Nature contents: 02 May 2013

Can't view this email? Click here to view in your browser.     Volume 497 Number 7447      nature •Visit Nature homepage •Subscribe to Nature •View Table of Contents The science that matters. Every week.                       For researchers pursuing promising but high-risk projects, and for scientists at the beginning of their careers, the American Diabetes Association's Pathway to Stop Diabetes provides an accelerated road for research breakthroughs. We're offering grants of five to seven years and $1.625 million to attract a new generation of brilliant scientists to diabetes research, regardless of their current field of study. Learn more about Pathway today at www.diabetes.org/pathway. And secure a more promising career route.             Jump to the content that matters to you View Table of Contents ▶ ▼ News & Comment   ▼ Biological Sciences   ▼ Chemical Sciences   ▼ Physical Sciences   ▼ Earth & Environmental Sciences   ▼ Careers & Jobs       This week's highlights     Specials - GM crops: Reality and promise     The introduction of the first transgenic plant 30 years ago heralded the start of a second green revolution, providing food to the starving, profits to farmers and environmental benefits to boot. Many GM crops fulfilled the promise. But their success has been mired in controversy with many questioning their safety, their profitability and their green credentials. A polarized debate has left little room for consensus. In this special issue, Nature explores the hopes, the fears, the reality and the future. ▼ more       Earth & Environmental Sciences More Earth & Environmental sciences ▼   Globally networked risks and how to respond   Our modern world is made up of complex interdependent global networks that promote rapid exchange of people, goods, money, information and ideas. But, argues Dirk Helbing, those same networks could be our undoing. We cannot control them and the potential for catastrophic failure is programmed into the system at all scales. Helbing concludes that current methods of risk analysis are inadequate to today's needs. Yes we can fix it, but it will take global cooperation beyond anything so far achieved.       Biological Sciences More Biological sciences ▼   Using membrane transporters to improve crops for sustainable food production   Membrane transport proteins are key targets for improving the efficiency with which plants utilize water and nutrients. This Perspective article discusses work on specialized plant membrane transporters designed to enhance crop yields, increase nutritional value and boost resistance to stresses including pathogens. Promising developments include cereals that thrive in acid soil, salt-tolerant varieties and plants containing the micronutrients often lacking in plant-based diets in developing countries.                   Subscribe to Nature this Spring for only $60/£60/EUR60 Nature brings you the finest peer-reviewed research in all scientific disciplines, not to mention an enticing round up of news, features and commentaries by global experts. Join our expanding community of scientific leaders and subscribe today!                 Physical Sciences More Physical sciences ▼   Digital cameras with designs inspired by the arthropod eye   The eyes of insects provide intriguing models for camera designers to imitate. Here John Rogers and colleagues describe a new type of hemispherical camera that takes design cues from the eyes of fire ants and bark beetles. The new device is almost fully hemispherical and features 180 imaging elements, providing a 160-degree field of view. Potential applications include advanced surveillance cameras and miniaturized endoscopes.       Podcast & Video     In this week's podcast: an insect-eye camera, a flu-busting drug that could treat other lung problems too, and a hard look at whether GM crops are harmful or helpful.           Special - GM crops: Promise and reality ▲top               Editorial                   Fields of gold ▶     Research on transgenic crops must be done outside industry if it is to fulfil its early promise.             News                   Transgenic salmon nears approval ▶     Slow US regulatory process highlights hurdles of getting engineered food animals to dinner tables.             Features                   Plant biotechnology: Tarnished promise ▶     Genetically modified crops generate hype and hatred. A special section of Nature cuts through the drama.             