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Seven days: 10–16 February 2012

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/482280a

The week in science: Europe’s Vega rocket launches; US approves first new nuclear reactors for three decades; and this year’s schedule for the Large Hadron Collider is announced.

Human evolution: Cultural roots

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/482290a

Author: Jeff Tollefson

A South African archaeologist digs into his own past to seek connections between climate change and human development.

Prions and chaperones: Outside the fold

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/482294a

Author: Bijal P. Trivedi

Susan Lindquist has challenged conventional thinking on how misfolded proteins drive disease and may power evolution. But she still finds that criticism stings.

Worldwide weapons

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). doi:10.1038/482275a

Progress towards a United Nations arms-trade treaty is encouraging, but it won't keep weapons out of the hands of human-rights abusers.

Tough choices

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). doi:10.1038/482275b

Scientists must find ways to make more efficient use of funds — or politicians may do it for them.

On the up

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). doi:10.1038/482276a

The soaring incidence of diabetes is driving the United Arab Emirates' science ambitions.

Spanish changes are scientific suicide

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/482277a

Author: Amaya Moro-Martín

If research continues to be sidelined, Spain will be left with little domestic expertise, warns Amaya Moro-Martín.

Microbiology: Seal corpses shelter Antarctic microbes

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). doi:10.1038/482278a

Mummified seals scattered across the deserts of Antarctica's McMurdo Dry Valleys reveal that microbial communities in the region respond rapidly to environmental change.The seal carcasses are naturally mummified by the extremely dry, cold conditions of one of the world's least hospitable climates. Craig Cary

Climate modelling: A rainy signal from noise

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). doi:10.1038/482278b

A temperature increase of at least 1.4 °C is needed before changes in regional precipitation can be distinguished from regular variability and attributed to global warming.A team led by Irina Mahlstein of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, Colorado, used a suite

Materials: Nanoscale shells trap light

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). doi:10.1038/482278c

Sheets of silicon nanoshells created by a team in California could lead to ultra-thin solar panels that are cheaper and easier to mass-produce than those currently available.Conventional solar panels absorb light using relatively thick layers of nanocrystalline silicon that can be time-consuming to manufacture.

Behavioural science: Sex is spread across the genes

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). doi:10.1038/482278d

Sex-specific behaviours in activities such as mating and parenting are controlled in a modular way by distinct sets of genes.Nirao Shah at the University of California, San Francisco, and his colleagues screened the brains of male and female mice for differences in gene expression.

Ecology: Fish figures hint at past extinctions

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). doi:10.1038/482279a

Contrary to the popular saying, there are not plenty of fish in the sea. But why? Perhaps because a huge number of species became extinct in ancient times, say Greta Carrete Vega and John Wiens at Stony Brook University in New York.Marine environments cover

Climate change: More super-hot summers ahead

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). doi:10.1038/482279b

Summer temperatures once considered exceptionally high have, in recent decades, become more frequent across the United States as a result of anthropogenic climate change.Philip Duffy, currently at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, and Claudia Tebaldi at the National Center for Atmospheric

Materials science: Six-faced particles

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). doi:10.1038/482279c

Janus particles, named after the two-faced Roman god, are solid particles of two halves, each with different physical properties and with applications that include drug delivery. But Shoji Takeuchi and his colleagues at the University of Tokyo have gone beyond Janus's two faces and made

Zoology: Stripes from shifting cells

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). doi:10.1038/482279d

Repulsion between pigment cells helps to explain how adult zebrafish develop the stripes for which they are named.Shigeru Kondo and his colleagues at Osaka University in Japan looked at cultured black melanophore and yellow xanthophore pigment cells from the animals (pictured top).

Immunology: T-cell retreat in chronic hepatitis C

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). doi:10.1038/482279e

Highly read on www.rupress.org in JanuaryAfter acute infection with hepatitis C, some people recover whereas others develop chronic disease. Contrary to expectation, the latter group launches the same initial immune response against the virus as the former.Recovery from hepatitis C infection was

Sequencing set to alter clinical landscape

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/482288a

Author: Erika Check Hayden

Access to whole genomes shifts potential for diagnosis, but poses challenges for doctors and regulators.

Evolution: Adapted to culture

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). doi:10.1038/482297a

Author: Mark Pagel

Mark Pagel proposes that our ability to share and build on ideas is what made us human.

Personalized medicine: Bring clinical standards to human-genetics research

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). doi:10.1038/482300a

Author: Gholson J. Lyon

Study protocols need to be rigorous, because more than science is at stake. Sometimes participants' lives depend on the results, writes Gholson J. Lyon.

Health policy: Regulate alcohol for global health

Nature 482, 7385 (2012). doi:10.1038/482302a

Author: Devi Sridhar

The World Health Organization is the only body that can promote health through the use of international law. It should make alcohol its next target, says Devi Sridhar.