Contents
Vol 322, Issue 5901
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
Podcasts
- Science Podcast
The 24 October 2008 show includes how physical warmth promotes interpersonal warmth, measuring pulsing stars, science and the U.S. presidential election, and more.
Products & Materials
News of the Week
- Deep-Sea Scientific Drilling Hit By a Cost Double Whammy
As the oil industry gears up for a new offshore-oil boom, scientists who study the sea floor say competition for scarce drilling resources is leaving them high and dry.
- Media Policies Don't Always Square With Reality
A new survey finds that most U.S. government agencies don't allow their scientists to talk freely with the media and that their practices don't always square with their policies.
- Cardiologists Come Under the Glare of a Senate Inquiry
Senator Chuck Grassley (R–IA) is investigating potential financial conflicts of interest among cardiologists associated with Columbia University.
- Global Warming Throws Some Curves in the Atlantic Ocean
A new computer modeling study confirms that global warming is changing the salinity of seawater in the North Atlantic.
- Clinical Trials Guidelines at Odds With U.S. Policy
The World Medical Association last week reaffirmed its opposition to the use of placebos in clinical trials and urged trial sponsors to provide care for participants after studies are done.
- 'Spore' Documentary Spawns Protest By Scientists Who Starred in It
Scientists who appear in a film about the blockbuster video game Spore are criticizing the National Geographic Channel, saying that they believed they were participating in a documentary about evolutionary biology.
ScienceScope
Random Samples
Newsmakers
News Focus
- In Brief: Where They Stand on Science Policy
At the risk of oversimplifying these complex topics, the news staff of Science has boiled down what Senators John McCain and Barack Obama have said during the long campaign about some three dozen important issues.
- A Full Serving of Science Awaits the Next President
Many scientific issues are never discussed during the campaign. But ignoring them doesn't make them disappear. Here are 10 meaty topics that we think the 44th president will have to chew on.
- Eyeing Oil, Synthetic Biologists Mine Microbes for Black Gold
Biotechnology researchers want to reengineer microorganisms to turn agricultural products into gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel.
- Last-Ditch Effort to Save Center at Vanguard of Stem Cell Research
After ousting its CEO and board, the Australian Stem Cell Centre hopes to regroup around a plan that rebalances research and commercial goals.
The Gonzo Scientist
- Flunking Spore
The blockbuster video game Spore is being marketed as a science-based adventure that brings evolution, cell biology, and even astrophysics to the masses. But after grading the game's science with a team of researchers, the Gonzo Scientist has some bad news.
Letters
Books
- To Incubate Progress
Kao discusses existing roadblocks to technological innovation (especially in the United States) and suggests actions that he argues will promote the discovery and development of new ideas and thus improve prosperity and economic security.
- Gigantic Losses
Darby's account of commercial whaling and efforts to save decimated cetacean populations highlights anti-whaling activists and controversies swirling around the International Whaling Commission.
Policy Forum
- Risk Communication on Climate: Mental Models and Mass Balance
Public confusion about the urgency of reductions in greenhouse gas emissions results from a basic misconception.
Perspectives
- CaCl-ing Channels Get the Last Laugh
A long-sought ion-channel gene with intriguing links to cancer and development has been identified.
- Aspects of Our Sun
Accurate determination of the shape of the Sun sheds light on its inner workings.
- The Pulse of Distant Stars
Space-based observations can now be used to "see" the pulsations and surface granulations of distant stars similar to those of the Sun.
- GenBank--Natural History in the 21st Century?
Since its foundation, the nucleic acid sequence database GenBank has merged the values of natural history with those of the experimental sciences.
- Putting Electrowetting to Work
Voltage pulses that cause changes in fluid shape or movement can be used to drive optical components and miniaturized assays.
- The Story of O2
How did biological, geochemical, and geophysical processes produce an atmosphere that allowed complex animal life to evolve?
- Can We Nip Obesity in Its Vascular Bud?