GM crops: A story in numbers ▶             Case studies: A hard look at GM crops ▶     Superweeds? Suicides? Stealthy genes? The true, the false and the still unknown about transgenic crops.             Transgenics: A new breed ▶     The next wave of genetically modified crops is making its way to market — and might just ease concerns over 'Frankenfoods'.             Comment                   Biotechnology: Africa and Asia need a rational debate on GM crops ▶     Policy-makers in developing countries should not be swayed by the politicized arguments dominant in Europe, say Christopher J. M. Whitty and colleagues.             Chinese agriculture: An experiment for the world ▶     China's scientists are using a variety of approaches to boost crop yields and limit environmental damage, say Fusuo Zhang, Xinping Chen and Peter Vitousek.             Correspondence                   Biotechnology: Thirty years of transgenic plants ▶             Perspective                   Using membrane transporters to improve crops for sustainable food production ▶     This Perspective discusses the emerging advances in plant membrane transporters, which can be used to improve crop yields, nutritional value, and environmental stress resistance.               News & Comment Read daily news coverage▶ ▲top               THIS WEEK           Editorials                   Plan for the future ▶     The White House urgently needs to set out a clear plan for how it intends to monitor the state of Earth.             Freed speech ▶     The reform of English libel law is a victory, even if it doesn't achieve everything that was hoped.             World View                   Australian science needs more female fellows ▶     The Australian Academy of Science must take urgent steps to address the lack of gender equality among its elected fellows, warns Douglas Hilton.             Seven Days                   Seven days: 26 April–2 May 2013 ▶     The week in science: Bee-harming pesticides banned in Europe, North Korea atomic bomb detected, and chemist goes to trial over lab accident.             NEWS IN FOCUS           Global carbon dioxide levels near worrisome milestone ▶     Concentrations of greenhouse gas will soon surpass 400 parts per million at sentinel spot.             Flu papers spark row over credit for data ▶     Rush to publish on H7N9 avian flu upsets Chinese scientists.             Disputed results a fresh blow for social psychology ▶     Failure to replicate intelligence-priming effects ignites row in research community.             Targeted drugs to tackle hepatitis C ▶     But experts debate US screening recommendations.             Clinician to head Wellcome Trust ▶     Jeremy Farrar to lead one of world's largest research charities.             COMMENT           Psychiatry: A very sad story ▶     David Dobbs enjoys a brilliant look at the making of DSM-5, the new 'psychiatrists' Bible'.             Books in brief ▶             Genetics: Wayward genes and grieving scientists ▶     Alison Abbott weighs up a believable cinematic treatment of genetics research and the personalities at the bench.             Conservation: Storied rarities ▶     Emma Marris applauds a clear-eyed look at our coy relationship with endangered animals.             Correspondence                   Cladistics: The high cost of overspecialization Xiaolei Huang, Gexia Qiao, Colin Favret | Research integrity: Journals should be clear on misconduct Xavier Bosch | Science and economy: Don't judge research on economics alone Thomas E. DeCoursey | Journals: Open-access boom in developing nations Jagadeesh Bayry             Corrections                   Correction ▶             Correction ▶             Correction ▶                 Biological Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Evolution: Stuck between the teeth ▶     P. David Polly             Physiology: Inflammation links ageing to the brain ▶     Dana Gabuzda, Bruce A. Yankner             Structural biology: Security measures of a master regulator ▶     Dario R. Alessi, Yogesh Kulathu             Hierarchy of orofacial rhythms revealed through whisking and breathing ▶     Jeffrey D. Moore, Martin Deschênes, Takahiro Furuta et al.     Motor patterns underlying the rodent exploratory behaviours whisking and sniffing are coordinated by respiratory centres in the ventral medulla; a distinct region in the ventral medulla provides rhythmic input to the facial motor neurons that drive scanning by the vibrissae, and input from the pre-Bötzinger complex coordinates whisking with sniffing and basal breathing.             