Contents
Vol 312, Issue 5770
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
NetWatch
Products & Materials
News of the Week
ScienceScope
Random Samples
Newsmakers
News Focus
NEWS FOCUS
Letters
Books
Policy Forum
Perspectives
Review
Brevia
- Sexual Conflict via Maternal-Effect Genes in ZW Species
In species with Z and W sex chromosomes (such as birds and butterflies), a model predicts that genes with negative maternal effects on daughters accumulate on the Z chromosome.
Research Articles
- Zebrafish MiR-430 Promotes Deadenylation and Clearance of Maternal mRNAs
A small regulatory RNA promotes the degradation of the maternal messenger RNAs that are packaged into the oocyte to guide the first steps of animal development.
- Evolution of the Eastern Tropical Pacific Through Plio-Pleistocene Glaciation
Five million years of sea surface temperature data from the eastern equatorial Pacific point to the southern ocean as the source of the observed variations over long time scales.
Reports
- Generating Optical Schrödinger Kittens for Quantum Information Processing
Subtraction of a photon from a squeezed coherent light pulse produces a small flying Schrödinger cat state (with an unbound photon), an essential element for quantum communication.
- Reactive and Nonreactive Scattering of H2 from a Metal Surface Is Electronically Adiabatic
The interaction of H2 with a platinum surface can be accurately modeled by treating electronic and nuclear motion as separate, confirming a basic approximation in chemical modeling.
- Cobalt-Base High-Temperature Alloys
Alloys based on cobalt maintain their strength at temperatures close to the melting point better than conventional alloys based on nickel or other metals.
- New Dust Belts of Uranus: One Ring, Two Ring, Red Ring, Blue Ring
The broad inner ring of Uranus is unusually blue, like Saturn’s E ring at the same relative distance, and also has an embedded moon; the outer ring is red like Saturn’s G ring.
- Deconvolution of the Factors Contributing to the Increase in Global Hurricane Intensity
Higher sea surface temperature was the only statistically significant controlling variable related to the upward trend in global hurricane strength since 1970.
- Evolution of Hormone-Receptor Complexity by Molecular Exploitation
A steroid receptor developed its modern specificity by changes in two amino acids, followed by modification of a steroid biosynthetic enzyme to make its ligand.
- Phylogeny of the Ants: Diversification in the Age of Angiosperms
A phylogeny constructed with DNA sequence data from 139 of the 288 extantant genera indicates that modern ants arose 140 to 170 million years ago but diversified much later.
- Platelet-Derived Serotonin Mediates Liver Regeneration
In mice, regeneration of damaged liver tissue unexpectedly requires the neurotransmitter serotonin carried by circulating blood platelets.
- The Competitive Advantage of Sanctioning Institutions
People choosing between two artificial societies initially pick one that tolerates free-loaders, but ultimately prefer the greater rewards of the other, in which free-loaders are punished.
- Darwinian Evolution Can Follow Only Very Few Mutational Paths to Fitter Proteins
Of 120 ways in which an enzyme can sequentially acquire five mutations that together confer drug resistance, 102 fail because the intermediate combinations decrease fitness.
- Naïve and Memory CD4+ T Cell Survival Controlled by Clonal Abundance
Clonal subpopulations of immune T cells—each of which binds to a different antigen—are more stable if they contain smaller numbers of cells.
- Losartan, an AT1 Antagonist, Prevents Aortic Aneurysm in a Mouse Model of Marfan Syndrome
A mouse study suggests that life-threatening heart defects in patients with Marfan syndrome may be preventable by losartan, a drug widely given for high blood pressure.
Technical Comments
