Contents
19 February 2021
Vol 371, Issue 6531
Vol 371, Issue 6531
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
In Brief
In Depth
- Top German scientist fired after police raid of homes and offices
Reinhard Hüttl, head of earth science center and national academy official, faces allegations of financial crimes.
- France turns to citizens' panel to reduce vaccine skepticism
Panel advice on COVID-19 vaccines could counteract legacy of mistrust from past health scandals.
- Deaths of health workers in Africa highlight vaccine inequity
Growing toll on fragile health systems prompts calls for rich countries to share their doses.
- England's Stonehenge was erected in Wales first
Stones were set upright before being moved east.
- Kauri trees mark magnetic flip 42,000 years ago
Researchers say cosmic ray bombardment unleashed by weaker field drove climate shift.
- Media and aggression research retracted after scrutiny
Questioned psychology papers linger on in meta-analyses.
Feature
- The long road
Early signs suggest COVID-19 vaccines are having an impact, but questions abound about the path to normal.
Working Life
Letters
Books et al.
- Portrait of a groundbreaking astronomer
A new biography paints a vivid picture of the life of dark matter pioneer Vera Rubin
- Probing the genetic future of humanity
A bioethicist breaks down the first human germline genome editing experiment
Policy Forum
- We need a global science-policy body on chemicals and waste
Major gaps in current efforts limit policy responses
Perspectives
- How many genetic changes create new species?
Speciation in plants and animals can involve differentiation across many genetic regions
- New genes from borrowed parts
Vertebrate genes acquire new capabilities by capturing parasitic genomic elements
- A masing ladder
A maser that amplifies emission of periodically modulated quantum states has uses in metrology
- Re-engineering Botox
Botulinum neurotoxin is altered to recognize a different substrate
- The genetic underground of antibiotic resistance
The silent role and clinical relevance of metabolic mutations in antibiotic resistance begin to be unravelled
- Tissue regeneration: Reserve or reverse?
Stem cells recover from injury by tissue dedifferentiation, not from dedicated reserves
- Emerging cell therapy for biliary diseases
Gallbladder organoids repair bile ducts in mouse and human liver
Research Articles
- Clinically relevant mutations in core metabolic genes confer antibiotic resistance
In Escherichia coli, mutations in genes involved in central carbon and energy metabolism can lead to resistance to antibiotics.
- Microbial single-cell RNA sequencing by split-pool barcoding
MicroSPLiT single-cell sequencing identifies rare bacterial transcriptional patterns.
- Absolute and arbitrary orientation of single-molecule shapes
An asymmetric DNA origami shape binds to sites on silica surfaces with a well-defined orientation.
- Recurrent evolution of vertebrate transcription factors by transposase capture
DNA transposons have provided a recurrent supply of exons and splice sites to assemble protein-coding genes in vertebrates via exon shuffling.
- De novo design of transmembrane β barrels
Successful de novo design of transmembrane β-barrel proteins provides insight into the principles that guide their folding.
- Inferring the effectiveness of government interventions against COVID-19
The effect of nonpharmaceutical interventions on SARS-CoV-2 transmission during the early phase of the pandemic is quantified.
- Phage-assisted evolution of botulinum neurotoxin proteases with reprogrammed specificity
A versatile platform reprograms botulinum neurotoxin proteases to selectively cleave proteins of biomedical interest in vitro and in neurons.
- A global environmental crisis 42,000 years ago
The Laschamps magnetic field event caused significant global environmental change 42,000 years ago.
- Determining structural and chemical heterogeneities of surface species at the single-bond limit
Integrated tip-based techniques can efficiently characterize pentacene species on a Ag(110) surface with single-bond resolution.
- Broad and potent activity against SARS-like viruses by an engineered human monoclonal antibody
An affinity-optimized human monoclonal antibody displays broad in vivo efficacy in murine models of SARS and COVID-19.
Review
Reports
- High-entropy-stabilized chalcogenides with high thermoelectric performance
Lattice distortions in a high-entropy alloy reduce thermal conductivity and improve thermoelectric properties.
- Human impacts on global freshwater fish biodiversity
Present-day rivers have become more similar to each other, having more fish species with more diverse morphologies.
- Cholangiocyte organoids can repair bile ducts after transplantation in the human liver
Transplantation of organoids can repair the bile ducts in human livers.
- Mechanism of membrane-tethered mitochondrial protein synthesis
Structural analysis of membrane-associated mitoribosomes illustrates the mechanism of protein synthesis in human mitochondria.
- Prospective mapping of viral mutations that escape antibodies used to treat COVID-19
Complete maps of SARS-CoV-2 mutations that escape the Regeneron monoclonal antibody cocktail help explain viral evolution in a treated patient.
Erratum
About The Cover
COVER Mitochondrial ribosomes, or mitoribosomes, are tethered to the mitochondrial inner membrane to facilitate insertion of synthesized proteins (bright yellow) encoded by the mitochondrial genome. A gating mechanism of the exit tunnel (cyan) enables protein delivery to the membrane insertase OXA1L (light brown). The relative positions shown here are from structural data of an intact translating human mitoribosome:OXA1L complex. See page 846.
Illustration: D. W. Nowakowski/N Molecular Systems, Inc.; Data: A. Amunts/Stockholm University