mTOR kinase structure, mechanism and regulation ▶     Haijuan Yang, Derek G. Rudge, Joseph D. Koos et al.     Co-crystal structures of a number of complexes involving truncated mammalian target of rapamycin, a phosphoinositide 3-kinase-related protein kinase, reveal an intrinsically active kinase conformation and show how rapamycin–FKBP12 directly blocks substrate recruitment to the kinase domain.             Hypothalamic programming of systemic ageing involving IKK-β, NF-κB and GnRH ▶     Guo Zhang, Juxue Li, Sudarshana Purkayastha et al.     Activation of IKK-β and NF-κB in the hypothalamus of mice is shown to accelerate the ageing process, leading to shortened lifespan; inhibition of hypothalamic or brain IKK-β and NF-κB delays ageing and increases lifespan, and NF-κB activation results in a reduction of GnRH levels, whereas NF-κB inhibition leads to GnRH-induced neurogenesis to mediate ageing retardation.             Structure of the human smoothened receptor bound to an antitumour agent ▶     Chong Wang, Huixian Wu, Vsevolod Katritch et al.     The crystal structure of the human smoothened (SMO) receptor is presented in complex with a small-molecule antitumour agent; this represents the first example of a non-class-A, 7-transmembrane (7TM) receptor structure, revealing different conserved motifs common within class frizzled 7TM receptors and an unusually complex arrangement of long extracellular loops stabilized by disulphide bonds.             Corticostriatal neurons in auditory cortex drive decisions during auditory discrimination ▶     Petr Znamenskiy, Anthony M. Zador     In an auditory frequency discrimination task in rats, channelrhodopsin-2-mediated stimulation of corticostriatal neurons biases decisions in the direction predicted by the frequency tuning of the stimulated neurons, whereas archaerhodopsin-3-mediated inactivation biases decisions in the opposite direction.             Thymus-derived regulatory T cells contribute to tolerance to commensal microbiota ▶     Anna Cebula, Michal Seweryn, Grzegorz A. Rempala et al.     By using high-throughput sequencing of T-cell receptors, this study shows that thymus-derived regulatory T (Treg) cells constitute most Treg cells in all lymphoid and intestinal organs, including the colon, suggesting that thymic Treg cells and not induced Treg cells dominantly control tolerance to the gut's antigens such as commensal microbiota.             EGFR modulates microRNA maturation in response to hypoxia through phosphorylation of AGO2 ▶     Jia Shen, Weiya Xia, Yekaterina B. Khotskaya et al.     Epidermal growth factor receptor, the product of a human oncogene, suppresses the maturation of specific tumour-suppressor-like microRNAs in response to hypoxic stress through phosphorylation of argonaute 2.             Non-redundant coding of aversive odours in the main olfactory pathway ▶     Adam Dewan, Rodrigo Pacifico, Ross Zhan et al.     Deletion of a single gene, Taar4, in mice abolishes aversion to low concentrations of volatile amines and to the odour of predator urine, indicating that individual olfactory receptor genes can affect odour perception.             The TLR4 antagonist Eritoran protects mice from lethal influenza infection ▶     Kari Ann Shirey, Wendy Lai, Alison J. Scott et al.     TLR4 stimulation is known to contribute to acute lung injury after administration of inactivated influenza virus; here, the synthetic TLR4 antagonist Eritoran is shown to protect mice from death after infection with a lethal dose of the virus.             Adaptive dynamics under development-based genotype–phenotype maps ▶     Isaac Salazar-Ciudad, Miquel Marín-Riera     Tooth development is used as a model to examine which aspects of phenotype can be optimized by natural selection; this reveals that the complexity of the relationship between genotypic and phenotypic variation can affect adaptation             Specialized filopodia direct long-range transport of SHH during vertebrate tissue patterning ▶     Timothy A. Sanders, Esther Llagostera, Maria Barna     This study uses single-cell real-time imaging to show that sonic hedgehog (SHH) is produced in the form of a particle that is transported along a novel class of specialized actin-based filopodia spanning several cell diameters within the field of SHH cell signalling, thus expanding our knowledge of ligand movement during normal vertebrate development.             Polymerase IV occupancy at RNA-directed DNA methylation sites requires SHH1 ▶     Julie A. Law, Jiamu Du, Christopher J. Hale et al.     