This Week in Science

Editor summaries of this week's papers.
Science 4 April 2008: 15.
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Editorial:
The Promise of Cancer Research

Bruce Alberts
Science 4 April 2008: 19.
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Editors' Choice

Highlights of the recent literature.
Science 4 April 2008: 21.
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Science Podcast

Science 4 April 2008: 120.
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NEW PRODUCTS

Science 4 April 2008: 120.
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News of the Week

AIDS RESEARCH: Review of Vaccine Failure Prompts a Return to Basics

Jocelyn Kaiser
Science 4 April 2008: 30-31.
Summary: At a summit meeting on AIDS vaccines held last week, it was agreed that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases needs to set a new course for a field that seems to have hit a brick wall. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

SPACE SCIENCE: NASA's Stern Quits Over Mars Exploration Plans

Andrew Lawler
Science 4 April 2008: 31.
Summary: S. Alan Stern has resigned as NASA’s science chief after a running dispute with his boss, Administrator Michael Griffin, over how to manage the financial squeeze on NASA’s $4.6 billion science effort. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

MICROBIOLOGY: Germs Take a Bite Out of Antibiotics

Mitch Leslie
Science 4 April 2008: 33.
Summary: A broad survey of soil microbes shows that numerous species devour even the most potent drugs, researchers report on page 100 of this week's issue of Science, fueling worries about the dwindling power of our main weapons against infections. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

ASTRONOMY: China's LAMOST Observatory Prepares for the Ultimate Test

Richard Stone
Science 4 April 2008: 34-35.
Summary: Engineers this month are installing the eyes and optic nerves of the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), slated to begin operating this fall in China's industrialized north. LAMOST’s spectral deluge of tens of millions of galaxies and stars should offer new insights into galaxy formation, including our own Milky Way. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

DEFENSE RESEARCH: U.S. Asked to Bolster Ties With China

Yudhijit Bhattacharjee
Science 4 April 2008: 35.
Summary: The U.S. military has more to gain than lose by working with Chinese scientists on fundamental research, according to the Pentagon’s former director of basic research, who argues for the removal of obstacles between the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and China despite the military rivalry between the two countries. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

ARCHAEOLOGY: DNA From Fossil Feces Breaks Clovis Barrier

Michael Balter
Science 4 April 2008: 37.
Summary: An international team reports online in Science this week what some experts consider the strongest evidence yet for an earlier peopling of the Americas: 14,000-year-old ancient DNA from fossilized human excrement (coprolites), found in caves in south-central Oregon. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

ScienceScope

Science 4 April 2008: 33.
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Random Samples

Science 4 April 2008: 27.
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Newsmakers

Science 4 April 2008: 29.
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News Focus

CANCER BIOLOGY: All in the Stroma: Cancer's Cosa Nostra

Jean Marx
Science 4 April 2008: 38-41.
Summary: After focusing for decades on what happens within tumor cells to make them go wrong, biologists are turning to the tumor environment and finding a network of coconspirators. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY MEETING: Magnetic Measurements Hint at Toastier Superconductivity

Adrian Cho
Science 4 April 2008: 42-43.
Summary: At the American Physical Society meeting, researchers reported evidence that superconductivity might persist in high-temperature superconductors up to at least 200 K, albeit in tiny, disconnected patches, implying that current materials may not have reached the ultimate limits. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY MEETING: Laser Plays Chemical Matchmaker

Adrian Cho
Science 4 April 2008: 42-43.
Summary: At the American Physical Society meeting, researchers reported using ultrashort pulses of laser light and the quirks of quantum mechanics to manipulate the forming of chemical bonds. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY MEETING: Squeeze Play Makes Solid Helium Flow

Adrian Cho
Science 4 April 2008: 43.
Summary: Preliminary data reported at the American Physical Society meeting provide the most direct evidence yet that ultracold, highly pressurized solid helium can flow like the thinnest possible liquid. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

CONSERVATION BIOLOGY: Puzzling Over a Steller Whodunit

Virginia Morell
Science 4 April 2008: 44-45.
Summary: What plunged the North Pacific’s Steller sea lions into a catastrophic decline, and why are numbers still low? After $190 million worth of research, scientists aren’t sure. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

Letters

 Conserving Top Predators in Ecosystems

Guillaume Chapron, Henrik Andrén, and Olof Liberg
Science 4 April 2008: 47.
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 The Role of Fisheries-Induced Evolution

Howard I. Browman, Richard Law, C. Tara Marshall;, Anna Kuparinen, Juha Merilä ;, Christian Jørgensen, Katja Enberg, Erin S. Dunlop, Robert Arlinghaus, David S. Boukal, Keith Brander, Bruno Ernande, Anna Gårdmark, Fiona Johnston, Shuichi Matsumura, Heidi Pardoe, Kristina Raab, Alexandra Silva, Anssi Vainikka, Ulf Dieckmann, Mikko Heino, and Adriaan D. Rijnsdorp
Science 4 April 2008: 47-50.
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 Tips for NIH

Mikel Aickin
Science 4 April 2008: 50.
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 Corrections and Clarifications

Science 4 April 2008: 50.
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Books et al.

