Contents
12 March 2021
Vol 371, Issue 6534
Vol 371, Issue 6534
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
In Brief
In Depth
- Coronavirus sequence trove sparks frustration
Users of GISAID complain of opaque decisions and onerous restrictions.
- As vaccine surpluses loom, donation plans urged
Rich countries have ordered billions of doses more than needed for their populations.
- Ancient Earth was a water world
Life and plate tectonics may have emerged on a planet drowned in water that was rejected by the mantle.
- Giant detectors could hear murmurs from across universe
Rival designs pit Yankee brawn versus continental sophistication.
- Magnet tests kick off bid for net fusion energy
High-temperature superconductors are key to companies' planned compact reactors.
Feature
- A call to arms
Researchers are testing an arsenal of weapons against the pandemic coronavirus.
Working Life
Letters
Books et al.
- Pandora's pandemic
The Andromeda Strain's oft-invoked fictional outbreak continues to offer context for considering possible futures
- Dispatches from life's blurry boundaries
How we think about what it means to be alive will always depend on what questions we ask
Policy Forum
- Market design to accelerate COVID-19 vaccine supply
Build more capacity, and stretch what we already have
Perspectives
- Who is stirring the waters?
Emerging pathways could improve attribution of changes in river flow across the globe
- Magic, symmetry, and twisted matter
Alternating magic-angle twist induces unconventional superconductivity
- “Birth” of the modern ocean twilight zone
The recently evolved mesopelagic zone faces an uncertain future
- Linking clotting and autoimmunity
A receptor for phospholipid antibodies drives clotting and inflammation
- Fungi prevent intestinal healing
Antibiotics open niches for fungi with detrimental consequences to wound healing
- Immunity to SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern
Variants show variable escape from vaccine immunity, but residual protection may suffice
- Using digital twins in viral infection
Personalized computer simulations of infection could allow more effective treatments
Research Articles
- Lipid presentation by the protein C receptor links coagulation with autoimmunity
The endothelial protein C receptor plays a critical role in antiphospholipid antibody–mediated autoimmunity.
- Noncanonical scaffolding of Gαi and β-arrestin by G protein–coupled receptors
Unexpected versatility is revealed in G protein–coupled receptor signaling.
- Genomic, epigenomic, and biophysical cues controlling the emergence of the lung alveolus
A multimodal study of the developing alveolus reveals a signaling hub and cell communications involved in the transition to breathing air at birth.
- Type III secretion system effectors form robust and flexible intracellular virulence networks
The cooperative functions of bacterial effectors form networks that can withstand network contractions and maintain pathogenicity.
Review
Reports
- Dinitrogen complexation and reduction at low-valent calcium
A calcium coordination complex mediates dinitrogen reduction by potassium and traps the product as a side-on bridging ligand.
- Chiral-induced spin selectivity enables a room-temperature spin light-emitting diode
Spin-polarized light-emitting diodes based on metal halide perovskites operate at room temperature without a magnetic field.
- Electric field–tunable superconductivity in alternating-twist magic-angle trilayer graphene
Transport measurements in graphene trilayers indicate potentially unconventional superconductivity.
- Recurrent deletions in the SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein drive antibody escape
SARS-CoV-2 genome deletions that arise independently in persistently infected individuals show recurrent and convergent evolution.
- Synthesis of borophane polymorphs through hydrogenation of borophene
Hydrogenation of borophene with atomic hydrogen chemical passivates this material for ambient-condition processing.
- Temperature controls carbon cycling and biological evolution in the ocean twilight zone
Climate change increased organic carbon transfer from the surface to the deep ocean over the past 15 million years.
- Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 lineage B.1.1.7 pseudovirus by BNT162b2 vaccine–elicited human sera
Despite the many genetic changes in the B.1.1.7 (VOC 202012/01) 2020 UK variant of SARS-CoV-2, the BioNTech-Pfizer mRNA vaccine remains protective.
- Debaryomyces is enriched in Crohn’s disease intestinal tissue and impairs healing in mice
A fungus associated with human intestinal ulcers impairs wound healing via type 1 interferon pathways.
- Globally observed trends in mean and extreme river flow attributed to climate change
The fingerprint of anthropogenic climate change is apparent in river flow and hydrological extremes at the global scale.
- Evidence of superfluidity in a dipolar supersolid from nonclassical rotational inertia
The scissors mode of an ultracold gas of dysprosium atoms in a supersolid state shows signatures of superfluidity.
- T cell circuits that sense antigen density with an ultrasensitive threshold
An engineered signaling circuit allows discrimination of cells overexpressing a cancer marker.
About The Cover
COVER Atomically thin boron, or borophene, has attracted attention because of its distinctive electronic properties. However, borophene is highly reactive, which makes it difficult to study outside of idealized vacuum conditions. Reversible hydrogenation of borophene (right), which exists as a flat sheet, enables synthesis of borophane (left), a puckered sheet with atomic hydrogen (individual white circles). Borophane's chemical stability may facilitate potential applications in electronics, batteries, sensors, and quantum technologies. See page 1143.
Illustration: V. Altounian/Science