In Arabidopsis, RNA-directed DNA methylation is a poorly understood gene silencing pathway in which small interfering RNAs generated by RNA polymerase IV (Pol-IV) target a DNA methyltransferase to its sites of action; here structural and genomic analyses demonstrate that SHH binds chromatin via repressive histone modifications and recruits Pol-IV to enable siRNA production.             Articles and Letters                   Integrated genomic characterization of endometrial carcinoma OPEN ▶     The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network     An integrative genomic analysis of several hundred endometrial carcinomas shows that a minority of tumour samples carry copy number alterations or TP53 mutations and many contain key cancer-related gene mutations, such as those involved in canonical pathways and chromatin remodelling; a reclassification of endometrial tumours into four distinct types is proposed, which may have an effect on patient treatment regimes.             Hippocampal place-cell sequences depict future paths to remembered goals ▶     Brad E. Pfeiffer, David J. Foster     It is known that compressed sequences of hippocampal place cells can 'replay' previous navigational trajectories in linearly constrained mazes; here, rat place-cell sequences representing two-dimensional spatial trajectories were observed before navigational decisions, and predicted the immediate navigational path.             Structures of the human and Drosophila 80S ribosome ▶     Andreas M. Anger, Jean-Paul Armache, Otto Berninghausen et al.     High-resolution cryo-EM density maps are used to present the structures of Drosophila and human 80S ribosomes in complex with eEF2, E-site transfer RNA and Stm1-like proteins, and reveal the presence of two additional structural layers in the ribosomes of metazoan eukaryotes.             Linking the evolution of body shape and locomotor biomechanics in bird-line archosaurs ▶     Vivian Allen, Karl T. Bates, Zhiheng Li et al.     Estimations of body shape and three-dimensional digital reconstructions of representative archosaurs along the ancestral bird line support hypotheses of a gradual, stepwise acquisition of more-crouched limb postures across much of theropod evolution but indicate that an accelerated change, rather than a discrete transition from more-upright postures, occurred within the clade Maniraptora (birds and their closest relatives, such as deinonychosaurs).             Non-invasive analysis of acquired resistance to cancer therapy by sequencing of plasma DNA ▶     Muhammed Murtaza, Sarah-Jane Dawson, Dana W. Y. Tsui et al.     A proof of principle study shows that by exome sequencing of cell-free circulating DNA from cancer patient plasma samples, the genomic evolution of metastatic cancers and the acquisition of resistance in response to therapy can be tracked over time.             Random convergence of olfactory inputs in the Drosophila mushroom body ▶     Sophie J. C. Caron, Vanessa Ruta, L. F. Abbott et al.     In Drosophila, olfactory sensory neurons project to spatially invariant loci (glomeruli) and stereotyped circuitry is maintained in projections to a brain centre thought to mediate innate behaviours; here it is shown that neurons of the mushroom body, a centre that translates olfactory information into learned behaviours, integrate input from an apparently random combination of glomeruli, which could allow the fly to contextualize novel sensory experiences.             Tension sensing by Aurora B kinase is independent of survivin-based centromere localization ▶     Christopher S. Campbell, Arshad Desai     The current model to explain accurate chromosome segregation after DNA replication holds that kinetochore–microtubule attachments exert tension across the centromere and are stabilized by spatial separation from inner centromere-localized Aurora B; here an alternative model is presented, wherein active Aurora B produced by clustering is sufficient to ensure biorientation through a mechanism that is intrinsic to the kinetochore.             Modulation of TET2 expression and 5-methylcytosine oxidation by the CXXC domain protein IDAX ▶     Myunggon Ko, Jungeun An, Hozefa S. Bandukwala et al.     The CXXC domains of TET2 (encoded by the distinct gene IDAX) and TET3 are found to have previously unknown roles in the regulation of TET proteins through the activation of caspases and subsequent reduction in TET catalytic activity; this regulation is dependent on DNA binding through the CXXC domain.             