NATURE
1. Japan aims high for growth
Innovation in science is at the heart of
government plans to boost the economy.
David Cyranoski
The reform platform includes a new growth strategy, and central to that
strategy is innovation in science and technology. Abe’s cabinet has already
committed hundreds of billions of yen to space, physics and stem-cell research
to recuperate the loss of the competitive edge it once had over China, South
Korea and other Asian rivals. It calls for 30% of new recruits at research
institutes and universities to be female by 2016. And faced with fewer
university graduates and a shrinking birth rate, Japan is looking to open
itself up to foreigners. Under the plan, international researchers would occupy
30% of staff positions at leading research organizations by 2030.
2. Evolutionary dichotomy for rocky planets
Linda T.
Elkins-Tanton
Nature 497, 570–572 (30 May
2013) doi:10.1038/497570a
Rocky planets that form and solidify close to their host stars may
receive enough heat from the star to slow cooling, allowing time for water to
escape into space and causing the planet to dry out. Rocky planets that form
farther from their stars, beyond a critical distance, would cool quickly,
trapping water in silicate minerals in their interiors and as liquid on their
surfaces.
3. Palaeoanthropology: Hesitation on hominin history
William H.
Kimbel
Nature 497, 573–574 (30 May
2013) doi:10.1038/497573a
Extensive studies of fossil skeletons of Australopithecus
sediba provide fascinating details of the anatomy of this hominin species,
but do not convincingly indicate its position on the evolutionary route to
modern humans.
Sharon S. Hoffmann, Jerry F. McManus,
William B. Curry & L. Susan Brown-Leger
Nature 497, 603–606 (30 May 2013) doi:10.1038/nature12145
Ratios of the radionuclides thorium-230 and protactinium-231 in sediment
record ongoing export of 231Pa from the deep central Arctic Ocean
and may indicate continuous deep-water exchange between the Arctic and Atlantic
oceans throughout the past 35,000 years.
Keiko Hamano, Yutaka Abe & Hidenori
Genda
Nature 497, 607–610 (30 May 2013) doi:10.1038/nature12163
Terrestrial planets can be divided into two distinct types on the basis
of their evolutionary history during solidification from their initial molten
state: type I planets (such as Earth) solidify within several million years and
retain most of their water, and type II planets (possibly such as Venus), formed
inside a critical distance, are desiccated by hydrodynamic escape.
Nature 497, 611–614 (30 May
2013) doi:10.1038/nature12161
7. Long-term warming restructures Arctic tundra without changing net
soil carbon storage
Nature 497, 615–618 (30 May
2013) doi:10.1038/nature12129
Two decades of summer warming in an Alaskan tundra ecosystem increased
plant biomass and woody dominance, indirectly increased winter soil
temperature, homogenized the soil trophic structure and suppressed
surface-soil-decomposer activity, but did not change net soil carbon or
nitrogen storage.
SCIENCE
8. Radiation Will Make Astronauts'
Trip to Mars Even Riskier
Richard A. Kerr
Science 31 May 2013: 1031.[DOI:10.1126/science.340.6136.1031]
Future astronauts headed for the Red Planet will have more
than an imagined martian jinx to worry about: deep space radiation.
9. What Are Climate Models Missing?
Bjorn Stevens and Sandrine
Bony
Science 31 May 2013:
1053-1054.[DOI:10.1126/science.1237554]
A better representation of
the coupling between atmospheric water and circulation is necessary to reduce
imprecision in climate model projections.
10.
Pebbles on Mars
Douglas J. Jerolmack
Science 31 May 2013: 1055-1056.[DOI:10.1126/science.1239343]
The observation of conglomerates by the Mars rover Curiosity
provides the most definitive proof yet of ancient river flow.
11. Measurements of Energetic
Particle Radiation in Transit to Mars on the Mars Science Laboratory
C. Zeitlin, D. M. Hassler, F.
A. Cucinotta, B. Ehresmann, R. F. Wimmer-Schweingruber, D. E. Brinza, S. Kang,
G. Weigle, S. Böttcher, E. Böhm, S. Burmeister, J. Guo, J. Köhler, C. Martin,
A. Posner, S. Rafkin, and G. Reitz
Science 31 May 2013: 1080-1084.[DOI:10.1126/science.1235989]
The radiation dose on a round-trip to
Mars could represent a large fraction of the accepted lifetime limit for
astronauts.
