Clinical Trials and Tribulations

Lemons, Oranges, and Complexity

Eliot Marshall
Science 10 October 2008: 209.
Summary »|   PDF »|  

Video: Pediatric Medicines -- Prescribing Drugs "Off-Label"

Robert Frederick
Science 10 October 2008: 209.
Summary: A video progress report on regulating and testing medicines for kids. Full Text »|  

News

Spiraling Costs Threaten Gridlock

David Malakoff
Science 10 October 2008: 210-213.
Summary: The gold standard of medical science--the big randomized trial--is in danger of being priced out of reach by technical complexity, poor management, and paperwork. Full Text »|   PDF »|   Podcast Interview »|  

Allegations of Waste: The 'Seeding' Study

David Malakoff
Science 10 October 2008: 213.
Summary: Internal company documents suggesting that a 1999 trial of the Merck painkiller Vioxx had more to do with marketing than with science have focused new attention on so-called seeding trials aimed at promoting new treatments. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

The Promise and Pitfalls of Clinical Trials Overseas

Dennis Normile
Science 10 October 2008: 214-216.
Summary: Big pharma has big incentives, including cost savings and more powerful studies, to launch trials in developing countries. But can companies avoid the ethical potholes? Full Text »|   PDF »|  

Making Clinical Data Widely Available

Jocelyn Kaiser
Science 10 October 2008: 217-218.
Summary: Granting public access to drug trial results and sharing patient data among researchers will make products safer and advance science, proponents say. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

Women Abound in NIH Trials

Constance Holden
Science 10 October 2008: 219.
Summary: A campaign that began in the 1990s to include more female participants in clinical trials funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health may have been more successful than people realize. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

Cholesterol Veers Off Script

Jennifer Couzin
Science 10 October 2008: 220-223.
Summary: Recent trials of drugs that either lower "bad" cholesterol or raise the "good" kind have produced surprising results; along with genetics research, these findings have put in question some long-held beliefs. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

This Week in Science

Editor summaries of this week's papers.
Science 10 October 2008: 161.
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Editorial:
The Misused Impact Factor

Kai Simons
Science 10 October 2008: 165.
Summary »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|  

Editors' Choice

Highlights of the recent literature.
Science 10 October 2008: 167.
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Quarterly Author Index

Science 10 October 2008: 279.
Summary »|  

Science Podcast

Science 10 October 2008: 279.
Summary: The 10 October 2008 show includes digital blueprints of vertebrate development, a single-species ecosystem deep within the Earth, clinical trials gridlock, and more. Full Text »|   Transcript »|  

NEW PRODUCTS

Science 10 October 2008: 279.
Summary »|   PDF »|  

News of the Week

NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE: HIV, HPV Researchers Honored, But One Scientist Is Left Out

Jon Cohen and Martin Enserink
Science 10 October 2008: 174-175.
Summary: The 2008 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to Luc Montagnier and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi for their discovery of the virus that causes AIDS--but not Robert Gallo, whom many consider to have co-discovered the virus with Montagnier. A third prize went to German virologist Harald zur Hausen for finding that human papillomaviruses can cause cervical cancer. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS: Trio of Particle Theorists Lauded

Adrian Cho
Science 10 October 2008: 175.
Summary: This year's Nobel Prize in physics honors Yoichiro Nambu, Makoto Kobayashi, and Toshihide Maskawa for discoveries in particle physics. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY: Lights! Camera! Action! Zebrafish Embryos Caught on Film

Gretchen Vogel
Science 10 October 2008: 176.
Summary: A set of unusual movies, described online this week in Science and available on the Web, shows all the movements and divisions of cells in a zebrafish embryo during its first day of development. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT: Pacific Northwest Sea Bird May Lose 'Threatened' Status

Rachel Zelkowitz
Science 10 October 2008: 177.
Summary: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed last week to review the protected status of the marbled murrelet, a sea bird that nests in the coastal forests of the Pacific Northwest, in response to a timber-industry-led petition claiming that the bird does not meet key provisions of the Endangered Species Act. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

