Contents
Vol 324, Issue 5924
Special Issue
Protein Dynamics
Introduction to special issue
Reviews
Perspective
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
Departments
Podcasts
- Science Podcast
The 10 April 2009 show includes animal flight dynamics, rebuilding America's ocean ecosystems, genetic screening in newborns, and more.
Products & Materials
News of the Week
- Harvard's Financial Crunch Raises Tensions Among Biology Programs
Budget cuts at Harvard University have raised tensions with city politicians and exposed some fault lines within the faculty over an emphasis on stem cell medicine and a push for more collaborative, interdisciplinary work.
- Unlucky CLOVER: U.K. Halts Unfinished Telescope Project
The United Kingdom has canceled a cosmology experiment that would have been Europe's prime contender in the race to trace the gravitational waves that rippled through the infant universe.
- Arne Duncan Hopes a Team Approach Will Improve U.S. Schools
During a recent interview with Science in his Washington, D.C., office, Education Secretary Arne Duncan discussed science education standards, the federal government's role in education, and how to make teachers more effective.
- A Primal Crust Found on the Moon, While Mercury's Proves Elusive
Researchers from two ongoing missions to the moon reported at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference that they now have the final, direct proof of the "lunar magma ocean" hypothesis of the formation of the moon's bright highlands.
- Water Everywhere on Mars, But Is Any of It Ever Liquid?
At the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, teammates on the Phoenix mission to Mars reported Phoenix observations buttressed with thermodynamic arguments that suggest that briny liquid water exists at the Phoenix site. Not everyone agrees.
- Darwin Applies to Medical School
At a meeting last week on Evolution in Health and Medicine, researchers reported headway in understanding drug resistance through the lens of evolution and progress in linking past evolutionary adaptations with current health problems.
- Two Sides of the Same Coin?
An evolutionary geneticist proposed at a meeting last week on Evolution in Health and Medicine that both schizophrenia and autism are disorders of the "social brain"--but at opposite ends of the same spectrum.
- From Science's Online Daily News Site
Highlights from Science's online daily news site, ScienceNOW, this week include viruses that can make rechargeable batteries, the oldest stone blades, and the first global look at human sex ratios.
- New Way to Target Hormone Receptor Thwarts Prostate Cancer
Researchers report online in Science this week that they've developed a compound that in mice shrank implanted human prostate tumors untreatable with current drugs and that it showed signs of arresting tumor growth in men with similarly drug-resistant cancer.
- From the Science Policy Blog
Science's policy blog, ScienceInsider, reported this week on the latest blow to gene patents, a rally in support of research using animals, gender imbalance in a new batch of early-career awards, and other stories.
Random Samples
News Focus
- Science Gold Mine, Ethical Minefield
Health agencies launched a system 40 years ago to identify babies at risk. Now there are millions of blood samples in files that researchers want to access, raising public concern.
- The 'Tamba Dragon' Has Japanese Dinosaur Hunters All Fired Up
A serendipitous sauropod specimen could shed light on the evolution of our planet's largest land animals.
- Détente in the Fisheries War
After a controversial projection that wild-caught fish will disappear, top researchers buried the hatchet to examine the status of fisheries--and what to do about it.
- Renewables Test IQ of the Grid
Everybody agrees that tomorrow's electrical grid must incorporate wind and solar power seamlessly. But solving the reliability issue won't be easy.
- Students Energized by Power Engineering
The study of electrical power generation and transmission has long occupied the dusty back corners of U.S. academia. But with energy back in the headlines, students are returning to the field.
Letters
Books
- Learning from Errors
Blumberg presents examples of aberrant individuals as an underappreciated perspective on developmental and evolutionary processes.
- Social Selection
This accessible introduction to the ecology, behavior, and evolution of ants also considers ways that findings from studies of ants apply to such topics as computer programming and swarm intelligence.
Policy Forum
- Legal Bedrock for Rebuilding America's Ocean Ecosystems
The public trust doctrine would provide a powerful framework for restructuring the way we manage U.S. oceans.
Perspectives
- Electrode-Cellular Interface
Electrode materials that facilitate interaction with living cells are crucial for the development of next-generation bionic devices.
