Contents
27 May 2016
Vol 352, Issue 6289
Vol 352, Issue 6289
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
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
- Near miss at Fukushima is a warning for U.S
Panel says spent reactor fuel in a storage pool could have boiled dry and caught on fire.
- Shooting for a star
Internet billionaire explains his plan to send very small spaceships a very long way.
- Government ‘nudges’ prove their worth
U.S. trials show low-cost interventions can influence choices by people needing help from state services.
- India nears putting GM mustard on the table
Activists hope to derail approval, citing regulators' reluctance to release safety data.
- Brazilian crisis threatens science and environment
Proposed constitutional amendment could gut environmental protections.
Feature
- The battery builder
Yi Cui is pioneering efforts to use nanotechnology to revolutionize battery design, and just perhaps save the world.
Working Life
Letters
Books et al.
- Navigating the cascades of circumstance
An ecologist reflects on the unexpected twists and turns that shaped his scientific career
- Like. Share. Retweet
A treatise on taste explores how our preferences form and evolve over time
Policy Forum
- Paying for future success in gene therapy
We must consider potential value, pricing, and sustainability of emerging gene therapies
Perspectives
- How to break down crystalline cellulose
Biochemical and genomic data elucidate how a fungal enzyme attacks polysaccharides
- The cancer predisposition revolution
How was the inherited basis of cancer foreshadowed?
- Organic photocatalysts for cleaner polymer synthesis
Metal-free catalysts enable synthesis of polymers for biomedical and electronics applications
- A metal shuttle keeps pathogens well fed
The metal-binding compound staphylopine captures nutrient metal ions for pathogens
- Matching markets in the digital age
Digital markets make it easier to match companies and customers
- Unwinding inducible gene expression
Relieving DNA torsional stress may follow chromatin remodeling to facilitate transcription
Association Affairs
Research Article
- Topoisomerase 1 inhibition suppresses inflammatory genes and protects from death by inflammation
Depletion or chemical inhibition of Top1 suppresses the host response against influenza and Ebola viruses, as well as bacterial products.
Reports
- An ice age recorded in the polar deposits of Mars
Layers within Mars’ polar ice caps indicate previous ice ages on the planet and how its climate changed.
- Enantioselective synthesis of an ophiobolin sesterterpene via a programmed radical cascade
A cyclization process reliant on neutral intermediates accesses natural products formed biochemically via charged intermediates.
- Organocatalyzed atom transfer radical polymerization driven by visible light
A metal-free catalyst offers comparable control to more commonly used metals without the drawback of product contamination.
- A Schrödinger cat living in two boxes
A quantum cat can be both alive and dead and in two places at once.
- Experimental reconstruction of the Berry curvature in a Floquet Bloch band
Berry curvature is engineered and measured in a simulated boron-nitride optical lattice filled with fermionic K atoms.
- Bloch state tomography using Wilson lines
Transport of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a hexagonal optical lattice reveals the geometry of band wave functions.
- Extracellular electron transfer systems fuel cellulose oxidative degradation
Fungi use a range of redox-adapted electron donors to enzymatically degrade biomass.
- Nuclear-localized cyclic nucleotide–gated channels mediate symbiotic calcium oscillations
Calcium channels coordinate to release pulses of calcium in response to microbes to initiate plant root symbioses.
- Biosynthesis of a broad-spectrum nicotianamine-like metallophore in Staphylococcus aureus
Bacteria produce a broad-spectrum metal chelator similar to one used in plants.
- New particle formation in the free troposphere: A question of chemistry and timing
New particles form in the free troposphere mainly through condensation of highly oxygenated compounds.
- CRISPR-directed mitotic recombination enables genetic mapping without crosses
CRISPR generates targeted recombination events for rapid and systematic identification of causal genetic variants in yeast.
- Gene-microbiota interactions contribute to the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease
A human gut microbe uses Crohn’s disease–associated genes to promote immune tolerance in the intestine.
- Cyclin-dependent kinase 1–dependent activation of APC/C ubiquitin ligase
The critical phosphorylation events that control exit from mitosis are unraveled.
- A force-generating machinery maintains the spindle at the cell center during mitosis
Measuring forces that act in living cells reveals a spring-like force that centers the mitotic spindle.
From the AAAS Office of Publishing and Member Services
About The Cover
COVER Clouds surrounding the Sphinx Observatory, which is part of the high-altitude research station Jungfraujoch (3580 meters above sea level) in the middle of the Swiss Alps, a stone's throw from the Eiger north face. This location is ideal for hunting the tiny particles upon which cloud droplets grow, as well as for studying how these particles are formed at high altitude. See page 1109.
Photo: Jonathan Reid