SCIENTIFIC UNIONS: Meeting of Research Leaders Spotlights African Development, Disaster Planning

Robert Koenig
Science 10 October 2008: 178-179.
Summary: The International Council for Science will hold its general assembly session on 20 to 24 October in Mozambique's scarred but rebuilding capital, Maputo, in part to advance its strategy of expanding activities and boosting science in Africa. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

ECOLOGY: Comprehensive Conservation Database Details Threats to Mammals

Elizabeth Pennisi
Science 10 October 2008: 178-179.
Summary: Earlier this week, the International Union for Conservation of Nature released a database detailing the status of all mammals known to humankind since the year 1500. On page 225 of this week's issue of Science, the team that assembled the database analyzes the findings. The news is bleak, particularly for the oceangoers. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

SOCIAL SCIENCE: Do Voter Surveys Underestimate the Impact of Racial Bias?

Jennifer Couzin
Science 10 October 2008: 180-181.
Summary: Some social scientists think that many voters who say they support Democratic candidate Senator Barack Obama in fact may be uncomfortable with the prospect of an African-American president or that polls have failed to reach Democratic voters most likely to harbor such prejudice, and that some fraction of those people may vote for Republican Senator John McCain--or not vote at all. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

2009 U.S. BUDGET: Tax Credit Extension Is Silver Lining for Science

Jeffrey Mervis
Science 10 October 2008: 181.
Summary: Last week's $700 billion rescue package for U.S. financial institutions also lends a hand to high-tech companies by extending and expanding a tax credit for investing in research. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

ScienceScope

Science 10 October 2008: 177.
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Random Samples

Science 10 October 2008: 171.
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Newsmakers

Science 10 October 2008: 173.
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News Focus

CLIMATE CHANGE: Impacts Research Seen As Next Climate Frontier

Eli Kintisch
Science 10 October 2008: 182-183.
Summary: Scientists hope that the next U.S. president will devote more of the billion-dollar climate change research program to impacts. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

ECOLOGY: From Remarkable Rescue to Restoration of Lost Habitat

Richard Stone
Science 10 October 2008: 184.
Summary: Southwest China's alpine lakes have lost many of their native species. Researchers may have found a way to reboot the ecosystem. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Samurai Mathematician Set Japan Ablaze With Brief, Bright Light

Dennis Normile
Science 10 October 2008: 185.
Summary: Isolated from the West, Seki Takakazu churned out some of the finest mathematical work of his time. Centuries later, scholars are finally giving him his due. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

BIOETHICS: Students Learn How, Not What, to Think About Difficult Issues

Greg Miller
Science 10 October 2008: 186-187.
Summary: A novel bioethics program trains teachers to help students confront challenges in the classroom--and in their lives. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

Letters

 Declines in NIH R01 Research Grant Funding

H. George Mandel and Elliot S. Vesell
Science 10 October 2008: 189.
Full Text »|   PDF »|  

 A Call to Action for Coral Reefs

Richard E. Dodge, Charles Birkeland, Marea Hatziolos, Joan Kleypas, Stephen R. Palumbi, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Rob van Woesik, John C. Ogden, Richard B. Aronson, Billy D. Causey, and Francis Staub
Science 10 October 2008: 189-190.
Full Text »|   PDF »|  

 LIFE IN SCIENCE: Sounds of Atoms

Paul S. Weiss and Stephan J. Stranick
Science 10 October 2008: 190.
Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

 Neutralizing the Impact Factor Culture

Abner L. Notkins
Science 10 October 2008: 191.
Full Text »|   PDF »|  

 Impact Factor Fever

Paolo Cherubini
Science 10 October 2008: 191.
Full Text »|   PDF »|  

 Corrections and Clarifications

Science 10 October 2008: 192.
Full Text »|   PDF »|  

Books et al.

