Contents
Vol 319, Issue 5862
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
Departments
Products & Materials
News of the Week
- Dust Storm Rising Over Threat to Famed Rock Art in Utah
A much-anticipated study warns that truck traffic from nearby oil and gas operations could be fading the splendor of the world-renowned rock art on the sandstone walls of Nine Mile Canyon in central Utah.
- A Plan to Capture Human Diversity in 1000 Genomes
Over the next 3 years, an international team plans to create a massive new catalog containing the complete genome sequences of 1000 individuals. It will help fill out the list of new genetic markers for common diseases that came out in 2007.
- Max Planck Accused of Hobbling Universities
This month, a group of respected researchers charged in a newspaper article that Germany's two-tiered research system lures the best brains away from universities and that the Max Planck institutes should be merged into nearby universities.
- France Launches Public Health School à l'Anglo-Saxonne
France has just created a new institute, the first of its kind in France, that takes its inspiration from the Harvard School of Public Health, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and other famous Anglo-Saxon institutes.
- Got Data Questions? NSF's Indicators Has (Most of) the Answers
Drawing on the myriad studies, surveys, and analyses that make up this year's Science and Engineering Indicators from the National Science Foundation, Science offers a few facts that may come as a surprise to readers.
- "Little" Cosmic Ray Observatory Aims to Make a Big Mark
Physicists have just started taking data with a cosmic ray observatory that covers 730 square kilometers of western Utah. Dubbed Telescope Array, the observatory aims to spot the most energetic subatomic particles from space.
- Where Has All the Stardust Gone?
On page 447 of this issue of Science, researchers report that they have failed to find a single speck of the unaltered, so-called presolar material thought to abound in icy comets in the dust sample that the Stardust spacecraft returned from comet Wild 2 in January 2006.
- Dutch Universities Split Over Nobel Laureate's Rehabilitation
Allegations that the late Dutch physicist Peter Debye was cozy with the Nazis before and during World War II have produced a split decision among schools that once honored him.
News
SCIENCE POLICY
AAAS
ANNUAL MEETING
ScienceScope
Random Samples
Newsmakers
News Focus
- A Time War Over the Period We Live In
Like astronomers battling over the status of Pluto, geoscientists are revving up to settle the fate of the interval of time known as the Quaternary, as well as the status, some feel, of an entire field.
- Why We're Different: Probing the Gap Between Apes and Humans
Researchers at a high-level meeting probe the ancient question of what sets the human brain apart from those of other primates.
- Shell Shock Revisited: Solving the Puzzle of Blast Trauma
Even at a distance, explosions may cause lasting damage to the brain. Such findings could have big implications for arming and compensating troops.
Letters
Books
- The Many Sides of Science
Through the story of three generations of the Exner family, the author explores the interactions of science, culture, and society in during the rise and fall of Austrian liberalism.
- Steal Away, Music
These stories of the experiences of patients, musicians, and others explore neurological aspects of the power of music.
Education Forum
- Application of Bloom's Taxonomy Debunks the "MCAT Myth"
Analyses of questions that evaluate critical thinking, from college placement and medical school admission examinations, suggest improvements to college teaching methods.
Perspectives
- Lining Up to Avoid Bias
Algorithms that align DNA sequences can introduce bias and uncertainty into evolutionary analyses.
- Enlightening Rhythms
How yeast systematically respond to environmental change emerges from blending engineering, mathematical, and experimental analyses.
- The Rise and Fall of a Great Idea
Heterogeneities in Earth's mantle create ambiguity about the origin of hot-spot lavas.
- Structural Nanocomposites
Reinforcement of small structures and critical volumes with nanomaterials may enable near-term applications that can drive longer-term research.
- Adaptive Composites
Materials are under development that can respond dynamically to changes in their environment.
Association Affairs
Brevia
- 100% Accuracy in Automatic Face Recognition
The simple process of image averaging can boost the performance of a commercial face recognition system to 100% accuracy.
Reports
- Probing the Carrier Capture Rate of a Single Quantum Level
Scanning tunneling microscopy reveals how electrons tunnel through a single dangling silicon bond and shows that local subsurface doped holes greatly affect the dynamics.
- Spin Conservation Accounts for Aluminum Cluster Anion Reactivity Pattern with O2
Small metal clusters with an even number of atoms react rapidly with oxygen because electron spin is conserved, whereas odd clusters are more stable because it is not.
- NMR Imaging of Catalytic Hydrogenation in Microreactors with the Use of para-Hydrogen
The flow of para-hydrogen through industrial catalytic reactors allows magnetic resonance imaging of the gas flow and of the hydrogenation reactions, facilitating optimization.
- GaN Photonic-Crystal Surface-Emitting Laser at Blue-Violet Wavelengths
Surface-emitting lasers fabricated with photonic crystal structures can now emit at technologically relevant blue-violet wavelengths.
- Comparison of Comet 81P/Wild 2 Dust with Interplanetary Dust from Comets
The silicate minerals found in interplanetary dust particles are not seen in Comet 81P/Wild 2, implying that the comet is devoid of material from the outer solar system.
- Elasticity of (Mg,Fe)O Through the Spin Transition of Iron in the Lower Mantle
Gradual softening of a prominent mineral in Earth’s lower mantle in response to an electronic phase transition may explain the seismic properties of this region.
- Enriched Pt-Re-Os Isotope Systematics in Plume Lavas Explained by Metasomatic Sulfides
An isotopic signal thought to be a fingerprint of material from Earth’s core in ocean magmas may instead reflect the presence of sulfide mineralization in the melting region.
- Irreconcilable Differences: Fine-Root Life Spans and Soil Carbon Persistence
Two common ways to measure residence times of root carbon in soils measure different things; neither is correct for inferring carbon cycling in ecosystems.
- Adaptive Plasticity in Female Mate Choice Dampens Sexual Selection on Male Ornaments in the Lark Bunting
Female lark buntings prefer different male traits from year to year, suggesting how multiple ornamental features might evolve as a result of female mate choice.
- Control of Genic DNA Methylation by a jmjC Domain-Containing Protein in Arabidopsis thaliana
A plant demethylase checks the spread of DNA methylation from silenced transposons and repetitive DNA to nearby genes, preventing their inappropriate inhibition.
- Concurrent Fast and Slow Cycling of a Transcriptional Activator at an Endogenous Promoter
A yeast transcription factor binds onto and off its promoter rapidly, controlling initiation, but also shows a 30-min cycle as the number of accessible promoters varies.
- Centromeric Aurora-B Activation Requires TD-60, Microtubules, and Substrate Priming Phosphorylation
A kinase that regulates chromosome segregation to daughter cells during metaphase is confined to the inner centromere through its interactions with other centromeric proteins.
- Alignment Uncertainty and Genomic Analysis
Comparative evolutionary genomics can be improved by taking into account the uncertainties inherent in aligning genes from organism to organism.
- NFAT Binding and Regulation of T Cell Activation by the Cytoplasmic Scaffolding Homer Proteins
Signals coming into the T cell are coordinated by two scaffolding proteins, which determine whether the cell will be activated or permanently shut down.
- The Frequency Dependence of Osmo-Adaptation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Modeling the dynamics of the osmotic stress response in yeast reveals an unexpected, rapid nontranscriptional mechanism that may involve glycerol transport.
From the AAAS Office of Publishing and Member Services
