封面故事：南极冰芯钻探研究 “欧洲南极冰芯钻探项目”课题组在南极进行冰芯钻探研究，以建立关于过去气候和大气变化的记录。现在，在Franco-Italian Concordia研究基地钻探出的第一个冰芯可供进行研究了。该冰芯覆盖74万年，是迄今所钻探出的冰芯中覆盖时间最长的。这个冰芯被称为“Dome C”冰芯，本期Nature发表的来自该冰芯的数据证实，南极洲曾经出现过以10万年为间隔的冷暖交替现象，不过这种交替模式在43万年前发生了变化，因为当时温暖期和寒冷期的对比变得更大了。该冰芯长3190米，还有更多东西有待研究，时间可回推至80万年前。本期封面图片（由C. W. M. Swithinbank提供）所示为一个高度约为25米的冰山表面上的常年雪层。
Eight glacial cycles from an Antarctic ice core
The Antarctic Vostok ice core provided compelling evidence of the nature of climate, and of climate feedbacks, over the past 420,000 years. Marine records suggest that the amplitude of climate variability was smaller before that time, but such records are often poorly resolved. Moreover, it is not possible to infer the abundance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from marine records. Here we report the recovery of a deep ice core from Dome C, Antarctica, that provides a climate record for the past 740,000 years. For the four most recent glacial cycles, the data agree well with the record from Vostok. The earlier period, between 740,000 and 430,000 years ago, was characterized by less pronounced warmth in interglacial periods in Antarctica, but a higher proportion of each cycle was spent in the warm mode. The transition from glacial to interglacial conditions about 430,000 years ago (Termination V) resembles the transition into the present interglacial period in terms of the magnitude of change in temperatures and greenhouse gases, but there are significant differences in the patterns of change. The interglacial stage following Termination V was exceptionally long—28,000 years compared to, for example, the 12,000 years recorded so far in the present interglacial period. Given the similarities between this earlier warm period and today, our results may imply that without human intervention, a climate similar to the present one would extend well into the future.
Subtractive proteomic mapping of the endothelial surface in lung and solid tumours for tissue-specific therapy
The molecular complexity of tissues and the inaccessibility of most cells within a tissue limit the discovery of key targets for tissue-specific delivery of therapeutic and imaging agents in vivo. Here, we describe a hypothesis-driven, systems biology approach to identifying a small subset of proteins induced at the tissue–blood interface that are inherently accessible to antibodies injected intravenously. We use subcellular fractionation, subtractive proteomics and bioinformatics to identify endothelial cell surface proteins exhibiting restricted tissue distribution and apparent tissue modulation. Expression profiling and -scintigraphic imaging with antibodies establishes two of these proteins, aminopeptidase-P and annexin A1, as selective in vivo targets for antibodies in lungs and solid tumours, respectively. Radio-immunotherapy to annexin A1 destroys tumours and increases animal survival. This analytical strategy can map tissue- and disease-specific expression of endothelial cell surface proteins to uncover novel accessible targets useful for imaging and therapy.
The interstellar N2 abundance towards HD 124314 from far-ultraviolet observations
The abundance of interstellar molecular nitrogen (N2) is of considerable importance: models of steady-state gas-phase interstellar chemistry, together with millimetre-wavelength observations of interstellar N2H+ in dense molecular clouds predict that N2 should be the most abundant nitrogen-bearing molecule in the interstellar medium. Previous attempts to detect N2 absorption in the far-ultraviolet or infrared (ice features) have hitherto been unsuccessful. Here we report the detection of interstellar N2 at far-ultraviolet wavelengths towards the moderately reddened star HD 124314 in the constellation of Centaurus. The N2 column density is larger than expected from models of diffuse clouds and significantly smaller than expected for dense molecular clouds. Moreover, the N2 abundance does not explain the observed variations in the abundance of atomic nitrogen (N I) towards high-column-density sightlines, implying that the models of nitrogen chemistry in the interstellar medium are incomplete.
