Worms remodel immune responsiveness

Printing emulsions and foams in 3D The properties of porous materials can depend on the overall volume, size, and size distribution of the pores, but these can be difficult features to simultaneously control during fabrication. Emulsion or foam techniques can produce pores of only one narrow size range, but in combination with a direct ink-writing process, Minas et al. developed an approach to create porous materials with highly tunable properties. Shear thinning inks made from modified alumina particles are progressively deposited to form an overall structure, where large pores are made by the writing process and small ones from the emulsion or foam, with pores either open or closed. A percolating network of load-bearing struts results in structures with very high strength-to-weight ratios. —MSL Adv. Mater. 10.1002/adma.201603390 (2016).


Printing emulsions and foams in 3D
The properties of porous materials can depend on the overall volume, size, and size distribution of the pores, but these can be difficult features to simultaneously control during fabrication.Emulsion or foam techniques can produce pores of only one narrow size range, but in combination with a direct ink-writing process, Minas et al. developed an approach to create porous materials with highly tunable properties.Shear thinning inks made from modified alumina particles are progressively deposited to form an overall structure, where large pores are made by the writing process and small ones from the emulsion or foam, with pores either open or closed.A percolating network of load-bearing struts results in structures with very high strength-to-weight ratios.-MSL Adv.Mater. 10.1002Mater. 10. /adma.201603390 (2016)).

Cognition, behavior, and the globus pallidus
Deep inside the brain, the external segment of the globus pallidus receives many inputs from the neighboring basal ganglia.Its role in basic cognitive functions has rarely been measured directly.While monkeys were learning a complex task, Schechtman et al. recorded discharges from prototypical neurons in the structure.The

Rejuvenating viral vectors
Adenoviral (Ad5) vaccine vectors elicit mixed responses: They induce protective CD8 + T cells, but these cells may be partially exhausted.Now Larocca et al. demonstrate that this exhausted phenotype may result from Ad5 vector-induced antigen-specific CD4 + T cells that express interleukin-10 (IL-10) and PD-1 in both mice and macaques.These IL-10 + CD4 + T cells suppress the vaccine-induced CD8 + T cell response, and their inhibitory function may depend in part on IL-27.Targeting this inhibitory pathway may thus enhance protection of viral vectorbased vaccines.-AC Sci.Immunol. 1, eaaf7643 (2016).

Shrinking spectrometers
Dual-comb spectroscopy is a powerful technique that uses the interference of two closely related combs to map spectroscopic features directly into a frequency domain that can be read by electronics.Suh et al. developed a dual-comb spectroscopy approach using combs produced by silica microresonators fabricated on a silicon chip.Perhaps highresolution spectroscopy will soon be shrunk to the chip scale, doing away with the need for bulky spectrometers.-ISO Science, this issue p. 600

Uranium in the deep sea
The ratio of 234 U to 238 U in seawater underlies modern marine uranium-thorium geochronology, but it is difficult to establish the ratio precisely.

R
ural populations in less developed countries commonly show poor immunogenicity in vaccination programs.Helminth infestations remain common in some rural areas, and cellular immune hyporesponsiveness is a hallmark of chronic helminth infections.Community deworming programs are in general believed to be a good thing to reverse the morbidity that a large worm burden can impose on children.Wammes et al. set up a 2-year clinical trial to systematically test the immunological consequences of deworming in >1000 villagers in Indonesia.After treatment, subjects showed significant immune remodeling, with reduced expression of CTLA-4 (cytotoxin T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4) and elevated proinflammatory cytokine responses to malaria parasite antigens.The challenge in the longer term could be that restored immune responsiveness might increase the prevalence of inflammatory diseases.-CA Proc.Nat.Acad.Sci.10.1073/pnas.1604570113(2016).

PHOTOS (FROM TOP): EYE OF SCIENCE/SCIENCE SOURCE; MINAS ET AL., MATERIAL VIEWS (10 AUGUST 2016) ©2016
A printed cubic lattice scaffold for the creation of porous ceramics SCIENCE sciencemag.orgPHOTO: SUSUMU NISHINAGA/SCIENCE SOURCE dense, microtubules bend and cross over, leading to increased mechanical stress and filament damage.Damaged filaments can self-repair in a process that also prevents complete depolymerization.Most of the tubulin incorporates into the growing ends of microtubules, but some incorporates along the shaft of preexisting microtubules at damaged regions.This repair-and-rescue mechanism provides insight into how the network can remain stable in this highly dynamic system.-SH and SMH Nat. Cell Biol. 18, 1054(2016).

