This Week in Science

Bringing Back the Large Blue

Flagship endangered species, such as the Large Blue butterfly have driven conservation programs worldwide. However, the Large Blue butterfly (Maculinea arion) became extinct in the United Kingdom. The apparent driver … [Read more]

Did I Really Do That?

Most of us believe that our daily actions occur because we exert conscious effort to make them happen; nevertheless, we sometimes seem to end up doing the precise thing we … [Read more]

El Niño's Cousin

The most energetic and well-known quasi-periodic, air-sea temperature disturbance is ENSO, the mother of the warming of equatorial eastern Pacific surface waters known as El Niño. El Niño, and its … [Read more]

Card Sorting Monkeys

Single-neuron studies in primates help to establish a detailed understanding of cognitive processing and to provide an experimental base for understanding the cognitive deficits incurred by patients who have suffered … [Read more]

Phoenix Ascending

The Phoenix mission landed on Mars in March 2008 with the goal of studying the ice-rich soil of the planet's northern arctic region. Phoenix included a robotic arm, with a … [Read more]

A Hole New Approach

Quantum dots can behave as artificial atoms, exhibiting a ladder of quantized energy levels with the number of electrons added to the dot being controllable. They are thus being extensively … [Read more]

Adaptable DNA Analogs

The defining feature of DNA as a genetic blueprint is its capacity for self-replication. In the cell, however, the replication process requires the assistance of multiple elaborate enzymes. How then … [Read more]

Breaking the Barrier

Being able to deliver drugs into the brain to treat degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's requires the ability to traverse the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Understanding the formation of … [Read more]

Biogenic Amine Receptors

Biogenic amines have important effects on behavior in humans and other animals. These agents can act by binding to heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide–binding protein (G protein)–coupled receptors, but can also activate … [Read more]

Idolizing Cholesterol Control

The low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) removes LDL, the so-called “bad” cholesterol particles, from the blood through a mechanism that involves LDL binding and internalization into liver cells. Because the LDLR … [Read more]

Modulating Visual Memory

Layer 3 of the secondary visual cortical area V2 plays a role in visual information processing. However, in contrast to layer 3, layer 6 of visual cortex is composed of … [Read more]

Modifying the Modifier

Covalent modification of proteins provides an important means whereby their function is regulated. Hydroxylation, catalyzed by oxygenase enzymes, plays an important role in the response to hypoxia, for example. The … [Read more]

Putting the Sugar on Polycomb

A wide variety of nuclear and cytosolic proteins in human cells carry an O-linked sugar modification, N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), which is added by the highly conserved O-linked GlcNAc transferase, Ogt. Gambetta … [Read more]