PNAS
12. Energetic basis of catalytic activity of
layered nanophase calcium manganese oxides for water oxidation
Nancy Birkner, Sara Nayeri, Babak
Pashaei, Mohammad Mahdi Najafpour, William H. Casey, and Alexandra Navrotsky
PNAS 2013 110 (22) 8801-8806, doi:10.1073/pnas.1306623110
13. Influence of organic films on the
evaporation and condensation of water in aerosol
James F. Davies, Rachael E. H. Miles,
Allen E. Haddrell, and Jonathan P. Reid
PNAS 2013 110 (22) 8807-8812; published ahead of
print May 14, 2013, doi:10.1073/pnas.1305277110
14. High
regional climate sensitivity over continental China constrained by
glacial-recent changes in temperature and the hydrological cycle
Robert A. Eagle, Camille Risi, Jonathan
L. Mitchell, John M. Eiler, Ulrike Seibt, J. David Neelin, Gaojun Li, and
Aradhna K. Tripati
PNAS 2013 110 (22) 8813-8818; published
ahead of print May 13, 2013, doi:10.1073/pnas.1213366110
182Hf–182W
age dating of a 26Al-poor inclusion and implications for the origin of
short-lived radioisotopes in the early Solar System
Jesper C. Holst, Mia B. Olsen, Chad
Paton, Kazuhide Nagashima, Martin Schiller, Daniel Wielandt, Kirsten K. Larsen,
James N. Connelly, Jes K. Jørgensen, Alexander N. Krot, Åke Nordlund, and
Martin Bizzarro
PNAS 2013 110 (22) 8819-8823; published ahead of
print May 13, 2013, doi:10.1073/pnas.1300383110
15. Millennial-scale isotope records from a wide-ranging
predator show evidence of recent human impact to oceanic food webs
Anne E. Wiley, Peggy H. Ostrom,
Andreanna J. Welch, Robert C. Fleischer, Hasand Gandhi, John R. Southon, Thomas
W. Stafford, Jr., Jay F. Penniman, Darcy Hu, Fern P. Duvall, and Helen F. James
PNAS 2013 110 (22) 8972-8977; published ahead of
print May 13, 2013, doi:10.1073/pnas.1300213110
16. Benefit of pulsation in soft corals
Maya Kremien, Uri Shavit, Tali Mass,
and Amatzia Genin
PNAS 2013 110 (22) 8978-8983; published ahead of
print April 22, 2013, doi:10.1073/pnas.1301826110
17. Functional ecology of an Antarctic Dry
Valley
Yuki Chan, Joy D. Van Nostrand, Jizhong
Zhou, Stephen B. Pointing, and Roberta L. Farrell
PNAS 2013 110 (22) 8990-8995;
doi:10.1073/pnas.1300643110
NATURE
COMMUNICATIONS
Julie A. Bowles, Mike J. Jackson, Thelma S. Berquó,
Peter A. Sølheid, Jeffrey S. Gee
28 May 2013 doi: 10.1038/ncomms2938
Cation ordering in cubic-structured oxides can
strongly affect magnetic properties. Here, the authors show that in some
natural titanomagnetites, large and reversible changes in Curie temperature
result from annealing at moderate temperatures (350–400 °C), most likely
arising from changes in cation ordering.
NATURE GEOSCIENCE
19. Palaeoclimate: When the dust settles
Eun Young Kwon & Eric
D. Galbraith
Nature Geoscience 6,
423–424 (2013) doi:10.1038/ngeo1838
The amount of carbon stored in the deep ocean
varied over glacial–interglacial cycles. Southern Ocean sediments from the past
360,000 years show that carbon storage also fluctuated within glacial periods,
in concert with the fertilization of the Southern Ocean by wind-borne dust.