COGNITIVE SCIENCE: Arguing for Embodied Consciousness

Harold Fromm
Science 10 October 2008: 195-196.
Summary: The author argues that findings from the natural sciences, especially research on human cognition, are critical to progress in the humanities and studies of culture. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

SCIENCE AND ART: Subject Matter Matters

Mary Parrish
Science 10 October 2008: 196-197.
Summary: These two books will fascinate readers interested in the arena in which art and science come together or in illustrations of birds or fossils. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

BROWSINGS

Science 10 October 2008: 197.
Summary: Full Text »|   PDF »|  

Books Received

Science 10 October 2008: 197.
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Policy Forum

GENETICS: Trends in Human Gene Patent Litigation

Christopher M. Holman
Science 10 October 2008: 198-199.
Summary: Fears surrounding human gene patents have, for the most part, yet to manifest themselves in patent litigation. Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Perspectives

PALEONTOLOGY: Sauropod Gigantism

P. Martin Sander and Marcus Clauss
Science 10 October 2008: 200-201.
Summary: How did sauropod dinosaurs reach body sizes that remain unsurpassed in land-living animals? Full Text »|   PDF »|  

IMMUNOLOGY: Regulating Suppression

Ethan M. Shevach
Science 10 October 2008: 202-203.
Summary: How a T cell protein suppresses the immune response will help guide the development of therapies that do not have autoimmune side effects. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

PHYSICS: Cold Molecules Beat the Shakes

P. L. Gould
Science 10 October 2008: 203-204.
Summary: Due to their relative complexity, molecules have been harder to cool than atoms, but that is beginning to change. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

EVOLUTION: Armor Development and Fitness

William A. Cresko
Science 10 October 2008: 204-206.
Summary: The fitness of stickleback fish that develop different numbers of external bony plates varies between oceanic and freshwater environments. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

ECOLOGY: Biodiversity in a Warmer World

Jens-Christian Svenning and Richard Condit
Science 10 October 2008: 206-207.
Summary: A new framework helps to understand how species ranges change under global warming. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

GEOPHYSICS: Volcanic Symphony in the Lab

Luigi Burlini and Giulio Di Toro
Science 10 October 2008: 207-208.
Summary: Analysis of acoustic signals from lab samples links rapid pressure drops of pore fluids with low-frequency volcanic earthquakes. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

Brevia

Collective Behavior in an Early Cambrian Arthropod

Xian-Guang Hou, Derek J. Siveter, Richard J. Aldridge, and David J. Siveter
Science 10 October 2008: 224.
Fossil arthropods in 525-million-year-old rocks in China are preserved in a long chain, implying that some Cambrian animals exhibited social behavior, unlike later arthropods. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|  

Research Articles

The Status of the World's Land and Marine Mammals: Diversity, Threat, and Knowledge