SOCIOLOGY: Confronting Violence Face to Face

David D. Laitin
Science 4 April 2008: 51-52.
Summary: Examining photographic, video, forensic, and ethnographic evidence of a wide range of violent situations (from schoolyard bullying to armed conflict), the author argues that violence is not easily triggered and often injures unintended victims. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

BROWSINGS

Science 4 April 2008: 52.
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Books Received

Science 4 April 2008: 52.
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Policy Forum

PUBLIC HEALTH: A Case Study of Personalized Medicine

S. H. Katsanis, G. Javitt, and K. Hudson
Science 4 April 2008: 53-54.
Summary: Marketing of unproven tests shows the need for regulatory action to protect public health. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

Perspectives

BIOCHEMISTRY: Toward Understanding Self-Splicing

Joseph A. Piccirilli
Science 4 April 2008: 56-57.
Summary: The crystal structure of a group II intron shows a complex architecture with metal ions at the catalytic center. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

CLIMATE: Blooms Like It Hot

Hans W. Paerl and Jef Huisman
Science 4 April 2008: 57-58.
Summary: A link exists between global warming and the worldwide proliferation of harmful cyanobacterial blooms. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

DEVELOPMENT: Deconstructing Pluripotency

Anne G. Bang and Melissa K. Carpenter
Science 4 April 2008: 58-59.
Summary: The requirements for reprogramming different somatic cell types to a pluripotent state may not be equivalent. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

CELL SIGNALING: Tel2 Finally Tells One Story

Michael Chang and Joachim Lingner
Science 4 April 2008: 60-61.
Summary: The ability of a protein to interact with an entire family of phosphorylating enzymes explains its diverse functions across species. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

ASTRONOMY: Small-Scale Observations Tell a Cosmological Story

Philip A. Bland
Science 4 April 2008: 61-62.
Summary: Graphite whiskers found in meteorites provide clues to the chemical environment in the early solar system. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

MUSIC THEORY: Creating Musical Variation

Diana S. Dabby
Science 4 April 2008: 62-63.
Summary: Inspiration for composition may come from natural sounds, chance, and methods based on chaos theory. Full Text »|   PDF »|   Audio »|  

Review

Stochasticity and Cell Fate

Richard Losick and Claude Desplan
Science 4 April 2008: 65-68.
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Brevia

Bats Limit Insects in a Neotropical Agroforestry System

Kimberly Williams-Guillén, Ivette Perfecto, and John Vandermeer
Science 4 April 2008: 70.
Exclosure experiments show that bats contribute to the reduction of insects on coffee plants more than has been appreciated and to a comparable degree as birds. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Bats Limit Arthropods and Herbivory in a Tropical Forest

Margareta B. Kalka, Adam R. Smith, and Elisabeth K. V. Kalko
Science 4 April 2008: 71.
In a lowland tropical forest, bats consume insect herbivores on understory plants at least as much as birds do, thereby also indirectly limiting damage to the plants. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Research Articles

Aztec Arithmetic Revisited: Land-Area Algorithms and Acolhua Congruence Arithmetic

Barbara J. Williams and María del Carmen Jorge y Jorge
Science 4 April 2008: 72-77.
Analysis of ancient property records shows that the Aztecs used common algorithms and a distance standard for calculating land area and specific symbols to represent fractions. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Crystal Structure of a Self-Spliced Group II Intron

Navtej Toor, Kevin S. Keating, Sean D. Taylor, and Anna Marie Pyle
Science 4 April 2008: 77-82.
The autocatalytic group II intron contains a network of unusual tertiary RNA interactions that form a metalloribozyme active site with parallels to eukaryotic spliceosomes. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Reports

Revealing Magnetic Interactions from Single-Atom Magnetization Curves

Focko Meier, Lihui Zhou, Jens Wiebe, and Roland Wiesendanger
Science 4 April 2008: 82-86.
A scanning tunneling microscope with a spin-polarized tip can characterize the magnetic properties of single atoms on a nonmagnetic surface. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

