Contents
Vol 336, Issue 6083
Special Issue
Human Conflict
Introduction to Special Issue
Multimedia
- Human Conflict: Additional Online Features
Videos, blog postings, discussions, and more.
News
- Parsing Terrorism
Terrorism research has expanded rapidly since 9/11, shifting its focus from human pathology to the analysis of how rational people interact with violent groups.
- Tribal Roots in South Sudan
Conflict has long been part of the cattle economy of Jonglei State in South Sudan. But the impact of fighting has intensified since the 1990s, according to many Sudan analysts.
- Roots of Racism
Humans everywhere divide the world into “us” and “them.” Why are we so tribal?
- Preening the Troops
Green wood hoopoes boost in-group cooperative behavior by preening helpers more before and after rallies, showing that it doesn't require a primate brain to reinforce social bonds in the face of an outside threat.
- The Battle Over Violence
Under the long shadow of Rousseau and Hobbes, scientists debate whether civilization spurred or inhibited warfare—and whether we have the data to know.
- Tweeting the London Riots
People have rioted since the dawn of civilization. But online social media may be radically changing how riots form and spread.
- Civilization's Double-Edged Sword
Recent archaeological finds from the Near East to Southeast Asia of ancient massacres raise questions about how violence changed as societies became more complex.
- The Ultimate Sacrifice
Seeking to impress both gods and humans, early state societies across the globe displayed their power by ritually killing human victims.
- Fighting Rituals
Humans aren't the only species to engage in ritual combat. Honeypot ants of the U.S. Southwest stage elaborate, ritualistic face-offs against nearby nests that can involve hundreds of ants and last for days.
- Gender and Violence
Researchers are probing links between the status of women in a society and its propensity toward war.
- From War to Peace
The ability to reconcile differences after a spat was once considered a uniquely human trait, but researchers have since observed it in more than 30 primate species—and even among birds.
Reviews
Perspectives
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
Podcasts
- Science Podcast
The show includes a special show exploring human conflict, including strife among our primate ancestors, the biological underpinnings of racism, and the fundamentals of "peace systems."
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 Senate bill would preserve the U.S. helium supply for research, researchers have issued the first-ever international principles governing peer review of grant proposals, the European Parliament rebuked three regulatory agencies, Norway opened the world's largest carbon capture and storage test facility, and a new Twitter feed run by the Shanghai U.S. consulate is charting the city's air quality.
- Random Sample
An analysis of the DNA sequence from three species of Heliconius butterflies and several subspecies reveals that those with the same color patterns have the same versions of key genes, holdovers from extensive hybridization within the genus. A recent master's degree thesis at European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) in Germany is generating waves—though not the "time waves" the student was looking for. And this week's numbers quantify deaths of children under 5 caused by preventable infectious diseases, U.S. adults who sleepwalk, and pages in the Encyclopedia of Life.
- Newsmakers
This week's Newsmaker is Arunava Majumdar, who will leave his post as head of the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy on 9 June.
Findings
News & Analysis
- A Texas Wrangle Over Cancer Research Funds
Last week, Alfred Gilman announced he is stepping down as the chief scientific officer of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas this fall because he believes CPRIT's leaders are bypassing scientific review.
- Blast Injuries Linked to Neurodegeneration in Veterans
A study reported this week in Science Translational Medicine of autopsies of four veterans of recent conflicts has found features of the same neurodegenerative disease reported previously in athletes.
- FDA Panel Recommends Anti-HIV Drug for Prevention
On 10 May, the Antiviral Drugs Advisory Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration debated whether an anti-HIV drug should receive approval as a preventive for uninfected people.
- Coalition Begins Push for U.S. Schools to Adopt Voluntary Science Standards
Stephen Pruitt is trying to coax states to adopt a set of standards for teaching science in their elementary and secondary schools. He offers a tutorial on the new standards in an interview with Science.
- China Takes Aim at Rampant Antibiotic Resistance
The Chinese government is leading a crusade to warn its people against the perils of frivolous antibiotic consumption in hopes of warding off calamitous outbreaks of drug-resistant strains.
News Focus
- Near Eastern Archaeology Works to Dig Out of a Crisis
In the wake of the Arab Spring, archaeologists in the Near East are locked in a struggle for the survival of their field.
- Can New Chemistry Make a Malaria Drug Plentiful and Cheap?