Jan Schipper, Janice S. Chanson, Federica Chiozza, Neil A. Cox, Michael Hoffmann, Vineet Katariya, John Lamoreux, Ana S. L. Rodrigues, Simon N. Stuart, Helen J. Temple, Jonathan Baillie, Luigi Boitani, Thomas E. Lacher, Jr., Russell A. Mittermeier, Andrew T. Smith, Daniel Absolon, John M. Aguiar, Giovanni Amori, Noura Bakkour, Ricardo Baldi, Richard J. Berridge, Jon Bielby, Patricia Ann Black, J. Julian Blanc, Thomas M. Brooks, James A. Burton, Thomas M. Butynski, Gianluca Catullo, Roselle Chapman, Zoe Cokeliss, Ben Collen, Jim Conroy, Justin G. Cooke, Gustavo A. B. da Fonseca, Andrew E. Derocher, Holly T. Dublin, J. W. Duckworth, Louise Emmons, Richard H. Emslie, Marco Festa-Bianchet, Matt Foster, Sabrina Foster, David L. Garshelis, Cormack Gates, Mariano Gimenez-Dixon, Susana Gonzalez, Jose Fernando Gonzalez-Maya, Tatjana C. Good, Geoffrey Hammerson, Philip S. Hammond, David Happold, Meredith Happold, John Hare, Richard B. Harris, Clare E. Hawkins, Mandy Haywood, Lawrence R. Heaney, Simon Hedges, Kristofer M. Helgen, Craig Hilton-Taylor, Syed Ainul Hussain, Nobuo Ishii, Thomas A. Jefferson, Richard K. B. Jenkins, Charlotte H. Johnston, Mark Keith, Jonathan Kingdon, David H. Knox, Kit M. Kovacs, Penny Langhammer, Kristin Leus, Rebecca Lewison, Gabriela Lichtenstein, Lloyd F. Lowry, Zoe Macavoy, Georgina M. Mace, David P. Mallon, Monica Masi, Meghan W. McKnight, Rodrigo A. Medellín, Patricia Medici, Gus Mills, Patricia D. Moehlman, Sanjay Molur, Arturo Mora, Kristin Nowell, John F. Oates, Wanda Olech, William R. L. Oliver, Monik Oprea, Bruce D. Patterson, William F. Perrin, Beth A. Polidoro, Caroline Pollock, Abigail Powel, Yelizaveta Protas, Paul Racey, Jim Ragle, Pavithra Ramani, Galen Rathbun, Randall R. Reeves, Stephen B. Reilly, John E. Reynolds, III, Carlo Rondinini, Ruth Grace Rosell-Ambal, Monica Rulli, Anthony B. Rylands, Simona Savini, Cody J. Schank, Wes Sechrest, Caryn Self-Sullivan, Alan Shoemaker, Claudio Sillero-Zubiri, Naamal De Silva, David E. Smith, Chelmala Srinivasulu, Peter J. Stephenson, Nico van Strien, Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, Barbara L. Taylor, Rob Timmins, Diego G. Tirira, Marcelo F. Tognelli, Katerina Tsytsulina, Liza M. Veiga, Jean-Christophe Vié, Elizabeth A. Williamson, Sarah A. Wyatt, Yan Xie, and Bruce E. Young
Science 10 October 2008: 225-230.
A comprehensive assessment of all of Earth's mammals shows that primary productivity drives species richness on land and sea and that 20 to 25 percent of species are under threat. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

A High Phase-Space-Density Gas of Polar Molecules

K.-K. Ni, S. Ospelkaus, M. H. G. de Miranda, A. Pe'er, B. Neyenhuis, J. J. Zirbel, S. Kotochigova, P. S. Julienne, D. S. Jin, and J. Ye
Science 10 October 2008: 231-235.
Published online 18 September 2008 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1163861] (in Science Express Research Articles)
Raman laser irradiation can cool a cloud of KRb molecules to ultralow translational, vibrational, and rotational temperatures, a step toward forming molecular condensates. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|  

Reports

Cavity Optomechanics with a Bose-Einstein Condensate

Ferdinand Brennecke, Stephan Ritter, Tobias Donner, and Tilman Esslinger
Science 10 October 2008: 235-238.
Published online 11 September 2008 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1163218] (in Science Express Reports)
Coupling a Bose-Einstein condensate to an optical cavity holding a few trapped photons provides a sensitive probe of mechanical oscillations in the quantum regime. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Carbon Nanotube Arrays with Strong Shear Binding-On and Easy Normal Lifting-Off

Liangti Qu, Liming Dai, Morley Stone, Zhenhai Xia, and Zhong Lin Wang
Science 10 October 2008: 238-242.
Like gecko feet, a disordered array of carbon nanotubes with curly entangled tops can grip vertical surfaces without slipping but can also release and reattach easily. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Base Sequence and Higher-Order Structure Induce the Complex Excited-State Dynamics in DNA

Nina K. Schwalb and Friedrich Temps
Science 10 October 2008: 243-245.
DNA dissipates ultraviolet light more effectively when it consists of a mixed sequence than when it is an extended run of the same nucleotide. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Implications of Magma Transfer Between Multiple Reservoirs on Eruption Cycling

Derek Elsworth, Glen Mattioli, Joshua Taron, Barry Voight, and Richard Herd
Science 10 October 2008: 246-248.
Data from the Soufrière Hills volcano reveal how connected shallow and deep magma chambers led to three eruption cycles over 12 years and imply that activity may end soon. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Laboratory Simulation of Volcano Seismicity

