NATURE
1. Japan NIH opposed
Nature, 19 June 2013
Scientists in Japan are resisting the government’s plan to form
an agency modelled on the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). Japanese
government officials would select research fields and manage budgets for
projects aimed at boosting health-related science. Last week, seven major
bioscience societies circulated an ‘emergency statement’ warning that such an
would stifle the creativity and motivation of scientists. Further
54 scientific societies expressed similar concerns.
2. Risk
management
Nature 498, 271 (20 June 2013)
doi:10.1038/498271a
A project to pool data and tools to calculate
earthquake hazards is an important milestone (Global Earthquake Model - GEM),
but it will be down to individuals to decide how to interpret and respond to
those risks.
3. Salt water fuels nitrogen release
Nature 498, 274 (20 June 2013) doi:10.1038/498274b
Published online 19 June 2013
Saltwater incursions into coastal
wetlands can increase the release of ammonium into the ocean, complicating
coastal management in the face of human development, climate change and rising
sea levels. The potential for saltwater-induced nitrogen release should be
assessed during the development of large coastal wetland-restoration projects.
4. Magnetic energy of supernovae
Nature 498, 274 (20 June 2013) doi:10.1038/498274c
Published online 19 June 2013
Light from five super-luminous
supernovae has revealed an unusual power source behind these cosmic explosions.
The peak luminosity and the long tail of the light are consistent with stars
collapsing to form magnetars — rapidly spinning neutron stars with powerful
magnetic fields — that provide an additional reservoir of energy for the
supernova.
5. Acidic waters do not toughen corals
Nature 498, 274–275 (20 June 2013) doi:10.1038/498274d
Published online 19 June 2013
Even corals that have spent generations
in acidic waters have failed to adapt completely to these harsh conditions.
Researchers collected samples of Porites
astreoides coral that live in the seas off the Yucatan Peninsula in
southeastern Mexico, where groundwater springs have produced low-pH conditions
for thousands of years. Despite living in low-pH areas, these reef-forming
organisms will not fully adapt to the ocean acidification conditions expected
by 2100, say the authors.
6. Early animals' revealing tracks
Nature 498, 275 (20 June 2013) doi:10.1038/498275e
Published online 19 June 2013
Fossilized trails left in
560-million-year-old Canadian rocks may be some of the earliest evidence of
squirming animals. The authors identified previously overlooked horizontal and
vertical rock trails that seemed to be linked with Aspidella. They
suggest that the marks were made as the animals wormed their way out of
sediment, rather than as they passively slid.
7. NASA sets sights on the Sun
Alexandra Witze
Nature 498, 279–280 (20 June 2013) doi:10.1038/498279a
On 26 June, NASA plans to launch
the US$181-million Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS). IRIS
mission aims to scrutinize the layer between the star’s surface and its
flickering corona. The IRIS telescope will zoom in on the chromosphere.
8. Quark quartet opens fresh vista on matter - First
particle containing four quarks is confirmed
Devin Powell
Nature 498, 280–281 (20 June 2013)
doi:10.1038/498280a
The BESIII detector in China is one of
two experiments to detect four-quark particles.
IHEP. Physicists have resurrected a particle that may have existed in the first
hot moments after the Big Bang. Arcanely called Zc(3900), it is the
first confirmed particle made of four quarks, the building blocks of much of
the Universe’s matter.
9. Archaeology meets primate technology
Andrew Whiten
Nature 498, 303–305 (20 June 2013) doi:10.1038/498303a
A study of wild capuchin monkeys that
crack nuts using stone hammers reveals temporal and spatial patterning of the
relics of their technological efforts, confirming that such behaviours can be
studied from an archaeological perspective.
10. Volcanism on Mars controlled by early oxidation of the upper mantle
J. Tuff, J. Wade & B. J. Wood
Nature 498, 342–345 (20
June 2013) doi:10.1038/nature12225
The compositions of the 3.7-billion-year-old surface
rocks on Mars — as observed by the Spirit rover at Gusev crater — are shown to
be consistent with early mixing of oxidized surface material into the uppermost
Martian mantle: such oxidation appears to have had less influence on more
recent volcanic rocks, which are sampled as Martian meteorites.
