quantum anomalous Hall-superconductor devices
Transport signatures previously thought to be associated with Majorana physics could be explained by a more mundane mechanism.
- Atomic manipulation of the gap in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x
The tip of a scanning tunneling microscope is used to manipulate atoms on the surface of a cuprate, affecting the gap.
- Topological mechanics of knots and tangles
Simple counting rules predict the relative mechanical stability of knots and tangles.
- Electrostatic control of photoisomerization pathways in proteins
Chromophore charge-transfer character and protein electrostatics bias photoisomerization pathways.
- On-chip integrated laser-driven particle accelerator
A photonic inverse design approach is used to create a miniaturized on-chip particle accelerator.
- Dendritic action potentials and computation in human layer 2/3 cortical neurons
Dendritic action potentials extend the repertoire of computations available to human neurons.
- Cooked starchy rhizomes in Africa 170 thousand years ago
Rhizomes cooked in a South African cave 90 to 170,000 years ago imply a reliable source of carbohydrate in the Middle Stone Age.
- Evolution of carnivorous traps from planar leaves through simple shifts in gene expression
A developmental model shows how shifts in gene activity can generate diverse leaf forms.
- Protein-coding changes preceded cis-regulatory gains in a newly evolved transcription circuit
A transcription circuit evolved by coding changes in an ancient regulator followed by regulatory changes in its target genes.
- TTC5 mediates autoregulation of tubulin via mRNA degradation
Nascent tubulin polypeptides are recognized on the ribosome by TTC5 (tetratricopeptide protein 5) to trigger tubulin mRNA decay.
- Evidence for dispersing 1D Majorana channels in an iron-based superconductor
Scanning tunneling spectroscopy suggests a propagating Majorana state along a domain wall on the surface of FeSe0.45Te0.55.
About The Cover
COVER Immature trap of the carnivorous plant Utricularia gibba (~200 μm in width), illustrating its two-layered cellular structure. Such cup-shaped leaves have evolved multiple times as a mechanism for trapping animals. Analyzing U. gibba, researchers used a combination of molecular genetics and computer modeling to reveal how shifts in gene expression domains can account for repeated evolution of cup shapes from species with planar leaves. See pages 24 and 91.
Image: Karen Lee and Claire Bushell