Sourcing hydrogen directly from wax
Hydrogen is an appealing fuel because of the energy released in its reaction with oxygen and the nearly ideal safety profile of the sole product, water.The challenge lies in transporting and storing the hydrogen before

Microtubule repair and rescue
The microtubule network that forms the cytoskeleton is essential for cell polarization and migration.Microtubules tend to grow slowly, and they can shrink rapidly in a process known as catastrophe.Aumeier et al. report that where the network is its use.Gonzalez-Cortes et al. now show that simple paraffin wax can be an efficient source of hydrogen under the right circumstances.Specifically, they embedded carbon-supported ruthenium nanoparticles in the wax and then irradiated it with microwaves, thereby releasing up to half of the available gravimetric hydrogen content.The authors attribute the catalytic efficiency to a possible combination of local superheating and field-induced plasma formation.-JSY Sci.Rep. 10.1038Rep. 10. /srep35315 (2016)).

What a (scientific) argument is not
Engaging in arguments based on evidence is a practice found in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education frameworks.Are students being taught to argue evidence in the same way that professional scientists do?MacPherson interviewed 10 ecologists about arguments both current and ongoing in their field.These data were compared to ecological arguments p ortrayed in assessment tasks written for middle and high school science students.Ecologists discussed causal claims, whereas school science tasks instead focused on descriptive and prescriptive claims.This mismatch results in students not receiving an accurate picture of how professional ecologists argue.How can the STEM education community move forward with designing tasks that ask students to critique evidence in a truly scientific way?-MM Sci.Ed. 10.1002Ed. 10. /sce.21246 (2016)).

Layered haircut underlies hearing
Hair cells deep within the ear transduce sound into hearing.On any single hair cell, a pack of stereocilia is neatly arranged from tallest to shortest.When the stereocilia do not develop adequately, deafness ensues.Studying mice, Tarchini et al. discovered some of the key signaling components that organize stereocilia during development.Two regulators of G proteins, the leucine-glycine-asparagine repeat protein and an inhibitory α-subunit of heterotrimeric G protein, coordinate to define the tallest row of stereocilia.Both regulators are expressed in the bare zone of the hair cell, a surface domain that will not produce stereocilia, and also in the very tips of the row of stereocilia adjacent to the bare zone.These stereocilia will emerge as the tallest of the crowd.If this signaling pathway is disrupted, stereocilia develop to more even and modest heights, and the animal is deaf.-PJH Development 10.1242Development 10. /dev.139089 (2016)).

Ascaris lumbricoides
is a common parasite of humans.
Inner-ear sensory hair cells are specifically organized.
Chen et al. report two 234 U/ 238 U records derived from deep-sea corals (see the Perspective by Yokoyama and Esat).The records reveal a number of important similarities to and differences from existing records of the past 30,000 years.Higher values during the most recent 10,000 years than during earlier glaciated conditions may reflect enhanced subglacial melting during deglaciation.-HJS Science, this issue p. 626; see also p. 550 NEUROREGENERATION Spinal cord regeneration in zebrafish Unlike humans, zebrafish can regenerate their spinal cord.Mokalled et al. identified a growth factor in zebrafish that helps this process (see the Perspective by Williams and He).The protein encoded by ctgfa (connective tissue growth factor a) is secreted after injury and encourages glial cells to form a bridge across the spinal lesion.Addition of this protein improved spinal cord repair in injured zebrafish.-PJH Science, this issue p. 630; see also p. 544 PLANT SCIENCESoil microbes yield insecticidal peptideThe microbial peptide BT, derived from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, is widely used to protect crops from insect pests.Schellenberger et al. identified another insecticidal peptide from a different soil-dwelling bacterium, Pseudomonas chlororaphis (see the Perspective by Tabashnik).Corn plants expressing the Pseudomonas peptide were protected from attack by western corn rootworm.Rootworms that were resistant to BT were susceptible to the Pseudomonas peptide.Addition of another insecticidal peptide diversifies the arsenal against insect pests, which may slow down the development of resistance.-PJ H Science, this issue p. 634; see also p. 552 PUBLIC HEALTH animals had to switch to a new stimulus-reward association once a predefined learning criterion had been reached.The activity of the neurons predicted whether the monkeys would change or maintain their previous stimulus choice.Neuronal spike activity also encoded whether such choices were successful.When the animals' performance became more automated and less demanding, discharge rates in the context of choice selection decreased.-PRS Proc.Nat.Acad.Sci.10.1073/ pnas.1612392113(2016).