Contents
Vol 342, Issue 6156
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
Podcasts
- Science Podcast: 18 October Show
Listen to stories on a fungus deadly to frogs, Denisovans in Southeast Asia, the U.S. government shutdown's effect on science, 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, a chemical weapons watchdog group wins the Nobel Peace Prize, NASA offers previously banned Chinese scientists another chance to register for an upcoming meeting at Ames Research Center, Italy blocks clinical trials of a controversial stem cell therapy, and more.
- Random Sample
CreatureCast, a series of video shorts based at Brown University that often features little-known invertebrates, hits the big time with a partnership with The New York Times, which may feature a video each week on its online science page.
- Newsmakers
South Korean science minister Choi Mun-Kee answers three questions about the country's plans to increase innovation among scientists.
Findings
News & Analysis
- Stunning Skull Gives a Fresh Portrait of Early Humans
The most complete early Homo skull ever found, from Dmanisi, Georgia, gives our genus a new look.
- Molecule and Market Studies Capture Nobel Laurels
Three researchers shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry for advances in computer modeling of complex molecules, and three academic economists shared the economics prize for studies of why stock prices are so hard to predict.
- U.S. Shutdown Disrupts Long-Term Ecosystem Studies
The U.S. government shutdown, even if it ends soon, could have long-term effects on long-term ecological research.
- Sleep: The Brain's Housekeeper?
One of the core purposes of sleep may be to clear metabolic trash from the brain, according to a paper published in Science this week.
- South Korea's Charge Into Basic Research Meets Resistance
Backers say that South Korea's fledgling Institute for Basic Science will lead the country to a new economic model built on homegrown innovations. Critics blast the institute as a "black hole" that will suck resources from existing grant programs.
- Botanists Spread the Gospel That Breadfruit Can Be Manna
An institute in Hawaii is ramping up efforts to disseminate breadfruit to countries with shaky food security.
News Focus
- Roving Into Martian Waters
Will the Curiosity rover discover an early Mars that was warm and wet and life-friendly or cold and icy and inhospitable?
Letters
Books et al.
- The Godfather, Part II
Venter offers a personal perspective on the past, present, and prospects of synthetic biology.
- The Cyber-Espionage X-Files
Deibert provides a coherent exposé of what is at stake in how the Internet is designed, governed, and infiltrated.
- Books Received
A listing of books received at Science during the week ending 11 October 2013.
Policy Forum
- Probiotics: Finding the Right Regulatory Balance
Some products marketed as drugs should be excused from Phase I trials, but safety and efficacy claims for dietary supplements should be more tightly regulated.
Perspectives
- Sleep It Out
Change in the brain's extracellular space between sleep and waking states may drive the clearance of metabolites and toxins.
- Perovskite-Based Solar Cells
Organic-inorganic hybrid semiconductors may provide the basis for the next generation of thin-film solar cells.
- Path to Treat Rett Syndrome
Rigorous testing of potential disease-modifying factors of Rett syndrome is needed to guide research findings toward clinical trials.
- How to Be Both Strong and Thermally Stable
An ultrafine-grained nickel material is stronger and more thermally stable than previously reported materials of this kind.
- Did the Denisovans Cross Wallace's Line?
The distribution of Denisovan DNA in modern human populations raises questions about where these ancient humans lived and where they interbred with modern humans.
- Soft Acoustic Metamaterials
Soft materials that embed small resonators in a host material can dampen or focus sound.
Research Articles
- Hyperdominance in the Amazonian Tree Flora
Amazonia harbors 16,000 tree species, 1.4% of which account for half of all individual trees.
- A Complete Skull from Dmanisi, Georgia, and the Evolutionary Biology of Early Homo
An early Pleistocene adult skull illuminates the evolution and morphology of the first hominins outside Africa.
Reports
- Stellar Spin-Orbit Misalignment in a Multiplanet System
Kepler observations show that stellar spin-orbit misalignments are not confined to planetary systems with hot Jupiters.
- Gravitational-Wave Limits from Pulsar Timing Constrain Supermassive Black Hole Evolution
Analysis of pulsar timing data sets constraints on the gravitational-wave background produced by pairs of massive black holes.
- Strain-Induced Ultrahard and Ultrastable Nanolaminated Structure in Nickel
Heavy shearing can produce a stronger, more thermally robust nickel microstructure.
- Electron-Hole Diffusion Lengths Exceeding 1 Micrometer in an Organometal Trihalide Perovskite Absorber
Spectroscopy pinpoints facile carrier diffusion as a key factor in the efficiency of perovskite solar cells.
- Long-Range Balanced Electron- and Hole-Transport Lengths in Organic-Inorganic CH3NH3PbI3
Spectroscopy pinpoints facile carrier diffusion as a key factor in the efficiency of perovskite solar cells.
- Product-to-Parent Reversion of Trenbolone: Unrecognized Risks for Endocrine Disruption
Phototransformation of growth steroid metabolites is readily reversible in aquatic environments.
- Direct Spectroscopic Characterization of a Transitory Dirhodium Donor-Acceptor Carbene Complex
A long-postulated reactive chemical intermediate has been observed and characterized.
- Low Upper Limit to Methane Abundance on Mars
Data from the Curiosity rover reveal an upper limit on Mars of only 1.3 parts per billion by volume for atmospheric methane.
- Genomically Recoded Organisms Expand Biological Functions
Bacteria engineered to use nonstandard amino acids show increased resistance to bacteriophage attack.
- Probing the Limits of Genetic Recoding in Essential Genes
Thirteen codons could be removed from all essential ribosomal protein-coding genes across 80 Escherichia coli strains.
- Rapid Adaptation to Climate Facilitates Range Expansion of an Invasive Plant
Invasive populations of purple loosestrife in eastern North America have evolved increased fitness at the invasion front.
- The Invasive Chytrid Fungus of Amphibians Paralyzes Lymphocyte Responses
The global spread of a fungal disease of frogs may be explained by its ability to inhibit immune clearance.
- Measuring Chromatin Interaction Dynamics on the Second Time Scale at Single-Copy Genes
Formaldehyde cross-linking kinetics reveals rapid, site-specific transcription factor binding dynamics in vivo.
- Sleep Drives Metabolite Clearance from the Adult Brain
During sleep, metabolic waste products are removed from the extracellular spaces in the brain.
- Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind
Experimental evidence suggests that reading good fiction helps us to understand others.
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