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A crystalline cluster exhibits thorium–thorium bonding, adding to our knowledge of actinide–actinide bonding.

The strength of the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds varied throughout the Holocene, according to a reconstruction from lake sediments, with periods of stronger winds coincident with higher atmospheric CO₂ levels.

An ice-core record from the northeastern Antarctic Peninsula shows that the present warming period in the region is unusual in the context of natural climate variability over the past two thousand years, and that continued warming could cause ice-shelf instability farther south along the peninsula.

Arctic climate in the Last Interglacial (LIG)—a warm period 130,000–116,000 years ago—is poorly simulated by modern climate models. A model with improved sea-ice melt-pond physics reproduces LIG Arctic temperatures, suggests an ice-free Arctic during this period and predicts the same by 2035.

Sea salt data from an ice core record show that Antarctica’s Ronne Ice Shelf survived the last interglacial, the last period of enhanced and sustained global warmth about 125,000 years ago.

Paul Pharoah and colleagues report the results of a large genome-wide association study of ovarian cancer. They identify new susceptibility loci for different epithelial ovarian cancer histotypes and use integrated analyses of genes and regulatory features at each locus to predict candidate susceptibility genes, including OBFC1.

The Southern Hemisphere westerly winds affect the exchange of carbon dioxide between the ocean and atmosphere. Climate reconstructions from the southern mid-latitudes may reveal variability in the strength and position of the wind belt since the Last Glacial Maximum.

The peak in Antarctic ice core isotope values, 128,000 years before present, was concurrent with a significantly warmer-than-present Antarctic climate. Here, the authors show that this isotope maximum was associated with a major retreat of sea ice and not a collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

The Antarctic Peninsula is one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth. A reconstruction of ice melt from an ice core taken near the northeastern tip of the peninsula over the past 2,000 years shows that surface melt has accelerated during the twentieth century.

Douglas Easton, Per Hall and colleagues report meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies for breast cancer, including 10,052 cases and 12,575 controls, followed by genotyping using the iCOGS array in an additional 52,675 cases and 49,436 controls from studies within the Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC). They identify 41 loci newly associated with susceptibility to breast cancer.

Alison Dunning, Stacey Edwards and colleagues analyze 3,872 common variants across the ESR1 locus in 118,816 women. They find five independent variants within regulatory regions that associate with different breast cancer–related phenotypes and regulate the expression of ESR1, RMND1 and CCDC170.

Genome-wide association studies have identified regions which confer risk of high-grade serous epithelial ovarian cancer. Here the authors use expression quantitative train locus analysis to identify candidate genes and functionally characterise them, identifying a role for HOXD9 in ovarian cancer.

Most confirmed susceptibility variants for epithelial ovarian cancer lie in non-protein-coding sequences. Here Permuth-Wey and colleagues investigate variants in 3′ untranslated regions (UTRs) and uncover a new susceptibility locus.

Paul Pharoah, Joellen Schildkraut, Thomas Sellers and colleagues report a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for epithelial ovarian cancer and genotyping using the iCOGS array in 18,174 cases and 26,134 controls from 43 studies from the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium. They identify three new ovarian cancer susceptibility loci, including one specific to the serous subtype, and their integrated molecular analysis of genes and regulatory regions at these loci suggests disease mechanisms.

HNF1B is overexpressed in the clear cell subtype and epigenetically silenced in the serous subtype of ovarian cancer. Pearce and colleagues now show that genetic variants in HNF1B are differentially associated with risks of developing these two cancer subtypes, possibly through an epigenetic mechanism.

Simon Gayther and colleagues report 3 new risk variants for mucinous ovarian carcinoma (MOC) on the basis of an analysis of 1,644 MOC cases and 21,693 controls. They confirm an eQTL association between the HOXD9 promoter and risk SNPs at 2q31.1 using chromosome conformation capture analysis and show that HOXD9 overexpression associates with neoplastic transformation.

Georgia Chenevix-Trench and colleagues report meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies identifying six loci newly associated with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). They also test variants at the 12 known and 6 new EOC susceptibility loci for association in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers.

Doug Easton and colleagues report the results of a large-scale genome-wide association study of breast cancer. They discover 15 new susceptibility loci and highlight likely target genes in several of the newly associated regions.

Warmer periods correspond with poleward migration of the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds over the past 700 years and vice versa, according to multi-proxy records from a lake sediment core on sub-Antarctic Marion Island.