The new open-access journal eLife has launched, making its first content available in PubMed Central. In addition to publishing science of the highest quality, the journal aims to improve both the peer-review process and the presentation of new research results.

A 2-year field study has demonstrated that volatile compounds produced by plants when they are attacked by herbivores act as defenses by attracting predators to the herbivores and increasing the reproduction of the plants.

Electron microscopy has been used to produce the first three-dimensional image of the PRC2 gene-silencing complex.

Structural and functional studies of a potassium ion channel that is opened and closed by different ligands have revealed a novel gating mechanism.

A combination of molecular dynamics simulations and X-ray diffraction data has been used to construct more realistic models of proteins and to provide new insights into their interactions with other proteins and biomolecules.

Neurons in the hippocampus modulate the rates at which they fire, and the locations in which they fire, so as to encode the information that is central to forming memories about personal experiences.

A combination of direct-electron detectors and statistical movie processing allows ribosome cryo-EM structures to be determined to resolutions that were previously only attainable by X-ray crystallography.

The structure of a large hydrogenase complex involved in the production of methane by microbes has been determined with cryo-electron microscopy.

Electron cryo-microscopy has been used to determine the structure of Chikungunya virus-like particles and to provide new insights into their interactions with four different antibodies.

Mutagenesis studies identified an androgen receptor mutation that converts enzalutamide-a drug recently approved for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer-into an androgen receptor agonist, and modeling studies informed the design of novel drugs that are effective against the mutant receptor.