20. The amount of carbon
stored in the deep ocean varied over glacial–interglacial cycles. Southern
Ocean sediments from the past 360,000 years show that carbon storage also
fluctuated within glacial periods, in concert with the fertilization of the
Southern Ocean by wind-borne dust.
21. Plants, clouds and climate
Nature Geoscience 6,
413 (2013) doi:10.1038/ngeo1852
Published online 30 May 2013
Plant–cloud interactions have the potential to
both cool and warm the climate. Ascertaining how these processes balance out at
the global scale will require close collaboration between climate scientists
and plant biologists.
22. Projectile remnants in central peaks of lunar
impact craters
Z. Yue, B. C. Johnson, D.
A. Minton, H. J. Melosh, K. Di, W. Hu & Y. Liu
Nature Geoscience 6,
435–437 (2013) doi:10.1038/ngeo1828
Unusual minerals observed in lunar craters were
thought to originate from beneath the Moon's surface. Numerical simulations
show that rather than being vaporized, much of the impactor material can
survive in the crater, implying that the unusual minerals come from the
impactor and may not be indigenous to the Moon.
23. Hydrogen generation from low-temperature
water–rock reactions
L. E. Mayhew, E. T.
Ellison, T. M. McCollom, T. P. Trainor & A. S. Templeton
Nature Geoscience 6, 478–484 (2013) doi:10.1038/ngeo1825
Hydrogen is commonly produced during the
high-temperature hydration of mafic and ultramafic rocks. Laboratory
experiments suggest that water–rock reactions also generate hydrogen at lower
temperatures, potentially fuelling microbial life in ultramafic aquifers in
oceanic and terrestrial crust.
24. Graphite formation by carbonate reduction
during subduction
Matthieu E. Galvez,
Olivier Beyssac, Isabelle Martinez, Karim Benzerara, Carine Chaduteau, Benjamin
Malvoisin & Jacques Malavieille
Nature Geoscience 6, 473–477 (2013) doi:10.1038/ngeo1827
Carbon is carried into the Earth at subduction
zones. Geochemical analysis of subducted sediments now exhumed in Alpine
Corsica, France, reveal the formation of graphite during shallow subduction,
implying that carbonate transformation to graphite aids transport into the
deeper Earth.
25. A combination mode of the annual cycle and the
El Niño/Southern Oscillation
Malte F. Stuecker, Axel
Timmermann, Fei-Fei Jin, Shayne McGregor & Hong-Li Ren
Nature Geoscience (2013) doi:10.1038/ngeo1826
The development and termination of El Niño events
seem to be coupled with the seasonal cycle. Statistical analyses suggest that
this link reflects the presence of a combination climate mode with periods of
10 and 15 months.
26. The effect of sea level on glacial
Indo-Pacific climate
Pedro N. DiNezio &
Jessica E. Tierney
Nature Geoscience 6,
485–491 (2013) doi:10.1038/ngeo1823
The Indo-Pacific warm pool is the largest source of heat and moisture
vapour to the atmosphere. Proxy reconstructions and model simulations suggest
that during the Last Glacial Maximum, the exposure of the Sunda Shelf of
Southeast Asia weakened deep convection over the warm pool.
27. Energy budget constraints on climate response
Alexander Otto, Friederike E. L. Otto,
Olivier Boucher, John Church, Gabi Hegerl, Piers M. Forster, Nathan P. Gillett, Jonathan Gregory, Gregory
C. Johnson, Reto Knutti, Nicholas Lewis, Ulrike Lohmann, Jochem Marotzke, Gunnar Myhre, Drew Shindell, Bjorn Stevens &
Myles R. Allen
Nature Geoscience 6, 415–416 (2013) doi:10.1038/ngeo1836
The rate of climate warming has been lower than expected over the past
decade. Energy budget considerations suggest that this does not significantly change
estimates of the eventual (equilibrium) temperature rise in response to doubled
atmospheric CO2 concentrations; the immediate temperature response to rising
levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere – before an equilibrium is reached
– may, however, need to be revised downwards.