Extensive transcriptional heterogeneity revealed by isoform profiling ▶     Vicent Pelechano, Wu Wei, Lars M. Steinmetz     Variation among RNA transcript isoforms can be generated from alternative start and polyadenylation sites, and results in RNAs and proteins with different properties being generated from the same genomic sequence; here a new method termed transcript isoform sequencing is described in yeast, and the method allows a fuller exploration of transcriptome diversity across the compact yeast genome.             The catalytic mechanism for aerobic formation of methane by bacteria ▶     Siddhesh S. Kamat, Howard J. Williams, Lawrence J. Dangott et al.     A mechanism is proposed for the formation of methane by bacteria, through the cleavage of a highly unreactive carbon–phosphorus bond in methyl phosphonate by PhnJ in the bacterial C–P lyase complex.             Structure of active β-arrestin-1 bound to a G-protein-coupled receptor phosphopeptide ▶     Arun K. Shukla, Aashish Manglik, Andrew C. Kruse et al.     The crystal structure of β-arrestin-1 in complex with a fully phosphorylated 29-amino-acid carboxy-terminal peptide derived from the V2 vasopressin receptor is reported; the structure of the complex shows striking conformational differences in β-arrestin-1 when compared with its inactive conformation.             Crystal structure of pre-activated arrestin p44 ▶     Yong Ju Kim, Klaus Peter Hofmann, Oliver P. Ernst et al.     The crystal structure of arrestin-1 is reported, in which the activation step is mimicked by C-tail truncation; the structure of this pre-activated arrestin is markedly different from the basal state and gives an insight into the activation mechanism.             Reviews and Perspectives                   Globally networked risks and how to respond ▶     Dirk Helbing     Strongly connected and interdependent networks create risks of global-scale catastrophic failure; to make networked risks more manageable, it is suggested to establish a 'Global Systems Science'.             Using membrane transporters to improve crops for sustainable food production ▶     Julian I. Schroeder, Emmanuel Delhaize, Wolf B. Frommer et al.     This Perspective discusses the emerging advances in plant membrane transporters, which can be used to improve crop yields, nutritional value, and environmental stress resistance.             News & Views                   Neuroscience: Navigation with a cognitive map ▶     Brandy Schmidt & A. David Redish             Structural biology: Active arrestin proteins crystallized ▶     Valentin Borshchevskiy & Georg Büldt             Molecular biology: The ends justify the means ▶     B. Franklin Pugh             Biochemistry: Oxidation controls the DUB step ▶     Michael J. Clague             Evolution: Stuck between the teeth ▶     P. David Polly             Physiology: Inflammation links ageing to the brain ▶     Dana Gabuzda, Bruce A. Yankner             Structural biology: Security measures of a master regulator ▶     Dario R. Alessi, Yogesh Kulathu             Corrigendum                   Corrigendum: Functional organization of human sensorimotor cortex for speech articulation ▶     Kristofer E. Bouchard, Nima Mesgarani, Keith Johnson et al.             Research Highlights                   Archaeology: Monkeys make their mark | Gene therapy: Enzymes fix disease genes | Disease research: New hormone for diabetes | Conservation biology: Bigger is better for protecting seas | Palaeontology: Winged raptor dined on fish | Neuroscience: Secrets of brain building revealed | Development: Cell signals speckle feathers | Genomics: Reading tangled RNA sequences         NEWS & COMMENT           Fields of gold | Transgenic salmon nears approval | Targeted drugs to tackle hepatitis C | Plant biotechnology: Tarnished promise | GM crops: A story in numbers | Case studies: A hard look at GM crops | Transgenics: A new breed | Correction | Flu papers spark row over credit for data | Biotechnology: Africa and Asia need a rational debate on GM crops | Chinese agriculture: An experiment for the world | Psychiatry: A very sad story | Books in brief | Genetics: Wayward genes and grieving scientists | Conservation: Storied rarities | Biotechnology: Thirty years of transgenic plants | Cladistics: The high cost of overspecialization | Disputed results a fresh blow for social psychology | Clinician to head Wellcome Trust             More Biological Sciences ▶                         nature.com webcasts Macmillan Science Communication, presents a custom webcast on: Biobanks: linking genotypes, phenotypes and clinical insights Friday May 17th 2013 8am PDT / 11am EDT / 4pm BST / 5pm CEST Register for free Sponsored by Affymetrix               Chemical Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Structural biology: Security measures of a master regulator ▶     Dario R. Alessi & Yogesh Kulathu             mTOR kinase structure, mechanism and regulation ▶     Haijuan Yang, Derek G. Rudge, Joseph D. Koos, Bhamini Vaidialingam, Hyo J. Yang et al.     