The Roles of Subsurface Carbon and Hydrogen in Palladium-Catalyzed Alkyne Hydrogenation

Detre Teschner, János Borsodi, Attila Wootsch, Zsolt Révay, Michael Hävecker, Axel Knop-Gericke, S. David Jackson, and Robert Schlögl
Science 4 April 2008: 86-89.
The population of hydrogen and carbon within a palladium catalyst governs the hydrogenation of alkynes on its surface. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

The Electrical Conductivity of Post-Perovskite in Earth's D'' Layer

Kenji Ohta, Suzue Onoda, Kei Hirose, Ryosuke Sinmyo, Katsuya Shimizu, Nagayoshi Sata, Yasuo Ohishi, and Akira Yasuhara
Science 4 April 2008: 89-91.
A major silicate mineral deep in Earth’s mantle has a high electrical conductivity, causing a sufficiently strong coupling with the core to explain variations in Earth’s rotation. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Graphite Whiskers in CV3 Meteorites

Marc Fries and Andrew Steele
Science 4 April 2008: 91-93.
Published online 28 February 2008 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1153578] (in Science Express Reports)
Graphite whiskers, a naturally occurring allotrope of carbon, have been found in primitive grains in several meteorites and may explain spectral features of supernovae. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|  

Covariant Glacial-Interglacial Dust Fluxes in the Equatorial Pacific and Antarctica

Gisela Winckler, Robert F. Anderson, Martin Q. Fleisher, David McGee, and Natalie Mahowald
Science 4 April 2008: 93-96.
Published online 28 February 2008 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1150595] (in Science Express Reports)
A 500,000-year record shows that more dust, which provides iron and other nutrients, was blown into the equatorial Pacific during glacial periods than during warm periods. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Selective Blockade of MicroRNA Processing by Lin28

Srinivas R. Viswanathan, George Q. Daley, and Richard I. Gregory
Science 4 April 2008: 97-100.
Published online 21 February 2008 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1154040] (in Science Express Reports)
A protein necessary for reprogramming skin fibroblasts to pluripotent stem cells is an RNA-binding protein that normally inhibits microRNA processing in embryonic cells. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Bacteria Subsisting on Antibiotics

Gautam Dantas, Morten O. A. Sommer, Rantimi D. Oluwasegun, and George M. Church
Science 4 April 2008: 100-103.
A wide range of bacteria in the environment, many related to human pathogens, are both resistant to antibiotics and consume them as their only source of carbon for growth. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Reversible Compartmentalization of de Novo Purine Biosynthetic Complexes in Living Cells

Songon An, Ravindra Kumar, Erin D. Sheets, and Stephen J. Benkovic
Science 4 April 2008: 103-106.
The enzymes needed for purine biosynthesis cluster in the cytoplasm when cells are depleted of purine but dissociate when the demand for purine is low. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Single-Molecule DNA Sequencing of a Viral Genome

Timothy D. Harris, Phillip R. Buzby, Hazen Babcock, Eric Beer, Jayson Bowers, Ido Braslavsky, Marie Causey, Jennifer Colonell, James DiMeo, J. William Efcavitch, Eldar Giladi, Jaime Gill, John Healy, Mirna Jarosz, Dan Lapen, Keith Moulton, Stephen R. Quake, Kathleen Steinmann, Edward Thayer, Anastasia Tyurina, Rebecca Ward, Howard Weiss, and Zheng Xie
Science 4 April 2008: 106-109.
The M13 viral genome has been resequenced by a single-molecule method that allows simultaneous sequencing of 280,000 DNA strands of 25 bases with 100 percent coverage. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Entrainment of Neuronal Oscillations as a Mechanism of Attentional Selection

Peter Lakatos, George Karmos, Ashesh D. Mehta, Istvan Ulbert, and Charles E. Schroeder
Science 4 April 2008: 110-113.
In monkeys that are paying attention to a rhythmic stimulus, brain oscillations become tuned to the stimulus so that the response in the visual cortex is enhanced. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Episodic-Like Memory in Rats: Is It Based on When or How Long Ago?

William A. Roberts, Miranda C. Feeney, Krista MacPherson, Mark Petter, Neil McMillan, and Evanya Musolino
Science 4 April 2008: 113-115.
Unlike humans, who can place past events within a temporal framework, rats can only remember when an event happened by tracking the time elapsed since its occurrence. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|