Philip M Benson, Sergio Vinciguerra, Philip G Meredith, and R Paul Young
Science 10 October 2008: 249-252.
Microquakes in a fractured rock sample in which pore water is experimentally decompressed replicate earthquakes seen in active volcanoes, explaining their origins. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Northern Hemisphere Controls on Tropical Southeast African Climate During the Past 60,000 Years

Jessica E. Tierney, James M. Russell, Yongsong Huang, Jaap S. Sinninghe Damsté, Ellen C. Hopmans, and Andrew S. Cohen
Science 10 October 2008: 252-255.
Published online 11 September 2008 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1160485] (in Science Express Reports)
Abrupt changes in precipitation and temperature resolved in a record spanning the past 60,000 years from Lake Tanganyika, East Africa, are coeval with Northern Hemisphere climate events. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Natural Selection on a Major Armor Gene in Threespine Stickleback

Rowan D. H. Barrett, Sean M. Rogers, and Dolph Schluter
Science 10 October 2008: 255-257.
Published online 28 August 2008 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1159978] (in Science Express Reports)
In stickleback fish transferred to fresh water, selection against the allele for the costly armor plating only partly explains the changes in allele frequencies over generations. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Global Warming, Elevational Range Shifts, and Lowland Biotic Attrition in the Wet Tropics

Robert K. Colwell, Gunnar Brehm, Catherine L. Cardelús, Alex C. Gilman, and John T. Longino
Science 10 October 2008: 258-261.
Global warming threatens to cause species loss in the lowland tropics, as species that move upward from low elevations are not replaced and those on mountain tops die out. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Impact of a Century of Climate Change on Small-Mammal Communities in Yosemite National Park, USA

Craig Moritz, James L. Patton, Chris J. Conroy, Juan L. Parra, Gary C. White, and Steven R. Beissinger
Science 10 October 2008: 261-264.
Over the past 100 years, small mammals in Yosemite, California, show range contraction at high elevations and range expansion lower down, as well as rearranged communities. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Small Molecule-Induced Allosteric Activation of the Vibrio cholerae RTX Cysteine Protease Domain

Patrick J. Lupardus, Aimee Shen, Matthew Bogyo, and K. Christopher Garcia
Science 10 October 2008: 265-268.
Cholera toxin becomes active inside an infected cell when a host lipid binds to it, allosterically exposing its active site, which allows autoproteolysis and thus infection. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Noncytotoxic Lytic Granule–Mediated CD8⁺ T Cell Inhibition of HSV-1 Reactivation from Neuronal Latency

Jared E. Knickelbein, Kamal M. Khanna, Michael B. Yee, Catherine J. Baty, Paul R. Kinchington, and Robert L. Hendricks
Science 10 October 2008: 268-271.
Herpes virus in neurons can be kept in a latent state by T cells, which release granzyme B, an inhibitor of a protein necessary for viral gene expression. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

CTLA-4 Control over Foxp3⁺ Regulatory T Cell Function

Kajsa Wing, Yasushi Onishi, Paz Prieto-Martin, Tomoyuki Yamaguchi, Makoto Miyara, Zoltan Fehervari, Takashi Nomura, and Shimon Sakaguchi
Science 10 October 2008: 271-275.
A protein in T regulatory cells controls their ability to dampen activation of the immune system by antigen-presenting cells, preventing autoimmune disease. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Environmental Genomics Reveals a Single-Species Ecosystem Deep Within Earth

Dylan Chivian, Eoin L. Brodie, Eric J. Alm, David E. Culley, Paramvir S. Dehal, Todd Z. DeSantis, Thomas M. Gihring, Alla Lapidus, Li-Hung Lin, Stephen R. Lowry, Duane P. Moser, Paul M. Richardson, Gordon Southam, Greg Wanger, Lisa M. Pratt, Gary L. Andersen, Terry C. Hazen, Fred J. Brockman, Adam P. Arkin, and Tullis C. Onstott
Science 10 October 2008: 275-278.
DNA sequences in water samples from a depth of 2.8 kilometers in a South African gold mine reveal the presence of a thermophilic microbe that can fix its own nitrogen and carbon. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  Podcast Interview »|