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High-grade gliomas with arginine or valine substitutions of the histone H3.3 glycine-34 residue (H3.3G34R/V) carry a dismal prognosis, and current treatments, including radiotherapy and chemotherapy, are not curative. Because H3.3G34R/V mutations reprogram epigenetic modifications, we undertook a comprehensive epigenetic approach using ChIP sequencing and ChromHMM computational analysis to define therapeutic dependencies in H3.3G34R/V gliomas. Our analyses revealed a convergence of epigenetic alterations, including (i) activating epigenetic modifications on histone H3 lysine (K) residues such as H3K36 trimethylation (H3K36me3), H3K27 acetylation (H3K27ac), and H3K4 trimethylation (H3K4me3); (ii) DNA promoter hypomethylation; and (iii) redistribution of repressive histone H3K27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) to intergenic regions at the leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) locus to drive increased LIF abundance and secretion by H3.3G34R/V cells. LIF activated signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling in an autocrine/paracrine manner to promote survival of H3.3G34R/V glioma cells. Moreover, immunohistochemistry and single-cell RNA sequencing from H3.3G34R/V patient tumors revealed high STAT3 protein and RNA expression, respectively, in tumor cells with both inter- and intratumor heterogeneity. We targeted STAT3 using a blood-brain barrier–penetrable small-molecule inhibitor, WP1066, currently in clinical trials for adult gliomas. WP1066 treatment resulted in H3.3G34R/V tumor cell toxicity in vitro and tumor suppression in preclinical mouse models established with KNS42 cells, SJ-HGGx42-c cells, or in utero electroporation techniques. Our studies identify the LIF/STAT3 pathway as a key epigenetically driven and druggable vulnerability in H3.3G34R/V gliomas. This finding could inform development of targeted, combination therapies for these lethal brain tumors.

We must conclude that the sub-title of Bernal’s “The Social Function of Science” — “What science does: what science could do” is still the relevant challenge and indicates Bernal’s chief contribution, besides the foundation of molecular biology to our civilization. It is manifest that resources spent on armaments are a monstrous pathological symptom of our social structure. The ancient problem of “what is property” and what may be “owned” and by whom or by what organs of society is awakening.

A table is given of putative solutions to the Fejes problem: to find the maximum value of the smallest angular distance between any two of N points movable on the surface of a sphere. Values of N run without omission up to 27 with six sporadic cases thereafter. Some applications of this system as a model are discussed.

Six angles are formed between four straight lines meeting at a point in space. Since there is one relationship between them. only certain combinations of six regular polygons will fit together at such a point. Some of these are enumerated.

A collimated X-ray beam has been arranged to pass along the axis of a cylindrical film cassette. The wire specimen under examination crosses the beam at right angles, running right through the camera, and being moved by a motor so that a 3 cm length is scanned. From a special chart the degree of orientation of each reflecting plane can be read directly. The camera combines the advantages, for orientation determination, of the flat plate camera and the normal powder camera.

An algorithm is given for determining the radius of a sphere inscribed in the cavity between four different spheres arbitrarily separated.

Crystallography, continually changing and now far from its origins in mineralogy, has been much enlivened by the appearance of many new connections with physical optics. These have tended to counter the threatened absorption of crystal structure analysis as a technique of chemistry.

Since 1945 there has been sporadic discussion as to the nature of the subject of crystallography: is it an independent discipline distinguished by its subject matter — crystals — or is it, like perhaps spectroscopy, an adjunct to mainstream chemistry, physics or, most recently, biology? In the internal logical development of the subject a critical point has been reached.

A specimen cartridge, which holds the electron microscope grid with its normal inclined at 60° to the beam, has been constructed to facilitate the crystallographic examination of textures and the exploration of the reciprocal lattice of crystalline specimens.

Physics in Asia is developing well, with increasingly close connections between theorists and experimental facilities, and between physicists in the widely differing countries in the region. This was apparent at the second Asia Pacific Physics conference held in Bangalore in January.

If I were refereeing the May Leader by Sir James Taylor for one of your esteemed journals, I would comment as follows: I do not find that the thesis of the paper, articulated in the first paragraph, that scientists have not undermined religion, to have been proved.

P. Ducros and J. Lajzerowicz-Bonneteau Paris: Dunod. 1967. Pp. xii + 118. Price 18f. (paper) This is a very useful book containing 43 exercises and 16 examination questions (all with complete model answers) in the field of crystallography. The sections are geometrical crystallography, crystal structure analysis and the physical properties of crystals and these are treated in a modern way.