The origin of fat tissues and identity of factors that direct fat development in animals are becoming more clear.
Association Affairs
Brevia
- Genetic Compatibility Affects Queen and Worker Caste Determination
Although environmental signals regulate whether female ants become sterile workers or queens, genetic interactions between their parental genomes also influence the phenotype.
Research Article
- The Structure of a Transcribing T7 RNA Polymerase in Transition from Initiation to Elongation
In order to accommodate the elongating RNA transcript, a viral RNA polymerase rotates on its DNA binding promoter to expand the active site.
Reports
- CoRoT Measures Solar-Like Oscillations and Granulation in Stars Hotter Than the Sun
Satellite measurements of pulsations in three stars similar to but hotter than the Sun show that they are oscillating more vigorously and have a finer-scale granulation.
- A Large Excess in Apparent Solar Oblateness Due to Surface Magnetism
Satellite measurements indicate that the Sun is more oblate than previous measurements suggested, a shape resulting from the combined effects of rotation and magnetism.
- Complete Characterization of Quantum-Optical Processes
A method requiring only the light from a laser as an input yields a full characterization of quantum optical processes by probing its effect on classical states.
- Detection of First-Order Liquid/Liquid Phase Transitions in Yttrium Oxide-Aluminum Oxide Melts
Entropy changes induce a levitated oxide melt to undergo an unusual transition between two disordered liquid states in which atomic rearrangements reflect additional unmixing.
- Direct Imaging of Reconstructed Atoms on TiO2 (110) Surfaces
Profile views of titania, a widely used material, with a transmission electron microscope show that interstitial sites with a lower oxygen stoichiometry produce its reduced surface.
- The Extent of Non–Born-Oppenheimer Coupling in the Reaction of Cl(2P) with para-H2
The study of controlled collisions between chlorine atoms and molecular hydrogen clarifies that excited electronic states play only a minor role in the formation of hydrochloric acid.
- Midbody Targeting of the ESCRT Machinery by a Noncanonical Coiled Coil in CEP55
As daughter cells separate, final cleavage of the membranes requires a protein with a coiled coil built around an unusual charged core, which recruits other constituents.
- Functional Traits and Niche-Based Tree Community Assembly in an Amazonian Forest
Even in a diverse Amazonian forest, trees show particular leaf characteristics that indicate that they are subtly specialized for habitat and growth strategy.
- White Fat Progenitor Cells Reside in the Adipose Vasculature
Adipocytes (fat cells) originate from precursor cells that reside within the walls of the blood vessels that feed fat tissue.
- H2S as a Physiologic Vasorelaxant: Hypertension in Mice with Deletion of Cystathionine γ-Lyase
Hydrogen sulfide gas regulates blood pressure and blood vessel function in mice.
- TMEM16A, A Membrane Protein Associated with Calcium-Dependent Chloride Channel Activity
A transmembrane protein induced in cytokine-treated bronchial epithelial cells seems to be a long-sought primary carrier of a voltage- and calcium-dependent chloride current.
- Receptor-Like Kinase ACR4 Restricts Formative Cell Divisions in the Arabidopsis Root
A membrane kinase regulates the number of stem cells in the main tip of the root, as well as the de novo generation of stem cells in new laterally projecting roots.
- Functional Targeting of DNA Damage to a Nuclear Pore-Associated SUMO-Dependent Ubiquitin Ligase
The damaged regions of DNA are recruited to the periphery of the nucleus by a complex of nuclear-pore and ubiquitin-modifying proteins, where they are repaired.
- Splicing Factors Facilitate RNAi-Directed Silencing in Fission Yeast
In fission yeast, RNA splicing factors unexpectedly participate in the silencing of centromeric DNA by RNA interference derived from centromeres.
- Experiencing Physical Warmth Promotes Interpersonal Warmth
When people are given a warm rather than a cold drink, they are more likely to show generous behavior toward others.
