Contents
Vol 328, Issue 5974
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
Podcasts
- Science Podcast
The show includes insights from chimpanzee research, how cytomegalovirus evades the immune system, sinking sea floors, and more.
Products & Materials
- New Products
A weekly roundup of information on newly offered instrumentation, apparatus, and laboratory materials of potential interest to researchers.
News of the Week
- 'Asilomar 2' Takes Small Steps Toward Rules for Geoengineering
Last week, nearly 200 experts in geosciences and other scientific and policy disciplines met to confront a new kind of risky research: large-scale geoengineering projects aimed at countering the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
- Madagascar's Forests Get a Reprieve—But for How Long?
Last week, after months of pressure from scientists, conservation groups, and foreign diplomats, Madagascar's military rulers announced that they would resume the ban on the logging and exportation of rosewood, a commodity from a threatened ecosystem.
- From Science's Online Daily News Site
ScienceNOW reported this week on a new way to cool parts of the planet by pumping vast swarms of tiny bubbles into the sea to increase its reflectivity and lower water temperatures; the discovery of which part of the brain gauges another person's motives; a new technique called superwicking that could provide a better way to cool computer hardware; and flat, paper clip–sized "nanogenerators" that pump out the same voltage as a AA battery when they are squeezed, bent, or shaken; among other stories.
- From the Science Policy Blog
ScienceInsider reported this week that the most controversial patents in biotechnology—covering breast cancer genes BRCA1 and BRCA2—were declared invalid this week by a U.S. district court, among other stories.
- Trade Trumps Science for Marine Species at International Meeting
It was all about the money, not the science. So say environmentalists and conservation biologists reeling from a remarkable number of setbacks for wildlife conservation at a major international meeting that wrapped up last week in Doha, Qatar.
- Ivory Ban Upheld
Last November, Tanzania and Zambia proposed selling elephant ivory. A majority of delegates of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora at last week's meeting in Doha rejected both proposals.
- Thought Experiment Torpedoes Variable-Speed-of-Light Theories
Physicists' best chance of spotting an effect of "quantum gravity"—the melding of quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of gravity—may have evaporated.
- NOAA's Tom Karl Takes On Task of Serving Up Climate to the Public
Climatologist Thomas Karl, currently director of NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, North Carolina, is the interim director of the new NOAA Climate Service. Karl spoke with Science on 18 March.
Random Samples
News Focus
- In the Shadow of Jane Goodall
Fifty years after Goodall arrived in Gombe, the environment has changed dramatically for both our closest relatives and the scientists who study them
- Chimps Read Lips
Comparative psychologists at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center are trying to connect the puckered lips, raised eyebrows, and grins of chimpanzees with emotional states such as aggression, surprise, and lasciviousness.
- Makoku at 0°30′N 30°24′E: Chimping Via GPS
With the help of satellites, a handheld GPS device, and his laptop, a Cambridge researcher has put together a map that redefines the art of charting chimpanzee life in the wild.
- A Matter of Life and Limb
The chimpanzees at Kibale National Park in Uganda are not threatened by poachers for bushmeat. But they face another peril: Many become entangled in snares set in the forest for other animals such as duikers.
- The Spread of Culture, Primitive as It Is
Researchers at Yerkes National Primate Research Center studying two groups of chimps that live in separate but nearly identical conditions published a landmark study in 2005 that provided the most convincing evidence yet that chimpanzee communities have unique "cultures."
- The Chimpanzee Genome Project's Seedy Origins
The DNA sequenced for the Chimpanzee Genome Project came mainly from one chimp, Clint, of Yerkes National Primate Research Center, and he was chosen for the most haphazard of reasons.
- Talking Chimp to Chimp
Language may be unique to humans, but our closest relatives do a lot of vocalizing, and researchers are trying to figure out what they're yakking about.
- Boxed About the Ears, Ape Language Research Field Is Still Standing
A once-thriving field now has only a single outpost, the Great Ape Trust, which continues to teach bonobos and orangutans to communicate with humans.
