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The article discusses the most-cited researches in history. Topics include topics of papers and citations that has allowed them to reach the top the most cited research like Bioinformatics, Phylogenetics and Statistics, a chart showing the top 10 most cited researches and information on the first systematic effort to track citations the Science Citation Index (SCI).

A letter to the editor is presented in response to an article related to ranking of India's top institutions on the basis of number of research papers in the Scopus citation database over the past five years in a 2015 issue.

The article discusses a research paper on mathematical models that help scientists with their decision on submitting their papers to ecology journals, which references a study published in a 2015 issue of "PLoS ONE," and cites ecology journals recommended by the researchers.

The article discusses about digitization of old research papers and journal archives by search engines have made scientists searching papers easier.

The article deals with the questions raised by a Drosophila genomics paper published in the journal "G3: Genes Genomics Genetics" which credited more than a thousand authors.

The article reports on the launch of "The Journal of Brief Ideas," which publishes scientific papers with 200 words or less, as of February 2015.

The article discusses the findings of a research team by bioengineer James J. Collins stating that printing of functional biological circuits on paper.

The article focuses on the impact a Russian amended law concerning state secrets is having on science publishing by Russian scientists. It states President Vladimir Putin used a decree in May 2015 expanding the scope of a law requiring scientists get permission from the Federal Security Service prior to publishing results which could have industrial or military applications. It reports Russian universities are requiring scientists seek approval to the publication of any findings without exception.

A letter to the editor about a 4R approach to assessing reported research is presented.

The article reports on a Twitter conversation between geneticist Yoav Gilad and geneticist Michael Snyder, which casts doubt on the conclusion of a genomics study which concluded that human and mice genetics are similar.

The article focuses on an article published on the open access publishing platform F1000Research and comments a recent microblog Twitter conversation casting doubts on the conclusions of a genomics study revived debate concerning the best method of publicly discussing potential research errors.

A blog is presented about the need to improve the style of scientific writing.

The author reflects on bibliometrics, a way of quantitatively analyzing scientific literature to assess its quality, and criticizes the way scientists are guided mainly by citation statistics. Topics include the negative effects of bibliometrics in terms of hindering the creative development of a research agenda and the need for scientists to focus on scientific merit versus journal impact factor by resisting dependence on bibliometrics in their decision-making process.

The article discusses the anger of several scientists in the U.S. regarding the republication of retracted study by Gilles-Eric Séralini and colleagues that linked genetically modified maize (corn) to tumors in rats.

The article summarizes research published in a 2015 issue of "Advanced Materials" concerning the development of a flexible lithium-air battery using paper and lithium foil with a carbon-based ink which was capable of holding a charge even after being bent 1,000 times.

The article focuses on a study by researcher Lucas Carey and colleagues at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, on development of a statistical model to predict future principal investigators in high-impacts journal that was published in the 2014 issue of periodical "Current Biology."

For centuries, practitioners of origami ('ori', fold; 'kami', paper) and kirigami ('kiru', cut) have fashioned sheets of paper into beautiful and complex three-dimensional structures. Both techniques are scalable, and scientists and engineers are adapting them to different two-dimensional starting materials to create structures from the macro- to the microscale. Here we show that graphene is well suited for kirigami, allowing us to build robust microscale structures with tunable mechanical properties. The material parameter crucial for kirigami is the Föppl-von Kármán number γ: an indication of the ratio between in-plane stiffness and out-of-plane bending stiffness, with high numbers corresponding to membranes that more easily bend and crumple than they stretch and shear. To determine γ, we measure the bending stiffness of graphene monolayers that are 10-100 micrometres in size and obtain a value that is thousands of times higher than the predicted atomic-scale bending stiffness. Interferometric imaging attributes this finding to ripples in the membrane that stiffen the graphene sheets considerably, to the extent that γ is comparable to that of a standard piece of paper. We may therefore apply ideas from kirigami to graphene sheets to build mechanical metamaterials such as stretchable electrodes, springs, and hinges. These results establish graphene kirigami as a simple yet powerful and customizable approach for fashioning one-atom-thick graphene sheets into resilient and movable parts with microscale dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lignin is a heterogeneous aromatic biopolymer that accounts for nearly 30% of the organic carbon on Earth and is one of the few renewable sources of aromatic chemicals. As the most recalcitrant of the three components of lignocellulosic biomass (cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin), lignin has been treated as a waste product in the pulp and paper industry, where it is burned to supply energy and recover pulping chemicals in the operation of paper mills. Extraction of higher value from lignin is increasingly recognized as being crucial to the economic viability of integrated biorefineries. Depolymerization is an important starting point for many lignin valorization strategies, because it could generate valuable aromatic chemicals and/or provide a source of low-molecular-mass feedstocks suitable for downstream processing. Commercial precedents show that certain types of lignin (lignosulphonates) may be converted into vanillin and other marketable products, but new technologies are needed to enhance the lignin value chain. The complex, irregular structure of lignin complicates chemical conversion efforts, and known depolymerization methods typically afford ill-defined products in low yields (that is, less than 10-20wt%). Here we describe a method for the depolymerization of oxidized lignin under mild conditions in aqueous formic acid that results in more than 60wt% yield of low-molecular-mass aromatics. We present the discovery of this facile C-O cleavage method, its application to aspen lignin depolymerization, and mechanistic insights into the reaction. The broader implications of these results for lignin conversion and biomass refining are also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the issue of plagiarism in scientific publications. Topics discussed include detection of Image manipulation and duplication within the same manuscript, controversy regarding the research paper released related to stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency (STAP) by a young biochemist at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) in Kobe, Japan and manipulated and duplicated images in the STAP papers.