German chemist Peter Seeberger says he has developed a cheaper way to produce a key malaria drug. Now, he's trying to convince the rest of the world.
Letters
Books et al.
- Violence Tamed
Examining patterns of violence in Europe, Muchembled finds that brutality and homicide have declined from the 13th century to the present and considers explanations for that change.
- Schooling Violence?
Challenging claims that education promotes tolerance and peace, Lange argues that it instead often---especially in settings with ethnic divisions, limited resources, and ineffective political institutions---contributes to violence.
Policy Forum
- Parochialism as a Central Challenge in Counterinsurgency
Current U.S. practice in Afghanistan may reify social divisions, which undermines institutions critical to postwar stability.
Perspectives
- An Alternative Route for Nuclear mRNP Export by Membrane Budding
Nuclear export of mRNA, previously thought to happen exclusively through nuclear pore complexes, may also occur via a membrane-budding mechanism.
- Active Site of an Industrial Catalyst
Surface steps caused by stacking faults or twin boundaries in copper nanoparticles are key to the activity of the methanol synthesis catalyst.
- NMR Tools for Determining the Structure of Plutonium Materials
The ability to observe plutonium-239 magnetic resonance signals should aid in environmental studies and the development of waste-storage materials.
- Room for Just One Photon
Ensembles of cold atoms excited up to Rydberg states can be used to manipulate and control interactions between single photons.
- Ancient Sensor for Ancient Drug
A common drug has an unexpected effect on a metabolic enzyme that stimulates fat utilization.
- Pinning Down the Water Hexamer
An experimental study resolves a long-standing controversy about isomeric forms of the water hexamer.
- Robert R. Sokal (1926–2012)
An ecologist and evolutionary biologist brought a quantitative approach to classification through statistics and morphometric analysis.
Brevia
- Evolutionary Diversity of the Mitochondrial Calcium Uniporter
Phylogenetic analysis of the mitochondrial calcium transporter shows that it was a feature of early eukaryotes.
Reports
- Strongly Interacting Rydberg Excitations of a Cold Atomic Gas
Illumination of an ensemble of cold rubidium atoms ultimately leads to high-level excitation of just a single atom.
- Water-Mediated Proton Hopping on an Iron Oxide Surface
The presence of adsorbed water enhances proton diffusion, likely through a hydronium ion transition state.
- The Active Site of Methanol Synthesis over Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 Industrial Catalysts
Catalysis is favored by stepped copper nanoparticles decorated with zinc oxide, which promotes stronger intermediate binding.
- Structures of Cage, Prism, and Book Isomers of Water Hexamer from Broadband Rotational Spectroscopy
Observing three distinct water clusters in the same experiment resolves long-standing questions about their relative stabilities.
- Observation of 239Pu Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
The long-sought magnetic resonance signal of the plutonium nucleus has been detected in a sample of solid plutonium dioxide.
- Conspecific Negative Density Dependence and Forest Diversity
Tree seedlings have a harder time establishing themselves in forests containing many adults of the same species.
- Randomized Government Safety Inspections Reduce Worker Injuries with No Detectable Job Loss
It may be feasible to achieve employee safety while keeping businesses viable.
- Cost-Benefit Tradeoffs in Engineered lac Operons
A close look at a paradigmatic system accounts for the costs due to protein activity versus expression and folding.
- How Hibernation Factors RMF, HPF, and YfiA Turn Off Protein Synthesis
Three crystal structures show why bacteria stop making proteins when they enter the stationary phase.
- The Ancient Drug Salicylate Directly Activates AMP-Activated Protein Kinase
A possible molecular mechanism of action for a metabolite of aspirin is described.
- Aerobic Microbial Respiration in 86-Million-Year-Old Deep-Sea Red Clay
Microbes in Pacific sediments grow very, very slowly.
- Multiple Spectral Inputs Improve Motion Discrimination in the Drosophila Visual System
Fly photoreceptors that detect colors also contribute information to the processing of motion.
- AID-Driven Deletion Causes Immunoglobulin Heavy Chain Locus Suicide Recombination in B Cells
Recombination-induced deletion of the immunoglobulin heavy chain gene in activated B cells may influence B cell homeostasis.
- Quantitative Sequencing of 5-Methylcytosine and 5-Hydroxymethylcytosine at Single-Base Resolution
A sequencing method can discriminate epigenetically modified cytosine nucleotides within embryonic stem cell DNA.
