Contents
28 August 2015
Vol 349, Issue 6251
Vol 349, Issue 6251
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
Podcasts
- Science Podcast: 28 August Show
On this week's show: The origin of moralizing gods, replicating 100 psychology experiments, and a roundup of daily news stories.
Products & Materials
- New Products
A weekly roundup of information on newly offered instrumentation, apparatus, and laboratory materials of potential interest to researchers.
In Brief
In Depth
- Fiscal crisis has Brazilian scientists scrambling
Government makes deep cuts in research budgets as economy stumbles.
- Many psychology papers fail replication test
An effort to repeat 100 studies yields sobering results, but many researchers are positive about the process.
- Plugged pores may underlie some ALS, dementia cases
Multiple groups reveal that “stutter” mutation kills nerve cells by clogging channels into the nucleus.
- Dark horse scores a fusion coup
California company shows new approach to trapping hot plasma.
- Orchids' dazzling diversity explained
New family tree shows that a series of innovations accelerated speciation.
Feature
- The missing mudbug
As threats to crayfish mount, researchers push to document the enigmatic crustaceans.
- Birth of the moralizing gods
A new theory aims to explain the success of world religions—but testing it remains a challenge.
- Turning history into a binary code
Scientists struggle to reach across a disciplinary divide to test a new theory about the evolution of religion.
Working Life
Letters
Books et al.
- Fact meets fiction
Science and fantasy collide in the newly refurbished Smithsonian Libraries Exhibition Gallery
- The daring doctor
John Paul Stapp and the biophysical boundaries of the human body
- Books Received
A listing of books received at Science during the week ending 21 August 2015.
Policy Forum
- Safeguarding gene drive experiments in the laboratory
Multiple stringent confinement strategies should be used whenever possible
Perspectives
- Synthetic communities, the sum of parts
Complex behaviors are engineered from cooperating cell communities
- As simple as [2+2]
Iron catalysis transforms readily available commodity olefins into cyclobutane building blocks under thermal conditions
- Microbiota RORgulates intestinal suppressor T cells
Gut microbes influence the balance of regulatory T cell subtypes to control inflammation
- Defining the genus Homo
Early hominin species were as diverse as other mammals
Association Affairs
Research Articles
- Extended-resolution structured illumination imaging of endocytic and cytoskeletal dynamics
Super-resolution imaging of fast dynamic processes in living cells is facilitated by improvements to structured illumination microscopy.
- Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science
A large-scale assessment suggests that experimental reproducibility in psychology leaves a lot to be desired.
Review
Reports
- Scalable T2 resistivity in a small single-component Fermi surface
Systematic transport measurements in metallic strontium titanate test the temperature dependence of resistivity in a Fermi liquid.
- Observation of chiral currents at the magnetic domain boundary of a topological insulator
A scanning superconducting quantum interference device can write magnetic domains in a EuS/Bi2Se3 heterostructure.
- Quantum squeezing of motion in a mechanical resonator
The fluctuating motion of a mechanical system can be squeezed below the zero-point limit.
- Production of amorphous nanoparticles by supersonic spray-drying with a microfluidic nebulator
A nebulator produces solution drops so small that they dry and form amorphous nanoparticles before crystal nuclei can form.
- Iron-catalyzed intermolecular [2+2] cycloadditions of unactivated alkenes
A carefully optimized catalyst offers a general route to four-membered carbon rings.
- Irrationality in mate choice revealed by túngara frogs
Female túngara frogs can be tricked into choosing less attractive mates.
- Age-related mortality explains life history strategies of tropical and temperate songbirds
Faster growth of wings resolves why tropical songbirds have smaller clutch sizes than those from cooler climes.
- Global assessment of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus diversity reveals very low endemism
The wide distribution of plant-root fungal symbionts seems to be driven by recent dispersal rather than ancient tectonics.
- Glycerophospholipid regulation of modality-specific sensory axon guidance in the spinal cord
Axons follow glycerophospholipids to find their way in the developing spinal cord.
- Base triplet stepping by the Rad51/RecA family of recombinases
DNA recombination enzymes match DNA strands three base pairs at a time, except during meiosis.
- Titin mutations in iPS cells define sarcomere insufficiency as a cause of dilated cardiomyopathy
Mutations in titin cause heart disease by disrupting the sarcomere, which normally helps the heart adapt to stress.
- Emergent genetic oscillations in a synthetic microbial consortium
Two strains of bacteria are designed to synchronize transcription in culture.
- The microbiota regulates type 2 immunity through RORγt+ T cells
Microbes resident in the gut induce an immunoregulatory population of T cells that promote immune homeostasis.
- Individual intestinal symbionts induce a distinct population of RORγ+ regulatory T cells
Microbes resident in the gut induce an immunoregulatory population of T cells that promote immune homeostasis.
Technical Comments
From the AAAS Office of Publishing and Member Services
About The Cover
COVER Single frame from a super-resolution movie of α-actinin (magenta) bundling actin cytoskeletal filaments (green) into thick fibers at the edges of growing membrane ruffles in a living COS-7 cell. The movie was acquired with a new form of nonlinear structured illumination microscopy that achieves 62-nanometer resolution at subsecond acquisition times for dozens of frames. See page 944 and dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aab3500.
Image: Dong Li and Eric Betzig, Janelia Research Campus/Howard Hughes Medical Institute