Contents
13 August 2021
Vol 373, Issue 6556
Vol 373, Issue 6556
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
- Time grows short to curb warming, report warns
IPCC science analysis concludes human role "unequivocal" and impact "unprecedented."
- Streams that flow only part of the year are getting even drier
Analysis of intermittent U.S. waterways finds many are shriveling earlier and remaining dry for much longer.
- Science lost and lessons learned: A lab plots its comeback
A microbiology team regroups, with a more virtual lab and a bigger focus on mental health.
- ‘Mini–Manhattan Projects’ for energy innovation wind down
But hub model for bridging basic and applied research lives on.
- Genetics papers from China face ethical scrutiny
Questions about consent and potential for abuse trigger investigations.
Feature
- Failure to protect?
A study of asthmatic children, most of them Black, shows how a common clinical trial design can expose vulnerable participants to serious risks.
Working Life
Letters
Books et al.
- The matter of mind control
Brainwashing case studies illuminate the history of coercive persuasion
- The alternative to despair is to build an ark
H. G. Wells's “world encyclopedia” has merit beyond its seeming similarities to Wikipedia
Policy Forum
- Integrate biodiversity targets from local to global levels
A shared Earth approach links biodiversity and people
Perspectives
- How massive is that black hole?
The flux of radiation emissions from accretion disks correlates with black hole mass
- When did terrestrial plants arise?
Microfossils suggest that co-option of algal genes may affect land plant origination time
- The cell of origin for Barrett's esophagus
Undifferentiated cells that closely resemble gastric cells could be a biomarker for surveillance
- Taking the long view on metabolism
Measured energy expenditure across the human life span reveals distinct metabolic phases
- Plant-made vaccines and therapeutics
Advances in technology and manufacturing could boost the uptake of molecular farming
- Searching for life on Mars and its moons
Sample-return missions will look for extraterrestrial life and biomarkers on Mars and Phobos
- Making machine learning trustworthy
Safety, transparency, and fairness are essential for high-stakes uses of machine learning
Research Articles
- Ultrapotent antibodies against diverse and highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 variants
Potently neutralizing antibodies from convalescent donors from the first wave of SARS-CoV-2 neutralize recent variants of concern.
- Spatial transcriptomics of planktonic and sessile bacterial populations at single-cell resolution
Spatially resolved, parallel transcriptome imaging reveals functional heterogeneity in bacterial cultures and biofilms.
- Molecular phenotyping reveals the identity of Barrett’s esophagus and its malignant transition
Gastric cardia cells give rise to Barrett’s esophagus, which in turn can develop into esophageal adenocarcinoma.
- Structural basis for target site selection in RNA-guided DNA transposition systems
Cryo-EM studies reveals a role for polymerization of a transposition regulator, TnsC, in CRISPR-associated transposition systems.
- Secreted pectin monooxygenases drive plant infection by pathogenic oomycetes
Virulence factors secreted by the plant pathogen Phytophthora infestans target pectin polysaccharides in plant cell walls.
Review
- Nicotinic acetylcholine receptor redux: Discovery of accessories opens therapeutic vistas
A Review explains that accessory subunits regulate nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in a wide range of tissues.
Reports
- Observation of microwave shielding of ultracold molecules
Microwave shielding of inelastic collisions between CaF molecules is realized in three dimensions using optical tweezer traps.
- Chemically recyclable thermoplastics from reversible-deactivation polymerization of cyclic acetals
Optimal pairing of an initiator and Lewis acid catalyst produces tough polyacetals that are easily recyclable to monomer.
- A characteristic optical variability time scale in astrophysical accretion disks
Optical variability of active galactic nuclei provides a method to estimate supermassive black hole masses.
- A fossil record of land plant origins from charophyte algae
Spore-like microfossils help to resolve a discontinuity between molecular and fossil records of the origins of land plants.
- Multicomponent superconducting order parameter in UTe2
Specific heat and Kerr effect measurements place constraints on the symmetry of the order parameter.
- Boridene: Two-dimensional Mo4/3B2-x with ordered metal vacancies obtained by chemical exfoliation
A two-dimensional transition metal boride is synthesized by removal of select layers in laminated borides.
- Lifetime mobility of an Arctic woolly mammoth
Isotopic records from a 17,100-year-old woolly mammoth tusk reveal long-distance mobility, preferred habitats, and an extensive lifetime range.
- Daily energy expenditure through the human life course
A study analyzes how metabolism and energy expenditure change over the human life span.
- High-fat diet–induced colonocyte dysfunction escalates microbiota-derived trimethylamine N-oxide
A high-fat diet enhances microbiota-mediated conversion of dietary choline into a precursor of atherosclerosis-promoting trimethylamine N-oxide.
- Structural and functional ramifications of antigenic drift in recent SARS-CoV-2 variants
Sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies to recent variants of concern is analyzed.
About The Cover
COVER Reproduction of a life-size oil painting of an adult male woolly mammoth navigating a mountain pass in Arctic Alaska. Little is known about the movement patterns of these extinct giants. Isotopic records from a 17,100-year-old mammoth tusk reveal that the animal covered an extensive geographic range during its lifetime. However, as the ice age ended and the Arctic environment began to change, maintaining this level of mobility would have been increasingly difficult. See page 806.
Illustration: James Havens/The Havens Studio, Alaska