The article discusses about the Chinese government investing in universities and research institutes. Topics include the increase in researchers and research articles in China, and fundamental reforms needed to improve the quality of research. Recruiting world class professionals and mentoring junior staff, assessing the salary and promotion of the faculty every three years, and merged tenure system are also mentioned. The steps taken at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) are also given.

The article offers information on the privilege access to publication in the house journal to members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS). It states that more than three-quarters of the papers published in the journal are direct submissions. It further discusses members can submit papers up to four to the body's high-profile journal per year, and the venerable Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

A major challenge in theoretical ecology is understanding how natural microbial communities support species diversity, and in particular how antibiotic-producing, -sensitive and -resistant species coexist. While cyclic 'rock-paper-scissors' interactions can stabilize communities in spatial environments, coexistence in unstructured environments remains unexplained. Here, using simulations and analytical models, we show that the opposing actions of antibiotic production and degradation enable coexistence even in well-mixed environments. Coexistence depends on three-way interactions in which an antibiotic-degrading species attenuates the inhibitory interactions between two other species. These interactions enable coexistence that is robust to substantial differences in inherent species growth rates and to invasion by 'cheating' species that cease to produce or degrade antibiotics. At least two antibiotics are required for stability, with greater numbers of antibiotics enabling more complex communities and diverse dynamic behaviours ranging from stable fixed points to limit cycles and chaos. Together, these results show how multi-species antibiotic interactions can generate ecological stability in both spatially structured and mixed microbial communities, suggesting strategies for engineering synthetic ecosystems and highlighting the importance of toxin production and degradation for microbial biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major challenge in theoretical ecology is understanding how natural microbial communities support species diversity, and in particular how antibiotic-producing, -sensitive and -resistant species coexist. While cyclic 'rock-paper-scissors' interactions can stabilize communities in spatial environments, coexistence in unstructured environments remains unexplained. Here, using simulations and analytical models, we show that the opposing actions of antibiotic production and degradation enable coexistence even in well-mixed environments. Coexistence depends on three-way interactions in which an antibiotic-degrading species attenuates the inhibitory interactions between two other species. These interactions enable coexistence that is robust to substantial differences in inherent species growth rates and to invasion by 'cheating' species that cease to produce or degrade antibiotics. At least two antibiotics are required for stability, with greater numbers of antibiotics enabling more complex communities and diverse dynamic behaviours ranging from stable fixed points to limit cycles and chaos. Together, these results show how multi-species antibiotic interactions can generate ecological stability in both spatially structured and mixed microbial communities, suggesting strategies for engineering synthetic ecosystems and highlighting the importance of toxin production and degradation for microbial biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a research misconduct case that damaged the reputation of the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) in Kobe, Japan. Topics include papers on pluripotent stem cells in the journal "Nature" that discussed the use of the stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency (STAP) technique by biochemist Haruko Obokata, a committee report led by materials scientist Teruo Kishi, and the impact of media scrutiny on the scandal.

The article offers information on the ResearchGate, free social networking site for academics, which helps scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. It mentions the views of owner Ijad Madisch, physician and virologist, on the success of the ResearchGate and the academic social networks. Topics discussed include views of researchers on the service, charts and graphs on the comparison with other social networks, academic social network.