A precision measurement of the mass of the top quark
The standard model of particle physics contains parameters—such as particle masses—whose origins are still unknown and which cannot be predicted, but whose values are constrained through their interactions. In particular, the masses of the top quark (Mt) and W boson (MW) constrain the mass of the long-hypothesized, but thus far not observed, Higgs boson. A precise measurement of Mt can therefore indicate where to look for the Higgs, and indeed whether the hypothesis of a standard model Higgs is consistent with experimental data. As top quarks are produced in pairs and decay in only about 10-24 s into various final states, reconstructing their masses from their decay products is very challenging. Here we report a technique that extracts more information from each top-quark event and yields a greatly improved precision (of 5.3 GeV/c2) when compared to previous measurements. When our new result is combined with our published measurement in a complementary decay mode and with the only other measurements available, the new world average for Mt becomes 178.0 4.3 GeV/c2. As a result, the most likely Higgs mass increases from the experimentally excluded value of 96 to 117 GeV/c2, which is beyond current experimental sensitivity. The upper limit on the Higgs mass at the 95% confidence level is raised from 219 to 251 GeV/c2.
High levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide necessary for the termination of global glaciation
The possibility that the Earth suffered episodes of global glaciation as recently as the Neoproterozoic period, between about 900 and 543 million years ago, has been widely discussed. Termination of such 'hard snowball Earth' climate states has been proposed to proceed from accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Many salient aspects of the snowball scenario depend critically on the threshold of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations needed to trigger deglaciation. Here I present simulations with a general circulation model, using elevated carbon dioxide levels to estimate this deglaciation threshold. The model simulates several phenomena that are expected to be significant in a 'snowball Earth' scenario, but which have not been considered in previous studies with less sophisticated models, such as a reduction of vertical temperature gradients in winter, a reduction in summer tropopause height, the effect of snow cover and a reduction in cloud greenhouse effects. In my simulations, the system remains far short of deglaciation even at atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations of 550 times the present levels (0.2 bar of CO2). I find that at much higher carbon dioxide levels, deglaciation is unlikely unless unknown feedback cycles that are not captured in the model come into effect.
急需保护的西印度群岛沟齿鼠 两种现存的西印度群岛食虫动物，即古巴和海地沟齿鼠（Solenodon cubanus 和 S. paradoxus），是高度濒危的物种。两种动物在上个世纪某些时候都曾被认为已经灭绝，古巴沟齿鼠仍然存在只是最近才被证实。对它们的DNA所做的动物种类史分析，结合分子测年研究结果，使科学家认为对它们进行保护更为紧迫。DNA分析结果表明，沟齿鼠是一组非常与众不同的哺乳动物，7600万年的时间与它们最近的亲缘种（如被称为Eulipotyphlan食虫动物的刺猬、地鼠和鼹鼠等）是分开的。两种沟齿鼠之间的分化发生在距今2500万年前，与古巴岛和伊斯帕尼奥拉岛（即海地岛）分开的时间是一致的。在某些方面，它们的灭绝在生物演化上将相当于丢失整个一个哺乳动物目。
Mesozoic origin for West Indian insectivores
The highly endangered solenodons, endemic to Cuba (Solenodon cubanus) and Hispaniola (S. paradoxus), comprise the only two surviving species of West Indian insectivores. Combined gene sequences (13.9 kilobases) from S. paradoxus established that solenodons diverged from other eulipotyphlan insectivores 76 million years ago in the Cretaceous period, which is consistent with vicariance, though also compatible with dispersal. A sequence of 1.6 kilobases of mitochondrial DNA from S. cubanus indicated a deep divergence of 25 million years versus the congeneric S. paradoxus, which is consistent with vicariant origins as tectonic forces separated Cuba and Hispaniola. Efforts to prevent extinction of the two surviving solenodon species would conserve an entire lineage as old or older than many mammalian orders.
