In this week's issue:
Research Summaries
This Week in Science
Editor summaries of this week papers.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol338/issue6103/twis.dtl
Editors' Choice
Highlights of the recent literature.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol338/issue6103/twil.dtl
Multimedia
Cover Stories: Abstract Ideas
Science can require a good deal of abstract thinking, and sometimes it makes sense to extend this approach to cover imagery.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/1
Editorial
The Burden of Mood Disorders
Hans-Ulrich Wittchen
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/15
News of the Week
This Week's Section
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/22-a
Around the World
In science news around the world this week, prison terms are being sought for seven Italian earthquake experts who allegedly downplayed the risk of the deadly earthquake that struck L'Aquila in 2009, billions of euros in Spanish research funding remain unspent, a new Ebola-like virus has been discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and a Japanese team has claimed discovery of element 113.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/22-b
Random Sample
Researchers found that geography plays a role in why biomedical papers are retracted, eminent 19th century British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace now has his own Web site, and this week's numbers quantify the annual worldwide cost of climate change and the average decline in coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef from 1985 to 2012.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/23-a
Newsmakers
This week's Newsmakers are Barry Commoner, a cell biologist, proponent of the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and leader of the environmental movement, who died on 30 September at the age of 95; polar bear researcher Charles Monnett, who has returned to work after being cleared of charges of research misconduct; and physicist Stefano Ragazzi, who has been appointed the next director of the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/23-b
Findings
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol338/issue6103/findings.dtl
News & Analysis
Supersolidity Shot Down by Its Own Discoverer
Adrian Cho
It now appears that the bizarre phenomenon of supersolidity-in which ultracold, highly pressurized solid helium supposedly flows through itself like a liquid without any viscosity-simply doesn't exist.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/25
Utility Sacrificed for Speed, Supercomputer Critics Say
Dennis Normile
As Japan's K computer, which made headlines in June 2011 as the world's fastest supercomputer, is put to work on real-world problems, some scientific users say it was too narrowly built for speed.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/26
Researchers Struggle to Assess Responses to Ocean Acidification
David Malakoff
Scientists met last week to discuss how to build a better crystal ball to gauge the effects of rising CO2 emissions on ocean acidity.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/27
'Awesome' Synthesis Could Boost Protein-Based Drugs
Robert F. Service
Synthetic chemists reported last week that for the first time they had synthesized erythropoietin with a uniform coating of sugar chains that decorate the outside of the natural molecule.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/28
Pharma Firms Push for Sharing of Cancer Trial Data
Yudhijit Bhattacharjee
A consortium of pharmaceutical companies hopes to improve the success rate of experimental cancer therapies by getting cancer researchers to share data from clinical trials.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/29
News Focus
Mysteries of the Brain
Leslie Roberts et al.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/30-a
How Are Memories Retrieved?
Greg Miller
New work suggests that memory is far more fluid than neuroscientists thought, and that memory retrieval plays a crucial role in shaping memory over time.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/30-b
Why Is Mental Illness So Hard to Treat?
Greg Miller
The human brain is complex and difficult to study, which has impeded development of drug treatments for mental illnesses. But new tools and new ways of thinking could help the field gain new traction.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/32
Why Are Our Brains So Big?
Michael Balter
The leading hypothesis for why humans have such large brains is that we live in large social groups, which requires considerable processing power. But which came first, the big groups or the big brains?
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/33
Why Are You and Your Brain Unique?
Greg Miller
Recent work has provided clues about the neural basis of individual differences in behavior, cognition, and even personality, but there's still much we don't know.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/35
Can We Make Our Brains More Plastic?
Gretchen Vogel
Neuroscientists have begun to understand a few of the factors that govern the flexibility of certain parts of the maturing brain, which may one day make it possible to rewire the adult brain.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/36
Brain Teasers
Greg Miller
The brain poses many more than just the five quandaries highlighted in this package. Science summarizes six more mysteries of the brain that any neuroscientist should be proud to tackle.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/39
Letters
NextGenVOICES
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/40
Books et al.
Infusing Evolutionary Perspectives
Allison A. Snow
Questioning both the techno-centric approach of biotech and those who advocate blindly trying to mimic agriculture in nature's image, Denison argues that Darwinian insights are crucial to identify promising approaches to crop breeding and agricultural management.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/45
They've Kept On Keeping On
Emma Sherratt
Fortey introduces readers to well-worn organisms that, having endured all of the difficulties thrown at them over the ages, he refers to as "messengers from deep geological time."
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/46-a
Browsings
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/46-b
Books Received
A listing of books received at Science during the week ending 28 September 2012.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/46-c
Policy Forum
Deploying Off-Grid Technology to Eradicate Energy Poverty
Benjamin K. Sovacool
Projects must account for social and behavioral factors influencing renewable energy technology adoption.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/47
Perspectives
Malaria in the Post-Genome Era
Brian Greenwood et al.
New approaches to malaria control should include the development of tools that rely on genome-based information.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/49
How Insect Herbivores Drive the Evolution of Plants
J. Daniel Hare
The presence or absence of particular herbivore species influences which plant genotypes are favored by natural selection.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/50
Intestinal Wound Healing Requires a Wnt Balancing Act
Terrence A. Barrett
Control of wound healing via balancing signaling regulators may have implications for treating inflammatory bowel disease.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/51
Bacteria Deliver a Genotoxic Hit
Robert F. Schwabe et al.