11. Masses of exotic calcium isotopes
pin down nuclear forces
F. Wienholtz, D.
Beck, K. Blaum, Ch. Borgmann, M. Breitenfeldt+ et al.
Nature 498, 346–349 (20 June 2013)
doi:10.1038/nature12226
The masses of the
exotic calcium isotopes 53Ca and 54Ca measured by a
multi-reflection time-of-flight method confirm predictions of calculations
including nuclear three-body interactions.
See alsoNews
& Views by Gade
12. The importance of feldspar for ice
nucleation by mineral dust in mixed-phase clouds
James D. Atkinson,
Benjamin J. Murray, Matthew T. Woodhouse, Thomas F. Whale, Kelly J. Baustian,
Kenneth S. Carslaw, Steven Dobbie, Daniel O’Sullivan & Tamsin L. Malkin
Nature 498, 355–358 (20 June 2013)
doi:10.1038/nature12278
Feldspar minerals
are shown to dominate ice nucleation by mineral dust in clouds containing both
liquid water and ice particles, despite feldspar being a minor component of
the dust believed
to be the main source of ice nuclei.
SCIENCE
13. Monsoon Melee
Jane Qiu
Science 21 June 2013: 1400-1401.[DOI:10.1126/science.340.6139.1400]
Some researchers
now contend that heating of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, rather than Tibet, drives
the monsoon, with the Himalayas creating a barrier that blocks cold, dry winds
from the north. How the matter is resolved could affect how scientists predict
the start date and duration of the monsoon, as well as how it will respond to
climate change.
14. Pliocene Warmth, Polar
Amplification, and Stepped Pleistocene Cooling Recorded in NE Arctic Russia
Julie
Brigham-Grette, Martin Melles, Pavel Minyuk, Andrei Andreev, Pavel Tarasov,
Robert DeConto, Sebastian Koenig, Norbert Nowaczyk, Volker Wennrich, Peter
Rosén, Eeva Haltia, Tim Cook, Catalina Gebhardt, Carsten Meyer-Jacob, Jeff
Snyder, and Ulrike Herzschuh
Science 21 June 2013: Vol. 340 no. 6139 pp. 1421-1427, DOI:
10.1126/science.1233137
Evidence from Lake
El’gygytgyn, shows that 3.6 to 3.4 million years ago, summer temperatures were
~8°C warmer than today. Multiproxy evidence suggests extreme warmth and polar
amplification during the middle Pliocene, sudden stepped cooling events during
the Pliocene-Pleistocene transition, and warmer than present Arctic summers
until ~2.2 million years ago. Our data are consistent with sea-level records
and other proxies indicating that Arctic cooling was insufficient to support
large-scale ice sheets until the early Pleistocene.
15. Direct Imaging of Covalent Bond
Structure in Single-Molecule Chemical Reactions
Dimas G. de Oteyza,
Patrick Gorman, Yen-Chia Chen, Sebastian Wickenburg, Alexander Riss, Duncan J.
Mowbray, Grisha Etkin, Zahra Pedramrazi, Hsin-Zon Tsai, Angel Rubio, Michael F.
Crommie, and Felix R. Fischer
Science 21 June
2013: 1434-1437, [DOI:10.1126/science.1238187]
A molecule is
imaged at atomic resolution as it undergoes a chemical reaction.
Noncontact atomic
force microscopy imaged the bond structure of an adsorbed organic reactant and
its cyclization products.
16. GWAS of 126,559 Individuals
Identifies Genetic Variants Associated with Educational Attainment
Cornelius A.
Rietveld, Sarah E. Medland, Jaime Derringer, Jian Yang, Tõnu Esko et al.
Science 21 June
2013: 1467-1471, [DOI:10.1126/science.1235488]
Three genetic loci
are found to explain variation associated with educational achievement. These
findings can anchor power analyses in social-science genetics
PNAS
17. Evidence for reactive reduced
phosphorus species in the early Archean ocean
Matthew A. Pasek,
Jelte P. Harnmeijer, Roger Buick, Maheen Gull, and Zachary Atlas
PNAS 2013 110 (25)
10089-10094; published ahead of print June 3, 2013, doi:10.1073/pnas.1303904110
The authrors report
the occurrence of dissolvable phosphorous species in Archean allowing synthesis
of RNA and other organophosphates necessary for early life.