- Total Chemical Synthesis Peers into the Biosynthetic Black Box
Key steps in a natural product synthesis route may relate to nature's strategies and catalysts.
- Leishmania Exploit Sex
Leishmania are the last of the three major groups of trypanosomatid parasites to give up their secret--a healthy capacity for genetic exchange.
- Symmetry in Turns
A model explains how animals maneuver during hovering and slow flight.
- Green Evolution, Green Revolution
The genomes of two species of green algae provide clues to how green plants evolved.
- Puzzling Patterns of Predisposition
Mutations in a gene that encodes a metabolic enzyme have been linked to certain brain tumors, but is the gene a tumor suppressor or an oncogene?
- Laser Beams Take a Curve
Complex energy flows within laser beams can cause them to curve as they travel.
Brevia
- Exomic Sequencing Identifies PALB2 as a Pancreatic Cancer Susceptibility Gene
Mutations in a gene previously implicated in breast cancer are a contributing factor in hereditary pancreatic cancer.
Research Article
- Genome-Wide Analysis in Vivo of Translation with Nucleotide Resolution Using Ribosome Profiling
Profiling the position of ribosomes on messenger RNA allows rapid, high-precision investigation of cellular protein translation.
Reports
- Elastic Shear Anisotropy of Ferropericlase in Earth's Lower Mantle
A minor phase of the deep mantle causes marked differences in seismic travel times in different directions.
- A Great Earthquake Rupture Across a Rapidly Evolving Three-Plate Boundary
This event revealed plate dynamics in the Solomon Islands and showed that subduction of young crust can produce great quakes.
- Curved Plasma Channel Generation Using Ultraintense Airy Beams
Propagating intense structured laser beams through air creates self-focused "light bullets" that take a curved trajectory.
- Solar Power Wires Based on Organic Photovoltaic Materials
A transparent polymer coating allows optics to compensate for the shadowing effects of a metal wire electrode.
- Running Droplets of Gallium from Evaporation of Gallium Arsenide
Oscillation of gallium droplets is driven by a disequilibrium between the droplets and the gallium arsenide surface.
- Total Synthesis of (+)-11,11'-Dideoxyverticillin A
The key step in the synthesis of this complex fungal metabolite replaces four introduced hydroxyl groups with thiols.
- Pulsatile Stimulation Determines Timing and Specificity of NF-κB-Dependent Transcription
The frequency of pulses of cytokine simulation of a cell can determine the spectrum of genes whose transcription is regulated.
- Antibody Recognition of a Highly Conserved Influenza Virus Epitope
A broadly neutralizing antibody binds the hemagglutinin stalk of pathogenic influenza viruses to block membrane fusion.
- Wingbeat Time and the Scaling of Passive Rotational Damping in Flapping Flight
Morphology and flapping motion are combined in a model that predicts turn dynamics for flying animals ranging in size from fruit flies to cockatoos.
- Coding-Sequence Determinants of Gene Expression in Escherichia coli
RNA structure, rather than optimal codon usage, determines translation efficiency in Escherichia coli.
- Leucine-Rich Repeat Protein Complex Activates Mosquito Complement in Defense Against Plasmodium Parasites
A family of molecules, apparently unique to mosquitoes, binds to invading parasites and initiates innate immune responses.
- Glioma-Derived Mutations in IDH1 Dominantly Inhibit IDH1 Catalytic Activity and Induce HIF-1α
Mutations in isocitrate dehydrogenase-1 compromise enzyme function and activate a signaling pathway that helps brain tumors grow when oxygen is limited.
- Demonstration of Genetic Exchange During Cyclical Development of Leishmania in the Sand Fly Vector
Diversity among Leishmania parasites is not just a product of divergent mutation but also of genetic exchange.
- Green Evolution and Dynamic Adaptations Revealed by Genomes of the Marine Picoeukaryotes Micromonas
An anciently derived clade of photosynthetic picoeukaryote, ubiquitous in the world's oceans, possesses surprising genetic diversity.
From the AAAS Office of Publishing and Member Services
