Contents
Vol 335, Issue 6064
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
Podcasts
- Science Podcast
The show includes the parallel evolution of "supersoldier" ants, Ohm's law at the atomic scale, connecting obesity to cancer, 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
- Around the World
In science news around the world this week, Lockheed Martin has won a contract worth up to $2 billion to support U.S. science in Antarctica, NIH is launching the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, a second paper supporting a viral link to chronic fatigue syndrome has been retracted, China's BeiDou navigation satellite system is online, and a UCLA professor has been charged in the death of a research assistant.
- Newsmakers
This week's Newsmakers are pathology professor Vincent Dammai of the Medical University of South Carolina, who is accused of harvesting stem cells from umbilical cords without any oversight and selling them illegally; Craig Thompson, president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, who is facing a $1 billion lawsuit from the cancer center he used to head; and John Grunsfeld, who this week became head of NASA's $5 billion science mission directorate.
- Random Sample
Dutch designers, in collaboration with animal welfare researchers, have developed a computer game that lets users play with real, living pigs.
News & Analysis
- Will Flu Papers Lead to New Research Oversight?
At the request of the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, Science and Nature have agreed to strike key details from papers in press describing how researchers made the deadly H5N1 avian influenza virus more transmissible between mammals.
- In the Eye of the Storm, Two Rivals, Two Strategies
The two influenza researchers whose work has triggered a far-reaching debate on the limits of scientific freedom could hardly have handled their publicity more differently.
- Laser Fusion Project Alters Goals, Fueling Concern Over Its Strategy
A change in the milestones of the National Ignition Facility has highlighted the concerns of some in the field that the path NIF researchers have taken may not be the right one.
- China Makes Waves With Ambitious Ocean Research Plan
This coming summer, China's Jiaolong submersible will carry out its first research mission in the South China Sea. But China's claims of sovereignty there have sparked territorial disputes with six neighbors.
- Research Remains a Favored Child in Budget Decisions
One year after Republicans won control of the House of Representatives by promising to slash federal spending, the budgets of most research agencies have been left largely intact.
- Cornell's Plans for the Big Apple Rely on Quality, Cash, and Dreams
Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have won a competition to build the applied research university that, they hope, will transform New York City into Silicon Valley East.
News Focus
- Unraveling the Obesity-Cancer Connection
A growing body of research shows that insulin and a related hormone play a key role in fueling tumors. They also may be a link between obesity, diabetes, and cancer.
- Cancer Prevention With a Diabetes Pill?
There is a caveat to the observational research linking use of the insulin-lowering drug metformin to a decrease in cancer incidence: Studies of this kind are incapable of establishing a causal relationship.
- Ravenous for Glucose
Tumor cells can survive without oxygen and generate energy by a relatively inefficient process known as aerobic glycolysis. But researchers still don't know which comes first: the metabolism change or the cancer.
- Engineering a New Line of Attack on a Signature War Injury
By jolting neurons in the lab, an Army officer and bioengineer hopes to gain ground on traumatic brain injury.
Letters
Books et al.
- RNA Rejoice!
Darnell's comprehensive history of RNA research will reward anyone interested in gene expression.
- Treasure Caves
Our reviewer visits a World Heritage Site in South Africa that preserves the source of several important hominin fossils.
- Books Received
A listing of books received at Science during the week ending 30 December 2011.
Policy Forum
- Guiding Limited Use of Chimpanzees in Research
Chimpanzee research should not be banned, but its scientific necessity is very limited.
Perspectives
- How Honeybees Break a Decision-Making Deadlock
During the search for a new nest site, use of an inhibitory signal enables honeybees to reach a decision.
- Variable Outcome of Mutations
Environmental stress and stochastic differences in the expression of protective genes influence the effect of mutations.
- Ohm's Law in a Quantum World
Conductivity measurements reveal unexpected classical electronic behavior at the quantum level.
- Controlling Hormone Action by Subversion and Deception
Molecular mimicry between a plant hormone receptor and a kinase allows them to swap binding to a phosphatase to control a signaling pathway.
- Plasmonic Modes Revealed
Time-resolved electron microscopy can map the electric field created in and around a nanoparticle by photonic excitation of its plasmonic modes.
- Lloyd J. Old (1933–2011)
An immunologist devoted his life's work to understanding how the immune system fights cancer.
Association Affairs
Brevia
- PrP Antibodies Do Not Trigger Mouse Hippocampal Neuron Apoptosis
Potentially therapeutic monoclonal antibodies do not kill neurons.
Research Article
- The Technology Path to Deep Greenhouse Gas Emissions Cuts by 2050: The Pivotal Role of Electricity
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by 2050 requires widespread electrification of transportation and other sectors.
Reports
- Subparticle Ultrafast Spectrum Imaging in 4D Electron Microscopy
A specially constructed electron microscope can probe plasmon fields created by optically exciting metal nanoparticles.
- Ohm’s Law Survives to the Atomic Scale
Nanowires created by embedding phosphorus atoms within silicon exhibit a low, diameter-independent resistivity.
- Candle Soot as a Template for a Transparent Robust Superamphiphobic Coating
Coatings that are highly resistant to water and to hydrocarbons can be made starting from candle soot.
- Capturing Ultrasmall EMT Zeolite from Template-Free Systems
Control of the early stages of nucleation favors the synthesis of large-pore zeolite crystals ~10 nanometers in size.
- An Exhumation History of Continents over Billion-Year Time Scales
Thermochronology indicates a balance between low erosion rates and slow thermal cooling in old continental crust.
- Multiyear Prediction of Monthly Mean Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation at 26.5°N
The strength of an ocean current that transports heat to Europe can be predicted up to 4 years in advance.
- Ancestral Developmental Potential Facilitates Parallel Evolution in Ants
The potential for developing “supersoldiers” has remained dormant in the ant genus Pheidole for at least 30 million years.
- Fitness Trade-Offs and Environmentally Induced Mutation Buffering in Isogenic C. elegans
Stochastic variation in a cellular stress response pathway can predict the outcome of mutations in individuals.
- Molecular Mimicry Regulates ABA Signaling by SnRK2 Kinases and PP2C Phosphatases
Two players and one chair regulate this plant hormone signaling cascade.
- Equilibrative Nucleoside Transporter 3 Deficiency Perturbs Lysosome Function and Macrophage Homeostasis
Lack of the transporter critical for recycling of nucleosides after phagocytosis results in a fatal expansion of macrophages.
- Dystroglycan Function Requires Xylosyl- and Glucuronyltransferase Activities of LARGE
A bifunctional enzyme adds a heteropolysaccharide to an extracellular matrix receptor, enabling it to bind laminin.
- RNA Elimination Machinery Targeting Meiotic mRNAs Promotes Facultative Heterochromatin Formation
RNA processing factors regulate the assembly of heterochromatin at individual gene loci in fission yeast.
- Asymmetry and Aging of Mycobacterial Cells Lead to Variable Growth and Antibiotic Susceptibility
The growing pole of the tuberculosis-causing bacterium is inherited by only one offspring, which can then elongate faster.
- Langerhans Cells Facilitate Epithelial DNA Damage and Squamous Cell Carcinoma
A specialized immune cell population in the skin promotes tumorigenesis by metabolizing environmental carcinogens.
- Stop Signals Provide Cross Inhibition in Collective Decision-Making by Honeybee Swarms
Scout bees bring about nest-site decisions by targeting stop signals at bees with other candidate sites.
Technical Comments
