Attosecond control of electrons emitted from a nanoscale metal tip

Attosecond science is based on steering electrons with the electric field of well controlled femtosecond laser pulses. It has led to the generation of extreme-ultraviolet pulses with a duration of less than 100 attoseconds (ref. 3; 1 as = 10(-18) s), to the measurement of intramolecular dynamics (by diffraction of an electron taken from the molecule under scrutiny) and to ultrafast electron holography. All these effects have been observed with atoms or molecules in the gas phase. Electrons liberated from solids by few-cycle laser pulses are also predicted to show a strong light-phase sensitivity, but only very small effects have been observed. Here we report that the spectra of electrons undergoing photoemission from a nanometre-scale tungsten tip show a dependence on the carrier-envelope phase of the laser, with a current modulation of up to 100 per cent. Depending on the carrier-envelope phase, electrons are emitted either from a single sub-500-attosecond interval of the 6-femtosecond laser pulse, or from two such intervals; the latter case leads to spectral interference. We also show that coherent elastic re-scattering of liberated electrons takes place at the metal surface. Owing to field enhancement at the tip, a simple laser oscillator reaches the peak electric field strengths required for attosecond experiments at 100-megahertz repetition rates, rendering complex amplified laser systems dispensable. Practically, this work represents a simple, extremely sensitive carrier-envelope phase sensor, which could be shrunk in volume to about one cubic centimetre. Our results indicate that the attosecond techniques developed with (and for) atoms and molecules can also be used with solids. In particular, we foresee subfemtosecond, subnanometre probing of collective electron dynamics (such as plasmon polaritons) in solid-state systems ranging in scale from mesoscopic solids to clusters and to single protruding atoms.     

Orbital excitation blockade and algorithmic cooling in quantum gases

Interaction blockade occurs when strong interactions in a confined, few-body system prevent a particle from occupying an otherwise accessible quantum state. Blockade phenomena reveal the underlying granular nature of quantum systems and allow for the detection and manipulation of the constituent particles, be they electrons, spins, atoms or photons. Applications include single-electron transistors based on electronic Coulomb blockade and quantum logic gates in Rydberg atoms. Here we report a form of interaction blockade that occurs when transferring ultracold atoms between orbitals in an optical lattice. We call this orbital excitation blockade (OEB). In this system, atoms at the same lattice site undergo coherent collisions described by a contact interaction whose strength depends strongly on the orbital wavefunctions of the atoms. We induce coherent orbital excitations by modulating the lattice depth, and observe staircase-like excitation behaviour as we cross the interaction-split resonances by tuning the modulation frequency. As an application of OEB, we demonstrate algorithmic cooling of quantum gases: a sequence of reversible OEB-based quantum operations isolates the entropy in one part of the system and then an irreversible step removes the entropy from the gas. This technique may make it possible to cool quantum gases to have the ultralow entropies required for quantum simulation of strongly correlated electron systems. In addition, the close analogy between OEB and dipole blockade in Rydberg atoms provides a plan for the implementation of two-quantum-bit gates in a quantum computing architecture with natural scalability.     

The type IV mucolipidosis-associated protein TRPML1 is an endolysosomal iron release channel

TRPML1 (mucolipin 1, also known as MCOLN1) is predicted to be an intracellular late endosomal and lysosomal ion channel protein that belongs to the mucolipin subfamily of transient receptor potential (TRP) proteins. Mutations in the human TRPML1 gene cause mucolipidosis type IV disease (ML4). ML4 patients have motor impairment, mental retardation, retinal degeneration and iron-deficiency anaemia. Because aberrant iron metabolism may cause neural and retinal degeneration, it may be a primary cause of ML4 phenotypes. In most mammalian cells, release of iron from endosomes and lysosomes after iron uptake by endocytosis of Fe(3+)-bound transferrin receptors, or after lysosomal degradation of ferritin-iron complexes and autophagic ingestion of iron-containing macromolecules, is the chief source of cellular iron. The divalent metal transporter protein DMT1 (also known as SLC11A2) is the only endosomal Fe(2+) transporter known at present and it is highly expressed in erythroid precursors. Genetic studies, however, suggest the existence of a DMT1-independent endosomal and lysosomal Fe(2+) transport protein. By measuring radiolabelled iron uptake, by monitoring the levels of cytosolic and intralysosomal iron and by directly patch-clamping the late endosomal and lysosomal membrane, here we show that TRPML1 functions as a Fe(2+) permeable channel in late endosomes and lysosomes. ML4 mutations are shown to impair the ability of TRPML1 to permeate Fe(2+) at varying degrees, which correlate well with the disease severity. A comparison of TRPML1(-/- )ML4 and control human skin fibroblasts showed a reduction in cytosolic Fe(2+) levels, an increase in intralysosomal Fe(2+) levels and an accumulation of lipofuscin-like molecules in TRPML1(-/-) cells. We propose that TRPML1 mediates a mechanism by which Fe(2+) is released from late endosomes and lysosomes. Our results indicate that impaired iron transport may contribute to both haematological and degenerative symptoms of ML4 patients.     

Major viral impact on the functioning of benthic deep-sea ecosystems

Viruses are the most abundant biological organisms of the world's oceans. Viral infections are a substantial source of mortality in a range of organisms-including autotrophic and heterotrophic plankton-but their impact on the deep ocean and benthic biosphere is completely unknown. Here we report that viral production in deep-sea benthic ecosystems worldwide is extremely high, and that viral infections are responsible for the abatement of 80% of prokaryotic heterotrophic production. Virus-induced prokaryotic mortality increases with increasing water depth, and beneath a depth of 1,000 m nearly all of the prokaryotic heterotrophic production is transformed into organic detritus. The viral shunt, releasing on a global scale approximately 0.37-0.63 gigatonnes of carbon per year, is an essential source of labile organic detritus in the deep-sea ecosystems. This process sustains a high prokaryotic biomass and provides an important contribution to prokaryotic metabolism, allowing the system to cope with the severe organic resource limitation of deep-sea ecosystems. Our results indicate that viruses have an important role in global biogeochemical cycles, in deep-sea metabolism and the overall functioning of the largest ecosystem of our biosphere.     

