Featured Video: How Cats Lap
Cats use fluid inertia to generate a liquid column that they catch in their mouths before gravity destroys it. Check out the video and the related Science Express paper by Reis et al.
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In this week's show: Literacy's effects on brain function, U.S. election results, happiness by living in the moment, and more. Listen now.
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In this week's issue:
Editorial
Next-Generation Assessments
Lorrie A. Shepard
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/890
Research Summaries
This Week in Science
Editor summaries of this week's papers.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol330/issue6006/twis.dtl
Editors' Choice
Highlights of the recent literature
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol330/issue6006/twil.dtl
News of the Week
Researchers Anxious and on the Defensive After Republican Gains
Many researchers fear the worst after a Republican resurgence at the polls produced a 25-plus-seat majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and loosened the Democrats' grip on the Senate.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/896
Election Means Change in Climate for Efforts to Curb Emissions
With "No on cap-and-tax" among their key talking points, Republicans who triumphed in the U.S. Congress and in dozens of state capitols have vowed to block President Barack Obama's plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions and reject state laws with a similar goal.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/897-a
Ralph Hall Bids to Lead Science Panel
In an election that saw Republicans gain control of the U.S. House of Representatives, it's perhaps fitting that the presumptive new chair of the House science committee, Representative Ralph Hall (R–TX), is a former Democrat.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/897-b
Retiring Legislators Warn of Pitfalls Facing Science in New Congress
Two days after last week's midterm election, Science talked with four veteran legislators who have been staunch defenders of science and science education; Science offers excerpts from that discussion.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/898
From the Science Policy Blog
ScienceInsider reported this week that physicist and Representative Bill Foster (D–IL) lost his seat in last week's election as the Republican wave hit his conservative-leaning district, despite considerable financial support from colleagues at his district's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, where he worked for 22 years, among other stories.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/899
Neandertal Brain Growth Shows A Head Start for Moderns
In the crucial first year of life, Neandertal brains developed dramatically differently from the way ours do, according to a report published this week.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/900-a
The Promise and Pitfalls of a Cancer Breakthrough
A landmark clinical trial reported last week that screening for small tumors with advanced x-ray imaging led to a significant drop in lung cancer deaths (20% fewer) among smokers and ex-smokers, compared with screening with standard chest x-rays.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/900-b
From Science's Online Daily News Site
ScienceNOW reported this week that cats drink differently than other animals, a new malaria drug could save tens of thousands of lives, and the fifth comet ever to be imaged close up looks like a dog bone, among other stories.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/901
Earth-Observation Summit Endorses Global Data Sharing
A veritable orchestra of Earth-observation systems is intended to make reams of data available and relevant to decision-makers. At a summit last week, initiatives were unveiled to monitor land-cover changes and forest carbon stocks.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/902
Affordable 'Exomes' Fill Gaps in a Catalog of Rare Diseases
A flurry of reports this year on new genes for rare diseases caused by a defect in a single gene takes advantage of cheap, next-generation DNA-sequencing technologies that make it possible to sequence the 1% of the genome that codes for proteins, known as exons.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/903
Random Samples
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol330/issue6006/r-samples.dtl
News Focus
Scientific Gold Mine or Dicey Money Pit?
Scientists say a proposed underground laboratory in South Dakota could be a world beater. But they must persuade the National Science Foundation to pay for the massive project.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/904
Collapse? What Collapse? Societal Change Revisited
Old notions about how societies fail are at odds with new data painting a more nuanced, complicated—and possibly hopeful—view of human adaptation to change.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/907
Taking the Sting Out of Acid Rain
As a landmark U.S. law turns 20, success marks the acid rain control program, but the cap-and-trade market it created is in turmoil.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/910
Letters
Retraction
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/330/6006/912-a
Editorial Expression of Concern
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/330/6006/912-b
Training Physicians to Communicate
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/330/6006/912-c
Birds of Prey Remain at Risk
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/330/6006/913-a
Mentors for Elementary School Teachers
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/330/6006/913-b
Corrections and Clarifications
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/330/6006/913-c
Books et al.
Stars in the Beginning
Jonathan C. Tan
Loeb's primer on the formation of early stars and galaxies opens a new series meant to offer short, accessible introductions to current frontiers of fundamental physics research.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/914
Power and Pitfalls of DNA Profiling
Carole McCartney
Through a series of case studies, Kaye explores the forensic use of DNA data and the legal and scientific controversies surrounding such use.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/915-a
Books Received
A listing of books received at Science during the week ended 05 November 2010.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/915-b
Policy Forum
Earth System Science for Global Sustainability: Grand Challenges
W. V. Reid et al.
Progress in understanding and addressing both global environmental change and sustainable development requires better integration of social science research.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/916
Perspectives
Prion-Like Behavior of Amyloid-β
J. Kim and D. M. Holtzman
Can Alzheimer's disease arise through pathogenic transmission of a protein aggregate?
