AAAS, Science NOW

Table of contents, current issue

Form and Function | The Root of the Problem | High-Temperature Electronic Switching | Chlorophyll Sees Red | Cold Refreshment | Charging Back and Forth | What We're In For | Biodiversity Convention | Stem Cell Expansion | Transient Protein Conformations | UnSIRT6ain Repair | CRISPR Processing | Connectivity Map of the Brain | Oscillations in Carbon Nanotube Conductivity | Martian Carbon Dioxide | Pointing the Finger | Mosquito Malarial Memory

Biophysics: Two Eyes in One | Genetics: Daddy's Little Girl | Physics: Spinning Randomly in the Hall | Geophysics: Constructing a Craton | Microbiology: Menacing Methicillin | Immunology: Feeding a Fever | Plant Science: Staying Low to the Ground

Dropping the Claws | Bad Rap for Vaccines | Found: One Lost Language | Higher Ground

Author: Bruce Alberts

The director of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory is facing a decision: whether to run the lab's 25-year-old atom smasher, the Tevatron collider, for an additional 3 years through 2014 at the cost of delaying other projects that could enhance the lab's long-term viability.<br><br>Author: Adrian Cho

Data the Phoenix lander returned in 2008 on the isotopic composition of atmospheric carbon dioxide indicate that the martian atmosphere may have been chemically interacting with liquid water recently. And where there's liquid water, of course, there could be life.<br><br>Author: Richard A. Kerr

<i>Science</i>NOW reported this week that a bacterium can purify gold, African bush elephants avoid acacia trees that house swarming ant colonies—and preserve the surrounding landscape in the process, and fish oil fights inflammation by binding to a protein that's involved in inflammation, among other stories.

A remotely operated vehicle surveying the shallow water reefs of the Coral Triangle has captured stunning images of massive corals, as well as unusual crustaceans and fish living at depths never before surveyed, thousands of meters below the surface.<br><br>Author: Dennis Normile

Large-scale deforestation in the Amazon has declined by 47.5% over the past 12 months, according to a preliminary survey by the Brazilian Ministry of Environment using a low-resolution satellite.<br><br>Author: Antonio Regalado

<i>Science</i>Insider reported this week that Stanford University archaeologist Ian Hodder, who has directed excavations at Turkey's Çatalhöyük since 1993, has told the heads of the dig's specialty labs that they will be asked to step down beginning in 2012, among other stories.

After failing to meet its major conservation goal, the Convention on Biological Diversity is setting new targets for stemming the loss of species.<br><br>Author: Erik Stokstad

By sorting out plant names and growing threatened species, botanic gardens are trying to do their part for plant conservation.<br><br>Author: Elizabeth Pennisi

A hot spot for undiscovered flora and fauna, Indonesia is beginning to take steps to preserve its forests and its biological heritage.<br><br>Author: Dennis Normile

<br><br>Authors: Fernanda Michalski, Darren Norris, Carlos A. Peres

<br><br>Author: Bobban G. Subhadra

<br><br>Author: Gregory Benford

<br><br>Author: Pierce S. Corden

Carr combines popular science, intellectual history, and cultural criticism to discuss effects (mental and social) that the Internet may be having on our lives.<br><br>Author: Jonathan Smallwood

In this consideration of what constitutes a just society, Sen argues for a comparative perspective that offers grounds for choosing among the alternatives people actually face.<br><br>Author: Ken Binmore

A <a href= http://www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/books/brl5997.dtl >listing of books received</a> at <i>Science</i> during the week ended 03 September 2010.

Adjusting aging forecasts to incorporate increases in longevity and health can provide better tools for policy-makers.<br><br>Authors: Warren C. Sanderson, Sergei Scherbov

The ability of a cytoskeletal protein to prevent membrane protein diffusion is important for cilia formation and maintenance.<br><br>Author: Yves Barral

Where plant roots branch may be decided by rhythmic pulses of gene expression.<br><br>Authors: Jan Traas, Teva Vernoux

A compound promotes robust expansion of human hematopoietic stem cells in culture.<br><br>Authors: Guy Sauvageau, R. Keith Humphries

Barring new CO₂ sources could curb climate change, but won't solve energy problems.<br><br>Author: Martin I. Hoffert

Glass-forming and shape memory metals may provide a route to fabricating materials with enhanced mechanical properties.<br><br>Author: Douglas C. Hofmann

High-resolution structures of folding intermediates of proteins come into view.<br><br>Author: Hashim M. Al-Hashimi

<br><br>Authors: Michael R. W. Rands, William M. Adams, Leon Bennun, Stuart H. M. Butchart, Andrew Clements, David Coomes, Abigail Entwistle, Ian Hodge, Valerie Kapos, Jörn P. W. Scharlemann, William J. Sutherland, Bhaskar Vira

An asteroid follows the orbit of the planet Neptune in a region of gravitational stability.<br><br>Authors: Scott S. Sheppard, Chadwick A. Trujillo

