This Week in Science

Editor summaries of this week's papers.
Science 25 January 2008: 381.
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Editorial:
Solutions for Nigeria

Rita R. Colwell and Michael Greene
Science 25 January 2008: 385.
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Editors' Choice

Highlights of the recent literature.
Science 25 January 2008: 387.
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Science Podcast

Science 25 January 2008: 499.
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NEW PRODUCTS

Science 25 January 2008: 497.
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News of the Week

ARCHAEOLOGY: Dust Storm Rising Over Threat to Famed Rock Art in Utah

Keith Kloor
Science 25 January 2008: 394.
A much-anticipated study warns that truck traffic from nearby oil and gas operations could be fading the splendor of the world-renowned rock art on the sandstone walls of Nine Mile Canyon in central Utah. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

DNA SEQUENCING: A Plan to Capture Human Diversity in 1000 Genomes

Jocelyn Kaiser
Science 25 January 2008: 395.
Over the next 3 years, an international team plans to create a massive new catalog containing the complete genome sequences of 1000 individuals. It will help fill out the list of new genetic markers for common diseases that came out in 2007. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

GERMANY: Max Planck Accused of Hobbling Universities

Gretchen Vogel
Science 25 January 2008: 396.
This month, a group of respected researchers charged in a newspaper article that Germany's two-tiered research system lures the best brains away from universities and that the Max Planck institutes should be merged into nearby universities. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

EDUCATION: France Launches Public Health School à l'Anglo-Saxonne

Martin Enserink
Science 25 January 2008: 397.
France has just created a new institute, the first of its kind in France, that takes its inspiration from the Harvard School of Public Health, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and other famous Anglo-Saxon institutes. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

SCIENCE STATISTICS: Got Data Questions? NSF's Indicators Has (Most of) the Answers

Jeffrey Mervis
Science 25 January 2008: 398-399.
Drawing on the myriad studies, surveys, and analyses that make up this year's Science and Engineering Indicators from the National Science Foundation, Science offers a few facts that may come as a surprise to readers. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

SCIENCE STATISTICS: What We Don't Know

Jeffery Mervis
Science 25 January 2008: 399.
For the first time, the National Science Foundation staff that compiles and writes Indicators confessed in print that there are lots of questions about the state of the S&E enterprise that its authoritative tome doesn't answer. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

ASTROPHYSICS: "Little" Cosmic Ray Observatory Aims to Make a Big Mark

Adrian Cho
Science 25 January 2008: 400.
Physicists have just started taking data with a cosmic ray observatory that covers 730 square kilometers of western Utah. Dubbed Telescope Array, the observatory aims to spot the most energetic subatomic particles from space. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

GEOCHEMISTRY: Where Has All the Stardust Gone?

Richard A. Kerr
Science 25 January 2008: 401.
On page 447 of this issue of Science, researchers report that they have failed to find a single speck of the unaltered, so-called presolar material thought to abound in icy comets in the dust sample that the Stardust spacecraft returned from comet Wild 2 in January 2006. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

HISTORY OF SCIENCE: Dutch Universities Split Over Nobel Laureate's Rehabilitation

Martin Enserink
Science 25 January 2008: 401.
Allegations that the late Dutch physicist Peter Debye was cozy with the Nazis before and during World War II have produced a split decision among schools that once honored him. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

ScienceScope

Science 25 January 2008: 397.
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Random Samples

Science 25 January 2008: 391.
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Newsmakers

Science 25 January 2008: 393.
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News Focus

GEOLOGY: A Time War Over the Period We Live In

Richard A. Kerr
Science 25 January 2008: 402-403.
Like astronomers battling over the status of Pluto, geoscientists are revving up to settle the fate of the interval of time known as the Quaternary, as well as the status, some feel, of an entire field. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

HUMAN EVOLUTION: Why We're Different: Probing the Gap Between Apes and Humans

Michael Balter
Science 25 January 2008: 404-405.
Researchers at a high-level meeting probe the ancient question of what sets the human brain apart from those of other primates. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

NEUROSCIENCE: Shell Shock Revisited: Solving the Puzzle of Blast Trauma

Yudhijit Bhattacharjee
Science 25 January 2008: 406-408.
Even at a distance, explosions may cause lasting damage to the brain. Such findings could have big implications for arming and compensating troops. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

Letters

This Week's Letters

Science 25 January 2008: 409.
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 Antarctica Invaded

Anthony Ricciardi
Science 25 January 2008: 409.
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 A Closer Look at the IPCC Report

Susan Solomon, Richard Alley, Jonathan Gregory, Peter Lemke, Martin Manning;, Michael Oppenheimer, Brian O'Neill, Mort Webster, and Shardul Agrawala
Science 25 January 2008: 409-410.
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 Corrections and Clarifications

Science 25 January 2008: 410.
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Books et al.

