Contents
Vol 340, Issue 6130
Special Issue
Grand Challenges in Science Education
Introduction to Special Issue
News
- Transformation Is Possible if a University Really Cares
The same attention to scientific detail that led to his Nobel Prize is helping Carl Wieman improve how undergraduates learn science.
Reviews
Perspectives
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
Podcasts
- Science Podcast: 19 April Show
Listen to a special show on the grand challenges of education, including stories on science ed outside the pipeline, bettering undergrad education, and virtual labs.
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, the number of reported H7N9 infections is rising in China, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments asking if human genes can be patented, a letter famous biologist Francis Crick wrote to his son describing the structure of DNA sold for $5.3 million at auction, and more.
- Random Samples
President Barack Obama's 2014 budget request to Congress is some $12 billion over the sequestration depressed amount allocated this year and represents a 1.3% boost over 2012 levels, and NASA announced that its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter may have spotted Soviet Mars 3 lander, which became the first spacecraft to manage a soft landing on Mars.
- Newsmakers
British physiologist Robert Edwards died last week at age 87, nearly 35 years after he helped usher the first "test-tube" baby into the world.
Findings
News & Analysis
- Request Would Let Science Rebound From Sequester
President Barack Obama last week submitted a $3.8 trillion budget request to Congress for 2014 that, if enacted, would boost the research budgets of nearly every federal agency.
- Wild Cards Remain After Proposed Reshuffle of STEM Education
Most people agree that the U.S. government could do a better job of managing the $3 billion being spent by a dozen federal agencies on science education, but few are lining up behind a White House plan to accomplish that goal.
- Archaeologists Say the ‘Anthropocene’ Is Here—But It Began Long Ago
A vocal group of geologists and other scientists are pushing to define a new geological epoch, marked by environmental change caused by humans. At the Society for American Archaeology meetings in Honolulu, archaeologists argued that it's high time for their field, which studies humans and their activities over geological time, to have a greater voice in the debate.
- Kepler Snags Super-Earth-Size Planet Squarely in a Habitable Zone
The Kepler team is reporting the discovery of what could be the Holy Grail of exoplanetology: a rocky planet enveloped by a nurturing, warming atmosphere and sporting streams, lakes, and seas—or maybe not.
- Rare Cancer Successes Spawn ‘Exceptional’ Research Efforts
The U.S. National Cancer Institute announced that it is casting a wide net for such "exceptional responders" to experimental cancer drugs that are often shelved.
- Survey of Peers in Fieldwork Highlights an Unspoken Risk
Results reveal significant risk of sexual harassment for women performing fieldwork.
News Focus
- Trachea Transplants Test the Limits
More than a dozen ill people have received a bioengineered trachea seeded with stem cells during the past 5 years, but outcomes are mixed, and critics say the treatment may not do what its developers claim.
- Chasing Ants—and Robots—to Understand How Societies Evolve
Laurent Keller's passions go far beyond ants as he taps genomics, robots, and other approaches to answer evolutionary questions.
- The Private Lives of Ants
Six years ago as a graduate student of Laurent Keller, Danielle Mersch developed a 24/7 surveillance system that promises to revolutionize their team's study of collective behavior in fire ants. Online this week in Science, they describe using this system to reveal that ants cluster into cliques.
Letters
Books et al.
- Did You Feel It?
In this history of seismology and its impact, Coen focuses on the contributions of human observers—citizens as well as scientists.
- Serpentine Figures in Edinburgh
Our reviewers sample some of the art-science events at this year's Edinburgh International Science Festival.
Education Forum
- Opportunities and Challenges in Next Generation Standards
Goals for literacy, math, and science education may increase citizens' capacity to argue from evidence.
- Driven by Diversity
Evidence is growing on benefits, and approaches, to increase diversity in the science and engineering workforce.
Perspectives
- 3D Mapping in the Brain
Bats and rats use different neural maps to navigate in their natural spatial surroundings.
