Contents
Vol 333, Issue 6041
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
Podcasts
- Science Podcast
The show includes projecting coral reef futures, carbon release linked to the end-Triassic mass extinction, understanding parrot talk, and more.
Products & Materials
- New Products
A weekly roundup of information on newly offered instrumentation, apparatus, and laboratory materials of potential interest to researchers.
News of the Week
- Around the World
In science news around the world this week, two studies in sub-Saharan Africa have shown for the first time that anti-HIV pills protect uninfected heterosexuals, the United Kingdom's House of Lords Science and Technology Sub-Committee says it's going to take more than a "nudge" for people to change bad habits, vandals attacked a transgenic wheat test plot in Australia, and switching from paper to electronic communication may not help the planet as much as has been claimed.
- Newsmakers
This week's Newsmakers are Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, a soil scientist, who criticized the response by ExxonMobil, which owns the pipeline that burst under the Yellowstone River on 1 July, and cleanup efforts by the Environmental Protection Agency, and Zahi Hawass, who after nearly a decade as chief of Egypt's antiquities is out of a job.
- Random Sample
Paul D. Miller, AKA "DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid," launched The Book of Ice at the Eyebeam Art + Technology Center in New York on 13 July. And this week's numbers quantify the trips Neptune has taken around the sun since its discovery 165 years ago and the percentage of gene expression studies that submit data to public databases.
Findings
News & Analysis
- Complexity Surrounds HIV Prevention Advances
Two trials have showed, for the first time, that giving relatively safe and inexpensive antiretroviral pills each day to uninfected people dramatically reduced the risk of heterosexual transmission of HIV.
- New NSF Survey Tries to Separate Knowledge and Belief
The National Science Board's attempt to distinguish between knowledge and belief in how people respond to a science literacy survey has drawn fire from critics who view the changes as surrendering scientific ground to religion.
- Decrying CIA Vaccination Sham, Health Workers Brace for Backlash
Global health experts are worried that a sham vaccination campaign set up in Abbottabad by the CIA may make it more difficult for international health workers to deliver services in Pakistan.
- Europe Unveils 'Radical' Plan to Reform Fishing Industry
On 13 July, the European Commission launched what it called a "radical" effort to reform flawed fisheries policies that have led to decades of overfishing, plummeting catches, and extensive damage to marine ecosystems.
- Piloting Cancer Research With a Shrinking Budget
Harold Varmus's biggest challenge since taking the helm of the National Cancer Institute a year ago has been dealing with the grimmest budget in years. Science offers excerpts from a recent interview.
News Focus
- Why Do Parrots Talk? Venezuelan Site Offers Clues
The world's longest-running study of wild parrots shifts focus to a new question: What do parrots say to each other in the wild?
- Antarctic Ice's Future Still Mired in Its Murky Past
As shrinking ice sheets raise sea level, estimates of how quickly the frozen continent is losing and gaining ice remain slippery.
- In the Hands of Mummy Experts, Ancient Faces Gain New Life
At the meeting, researchers presented facial reconstructions of a British boy from the 18th century and a warrior from the Amazonian rainforest who died more than 80 years ago.
- One Sick Mummy Gets a Double Diagnosis
Researchers found an amazingly high infection intensity of whipworm in a 200-year-old adult mummy from Piraino, Italy, according to a poster presented at the meeting.
- For Best Ticket to the Afterlife, Pay Up
Bioarchaeologists reported at the meeting that only elite members of ancient Egyptian society consistently benefited from all the tricks of the embalmers' trade, thereby boosting their chances of a pleasurable afterlife.
Letters
Books et al.
- Innovation in the Chinese Mode
Examining factors behind China's economic growth, Breznitz and Murphree suggest that forms of innovation other than the invention of breakthrough products can yield bigger dividends.
- Searchers in a Desert
Drawing on intersections among astronomy, anthropology, and human rights in Chile's Atacama desert, Guzmán's film reflects on the ways we create meaning from history.
Policy Forum
- Redesigning Flood Insurance
Improved knowledge from a range of disciplines will be needed to price the much-needed financial products appropriately.