HISTORY OF SCIENCE: The Many Sides of Science

Manfred D. Laubichler
Science 25 January 2008: 412-413.
Through the story of three generations of the Exner family, the author explores the interactions of science, culture, and society in during the rise and fall of Austrian liberalism. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

NEUROSCIENCE: Steal Away, Music

Jessica Phillips-Silver
Science 25 January 2008: 413.
These stories of the experiences of patients, musicians, and others explore neurological aspects of the power of music. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

Books Received

Science 25 January 2008: 413.
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Education Forum

ASSESSMENT: Application of Bloom's Taxonomy Debunks the "MCAT Myth"

Alex Y. Zheng, Janessa K. Lawhorn, Thomas Lumley, and Scott Freeman
Science 25 January 2008: 414-415.
Analyses of questions that evaluate critical thinking, from college placement and medical school admission examinations, suggest improvements to college teaching methods. Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Perspectives

GENOMICS: Lining Up to Avoid Bias

Antonis Rokas
Science 25 January 2008: 416-417.
Algorithms that align DNA sequences can introduce bias and uncertainty into evolutionary analyses. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

SYSTEMS BIOLOGY: Enlightening Rhythms

Ovidiu Lipan
Science 25 January 2008: 417-418.
How yeast systematically respond to environmental change emerges from blending engineering, mathematical, and experimental analyses. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

GEOCHEMISTRY: The Rise and Fall of a Great Idea

Anders Meibom
Science 25 January 2008: 418-419.
Heterogeneities in Earth's mantle create ambiguity about the origin of hot-spot lavas. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

MATERIALS SCIENCE: Structural Nanocomposites

Yuris Dzenis
Science 25 January 2008: 419-420.
Reinforcement of small structures and critical volumes with nanomaterials may enable near-term applications that can drive longer-term research. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

MATERIALS SCIENCE: Adaptive Composites

Richard Vaia and Jeffery Baur
Science 25 January 2008: 420-421.
Materials are under development that can respond dynamically to changes in their environment. Full Text »|   PDF »|  

Association Affairs

AAAS News and Notes

Science 25 January 2008: 422-423.
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PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: Science and Technology for Sustainable Well-Being

John P. Holdren
Science 25 January 2008: 424-434.
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Brevia

100% Accuracy in Automatic Face Recognition

R. Jenkins and A. M. Burton
Science 25 January 2008: 435.
The simple process of image averaging can boost the performance of a commercial face recognition system to 100% accuracy. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Reports

Probing the Carrier Capture Rate of a Single Quantum Level

M. Berthe, R. Stiufiuc, B. Grandidier, D. Deresmes, C. Delerue, and D. Stiévenard
Science 25 January 2008: 436-438.
Published online 13 December 2007 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1151186] (in Science Express Reports)
Scanning tunneling microscopy reveals how electrons tunnel through a single dangling silicon bond and shows that local subsurface doped holes greatly affect the dynamics. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Spin Conservation Accounts for Aluminum Cluster Anion Reactivity Pattern with O₂

R. Burgert, H. Schnöckel, A. Grubisic, X. Li, S. T. Stokes, K. H. Bowen, G. F. Ganteför, B. Kiran, and P. Jena
Science 25 January 2008: 438-442.
Small metal clusters with an even number of atoms react rapidly with oxygen because electron spin is conserved, whereas odd clusters are more stable because it is not. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

NMR Imaging of Catalytic Hydrogenation in Microreactors with the Use of para-Hydrogen

Louis-S. Bouchard, Scott R. Burt, M. Sabieh Anwar, Kirill V. Kovtunov, Igor V. Koptyug, and Alexander Pines
Science 25 January 2008: 442-445.
The flow of para-hydrogen through industrial catalytic reactors allows magnetic resonance imaging of the gas flow and of the hydrogenation reactions, facilitating optimization. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

GaN Photonic-Crystal Surface-Emitting Laser at Blue-Violet Wavelengths

Hideki Matsubara, Susumu Yoshimoto, Hirohisa Saito, Yue Jianglin, Yoshinori Tanaka, and Susumu Noda
Science 25 January 2008: 445-447.
Published online 20 December 2007 [DOI: 10.1126/science.1150413] (in Science Express Reports)
Surface-emitting lasers fabricated with photonic crystal structures can now emit at technologically relevant blue-violet wavelengths. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Comparison of Comet 81P/Wild 2 Dust with Interplanetary Dust from Comets

