[News & Analysis] Climate Science: More Sophisticated Forecasts Yield Glimmer of Hope in Climate Gloom
A new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that humanity has done little to slow increasing emissions of greenhouse gases. In an advance, however, the report's authors have used increasingly sophisticated models to evaluate how political and economic issues could affect various strategies to reduce emissions. It finds that growing opposition to biofuels and carbon capture strategies, for instance, could drive up costs of stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. But it also finds that these technologies could offer significant co-benefits, such as improved public health...
Source: Science: This Week - April 18, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Eli Kintisch Tags: Climate Science Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] Epigenetics: Ancient DNA Holds Clues to Gene Activity in Extinct Humans
Using the two high-quality genomes that exist for Neandertals and Denisovans, researchers find clues to gene activity in these long-gone species by computationally mapping where a chemical modification called methylation occurred in the DNA during the lifetime of the individual. The method takes advantage of how DNA degrades through time. When compared with methylation in modern humans, these methylation maps revealed a possible explanation for the skeletal differences between Neandertals and modern humans. Many more ancient methylomes must be mapped to determine which methylome is representative of these species, and more...
Source: Science: This Week - April 18, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Elizabeth Pennisi Tags: Epigenetics Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] Toxicology: 'Humanized' Mouse Detects Deadly Drug Side Effects
An experimental hepatitis B drug that looked safe in animal trials tragically killed five of 15 patients in 1993. Now, researchers have engineered a mouse with a humanized liver that readily detects the drug's toxicity and may serve as a novel toxicity screen for other drugs that have yet to enter human trials.
Author: Jon Cohen (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - April 18, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Jon Cohen Tags: Toxicology Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] Fusion: U.S. Support for ITER Wavers as Costs Spiral
Officials last week revealed that the U.S. contribution to ITER could cost $3.9 billion by 2034—roughly four times the original estimate made in 2006. The soaring cost prompted a key member of Congress to raise questions about continued U.S. support for the project, which aims to make fusion power feasible. "I'm really beginning to believe that our involvement in ITER is not practical," said Senator Dianne Feinstein (D–CA), the head of a spending panel that controls ITER funding. Her panel could soon move to cut next year's spending on the project, proposed to be $150 million. The House of Representatives and the White...
Source: Science: This Week - April 18, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Adrian Cho Tags: Fusion Source Type: research
[News of the Week] Random Sample
The winners of the Science, Play and Research Kit Competition reimagine the childhood chemistry set—on a microfluidic chip. (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - April 18, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Stewart Wills (mailto:swills at aaas.org) Source Type: research
[News of the Week] Newsmakers
Molecular biologist Feng Zhang wins the National Science Foundation's Alan T. Waterman Award for young researchers, President Barack Obama nominates White House budget office director Sylvia Mathews Burwell to replace outgoing Health and Human Services head Kathleen Sebelius, physicist Stuart Parkin wins the 2014 Millennium Technology Prize, and more. (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - April 18, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Stewart Wills (mailto:swills at aaas.org) Source Type: research
[News of the Week] Around the World
In science news around the world, the National Park Service decides not to introduce mainland wolves to rescue the declining wolf population on Lake Superior's Isle Royale, Japanese researchers plan to resume controversial whaling in 2015, Australia's Antarctic research program faces budget cuts, and more. (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - April 18, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Stewart Wills (mailto:swills at aaas.org) Source Type: research
[News of the Week] This Week's Section
Follow the links below for a roundup of the week's top stories in science, or download a PDF of the entire section.
Around the WorldFindingsNewsmakersRandom Samples (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - April 17, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Stewart Wills (mailto:swills at aaas.org) Source Type: research
[News Focus] A Balkan Riddle's Serendipitous Solution
Balkan endemic kidney disease surfaced in the 1950s and for decades defied attempts to finger the cause. It occurred near tributaries of the Danube River and struck hardest in farming communities. A combination of luck and careful scientific studies with sophisticated molecular tools has shown convincingly that an acid from a weed caused the kidney damage, and the convoluted, surprising discovery offers lessons to researchers struggling to determine what's behind the chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology now afflicting Mesoamerica.
Author: Jon Cohen (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - April 11, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Jon Cohen Source Type: research
[News Focus] Mesoamerica's Mystery Killer
Since 2002, researchers have reported that agricultural communities in the hot and humid Pacific Coast of Central America and southern Mexico have suffered a rising burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) that has no obvious cause. Myriad theories have attempted to explain the factors behind what's called CKDu (the "u" is for "unknown" cause), with many researchers now convinced that heat stress and dehydration play a central role. But questions still outnumber answers, and intensive new research efforts promise to get to the bottom of this mystery.
Author: Jon Cohen (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - April 11, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Jon Cohen Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] Neglected Tropical Diseases: Oral Antibiotic Raises Hopes of Eradicating Yaws
Tropical disease experts tried and failed before to eradicate yaws, a rare disfiguring disease of poor countries. Now, they are ready to try again, buoyed by recent data showing that a single dose of an oral antibiotic can cure the disease. But disease eradication is tough, and experts warn it will cost more and take longer than the planners imagine.
Author: John Maurice (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - April 11, 2014 Category: Science Authors: John Maurice Tags: Neglected Tropical Diseases Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] Seismology: Human Activity May Have Triggered Fatal Italian Earthquakes, Panel Says
In an as-yet-unpublished report, an international panel of geoscientists has concluded that a pair of deadly earthquakes that struck the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna in 2012 could have been triggered by the extraction of petroleum at a local oil field. Fear of humanmade seismicity has already sparked fierce opposition against new oil and gas drilling efforts in Italy, and some say the report could lead the country's regional presidents to turn down new requests for fossil-fuel exploration.
Author: Edwin Cartlidge (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - April 11, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Edwin Cartlidge Tags: Seismology Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] Infectious Disease: Are Bats Spreading Ebola Across Sub-Saharan Africa?
Ebola is not a stranger to West Africa—an outbreak in the 1990s killed chimpanzees and sickened one researcher. But the species of virus that has so far killed more than 100 people in Guinea has only been seen before in Central Africa. Scientists are combing the forests, and the genome of the virus itself, looking for clues to how this strain ended up so far west, and whether its spread suggests people in forested areas all across sub-Saharan Africa are at risk.
Author: Gretchen Vogel (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - April 11, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Gretchen Vogel Tags: Infectious Disease Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] Planetary Science: NASA to Researchers: Sell Your Mission or Be Terminated
Tight budgets are forcing NASA to consider turning off one or more planetary science projects that have completed their primary missions but still have life left in them. In an unprecedented move to save money for other mission extensions, the agency has already proposed killing the Opportunity rover on Mars, which has been hobbled by malfunctioning equipment, and a spacecraft that has been orbiting and mapping the moon. But officials are giving the two teams a chance to make the case for saving their science. The competition that a review panel is considering is tough: It includes the Cassini orbiter around Saturn, the Cu...
Source: Science: This Week - April 11, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Richard A. Kerr Tags: Planetary Science Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] Conservation Biology: Can Cloning Revive Spain's Extinct Mountain Goat?
The Pyrenean ibex, an impressive mountain goat that lived in the central Pyrenees in Spain, went extinct in 2000. But a group of scientists is trying to revive the species by cloning cells from its last living member. A previous attempt in 2003 failed, but renewed interest in "de-extinction" in general and a private donation have allowed the scientists to try again.
Author: Kai Kupferschmidt (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - April 11, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Kai Kupferschmidt Tags: Conservation Biology Source Type: research