18. Direct electrolytic dissolution of
silicate minerals for air CO2 mitigation and carbon-negative H2 production
Greg H. Rau, Susan
A. Carroll, William L. Bourcier, Michael J. Singleton, Megan M. Smith, and
Roger D. Aines
PNAS 2013 110 (25)
10095-10100; published ahead of print May 31, 2013, doi:10.1073/pnas.1222358110
Experimental demonstration
of coupling of silicate mineral dissolution with saline water electrolysis and
H2 production to effect significant air CO2 absorption, chemical conversion,
and storage in solution. The authors
propose high-capacity, energy-efficient and inexpensive removal of excess air
CO2 with production of carbon-negative H2. The produced hydroxide and/or
(bi)carbonate could be useful in reducing sea-to-air CO2 emissions and in
neutralizing or offsetting the effects of ongoing ocean acidification.
29. Iron traps terrestrially derived
dissolved organic matter at redox interfaces
Thomas Riedel,
Dominik Zak, Harald Biester, and Thorsten Dittmar
PNAS 2013 110 (25)
10101-10105; published ahead of print June 3, 2013, doi:10.1073/pnas.1221487110
At redox interfaces
in peatlands, where the biogeochemical cycles of iron and dissolved organic
matter (DOM) are coupled, this issue can readily be studied. The precipitation of iron hydroxides at the oxic
surface layer of two rewetted fens removed a large fraction of dissolved
organic matter. They propose that redox interfaces, which are ubiquitous in
marine and terrestrial settings, are selective yet intermediate barriers that
limit the flux of land-derived DOM to oceanic waters.
20. Laser-induced plasma cloud interaction
and ice multiplication under cirrus cloud conditions
Thomas Leisner,
Denis Duft, Ottmar Möhler, Harald Saathoff, Martin Schnaiter, Stefano Henin,
Kamil Stelmaszczyk, Massimo Petrarca, Raphaëlle Delagrange, Zuoqiang Hao,
Johannes Lüder, Yannick Petit, Philipp Rohwetter, Jérôme Kasparian, Jean-Pierre
Wolf, and Ludger Wöste
PNAS 2013 110 (25)
10106-10110; published ahead of print June 3, 2013, doi:10.1073/pnas.1222190110
The authors report
on the interaction of laser-generated plasma channels with water and ice clouds
observed in a large cloud simulation chamber. No direct influence of the plasma
channels on ice formation or precipitation processes could be detected. The
plasma channels induced a surprisingly strong effect of ice multiplication.
The findings might
open new perspectives for remote sensing of water vapor and ice in the upper
troposphere.
NATURE
COMMUNICATION
21. Upper mantle viscosity and dynamic
subsidence of curved continental margins
Victor Sacek &
Naomi Ussami
Nature
Communications 4,
Article number: 2036 doi:10.1038/ncomms3036
Modeling shows that
curvature of rifting along the continental margin controls post-rift basin
subsidence. Viscosity has a high influence on this effect.
22. Exceptionally well-preserved
Cretaceous microfossils reveal new biomineralization styles
Jens E. Wendler
& Paul Bown
Nature
Communications 4,
Article number: 2052 doi:10.1038/ncomms3052
Discovery of a new
tipe of biomineralization of Cretaceous calcareous microplankton.
23. An earthquake gap south of Istanbul
Marco Bohnhoff,
Fatih Bulut, Georg Dresen, Peter E. Malin, Tuna Eken & Mustafa
Aktar
Nature
Communications 4,
Article number: 1999 doi:10.1038/ncomms2999
Analysis of an
aseismic area south of Istanbul that is a potential nucleation site for a
significant earthquake. A major earthquake could have a disastrous effect due
to the proximity of the area to the
aprox.13-milon city (Istanbul).