- Climate's Dark Forcings
Uncertainties about the properties and amounts of atmospheric black carbon complicate efforts to understand its regional and global effects on climate.
- Heterochronic Genes Turn Back the Clock in Old Neurons
A signaling pathway is implicated in the age-dependent decline of neuron regeneration.
- Polarization Traffic Control for Surface Plasmons
Metal surfaces structured at a scale below the wavelength of light create devices that control plasmon beam direction through their polarization.
- Great Apes and Zoonoses
Comparing the origins of AIDS and malaria may provide insight for gauging the prospect of future pathogen transmissions from apes to humans.
- Pursuing Near-Zero Response
A class of metamaterials designed with low permittivity provides a platform for developing optical devices with unconventional properties.
- Fire in the Ocean
Exposure to fire alters the properties of dissolved organic carbon in ways that affect how it decomposes in rivers and in the ocean.
Research Article
- Pervasive Externalities at the Population, Consumption, and Environment Nexus
Challenges posed by the economic consequences of population growth and consumption require collective action.
Reports
- Near-Field Interference for the Unidirectional Excitation of Electromagnetic Guided Modes
Near-field interference can be used to control the directional propagation of electromagnetic excitations.
- Polarization-Controlled Tunable Directional Coupling of Surface Plasmon Polaritons
Control over the generation and propagation direction of light-induced surface plasmons in a thin metal film is demonstrated.
- External Quantum Efficiency Above 100% in a Singlet-Exciton-Fission–Based Organic Photovoltaic Cell
Single photons are shown to propel more than one carrier in a carbon-based solar cell.
- Multicompartment Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles with Branched Shapes: An Epitaxial Growth Mechanism
A one-pot synthesis method furnishes mesoporous silica nanoparticles with both cubic and hexagonally structured compartments.
- Reorganization of Southern Ocean Plankton Ecosystem at the Onset of Antarctic Glaciation
The Southern Ocean plankton ecosystem underwent an abrupt and profound reorganization in the earliest Oligocene.
- Global Charcoal Mobilization from Soils via Dissolution and Riverine Transport to the Oceans
A larger-than-assumed fraction of charcoal produced by wildfires leaches out of soils and is transported to the oceans.
- Resilience and Recovery of Overexploited Marine Populations
Current fish harvests and low fish levels make fishery recovery improbable for most of the world’s depleted stocks.
- A KRAB/KAP1-miRNA Cascade Regulates Erythropoiesis Through Stage-Specific Control of Mitophagy
Protein- and RNA-based transcriptional regulation governs the removal of mitochondria during red blood cell differentiation.
- The Helicase-Like Domains of Type III Restriction Enzymes Trigger Long-Range Diffusion Along DNA
A bacterial enzyme that cuts DNA uses a few adenosine triphosphates to allow it to scan across thousands of base pairs.
- Structural Basis for Kinesin-1:Cargo Recognition
The structure of a portion of a molecular motor complexed to a cargo peptide provides a close-up view of the interaction.
- Actin-Propelled Invasive Membrane Protrusions Promote Fusogenic Protein Engagement During Cell-Cell Fusion
An inducible Drosophila cell-fusion system reveals the interplay between cellular fusion proteins and actin-driven membrane remodeling.
- Bat and Rat Neurons Differ in Theta-Frequency Resonance Despite Similar Coding of Space
Stellate cells in the entorhinal cortex of bats and rats show significant differences in their electrophysiological properties.
- Representation of Three-Dimensional Space in the Hippocampus of Flying Bats
The spatial firing properties of neurons were recorded in bats during flight using a wireless neural-telemetry system.
- Developmental Decline in Neuronal Regeneration by the Progressive Change of Two Intrinsic Timers
Reciprocal signals promote axon regeneration in young worms and repress axon regeneration in older worms.
- A Neural Marker of Perceptual Consciousness in Infants
The brain mechanisms underlying conscious perception are already present in infancy and improve with age.
Technical Comments
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