Co-crystal structures of a number of complexes involving truncated mammalian target of rapamycin, a phosphoinositide 3-kinase-related protein kinase, reveal an intrinsically active kinase conformation and show how rapamycin–FKBP12 directly blocks substrate recruitment to the kinase domain.             Structure of the human smoothened receptor bound to an antitumour agent ▶     Chong Wang, Huixian Wu, Vsevolod Katritch, Gye Won Han, Xi-Ping Huang et al.     The crystal structure of the human smoothened (SMO) receptor is presented in complex with a small-molecule antitumour agent; this represents the first example of a non-class-A, 7-transmembrane (7TM) receptor structure, revealing different conserved motifs common within class frizzled 7TM receptors and an unusually complex arrangement of long extracellular loops stabilized by disulphide bonds.             Polymerase IV occupancy at RNA-directed DNA methylation sites requires SHH1 ▶     Julie A. Law, Jiamu Du, Christopher J. Hale, Suhua Feng, Krzysztof Krajewski et al.     In Arabidopsis, RNA-directed DNA methylation is a poorly understood gene silencing pathway in which small interfering RNAs generated by RNA polymerase IV (Pol-IV) target a DNA methyltransferase to its sites of action; here structural and genomic analyses demonstrate that SHH binds chromatin via repressive histone modifications and recruits Pol-IV to enable siRNA production.             Articles and Letters                   Structures of the human and Drosophila 80S ribosome ▶     Andreas M. Anger, Jean-Paul Armache, Otto Berninghausen, Michael Habeck, Marion Subklewe et al.     High-resolution cryo-EM density maps are used to present the structures of Drosophila and human 80S ribosomes in complex with eEF2, E-site transfer RNA and Stm1-like proteins, and reveal the presence of two additional structural layers in the ribosomes of metazoan eukaryotes.             The catalytic mechanism for aerobic formation of methane by bacteria ▶     Siddhesh S. Kamat, Howard J. Williams, Lawrence J. Dangott, Mrinmoy Chakrabarti & Frank M. Raushel     A mechanism is proposed for the formation of methane by bacteria, through the cleavage of a highly unreactive carbon–phosphorus bond in methyl phosphonate by PhnJ in the bacterial C–P lyase complex.             Structure of active β-arrestin-1 bound to a G-protein-coupled receptor phosphopeptide ▶     Arun K. Shukla, Aashish Manglik, Andrew C. Kruse, Kunhong Xiao, Rosana I. Reis et al.     The crystal structure of β-arrestin-1 in complex with a fully phosphorylated 29-amino-acid carboxy-terminal peptide derived from the V2 vasopressin receptor is reported; the structure of the complex shows striking conformational differences in β-arrestin-1 when compared with its inactive conformation.             Crystal structure of pre-activated arrestin p44 ▶     Yong Ju Kim, Klaus Peter Hofmann, Oliver P. Ernst, Patrick Scheerer, Hui-Woog Choe et al.     The crystal structure of arrestin-1 is reported, in which the activation step is mimicked by C-tail truncation; the structure of this pre-activated arrestin is markedly different from the basal state and gives an insight into the activation mechanism.             News & Views                   Structural biology: Active arrestin proteins crystallized ▶     Valentin Borshchevskiy & Georg Büldt             Biochemistry: Oxidation controls the DUB step ▶     Michael J. Clague             Structural biology: Security measures of a master regulator ▶     Dario R. Alessi & Yogesh Kulathu             More Chemical Sciences ▶               Physical Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Latest Online                   Formation of a topological non-Fermi liquid in MnSi ▶     R. Ritz, M. Halder, M. Wagner et al.     The non-Fermi-liquid regime that emerges in MnSi under high pressures displays a Hall signal that can be traced to topologically non-trivial spin configurations at low pressures — a well-understood skyrmion lattice — empirically suggesting a route towards a breakdown of Fermi liquid theory in pure metals.             