Contents
Vol 334, Issue 6063
Special Issue
Breakthrough of the Year
News
- HIV Treatment as Prevention
Science has chosen the finding that antiretroviral drugs reduce the risk of heterosexual transmission of HIV as its Breakthrough of the Year.
- The Runners-Up
This year's runners-up for Breakthrough of the Year include what makes asteroids red, ancient DNA in modern humans, the structure of photosystem II, pristine gas in the early universe, the microbiome, a new malaria vaccine, alien solar systems, zeolites, and senescent cells.
- Areas to Watch
In 2012, Science's editors will be watching the Large Hadron Collider (again), faster-than-light neutrinos, stem-cell metabolism, genomic epidemiology, efforts to treat intellectual disabilities, and Curiosity's mission to Mars.
- ScorecardRating last year's Areas to Watch
Science's editors foresaw this year's advances in developing a new malaria vaccine. But last year's other predictions were a mixed bag.
- A Disaster and a Warning—But of What?
The great Tohoku earthquake has everyone, seismologists included, wondering where the next blow will come from.
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
Podcasts
- Science Podcast
The show includes a special show featuring the Breakthrough of the Year, 2011's top news stories in science, and areas to watch in 2012.
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
- Around the World
In science news around the world this week, a U.S. presidential ethics panel has found that human subject research needs closer tracking, Smithsonian Institution officials have canceled a controversial exhibit of shipwreck artifacts, the Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin is going global, the U.S. is expanding a program for high-tech start-ups, and a funding snag has delayed Italy's SuperB Collider.
- Random Sample
Graffiti drawn on the walls of a London apartment in the mid-1970s by members of the band the Sex Pistols pictorially preserve the band's iconic punk ethos during its seminal years, two British archaeologists say in an article published this month in Antiquity.
- The Top 10 ScienceNOWs of 2011
At the end of every year, we take a look back at some of our favorite and most popular stories. This year's top 10 includes our most read story of all time.
Findings
News & Analysis
- Science Stays on Track in Last-Minute Spending Bill
Last week's $915 billion spending bill for fiscal year 2012 treats science as well as, if not better than, most other federal activities.
- Tissue Says Blood Is Misleading, Confusing HIV Cure Efforts
A recent meeting provided fresh insights into why HIV is so difficult to eliminate from the body: Even when antiretroviral drugs knock down HIV to undetectable levels in blood, the virus remains active in tissues.
- New Hope for a Devastating Neurological Disorder
Scientists have identified a drug that, in mice, fixes the genetic defect behind Angelman syndrome, which robs victims of speech and leaves them with intellectual disabilities, movement and balance problems.
- Climate Outlook Looking Much The Same, or Even Worse
Climate models are bigger and more sophisticated than ever, speakers reported at the meeting, but they are yielding the same wide range of possible warming and precipitation changes as they did 5 years ago.
- A Vesta Core and a Magnetic Field, Too?
Dawn spacecraft scientists probing Vesta's interior for the first time reported at the meeting that they had detected a metallic core to the rocky asteroid.
- Snapshots From the Meeting
Snapshots from the meeting include a report that studies suggesting that the world's energy needs could be met by biofuels are far too optimistic and a spot on the floor of the eastern tropical Pacific where oceanographers can track the changing pressure of the overlying water accurately enough to gauge the changing mass of the world ocean.
- Megaquake Heightened the Risk to Tokyo
Researchers reported at the meeting that the redistributed stress of March's magnitude-9 Tohoku earthquake activated distant, long-quiescent faults, the first time that has been recorded.
News Focus
- America's Lost City
New excavations reveal surprising dimensions to North America's oldest city and its great earthen monuments.
- Does North America Hold the Roots of Mesoamerican Civilization?
Ancient settlements in what is now Louisiana may have laid the foundation not only for the great city of Cahokia but perhaps also for Mesoamerican civilization.
- Preserving History, One Hill at a Time
A handful of scientists are scrambling to preserve what they can of pre-Columbian North American mounds and prevent further destruction of structures that hold vital clues to ancient Native American society.
- Crunch Time for North Korea's Revolutionary New University
The 2-year-old Pyongyang University of Science and Technology is struggling to raise funds and equip its laboratories.
- The Year in News
The research results chosen as Breakthroughs of the Year aren't the only noteworthy scientific developments. Science sums up some other events that affected the global research community in 2011.
Letters
Books et al.
- Ingredients for a Perfect Storm
Marshaling historical and scientific evidence, Pepin identifies the factors that triggered the emergence of HIV/AIDS.
- The Art and Craft of Portraying Data
Lima presents a collection of exemplary visualizations of data, and Yau offers hands-on guidance for effectively displaying information.
- Revisiting a Classic
Faraday's final Christmas lectures for the Royal Institution became a classic work of popular science.
- Books Received
A listing of books received at Science during the week ending 16 December 2011.
Essays on Science and Society
- Lessons from a Science Education Portal
Doing your best on the Web requires attending to search engines, answering hard questions, and making cybertools accessible to a broad audience.