Convergence across biomes to a common rain-use efficiency
Water availability limits plant growth and production in almost all terrestrial ecosystems. However, biomes differ substantially in sensitivity of aboveground net primary production (ANPP) to between-year variation in precipitation. Average rain-use efficiency (RUE; ANPP/precipitation) also varies between biomes, supposedly because of differences in vegetation structure and/or biogeochemical constraints. Here we show that RUE decreases across biomes as mean annual precipitation increases. However, during the driest years at each site, there is convergence to a common maximum RUE (RUEmax) that is typical of arid ecosystems. RUEmax was also identified by experimentally altering the degree of limitation by water and other resources. Thus, in years when water is most limiting, deserts, grasslands and forests all exhibit the same rate of biomass production per unit rainfall, despite differences in physiognomy and site-level RUE. Global climate models predict increased between-year variability in precipitation, more frequent extreme drought events, and changes in temperature. Forecasts of future ecosystem behaviour should take into account this convergent feature of terrestrial biomes.
Evolutionary divergence between species is facilitated by ecological shifts, and divergence is particularly rapid when such shifts also promote assortative mating. Horseshoe bats are a diverse Old World family (Rhinolophidae) that have undergone a rapid radiation in the past 5 million years. These insectivorous bats use a predominantly pure-tone echolocation call matched to an auditory fovea (an over-representation of the pure-tone frequency in the cochlea and inferior colliculus) to detect the minute changes in echo amplitude and frequency generated when an insect flutters its wings. The emitted signal is the accentuated second harmonic of a series in which the fundamental and remaining harmonics are filtered out. Here we show that three distinct, sympatric size morphs of the large-eared horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus philippinensis) echolocate at different harmonics of the same fundamental frequency. These morphs have undergone recent genetic divergence, and this process has occurred in parallel more than once. We suggest that switching harmonics creates a discontinuity in the bats' perception of available prey that can initiate disruptive selection. Moreover, because call frequency in horseshoe bats has a dual function in resource acquisition and communication, ecological selection on frequency might lead to assortative mating and ultimately reproductive isolation and speciation, regardless of external barriers to gene flow.
避免危险的学习过程 在一个充满危险的世界中，我们非常善于避开麻烦。对人类自愿者在避免预期疼痛时的表现所做的一项神经成像研究，显示了人类之所以能避开危险的一个原因，那就是集中在脑部的Ventral Striatum 和 Anterior Insula 区域的一个复杂的巴甫洛夫学习过程。这里的神经活动可通过概率预测学习理论来解释，这种学习过程涉及并不完全可靠的线索。这一过程所涉及的计算，可能是人类进行细微决策的基础。
Temporal difference models describe higher-order learning in humans
The ability to use environmental stimuli to predict impending harm is critical for survival. Such predictions should be available as early as they are reliable. In pavlovian conditioning, chains of successively earlier predictors are studied in terms of higher-order relationships, and have inspired computational theories such as temporal difference learning. However, there is at present no adequate neurobiological account of how this learning occurs. Here, in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of higher-order aversive conditioning, we describe a key computational strategy that humans use to learn predictions about pain. We show that neural activity in the ventral striatum and the anterior insula displays a marked correspondence to the signals for sequential learning predicted by temporal difference models. This result reveals a flexible aversive learning process ideally suited to the changing and uncertain nature of real-world environments. Taken with existing data on reward learning, our results suggest a critical role for the ventral striatum in integrating complex appetitive and aversive predictions to coordinate behaviour.
-scintigraphic imaging with antibodies establishes two of these proteins, aminopeptidase-P and annexin A1, as selective in vivo targets for antibodies in lungs and solid tumours, respectively. Radio-immunotherapy to annexin A1 destroys tumours and increases animal survival. This analytical strategy can map tissue- and disease-specific expression of endothelial cell surface proteins to uncover novel accessible targets useful for imaging and therapy.
5.3 GeV/c2) when compared to previous measurements. When our new result is combined with our published measurement in a complementary decay mode and with the only other measurements available, the new world average for Mt becomes 178.0 