Hope A. Ishii, John P. Bradley, Zu Rong Dai, Miaofang Chi, Anton T. Kearsley, Mark J. Burchell, Nigel D. Browning, and Frank Molster
Science 25 January 2008: 447-450.
The silicate minerals found in interplanetary dust particles are not seen in Comet 81P/Wild 2, implying that the comet is devoid of material from the outer solar system. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Elasticity of (Mg,Fe)O Through the Spin Transition of Iron in the Lower Mantle

J. C. Crowhurst, J. M. Brown, A. F. Goncharov, and S. D. Jacobsen
Science 25 January 2008: 451-453.
Gradual softening of a prominent mineral in Earth’s lower mantle in response to an electronic phase transition may explain the seismic properties of this region. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Enriched Pt-Re-Os Isotope Systematics in Plume Lavas Explained by Metasomatic Sulfides

Ambre Luguet, D. Graham Pearson, Geoff M. Nowell, Scott T. Dreher, Judith A. Coggon, Zdislav V. Spetsius, and Stephen W. Parman
Science 25 January 2008: 453-456.
An isotopic signal thought to be a fingerprint of material from Earth’s core in ocean magmas may instead reflect the presence of sulfide mineralization in the melting region. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Irreconcilable Differences: Fine-Root Life Spans and Soil Carbon Persistence

Allan E. Strand, Seth G. Pritchard, M. Luke McCormack, Micheal A. Davis, and Ram Oren
Science 25 January 2008: 456-458.
Two common ways to measure residence times of root carbon in soils measure different things; neither is correct for inferring carbon cycling in ecosystems. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Adaptive Plasticity in Female Mate Choice Dampens Sexual Selection on Male Ornaments in the Lark Bunting

Alexis S. Chaine and Bruce E. Lyon
Science 25 January 2008: 459-462.
Female lark buntings prefer different male traits from year to year, suggesting how multiple ornamental features might evolve as a result of female mate choice. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Control of Genic DNA Methylation by a jmjC Domain-Containing Protein in Arabidopsis thaliana

Hidetoshi Saze, Akiko Shiraishi, Asuka Miura, and Tetsuji Kakutani
Science 25 January 2008: 462-465.
A plant demethylase checks the spread of DNA methylation from silenced transposons and repetitive DNA to nearby genes, preventing their inappropriate inhibition. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Concurrent Fast and Slow Cycling of a Transcriptional Activator at an Endogenous Promoter

Tatiana S. Karpova, Min J. Kim, Corentin Spriet, Kip Nalley, Timothy J. Stasevich, Zoulika Kherrouche, Laurent Heliot, and James G. McNally
Science 25 January 2008: 466-469.
A yeast transcription factor binds onto and off its promoter rapidly, controlling initiation, but also shows a 30-min cycle as the number of accessible promoters varies. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Centromeric Aurora-B Activation Requires TD-60, Microtubules, and Substrate Priming Phosphorylation

Sara E. Rosasco-Nitcher, Weijie Lan, Sepideh Khorasanizadeh, and P. Todd Stukenberg
Science 25 January 2008: 469-472.
A kinase that regulates chromosome segregation to daughter cells during metaphase is confined to the inner centromere through its interactions with other centromeric proteins. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

Alignment Uncertainty and Genomic Analysis

Karen M. Wong, Marc A. Suchard, and John P. Huelsenbeck
Science 25 January 2008: 473-476.
Comparative evolutionary genomics can be improved by taking into account the uncertainties inherent in aligning genes from organism to organism. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

NFAT Binding and Regulation of T Cell Activation by the Cytoplasmic Scaffolding Homer Proteins

Guo N. Huang, David L. Huso, Samuel Bouyain, Jianchen Tu, Kelly A. McCorkell, Michael J. May, Yuwen Zhu, Michael Lutz, Samuel Collins, Marlin Dehoff, Shin Kang, Katharine Whartenby, Jonathan Powell, Daniel Leahy, and Paul F. Worley
Science 25 January 2008: 476-481.
Signals coming into the T cell are coordinated by two scaffolding proteins, which determine whether the cell will be activated or permanently shut down. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|  

The Frequency Dependence of Osmo-Adaptation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Jerome T. Mettetal, Dale Muzzey, Carlos Gómez-Uribe, and Alexander van Oudenaarden
Science 25 January 2008: 482-484.
Modeling the dynamics of the osmotic stress response in yeast reveals an unexpected, rapid nontranscriptional mechanism that may involve glycerol transport. Abstract »|   Full Text »|   PDF »|   Supporting Online Material »|