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While genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and selection scans identify genomic loci driving human phenotypic diversity, functional validation is required to discover the variant(s) responsible. We dissected theIVDlocus, implicated by selection statistics, multiple GWAS, and clinical genetics as important to function and fitness. We combined luciferase assays, CRISPR/Cas9 genome-editing, massively parallel reporter assays (MPRA), and bashing of regulatory loci. We identified three regulatory variants, including an indel, that may underpin GWAS signals for pulmonary fibrosis and testosterone, and that are linked on a positively selected haplotype in the Japanese population. These regulatory variants exhibit synergistic and opposing effects onIVDexpression experimentally. Alleles at these variants lie on a haplotype tagged by the variant most strongly associated withIVDexpression and metabolites, but with no functional evidence itself. This work demonstrates how comprehensive functional investigation and multiple technologies are needed to discover the true genetic drivers of phenotypic diversity.

Unmanned aerial vehicles, otherwise known as drones, are one of the most important developments in global security in the 21st century. Drones, which can be operated remotely from ground pilots, are now in use by more than 100 countries and a growing number of non-state actors, such as terrorist groups. Some of this is driven by a booming export market in drones, with countries such as the United States, Israel, China, and Turkey becoming the world’s leading suppliers of the technology. Drones have begun to alter the course of conventional wars, as seen in Nagorno-Karabakh and Ukraine, and also have enabled new practices such as targeted killings of terrorist operatives either on their own territory or, in the case of the United States, on remote battlefields. Drones are also shifting how states attempt to deter and coerce each other and also enabling non-state actors such as terrorist groups to strike at opponents in new and surprising ways. As drones have begun to affect the security of individuals, non-state actors, and states, they have also yielded a number of legal and ethical controversies about when and where they should be used. In particular, the remote nature of the technology raises questions as to whether the distance of their pilots from the battlefields that they fight on is producing the “push-button warfare” mentality or otherwise lowering the barriers to the use of force. Future trends in the technological development of drone warfare, including swarming and the use of artificial intelligence–enabled drones, will only make coming to grips with the impact of drones on global security more important.

Biodiversity assessments are critical for setting conservation priorities, understanding ecosystem function and establishing a baseline to monitor change. Surveys of marine biodiversity that rely almost entirely on sampling adult organisms underestimate diversity because they tend to be limited to habitat types and individuals that can be easily surveyed. Many marine animals have planktonic larvae that can be sampled from the water column at shallow depths. This life stage often is overlooked in surveys but can be used to relatively rapidly document diversity, especially for the many species that are rare or live cryptically as adults. Using DNA barcode data from samples of nemertean worms collected in three biogeographical regions—Northeastern Pacific, the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Tropical Pacific—we found that most species were collected as either benthic adults or planktonic larvae but seldom in both stages. Randomization tests show that this deficit of operational taxonomic units collected as both adults and larvae is extremely unlikely if larvae and adults were drawn from the same pool of species. This effect persists even in well-studied faunas. These results suggest that sampling planktonic larvae offers access to a different subset of species and thus significantly increases estimates of biodiversity compared to sampling adults alone. Spanish abstract is available in the electronic supplementary material.