The polyketide synthase (PKS) mega-enzyme assembly line uses a modular architecture to synthesize diverse and bioactive natural products that often constitute the core structures or complete chemical entities for many clinically approved therapeutic agents1. The architecture of a full-length PKS module from the pikromycin pathway of Streptomyces venezuelae creates a reaction chamber for the intramodule acyl carrier protein (ACP) domain that carries building blocks and intermediates between acyltransferase, ketosynthase and ketoreductase active sites (see accompanying paper). Here we determine electron cryo-microscopy structures of a full-length pikromycin PKS module in three key biochemical states of its catalytic cycle. Each biochemical state was confirmed by bottom-up liquid chromatography/Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. The ACP domain is differentially and precisely positioned after polyketide chain substrate loading on the active site of the ketosynthase, after extension to the β-keto intermediate, and after β-hydroxy product generation. The structures reveal the ACP dynamics for sequential interactions with catalytic domains within the reaction chamber, and for transferring the elongated and processed polyketide substrate to the next module in the PKS pathway. During the enzymatic cycle the ketoreductase domain undergoes dramatic conformational rearrangements that enable optimal positioning for reductive processing of the ACP-bound polyketide chain elongation intermediate. These findings have crucial implications for the design of functional PKS modules, and for the engineering of pathways to generate pharmacologically relevant molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors argue that a revival of universities in 57 Muslim-majority countries, part of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), would increase the presence of OIC individuals in science. Topics include the use of narrow content and outdated teaching methods in OIC university science programs, an increase in the production of OIC science papers despite the average remaining below countries with similar gross domestic product, and the launch a voluntary Network of Excellence of Universities for Science.

The article focuses on the reaction of epithelial cells lining the intestine to tight attachment of bacteria and how this influences the effector functions of TH17 cells. It mentions research published in two separate papers in "Cell" which found intestinal epithelial lining provides a conduit for communication between the immune cell and intestinal bacteria. It talks about the role of actin in altering Saa gene transcription and the activation of interleukin-17 expression by serum amyloid A.

The article discusses about peer-review rigging in which authors review their own research work. Topics include authors being invited to suggest reviewers for their research papers, author Hyung-In Moon reviewing his own work and using automated process ScholarOne's owned by Nature Publishing Group for a peer view system and to invite qualified reviewers.

The article discusses contributions by researchers in East and Southeast Asia to science and technology research. Topics include investment in the science and technology research made in the East and Southeast Asia, total article count and research spending in China and Japan. Research in physical science and chemistry in institutions such as Peking University in China are mentioned. Charts presenting details of the research papers are included.

The author reflects on the two papers published in the periodical "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" by J.C. Watts and J.Stöhr, on amyloid beta protein aggregates which leads to Alzheimer's disease in 2014. It mentions that different conformations of the aggregates helps in defining different strains of the disease which are similar to prion diseases. Also discusses the implications of Amyloid aggregates in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

The article reports that an independent investigation found papers authored by thoracic surgeon Paolo Macchiarini misrepresented the success of his experimental tracheal transplant procedure. It states that general surgeon Bengt Gerdin was commissioned by the Karolinska Institute to examine Macchiarini's clinical procedures and also discovered two of the papers had failed to receive the necessary ethical approval while a seventh misrepresented results.

The article reviews the paper "The African Genome Variation Project" by Gurdasani et al which appeared in page 327 of the issue. Topics include the timeliness of the paper in terms of characterizing genetic diversity across Africa, how the three major African ethnolinguistic groups studied represent key issues on the routes of early human migration, and the networked research projects in Africa such as the H3Africa Consortium.

The article presents Hong Kong's contribution to China's Nature Index based on weighted fractional count of scientific papers published in 2013, with the University of Hong Kong (HKU) as the city's largest contributing institution. HKU's main outputs are in microbiology, with topics such as the infectivity and transmission of avian and swine influenza viruses. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's papers deal mainly with the physical sciences, such as graphene and metamaterials.

The article focuses on citation analysis and an examination of works that went decades before they were cited as important. It comments on chemist Herbert Freundlich's paper "Concerning Adsorption in Solutions" which was published in 1906 but underwent a citation spike in 2002. It mentions that a 1935 paper on quantum mechanics by Boris Podolsky, Nathan Rosen and Albert Einstein only started to be cited extensively in 1994. It considers the importance of citations in academic influence.

The author comments on a working paper released by England's Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in 2015, which focuses on carbon emissions generated as government officials, environmentalists and scientists attend environmental-science conferences. The paper concludes that academics in the industrialized world are responsible for rising aviation emissions. The author believes that the arguments of the paper are powerful, and there are good reasons to pursue their recommendations.

