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Table of Contents

News this Week

Volume 320, Number 5877, Issue of 09 May 2008
©2008 by The American Association for the Advancement of Science.

News of the Week

U.S. SCIENCE POLICY:
Going From RAGS to Riches Is Proving to Be Very Difficult

Jeffrey Mervis

A parade of speakers last week gave the U.S. government failing grades for not heeding the recommendations in Rising Above the Gathering Storm calling for bigger research budgets, more undergraduate scholarships and graduate fellowships, changes in immigration policy, and an improved environment for innovation.

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ARCHAEOLOGY:
Ancient Algae Suggest Sea Route for First Americans

Michael Balter

A paper on page 784 of this week's issue of Science provides some support for the hypothesis that the first Americans took the coastal route from Asia rather than traveling inland.

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GENOMICS:
Genome Speaks to Transitional Nature of Monotremes

Elizabeth Finkel

An analysis of the platypus genome reveals how its DNA is an amalgam of mammalian and reptilian features.

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EVOLUTION IN THE SCHOOLS:
States Push Academic Freedom Bills

Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

Politicians in five U.S. states are pushing bills to enable educators to teach alternatives to evolution by protecting their "right" to discuss with students the idea of intelligent design.

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY:
Chinese Province Crafts Pioneering Law to Thwart Biopiracy

Richard Stone

Officials in southern China's Guizhou Province are hoping to head off future attempts at "biopiracy"--the plunder of natural resources--by enshrining the protection of indigenous knowledge into law.

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News Focus

NEUROBIOLOGY:
The Roots of Morality

Greg Miller

Neurobiologists, philosophers, psychologists, and legal scholars are probing the nature of human morality using a variety of experimental techniques, including one reported online this week in Science, and moral challenges.

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PLANETARY SCIENCE:
To Touch the Water of Mars and Search for Life's Abode

Richard A. Kerr

The Phoenix lander will soon arrive at Mars to perform the first analyses of martian water and to probe the rocky polar soil as a habitat for life; it has been a struggle.

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SCIENCE AND SOCIETY:
Talk Nerdy to Me

Karen Heyman

A surprise hit, the new TV comedy The Big Bang Theory plumbs science for laughs, thanks to aid from physicist David Saltzberg and friend.

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CONSERVATION BIOLOGY:
Into the Wild: Reintroduced Animals Face Daunting Odds

Virginia Morell

Researchers in the emerging field of wildlife reintroduction battle hawks, habitat loss, and poachers to give animals a second chance.

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