News of the Week
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News of the Week

PALEOANTHROPOLOGY:
Were 'Little People' the First to Venture Out of Africa?

Michael Balter and Ann Gibbons

On page 85 of this issue, a team reports the discovery of a 1.75-million-year-old skull that is the smallest and most primitive ever found outside Africa. Along with two equally ancient skulls reported 2 years ago, researchers say, the fossils appear to bury the notion that big brains spurred our first exodus from Africa, and they raise questions about the identity of the first long-distance traveler.

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CANCER RISKS:
Acrylamide in Food: Uncharted Territory

Giselle Weiss

A high-profile group of food experts met in Geneva last week to consider what should be done about acrylamide, a potential industrial hazard that has now been found in many cooked foods. The World Health Organization (WHO) responded by sponsoring a safety data review. The WHO experts issued an urgent call for more research, but the most striking aspect of their report might be how little new information it gives on health risks.

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HOMELAND SECURITY:
Scientists Pan Plans for New U.S. Agency

David Malakoff

The U.S. science community has begun putting proposals to create the new Department of Homeland Security under the microscope. In a string of hearings last week, research leaders told Congress there were serious flaws with the plans for the department's science and technology programs.

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GENOMICS CENTERS:
Disease Gene Research Heats Up in the Desert

Mari N. Jensen

A new genomics complex with big ambitions got a boost on 26 June when Arizona lured geneticist Jeffrey Trent, scientific director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), back home. Trent has announced that he will leave NHGRI to head a newly formed research institute aimed at turning genomics data into treatments.

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CONDENSED-MATTER PHYSICS:
Spintronics Innovation Bids to Bolster Bits

Robert F. Service

Changes in the orientation of bits of magnetic data alter the electrical resistance of electrons flowing through the read head, translating the magnetic data into a stream of electrical pulses. In the 1 July issue of Physical Review B, materials scientists report on the largest effect ever seen of a phenomenon known as ballistic magnetoresistance (BMR). The larger BMR effect could lead to smaller and more sensitive read heads capable of reading smaller magnetic bits, which, in turn, could allow diskmakers to boost the storage density of disk drives to a staggering 1 trillion bits per square inch.

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MALARIA:
Ecologists See Flaws in Transgenic Mosquito

Martin Enserink

WAGENINGEN, THE NETHERLANDS--A small band of molecular biologists is seeking to replace the natural mosquito populations ravaging developing countries with "designer mosquitoes," genetically modified so that they are unable to transmit diseases such as malaria. But at a workshop here last week, 20 of the world's leading mosquito ecologists said that huge ecological questions remain--and it's time funding agencies, which have enthusiastically endorsed the transgenic mosquito plan, start devoting attention and money to answering them.

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FISHERIES RESEARCH:
Mixed Schools a Must for Fish?

David Malakoff

Two scientists have gone fishing in their laboratory to test the idea that selective culls could permanently alter the genetic makeup of wild fish stocks. On page 94, they say they've netted data suggesting that fisheries managers should rethink their rules if they want to prevent some stocks from swimming down dangerous evolutionary paths. Some biologists, however, say the lab-based results lend little to the current debate over how best to protect teetering populations.

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COMPUTER SCIENCE:
Collective Effort Makes the Good Times Roll

Adrian Cho

Two wrongs don't make a right, but two dozen of them might. A pair of physicists has found that groups of imprecise clocks can collaborate to tell time with remarkable accuracy. Their findings might one day help computers tackle tough problems as a team.

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News Focus

BELL LABS:
Winning Streak Brought Awe, and Then Doubt

Robert F. Service

On 10 May, Bell Labs officials launched an investigation of the work of physicist Jan Hendrik Schön, after outside researchers revealed what appears to be duplication of data in multiple papers. In interviews conducted over the past 6 months--most of them before the investigation began--the Bell Labs team and others in the field retraced the whirlwind trajectory of the work. The results of the investigation will have enormous significance for the future of one of the hottest ventures in condensed-matter physics.

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MATHEMATICS:
Graph Theory Uncovers the Roots of Perfection

Dana Mackenzie

The so-called strong perfect graph conjecture (SPGC) might enable mathematicians to quickly identify perfect graphs, which have properties that make otherwise intractable problems involving networks easy to solve. Now if four graph theorists' proof of the SPGC holds up, they will reap a $10,000 bounty.

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IMAGING TECHNOLOGY:
Beautiful Bioimages for the Eyes of Many Beholders

Vivien Marx

A handful of image-sharing databases and software systems is becoming available, and these images might change the way biologists look at their own and other researchers' data--if several obstacles can be overcome. Aside from the technical difficulties of creating user-friendly databases and interconnected networks of images in the scientific literature, there are pesky legal and ethical questions, such as ownership and credit.

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SEISMOLOGY:
Data Treasures of the Test Ban Treaty

Richard Stone

VIENNA--A network of sensors mandated to verify the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) could help scientists study everything from whales to volcanoes. Only the CTBT parties can authorize the data's release, however, on a case-by-case basis, and negotiations under way on a common release policy are contentious. But the scientific community at large has an unlikely ally in the quest to plunder this data treasure trove: uncertainties about the future of the treaty itself.

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SOLAR SYSTEM:
Comet Chasers Get Serious

Govert Schilling

Comets, once considered bad omens, might hold the secret of where Earth's water, and even life, came from. Soon we should know much more about them. Scientists are in the process of launching an unprecedented clutch of missions to understand these spectacular visitors from the outer solar system.

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