Policy Forum
- ARVs as HIV Prevention: A Tough Road to Wide Impact
Antiretrovirals face formidable obstacles for wide-scale prevention of HIV infection.
Perspectives
- Voyagers of Discovery
Observations by the Voyager spacecraft are providing a clear view of the hydrogen emission of the Milky Way.
- To Group or Not to Group?
The benefits of cooperation can drive the evolution of a population structure that supports cooperative behavior.
- An Exit Strategy for Measles Virus
A receptor for measles virus on epithelial cells reveals how the virus accesses the respiratory tract.
- Efficient Fluorination of Organic Molecules with Chiral Anions
An efficient and flexible method for adding rings bearing fluorine atoms can help improve the biological activity and materials properties of organic molecules.
- Blood-Brain Barrier Differentiation
A factor secreted by astrocytes is identified that controls the barrier characteristics of central nervous system microvascular endothelial cells.
- Earth's Redox History
About 2 billion years ago, Earth's carbon cycle was severely disrupted by a period of intense oxidation of organic material.
- Terminal Developments in Ediacaran Embryology
Fossils previously interpreted as the earliest evidence for animals represent a simpler level of eukaryotic organization.
Association Affairs
Retraction
Brevia
- Pigeons on Par with Primates in Numerical Competence
Pigeons’ ability to use abstract numerical rules appears identical to that of monkeys.
Research Articles
- Voyager Measurements of Hydrogen Lyman-α Diffuse Emission from the Milky Way
This emission, observed in other galaxies mainly from regions around newborn stars, has now been detected in our Galaxy.
- Npas4 Regulates a Transcriptional Program in CA3 Required for Contextual Memory Formation
A transcription factor dependent on electrical activity regulates genes involved in long-term memory formation.
- How a DNA Polymerase Clamp Loader Opens a Sliding Clamp
Crystal structures show how the sliding clamp that facilitates processive replication is loaded onto DNA.
Reports
- Asymmetric Electrophilic Fluorination Using an Anionic Chiral Phase-Transfer Catalyst
A chiral phosphate ion plays a dual role, coaxing a fluorinating agent into solution and then catalyzing its reaction there.
- Angular Momentum Conservation in Dipolar Energy Transfer
Spin states restrict energy transfer between donor and acceptor chromophores that appear otherwise compatible.
- Graphitic Tribological Layers in Metal-on-Metal Hip Replacements
A graphitic layer is found to be the cause of low friction in metal-on-metal hip implants.
- Evidence from Numerical Experiments for a Feedback Dynamo Generating Mercury’s Magnetic Field
Feedback between the external magnetospheric field and the internal magnetic field explains Mercury’s weak magnetic field.
- Isotopic Evidence for Massive Oxidation of Organic Matter Following the Great Oxidation Event
Analysis of two-billion-year-old rocks reveals an extreme carbon-cycle disruption after atmospheric oxygen increased.
- Fossilized Nuclei and Germination Structures Identify Ediacaran “Animal Embryos” as Encysting Protists
High-resolution imaging of 570-million-year-old fossils suggests that they were not remnants of early animals.
- From Flat Foot to Fat Foot: Structure, Ontogeny, Function, and Evolution of Elephant “Sixth Toes”
Elephants have an extra bone in their feet that can be traced through their fossil record to reveal a transition from flat to raised feet.
- Global Seabird Response to Forage Fish Depletion—One-Third for the Birds
One-third of maximum fish biomass must be available for seabirds to sustain high breeding success.
- Mouse B-Type Lamins Are Required for Proper Organogenesis But Not by Embryonic Stem Cells
Mice lacking critical structural components of the nucleus, lamin-B intermediate filament proteins, remain viable until birth.
- Direct Redox Regulation of F-Actin Assembly and Disassembly by Mical
A protein involved in redox signaling disassembles actin filaments and alters their reassembly.
- Mismatch Repair, But Not Heteroduplex Rejection, Is Temporally Coupled to DNA Replication
Repair of base-pair mismatches is coordinated with DNA replication to ensure correction of the newly synthesized DNA strand.
- Model-Driven Engineering of RNA Devices to Quantitatively Program Gene Expression
Evidence is presented for the feasibility of computer-aided design of biological circuits for regulation of gene expression.
- A Cultured Greigite-Producing Magnetotactic Bacterium in a Novel Group of Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria
The crystal structure of biomineralized magnetic nanocrystals depends on environmental and genetic factors.
- The Ribosome Modulates Nascent Protein Folding
Single-molecule studies show that the ribosome promotes efficient folding of a two-domain protein.
- The Hedgehog Pathway Promotes Blood-Brain Barrier Integrity and CNS Immune Quiescence
Hedgehog signaling is required for maintaining the integrity of the blood-brain barrier.
- Fear Erasure in Mice Requires Synergy Between Antidepressant Drugs and Extinction Training
Long-term loss of fearful memories can be achieved through a combination of antidepressant drugs and exposure therapy.
Technical Comments
From the AAAS Office of Publishing and Member Services
