Contents
Vol 344, Issue 6180
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
Podcasts
- Science Podcast: 11 April Show
On this week's show: the mechanics of flies' evasive maneuvers and a news roundup from our daily news site.
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, a new biomedical "golden triangle" dubbed MedCity launches in London, NASA suspends scientific collaborations with Russia, pro-life groups in Europe launch a new attack against E.U. funding for stem cell research, and more.
- Newsmakers
Science talks with Saudi prince and science enthusiast Sultan Bin Salman Bin Abdul-aziz Al-Saud about archaeology and Arabia's prehistoric past. And a bird flu scientist-turned-member of the Italian Parliament is allegedly under investigation for trafficking in flu viruses.
- Random Sample
A new exhibit on pterosaurs at New York City's American Museum of Natural History features life-size models of the largest and smallest known species of the flying reptiles, an interactive flying pterosaur exhibit, and even a trading card game.
Findings
News & Analysis
- Can Cloning Revive Spain's Extinct Mountain Goat?
Scientists in Spain are trying to revive the Pyrenean ibex by cloning cells from the last living animal, which died in 2000.
- NASA to Researchers: Sell Your Mission or Be Terminated
Researchers running six NASA planetary science missions are competing for funds to keep their spacecraft alive.
- Are Bats Spreading Ebola Across Sub-Saharan Africa?
As health workers struggle to contain the Ebola virus that has already killed more than 100 people, scientists are searching for clues about where the outbreak came from.
- Human Activity May Have Triggered Fatal Italian Earthquakes, Panel Says
An unpublished report concludes that increased activity in a nearby oil field may have played a role in a pair of deadly earthquakes that struck Italy in 2012.
- Oral Antibiotic Raises Hopes of Eradicating Yaws
With a simple new tool available, yaws has joined the disease eradication hit list.
News Focus
- Mesoamerica's Mystery Killer
Scientists have come up with a gallery of rogues to explain an epidemic of kidney disease in Central America. But the culprit has stayed one step ahead.
- A Balkan Riddle's Serendipitous Solution
Starting in the 1950s, researchers hunted for the cause of an unusual chronic kidney disease afflicting farming communities in the Balkans. It took a mishap with Chinese herbal medicine in Belgium and the dogged sleuthing of molecular epidemiologists to arrive at the culprit.
Letters
Books et al.
- Unlikely Yet Pivotal Long Dispersals
De Queiroz argues for the importance of oceans as biogeographic highways as well as barriers.
- “Nature and Art Beneath One Roof”
Through 22 "interventions," Blanco illuminates links between natural history and art from the Prado's collection.
Education Forum
- Computer-Guided Inquiry to Improve Science Learning
Automated guidance on essays and drawings can improve learning in precollege and college courses.
Perspectives
- An Olfactory Critical Period
A critical period of plasticity allows neuronal circuitry of the mammalian olfactory system to develop.
- Patterning Cues from the Altruistic Sibling
The endosperm acts as a signaling hub to orchestrate developmental processes in the Arabidopsis seed.
- Pulsar Beams—Big and Bright
Recent studies of gamma-ray beams emitted from rotating neutron stars are providing a better understanding of the mechanism underlying pulsars.
- The Advantages of Extra Entanglement
An ensemble of 40 ultracold atoms forms an entangled state when just one of the atoms is excited.
- Materials both Tough and Soft
Tough elastomers are created by adapting an approach previously used for hydrogels.
Association Affairs
Review
Research Articles
- Central Cell–Derived Peptides Regulate Early Embryo Patterning in Flowering Plants
Within plant seeds, signaling functions from the endosperm regulate development of the embryonic plant suspensor.
- Flies Evade Looming Targets by Executing Rapid Visually Directed Banked Turns
Event-triggered, three-dimensional high-speed videography and automated tracking of flies reveal how they avoid being swatted.
Reports
- Ultrafast Switching to a Stable Hidden Quantum State in an Electronic Crystal
A 35-femtosecond laser pulse causes the dichalcogenide 1T-TaS2 to enter a stable phase not present in the equilibrium phase diagram.
- Entangled States of More Than 40 Atoms in an Optical Fiber Cavity
A small ensemble of ultracold atoms in a chip trap has been used to realize a collective entangled state.
- Unfolding the Laws of Star Formation: The Density Distribution of Molecular Clouds
Models of star formation are better constrained through an empirical assessment of galactic density structures.
- Toughening Elastomers with Sacrificial Bonds and Watching Them Break
Network elastomers based on hydrogel structures show increased toughness through the incorporation of sacrificial bonds.
- Mitosis Inhibits DNA Double-Strand Break Repair to Guard Against Telomere Fusions
Blocking two crucial repair factors prevents DNA repair during mitosis, saving the cell from catastrophic chromosome fusions.
- A Developmental Switch of Axon Targeting in the Continuously Regenerating Mouse Olfactory System
Development in the mouse olfactory system changes how axons find their way.
- A Critical Period Defined by Axon-Targeting Mechanisms in the Murine Olfactory Bulb
Development in the mouse olfactory system changes how axons find their way.
- Acquisition of Germ Plasm Accelerates Vertebrate Evolution
Evolutionary rates are phylogenetically correlated with how germ cells are specified.
- PINK1 Loss-of-Function Mutations Affect Mitochondrial Complex I Activity via NdufA10 Ubiquinone Uncoupling
Mitochondria lacking a Parkinson’s disease–associated kinase harbor a functionally important phosphorylation defect.
- Mapping the Cellular Response to Small Molecules Using Chemogenomic Fitness Signatures
Guilt by association helps identify the chemogenomic signatures of compounds targeting yeast genes.
From the AAAS Office of Publishing and Member Services