Articles and Letters                   Heralded entanglement between solid-state qubits separated by three metres ▶     H. Bernien, B. Hensen, W. Pfaff et al.     Entanglement of two electron spin qubits in diamond with a spatial separation of three metres is reported; such entanglement can be combined with recently achieved initialization, readout and entanglement operations on local long-lived nuclear spin registers, and paves the way for deterministic long-distance teleportation, quantum repeaters and extended quantum networks.             Optical addressing of an individual erbium ion in silicon ▶     Chunming Yin, Milos Rancic, Gabriele G. de Boo et al.     A hybrid approach to detecting individual defect spins in solids, whereby an optically induced spin change is detected electronically, offers the high fidelities required for quantum information processing devices.             Digital cameras with designs inspired by the arthropod eye ▶     Young Min Song, Yizhu Xie, Viktor Malyarchuk et al.     Digital cameras with layouts inspired by the compound, hemispherical designs of arthropod eyes have been built by combining elastomeric optical elements with deformable arrays of thin silicon photodetectors.             News & Views                   Solid-state physics: Single spins in silicon see the light ▶     Christoph D. Weis, Thomas Schenkel             Optical devices: Seeing the world through an insect's eyes ▶     Alexander Borst, Johannes Plett             Research Highlights                   Quantum mechanics: Exchange-free communication | Genomics: Reading tangled RNA sequences         NEWS & COMMENT           Correction | Books in brief | Correction             More Physical Sciences ▶               Earth & Environmental Sciences ▲top             RESEARCH           Articles and Letters                   Long-term sedimentary recycling of rare sulphur isotope anomalies ▶     Christopher T. Reinhard, Noah J. Planavsky, Timothy W. Lyons     The disappearance of non-mass-dependent sulphur isotope anomalies from the rock record is thought to indicate the increase in atmospheric oxygen concentration from its initial, persistently low level; however, as a result of long-term surface recycling these anomalies may in fact survive in the sedimentary record for as long as 100 million years after an increase in atmospheric oxygen.             News & Views                   Earth science: Small differences in sameness ▶     Alex N. Halliday             Corrigendum                   Corrigendum: Human contribution to more-intense precipitation extremes ▶     Seung-Ki Min, Xuebin Zhang, Francis W. Zwiers et al.             Research Highlights                   Urban growth: The shape of cities to come | Conservation biology: Bigger is better for protecting seas         NEWS & COMMENT           Case studies: A hard look at GM crops | Biotechnology: Africa and Asia need a rational debate on GM crops | Chinese agriculture: An experiment for the world | Conservation: Storied rarities | Plan for the future | Global carbon dioxide levels near worrisome milestone             More Earth & Environmental Sciences ▶                         For many years, science in the Asia-Pacific region has been dominated by Japan. However, as seen through the lens of the Nature Publishing Index (NPI), the fastest growth in high-quality research is now coming from other countries- in particular China and Singapore. The 2012 NPI Asia-Pacific presents an analysis of the dynamic changes in the region’s scientific publishing record. www.natureasia.com/en/publishing-index/asia-pacific/               Careers & Jobs ▲top               Crowd-funding: Cash on demand ▶     With careful planning and tuned expectations, researchers can supplement their project support with donations from the public.                   Turning point: Lucy Collinson ▶     Microbiologist changes career paths and learns the nuances of microscopy and management.             Careers related news & comment                   Fields of gold | Seven days: 26 April–2 May 2013 | Transgenic salmon nears approval Heidi Ledford | Plant biotechnology: Tarnished promise | GM crops: A story in numbers | Case studies: A hard look at GM crops Natasha Gilbert | Transgenics: A new breed Daniel Cressey | Cladistics: The high cost of overspecialization Xiaolei Huang, Gexia Qiao, Colin Favret | Science and economy: Don't judge research on economics alone Thomas E. 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