Molecular identification of a retinal cell type that responds to upward motion

The retina contains complex circuits of neurons that extract salient information from visual inputs. Signals from photoreceptors are processed by retinal interneurons, integrated by retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and sent to the brain by RGC axons. Distinct types of RGC respond to different visual features, such as increases or decreases in light intensity (ON and OFF cells, respectively), colour or moving objects. Thus, RGCs comprise a set of parallel pathways from the eye to the brain. The identification of molecular markers for RGC subsets will facilitate attempts to correlate their structure with their function, assess their synaptic inputs and targets, and study their diversification. Here we show, by means of a transgenic marking method, that junctional adhesion molecule B (JAM-B) marks a previously unrecognized class of OFF RGCs in mice. These cells have asymmetric dendritic arbors aligned in a dorsal-to-ventral direction across the retina. Their receptive fields are also asymmetric and respond selectively to stimuli moving in a soma-to-dendrite direction; because the lens reverses the image of the world on the retina, these cells detect upward motion in the visual field. Thus, JAM-B identifies a unique population of RGCs in which structure corresponds remarkably to function.     

Inhibition of cytohesins by SecinH3 leads to hepatic insulin resistance

G proteins are an important class of regulatory switches in all living systems. They are activated by guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs), which facilitate the exchange of GDP for GTP. This activity makes GEFs attractive targets for modulating disease-relevant G-protein-controlled signalling networks. GEF inhibitors are therefore of interest as tools for elucidating the function of these proteins and for therapeutic intervention; however, only one small molecule GEF inhibitor, brefeldin A (BFA), is currently available. Here we used an aptamer displacement screen to identify SecinH3, a small molecule antagonist of cytohesins. The cytohesins are a class of BFA-resistant small GEFs for ADP-ribosylation factors (ARFs), which regulate cytoskeletal organization, integrin activation or integrin signalling. The application of SecinH3 in human liver cells showed that insulin-receptor-complex-associated cytohesins are required for insulin signalling. SecinH3-treated mice show increased expression of gluconeogenic genes, reduced expression of glycolytic, fatty acid and ketone body metabolism genes in the liver, reduced liver glycogen stores, and a compensatory increase in plasma insulin. Thus, cytohesin inhibition results in hepatic insulin resistance. Because insulin resistance is among the earliest pathological changes in type 2 diabetes, our results show the potential of chemical biology for dissecting the molecular pathogenesis of this disease.     

Snapshots of cooperative atomic motions in the optical suppression of charge density waves

Macroscopic quantum phenomena such as high-temperature superconductivity, colossal magnetoresistance, ferrimagnetism and ferromagnetism arise from a delicate balance of different interactions among electrons, phonons and spins on the nanoscale. The study of the interplay among these various degrees of freedom in strongly coupled electron-lattice systems is thus crucial to their understanding and for optimizing their properties. Charge-density-wave (CDW) materials, with their inherent modulation of the electron density and associated periodic lattice distortion, represent ideal model systems for the study of such highly cooperative phenomena. With femtosecond time-resolved techniques, it is possible to observe these interactions directly by abruptly perturbing the electronic distribution while keeping track of energy relaxation pathways and coupling strengths among the different subsystems. Numerous time-resolved experiments have been performed on CDWs, probing the dynamics of the electronic subsystem. However, the dynamics of the periodic lattice distortion have been only indirectly inferred. Here we provide direct atomic-level information on the structural dynamics by using femtosecond electron diffraction to study the quasi two-dimensional CDW system 1T-TaS(2). Effectively, we have directly observed the atomic motions that result from the optically induced change in the electronic spatial distribution. The periodic lattice distortion, which has an amplitude of ～0.1??, is suppressed by about 20% on a timescale (～250 femtoseconds) comparable to half the period of the corresponding collective mode. These highly cooperative, electronically driven atomic motions are accompanied by a rapid electron-phonon energy transfer (～350 femtoseconds) and are followed by fast recovery of the CDW (～4 picoseconds). The degree of cooperativity in the observed structural dynamics is remarkable and illustrates the importance of obtaining atomic-level perspectives of the processes directing the physics of strongly correlated systems.     

真实驾驶循环中的发动机电基合成燃料评估

电基合成燃料（E-Fuels）是实现环境和气候目标的一个重要组成部分。其中C1含氧化合物因其具备清洁燃烧的特性而备受关注,包括氧化亚甲基醚（OME）、碳酸二甲酯（DMC）和甲酸甲酯（MeFo）。为探索新型燃料在内燃机中的潜力,对汽油和柴油燃烧、排放模型进行了优化和扩展。在成功验证和标定模型后,对虚拟测试车辆进行了研究,重点关注燃料的效率潜力、排放水平和经济性。首先,基于现代汽油、柴油和天然气发动机,开发了不同概念的OME和DMC/MeFo发动机;其次,在真实驾驶循环（RDE）中对这些发动机概念在E级乘用车和40 t卡车上的应用进行了评估。结果表明,通过调整喷射策略和匹配废气再循环,OME发动机能实现最佳的热效率和极低的排放;混合燃料DMC/MeFo由于高抗爆性,结合先进的发动机技术,能达到接近柴油机的热效率,且发动机复杂性大大降低,这使得DMC/MeFo燃料在重型卡车应用中具有广阔的前景。