The article presents Hangzhou, China's contribution to the Nature Index based on weighted fractional count of scientific articles published in 2013, with Zhejiang University as the city's largest contributing institution for papers on chemistry and physical sciences. The chemistry papers include the development of a special polymer to help detect gas leaks in refrigeration systems while the physics outputs include graphene and carbon aerogels with potential applications for thermal insulation.

The article discusses the Nature Index, a database of authors and their institutional affiliations used to track article contributions published in journals. Measures used by the index to track affiliation data include article count, fractional count, and weighted fractional count assigned to a country or institute for their authors' paper contributions. Altmetrics is used as alternative data source to measure the impact of a research paper by tracking the online sources that mention the paper.

The article discusses challenges in research paper retractions or correction of erroneous information published in scientific journals. Topics include enforcement after misconduct, reputation damage, authors behavior, lawsuit threats, delays in retraction due to disputes between co-authors and lengthy investigations, confidentiality agreements between institution and the journal. A case of retraction of research papers by the physicist Jan Hendrik Schön is mentioned.

The article offers information related to the paper published in the periodical in July 11, 1964 issue which reveals reasons behind the Juvenile delinquency while the paper published in July 9, 1914 issue reveals progress of metric system in several countries including Denmark and Belgian Congo.

The author focuses on the issue of plagiarism in research papers. Topics discussed include searching the back catalogues of high-profile individuals for evidence of plagiarism in the research papers, limitations of scrutiny of scientific publications through plagiarism detection software and ethical aspects related to plagiarism.

The article focuses on transparency by researchers on plans and methods of genetically altering wild populations. It mentions a paper by J.E. DiCarlo and others and published in a November 16, 2015 issue of "Nature Biotechnology" on the use of gene drives (GD) that are unlikely to function in wild populations and which can the mutation undone with a second GD to overwrite it. It talks about the genome-editing system CRISPR-Cas9 and transparency on research into GD use against Lyme disease.

The article discusses the development of biomimetic nanoparticles for use in drug delivery. It references a paper by scientist C.-M. J. Hu and colleagues which appears elsewhere in the journal and which reports that nanoparticles coated with membranes from blood platelets are protected from the body's immune responses and are able to bind to certain cells and tissues. According to the author, the technique has implications for both nanoengineering and biomembrane research. Other research on platelets is also discussed.

The article discusses the 1000 Genomes Project, an effort to study genetic variation in the human population. It references two papers published by the project elsewhere in the journal. Details on the project's findings regarding structural variants and variants in individual bases are presented. Particular focus is given to the project's implications for the future of population sequencing. Topics include single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and population sampling.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to a previous letter by scientist Paul W. Williams regarding the authors' paper "Mid-latitude interhemispheric hydrologic seesaw over the past 550,00 years," which apeared in a 2014 issue of the journal.

The article reports that mathematician Terence Tao has submitted a proof which he claims solves the Erdős discrepancy problem, a famous mathematical problem posed by mathematician Paul Erdős in the 1930s. Tao was working on a different problem when mathematician Uwe Stroinski commented on his blog suggesting its relationship to the Erdős discrepancy problem. Tao credits Stroinski in his paper, which he submitted to the arXiv preprint server and which has not yet been examined by experts.

The article presents several charts concerning interdisciplinary science research, including a chart measuring the level of interdisciplinarity various fields are, the percentage of interdisciplinary papers published in 10 nations, and a citation analysis of interdisciplinary research over time.

The article discusses the use of software to construct fossil databases directly from research papers by paleontologist Shanan Peters and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Topics include data scientist Chris Ré's development of the text-mining software DeepDive, a comparison of the human-generated Paleobiology Database to a computer-generated database created using custom Paleo DeepDive software, and limitations set by publishers on how results of text mining are published.

The article reports on how experts at the 2014 World Conference on Research Integrity swapped views on a retracted political-science study about same-sex marriage that was published in the journal "Science" in 2014. The study claimed that short conversation with a canvasser who is gay could encourage voters to support same-sex marriage. Other topics discussed include research misconduct, the paper's retraction and the need for better supervision by senior academics.

This section offers news briefs on science as of May 2015. A new rule proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires drug companies that sell veterinary antibiotics to track where their drugs are going. A record energy of 13 teraelectronvolts of protons was achieved by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on May 20. An independent investigation found that surgeon Paolo Macchiarini committed scientific misconduct in several papers.