Perspectives
- Revealing a Parasite's Invasive Trick
A study of an important parasite reveals the core structure of the apicomplexan moving junction.
- Seeing the Trees in Your Terrace
Missing data creates “terraces” of phylogenetic trees with identical optimality scores.
- Bringing It Together with RNA
Synthetic RNA nanostructures can direct biochemical pathways in cells.
- Onset of Plate Tectonics
Analysis of diamonds from the subcontinental mantle reveals that plate tectonics started 3 billion years ago.
- A Versatile Molecular Trap Built from Hydrogen-Bonded Tiles
A molecular host structure accommodates a wide range of guests that are selected on size alone.
- Future Prospects for Cereals That Fix Nitrogen
What are the next steps in engineering crop plants that fix nitrogen and make their own fertilizer?
retraction
Review
Brevia
- Altered Telomeres in Tumors with ATRX and DAXX Mutations
Chromosome tips seem to be maintained by an unusual mechanism in tumors that have mutations in chromatin remodeling genes.
Reports
- Topological Defects Coupling Smectic Modulations to Intra–Unit-Cell Nematicity in Cuprates
A theoretical model explains how electronic states with different symmetries coexist and interact.
- Atmospheric Carbon Injection Linked to End-Triassic Mass Extinction
The end-Triassic mass extinction coincided with a massive release of carbon to the atmosphere and rapid climate change.
- Start of the Wilson Cycle at 3 Ga Shown by Diamonds from Subcontinental Mantle
Mineral inclusions in diamonds reveal that the modern pattern of continent movements began around 3 billion years ago.
- Supramolecular Archimedean Cages Assembled with 72 Hydrogen Bonds
Crystalline cages held together by hydrogen bonds can trap a wide range of molecules based on their size.
- Experimental and Theoretical Differential Cross Sections for a Four-Atom Reaction: HD + OH → H2O + D
A theoretical analysis of a four-atom reaction has a level of detail and accuracy previously restricted to three-atom systems.
- Dinosaur Body Temperatures Determined from Isotopic (13C-18O) Ordering in Fossil Biominerals
Large dinosaurs had body temperatures similar to those of modern mammals and birds.
- A Common Scaling Rule for Abundance, Energetics, and Production of Parasitic and Free-Living Species
Incorporation of energy flow between trophic levels yields a common scaling component for abundance in relation to body size.
- Terraces in Phylogenetic Tree Space
Analysis of terraces in phylogenetic space can inform on phylogenetic relationships with greater computational efficiency
- 7000 Years of Emiliania huxleyi Viruses in the Black Sea
Sequencing ancient DNA from a marine sediment traces population shifts of phytoplankton and their viruses over 7000 years.
- De-AMPylation of the Small GTPase Rab1 by the Pathogen Legionella pneumophila
A bacterial pathogen reverses the modification of a host cell protein involved in membrane trafficking.
- Cilia-Like Beating of Active Microtubule Bundles
In vitro–assembled microtubule bundles exhibit oscillatory beating patterns and organize into metachronal waves.
- Structural Basis of Type II Topoisomerase Inhibition by the Anticancer Drug Etoposide
Inhibition of an enzyme that alters DNA topology with an anticancer agent should facilitate development of better cancer drugs.
- Host Cell Invasion by Apicomplexan Parasites: Insights from the Co-Structure of AMA1 with a RON2 Peptide
The structure of a eukaryotic pathogen adhesin bound to its receptor provides a basis for design of therapeutics.
- Self-Recognition in Social Amoebae Is Mediated by Allelic Pairs of Tiger Genes
Polymorphic receptors prevent cheaters by avoiding altruistic cell death in Dictyostelium.
- Organization of Intracellular Reactions with Rationally Designed RNA Assemblies
Multidimensional RNA structures can act as scaffolds for the spatial organization of bacterial metabolism.
- Identity: Key to Children’s Understanding of Belief
“Theory of mind” is a domain-general cognitive capacity.
Technical Comments