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/918
Materials Ecology: An Industrial Perspective
P. Collier and C. M. Alles
Careful process design that considers material use and reuse over the entire product life cycle is important for a sustainable industry.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/919
Irremediable Complexity?
M. W. Gray et al.
Complex cellular machines may have evolved through a ratchet-like process called constructive neutral evolution.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/920
Fertility Goddesses as Trojan Horses
F. Govers and G. C. Angenent
In flowering plants, fertilization and fungal infection depend on the same type of receptor proteins.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/922
Cooperation and the Commons
B. Vollan and E. Ostrom
In Ethiopia, groups with a higher propensity to cooperate avoid the tragedy of the commons.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/923
Glimpsing the Critical Intermediate in Cytochrome P450 Oxidations
Stephen G. Sligar
The key intermediate in the oxidation of carbon-hydrogen bonds by cytochrome P450 has been characterized.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/924
Benoît B. Mandelbrot (1924–2010)
Heinz-Otto Peitgen
A mathematician's revelation about visual irregularities in nature spawned the field of fractal geometry, now widely used to interpret patterns in diverse fields.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/926
Review Articles
Amazonia Through Time: Andean Uplift, Climate Change, Landscape Evolution, and Biodiversity
C. Hoorn et al.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/927
Brevia
A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind
M. A. Killingsworth and D. T. Gilbert
The iPhone Hap App reveals that wandering thoughts lead to unhappiness.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/932
Research Articles
Cytochrome P450 Compound I: Capture, Characterization, and C-H Bond Activation Kinetics
J. Rittle and M. T. Green
The iron-bound oxygen intermediate responsible for many challenging biochemical oxidations has been thoroughly characterized.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/933
How the CCA-Adding Enzyme Selects Adenine over Cytosine at Position 76 of tRNA
B. Pan et al.
Crystal structures along the reaction pathway show that only adenine is correctly oriented for incorporation at transfer RNA position 76.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/937
Reports
Radio-Frequency Association of Efimov Trimers
T. Lompe et al.
A bound state of three fermionic atoms in different quantum states is formed directly by laser association.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/940
A Low-Magnetic-Field Soft Gamma Repeater
N. Rea et al.
A neutron star lacking a strong magnetic field can still emit short bursts of high-energy radiation.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/944
Anomalous Strength Characteristics of Tilt Grain Boundaries in Graphene
R. Grantab et al.
Simulations indicate that high-angle boundaries can better accommodate strain and prevent failure in graphene.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/946
Structure and Formation of the Lunar Farside Highlands
I. Garrick-Bethell et al.
A mathematical analysis of the lunar farside highlands implicates the role of tidal processes in building the lunar crust.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/949
Coupling of Nitrous Oxide and Methane by Global Atmospheric Chemistry
M. J. Prather and J. Hsu
Nitrous oxide emissions affect atmospheric methane concentrations on a time scale that is 10 times longer than the methane lifetime.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/952
Fossil Evidence for Evolution of the Shape and Color of Penguin Feathers
J. A. Clarke et al.
A fossil penguin shows that the wing and feather form evolved before distinctive microstructural changes in the feathers.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/954
Effects of Rapid Global Warming at the Paleocene-Eocene Boundary on Neotropical Vegetation
C. Jaramillo et al.
Palynology shows that tropical forests persisted under conditions of rapid climate warming 55 million years ago.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/957
Conditional Cooperation and Costly Monitoring Explain Success in Forest Commons Management
D. Rustagi et al.
Social behaviors in lab experiments that result in long-term productivity are seen in a real-world forest management program.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/961
The Role of Discharge Variation in Scaling of Drainage Area and Food Chain Length in Rivers
J. L. Sabo et al.
The lengths of river food chains are indirectly related to drainage area and directly affected by flow and discharge.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/965
Conserved Molecular Components for Pollen Tube Reception and Fungal Invasion
S. A. Kessler et al.
In Arabidopsis, development and disease use the same pollen-tube or hyphal tip-growing strategies.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/968
Optogenetic Control of Cardiac Function
A. B. Arrenberg et al.
Optogenetics is applied to study development of the zebrafish pacemaker.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/971
Kinetic Scaffolding Mediated by a Phospholipase C–β and Gq Signaling Complex
G. L. Waldo et al.
A crystal structure shows how the two components of a central signaling complex regulate each other.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/974
Peripherally Applied Aβ-Containing Inoculates Induce Cerebral β-Amyloidosis
Y. S. Eisele et al.
Amyloid-containing brain extracts can "infect" susceptible Alzheimer’s disease model animals.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/980
Contact Network Structure Explains the Changing Epidemiology of Pertussis
P. Rohani et al.
Age-specific social networks can influence transmission of infection and should be considered in health policy planning.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/982
Essential Regulation of CNS Angiogenesis by the Orphan G Protein–Coupled Receptor GPR124
F. Kuhnert et al.
A factor is identified that determines the amount of vasculature in the brain, and, in doing so, affects brain function.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/330/6006/985
Departments
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/330/6006/990-a
Science Podcast
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/990-b
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: ELECTIONS
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/330/6006/888
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