- The Inner Workings of the Chimpanzee Brain
Using a noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging scanner, investigators have launched a pathbreaking cerebral journey to probe everything from cognition to disease.
- Getting Intimate With the Chimp Mind, Japanese Style
At Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute in Inuyama, researchers conduct cognitive experiments with 14 animals that are taking the field to new heights.
- Cutting to the Bone Of Human Origins
Computed tomography scans of a large collection of skeletons from closely monitored captive chimpanzees will soon become part of the growing "anthropogeny" database at the University of California, San Diego.
Letters
Books et al.
- Hatching a Mongrel Species
Halverson discusses the spread of our most ubiquitous stocked game fish and its unintended consequences for ecosystems and the rainbow trout itself.
Policy Forum
- China's Road to Sustainability
Complex interactions of various forces create a bumpy road to environmental sustainability in China.
Perspectives
- A Vaccine Monkey Wrench?
The mechanism by which monkeys succumb to secondary infection by a herpesvirus may explain the difficulty in developing a human vaccine.
- Why Thick Can Be Slick
Studies of various lamellar materials show a general trend between thickness and friction irrespective of the material.
- Ocean Chemistry and Early Animals
Chemical changes in the world's oceans were key to the early evolution of animals.
- What Lies Beneath
Convection in Earth's hot mantle plays a key role in determining ocean depth.
- Fishing Antihypernuclei Out of a Quark-Gluon Soup
Rare antimatter hypernuclei can form when an ultrahigh-energy plasma of quarks and gluons cools down.
- Mixing or Not Mixing
How are parental and newly synthesized histones distributed into nucleosomes during eukaryotic cell division?
Research Articles
- Observation of an Antimatter Hypernucleus
Nuclei composed of antimatter are found to form in the high-energy collisions of gold ions.
- Functional Hierarchy and Reversibility Within the Murine Spermatogenic Stem Cell Compartment
Developmental flexibility within a stem cell system underpins the robust maintenance of spermatogenesis.
- A Gating Charge Transfer Center in Voltage Sensors
An occluded site stabilizes charged amino acids as they cross the membrane field to achieve switchlike channel opening.
Reports
- Evidence for Strong Extragalactic Magnetic Fields from Fermi Observations of TeV Blazars
An analysis of data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope sets a lower limit for the strength of intergalactic magnetic fields.
- Frictional Characteristics of Atomically Thin Sheets
A universal trend is observed for the friction properties of thin films on weakly adhering substrates.
- A Stratified Redox Model for the Ediacaran Ocean
Geological records in China indicate that ocean chemistry may explain the delay in life’s biggest diversification period.
- Mantle Flow Drives the Subsidence of Oceanic Plates
Sea-floor depth varies as a function of convection of the underlying mantle, rather than the age of oceanic crust.
- Orchestration of Floral Initiation by APETALA1
The master transcription factor APETALA1 dynamically regulates a complex genetic network to guide flower development.
- Maize Tumors Caused by Ustilago maydis Require Organ-Specific Genes in Host and Pathogen
Transcriptionally different expression occurs between infected maize tissues and the corn smut infecting these tissues.
- Cryptic Sex-Ratio Bias Provides Indirect Genetic Benefits Despite Sexual Conflict
Female lizards improve their fitness by biasing the sex ratio of their progeny on the basis of sire body size.
- Partitioning of Histone H3-H4 Tetramers During DNA Replication–Dependent Chromatin Assembly
Inheritance of histones H3 and H4 implies that epigenetic marks are copied between nucleosomes.
- Dynamic Regulation of Archaeal Proteasome Gate Opening As Studied by TROSY NMR
Entry of substrate into the proteasome is regulated by dynamic gates that move in and out of the entrance pores.
- Evasion of CD8+ T Cells Is Critical for Superinfection by Cytomegalovirus
Cytomegalovirus monkeys can reinfect an already-infected host by evading the CD8+ T cell–mediated immune response.
- Synchrony of Thalamocortical Inputs Maximizes Cortical Reliability
Synchronous synaptic inputs from a very small number of thalamic neurons can be strong enough to activate cortical neurons.