Einstein&Home, a distributed computing project, discovered a rare, isolated pulsar with a low magnetic field.<br><br>Authors: B. Knispel, B. Allen, J. M. Cordes, J. S. Deneva, D. Anderson, C. Aulbert, N. D. R. Bhat, O. Bock, S. Bogdanov, A. Brazier, F. Camilo, D. J. Champion, S. Chatterjee, F. Crawford, P. B. Demorest, H. Fehrmann, P. C. C. Freire, M. E. Gonzalez, D. Hammer, J. W. T. Hessels, F. A. Jenet, L. Kasian, V. M. Kaspi, M. Kramer, P. Lazarus, J. van Leeuwen, D. R. Lorimer, A. G. Lyne, B. Machenschalk, M. A. McLaughlin, C. Messenger, D. J. Nice, M. A. Papa, H. J. Pletsch, R. Prix, S. M. Ransom, X. Siemens, I. H. Stairs, B. W. Stappers, K. Stovall, A. Venkataraman

Oscillations in gene expression define the positions of periodic lateral roots in a plant model.<br><br>Authors: Miguel A. Moreno-Risueno, Jaimie M. Van Norman, Antonio Moreno, Jingyuan Zhang, Sebastian E. Ahnert, Philip N. Benfey

Nuclear magnetic resonance and computational methods are combined to determine the structure of “invisible” excited protein states.<br><br>Authors: Dmitry M. Korzhnev, Tomasz L. Religa, Wiktor Banachewicz, Alan R. Fersht, Lewis E. Kay

Nanoscale mechanical switches made with silicon carbide operate at high temperatures with low leakage currents.<br><br>Authors: Te-Hao Lee, Swarup Bhunia, Mehran Mehregany

A natural chlorophyll is found to absorb further in the infrared than other light-harvesting chromophores in its class.<br><br>Authors: Min Chen, Martin Schliep, Robert D. Willows, Zheng-Li Cai, Brett A. Neilan, Hugo Scheer

Opened, water-filled carbon nanotubes can exhibit oscillations in proton conductivity when alkali ions are present.<br><br>Authors: Chang Young Lee, Wonjoon Choi, Jae-Hee Han, Michael S. Strano

Electron transfers in a weakly bound molecular complex are driven forward by anions and backward by cations.<br><br>Authors: Jung Su Park, Elizabeth Karnas, Kei Ohkubo, Ping Chen, Karl M. Kadish, Shunichi Fukuzumi, Christopher W. Bielawski, Todd W. Hudnall, Vincent M. Lynch, Jonathan L. Sessler

Electric current can desorb strongly bound molecules from nanotube-based chemical sensors.<br><br>Authors: Amin Salehi-Khojin, Kevin Y. Lin, Christopher R. Field, Richard I. Masel

Operation of current energy infrastructure through its projected lifetime would limit carbon dioxide increases to 10 percent.<br><br>Authors: Steven J. Davis, Ken Caldeira, H. Damon Matthews

Mass spectrometric measurements constrain the history of water, volcanism, and climate evolution on Mars.<br><br>Authors: Paul B. Niles, William V. Boynton, John H. Hoffman, Douglas W. Ming, Dave Hamara

A gene involved in morphogenesis and ciliogenesis is mutated in patients with Bardet-Biedl syndrome.<br><br>Authors: Su Kyoung Kim, Asako Shindo, Tae Joo Park, Edwin C. Oh, Srimoyee Ghosh, Ryan S. Gray, Richard A. Lewis, Colin A. Johnson, Tania Attie-Bittach, Nicholas Katsanis, John B. Wallingford

Actin bundle structures formed on lipid bilayers give insight into formation of the finger-like structures involved in cell migration.<br><br>Authors: Kwonmoo Lee, Jennifer L. Gallop, Komal Rambani, Marc W. Kirschner

The identification of a mechanism for ex vivo amplification may facilitate clinical application of hematopoietic stem cell therapies.<br><br>Authors: Anthony E. Boitano, Jian Wang, Russell Romeo, Laure C. Bouchez, Albert E. Parker, Sue E. Sutton, John R. Walker, Colin A. Flaveny, Gary H. Perdew, Michael S. Denison, Peter G. Schultz, Michael P. Cooke

A protein implicated in stress, aging, and genome stability is required for the accurate repair of broken DNA.<br><br>Authors: Abderrahmane Kaidi, Brian T. Weinert, Chunaram Choudhary, Stephen P. Jackson

Early immune priming limits malaria parasite infection of mosquitoes.<br><br>Authors: Janneth Rodrigues, Fábio André Brayner, Luiz Carlos Alves, Rajnikant Dixit, Carolina Barillas-Mury

How a prokaryotic immune system makes small RNAs that target invading nucleic acids.<br><br>Authors: Rachel E. Haurwitz, Martin Jinek, Blake Wiedenheft, Kaihong Zhou, Jennifer A. Doudna

Multivariate pattern analysis of 5-minute brain scans provides a measure of brain maturity.<br><br>Authors: Nico U. F. Dosenbach, Binyam Nardos, Alexander L. Cohen, Damien A. Fair, Jonathan D. Power, Jessica A. Church, Steven M. Nelson, Gagan S. Wig, Alecia C. Vogel, Christina N. Lessov-Schlaggar, Kelly Anne Barnes, Joseph W. Dubis, Eric Feczko, Rebecca S. Coalson, John R. Pruett Jr., Deanna M. Barch, Steven E. Petersen, Bradley L. Schlaggar

<br><br>Author: Alan Dove

A weekly roundup of information on newly offered instrumentation, apparatus, and laboratory materials of potential interest to researchers.

The show includes estimating future CO₂ emissions from existing energy infrastructure, global biodiversity, the protein tau in Alzheimer's disease, and more.