Intestinal inflammation can promote colorectal cancer by altering the composition of the gut microbiota.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/52
Earthquakes in the Lab
Toshihiko Shimamoto et al.
Friction experiments using a flywheel-based apparatus can be used to simulate natural earthquakes.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/54
Melting Colloidal Crystals from the Inside Out
Eric R. Weeks
How crystals melt can be seen directly by studying size-tunable colloidal particles.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/55
A DNA Twist Diffuses and Hops
Maxim Y. Sheinin et al.
Single-molecule techniques reveal short- and long-range dynamics of supercoiled DNA.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/56
Essays on Science and Society
When Attention Wanders
Marlene R. Cohen
Examining the neural process of visual attention helps decipher how the brain extracts important sensory information.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/58
Striatal Interneurons: Causes of or Cures for Movement Disorders?
Aryn Gittis
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/59-a
The Cellular Feeling of Pressure
Bertrand Coste
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/59-b
Reviews
Theory and Simulation in Neuroscience
Wulfram Gerstner et al.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/60
Introduction to Special Issue
Defeating the Dementors
Peter Stern
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/67
Reviews
Synaptic Dysfunction in Depression: Potential Therapeutic Targets
Ronald S. Duman et al.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/68
Perspectives
Depression and Hippocampal Neurogenesis: A Road to Remission?
Amelia J. Eisch et al.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/72
Are We Getting Closer to Valid Translational Models for Major Depression?
Olivier Berton et al.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/75
The Science of Resilience: Implications for the Prevention and Treatment of Depression
Steven M. Southwick et al.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/79
Reports
The Shortest-Known-Period Star Orbiting Our Galaxy's Supermassive Black Hole
L. Meyer et al.
A star can help probe Einstein's general relativity theory close to a black hole that is 4 million times as massive as the Sun.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/84
Imaging the Homogeneous Nucleation During the Melting of Superheated Colloidal Crystals
Ziren Wang et al.
Uniform colloidal crystals are used to study the effects of superheating on homogeneous melting.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/87
A Local Proton Source Enhances CO2 Electroreduction to CO by a Molecular Fe Catalyst
Cyrille Costentin et al.
Phenol groups in an iron complex appear to facilitate catalysis of carbon dioxide reduction by supplying protons.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/90
Dynamics of DNA Supercoils
M. T. J. van Loenhout et al.
The movement of intertwined loops, or plectonemes, along a twisted DNA molecule was visualized.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/94
Complex Dental Structure and Wear Biomechanics in Hadrosaurid Dinosaurs
Gregory M. Erickson et al.
The teeth in duck-billed dinosaurs were as functionally refined as those of present-day mammals.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/98
Rapid Acceleration Leads to Rapid Weakening in Earthquake-Like Laboratory Experiments
J. C. Chang et al.
High-velocity experiments simulate slip along a fault patch during a large earthquake.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/101
The Efficacy of Student-Centered Instruction in Supporting Science Learning
E. M. Granger et al.
A randomized trial reveals that opportunities to support models with evidence aids understanding in grade-school students.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/105
Wnt5a Potentiates TGF-β Signaling to Promote Colonic Crypt Regeneration After Tissue Injury
Hiroyuki Miyoshi et al.
Repair of the intestinal epithelium requires both cell proliferation and replacement of crypt stem cells.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/108
Insect Herbivores Drive Real-Time Ecological and Evolutionary Change in Plant Populations
Anurag A. Agrawal et al.
Protecting the common evening primrose from being eaten by insects alters its phenotype in only five growing seasons.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/113
Natural Enemies Drive Geographic Variation in Plant Defenses
Tobias Züst et al.
A field study demonstrates that specialist aphid feeders cause changes in the defenses mounted by plants.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/116
Intestinal Inflammation Targets Cancer-Inducing Activity of the Microbiota
Janelle C. Arthur et al.
Microbes resident in the gut can promote colorectal cancer in mice in an inflammation-independent manner.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/120
BDNF Is a Negative Modulator of Morphine Action
Ja Wook Koo et al.
Morphine reward is modulated by ventral tegmental area brain-derived neurotrophic factor in a way that is opposite to its modulation of cocaine reward.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/124
Shared Synaptic Pathophysiology in Syndromic and Nonsyndromic Rodent Models of Autism
Stephane J. Baudouin et al.
Deficiency or mutation of the postsynaptic adhesion protein neuroligin-3 may contribute to cognitive defects in autism.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/128
In Monkeys Making Value-Based Decisions, LIP Neurons Encode Cue Salience and Not Action Value
Marvin L. Leathers et al.
Parietal cortex neurons respond to cues that predict large penalties as well as large rewards.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/132
Network Resets in Medial Prefrontal Cortex Mark the Onset of Behavioral Uncertainty
Mattias P. Karlsson et al.
Abrupt neuronal activity in the rat prefrontal cortex indicates a switch from exploitation to exploration.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/135
Products & Materials
New Products
A weekly roundup of information on newly offered instrumentation, apparatus, and laboratory materials of potential interest to researchers.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/140-a
Podcast
Science Podcast
The show includes depression resilience, properties of dinosaur teeth, mysteries of the brain, and more.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/140-b
From the AAAS Office of Publishing and Member Services
PROGRESS IN IMMUNOLOGY: From Basic Discoveries to Medical Innovation
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/338/6103/140-c
