[News & Analysis] Theoretical Physics: The Morning After, Inflation Result Causes Headaches
Two weeks ago, cosmologists cheered an observation that many called a "smoking gun" for cosmic inflation—a wild theory that says that in a sliver of a second after the big bang, the universe expanded exponentially, stretching subatomic distances to cosmic lengths in a flash. Yet, as the smoke clears, the finding raises puzzles of its own. Cosmologists say that the observation from Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization jibes with the simplest model of inflation and lays waste to more complicated ones. Paradoxically, however, the surviving models suffer from a conceptual problem that may render them inter...
Source: Science: This Week - April 3, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Adrian Cho Tags: Theoretical Physics Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] Archaeology: Kurdistan Offers an Open Window on the Ancient Fertile Crescent
This week, archaeologists from around the world will gather in Erbil to discuss what they are already learning about the long history of the city—and the promising future for archaeological research in surrounding Iraqi Kurdistan. Even as nearby countries such as Syria and Turkey curtail archaeological efforts, this area within Iraq—once off-limits—has begun welcoming outside scientists eager to probe its past. At the meeting, for example, several groups will describe how landscape surveys and digs are already painting a new picture of the Assyrian empire. Their findings suggest that northern Iraq, once the core of t...
Source: Science: This Week - April 3, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Andrew Curry Tags: Archaeology Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] Planetary Science: Cassini Plumbs the Depths of the Enceladus Sea
Orbiting Saturn, Cassini had "tasted" the plumes of salty water that spew from Enceladus's south polar region, so scientists had growing confidence that the plumes tap briny liquid water tens of kilometers beneath the surface. Now, analyses of Cassini measurements of undulations in Enceladus's gravity field point to a 10-kilometer-thick layer of water beneath the south polar region, if not the entire moon.
Author: Richard A. Kerr (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - April 3, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Richard A. Kerr Tags: Planetary Science Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] Oso Disaster: Even for Slide-Prone Region, Landslide Was Off the Chart
The rugged terrain inland of Seattle is prone to landslides. Yet the latest Oso landslide, which killed at least 27 people on 22 March, stands out as an anomaly. Calculations suggest that it flowed three times farther than slides of similar size and elevation drop, most likely due to the effect of heavy rains on the region's glacier-deposited soils.
Authors: Richard Stone, Robert F. Service (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - April 3, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Richard Stone Tags: Oso Disaster Source Type: research
[News of the Week] Random Sample
NASA engineers make a foray into fashion with three outlandish designs for the new Z-2 space suits, and encourage the public to vote on which will become a prototype. (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - April 3, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Stewart Wills (mailto:swills at aaas.org) Source Type: research
[News of the Week] Newsmakers
Neuroscientist Huda Zoghbi wins the March of Dimes' developmental biology prize, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters selects Princeton mathematician Yakov Sinai for its Abel Prize in mathematics, and theoretical physicist William Goldstein takes the helm at California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - April 3, 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 upgraded Alvin deep-sea submersible prepares to return to scientific service, researchers urge the Spanish government to rescind approval of a drug linked to vulture deaths, and more. (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - April 3, 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 WorldNewsmakersRandom Samples (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - April 3, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Stewart Wills (mailto:swills at aaas.org) Source Type: research
[Special Issue News] Breast Cancer: The Advocate
Frances Visco, president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition, may be the most influential nonscientist ever in the field of breast cancer research. Twenty-two years ago, her grassroots patient advocacy group convinced Congress to put $210 million into a new breast cancer research program in an unusual place—the Department of Defense. Since then, that program has awarded nearly $3 billion in grants, making it the second largest funder of breast cancer research in the United States. Visco has sat on the program's oversight board from the beginning.
Author: Jocelyn Kaiser (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - March 28, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Jocelyn Kaiser Tags: Breast Cancer Source Type: research
[Special Issue News] Breast Cancer: The 'Other' Breast Cancer Genes
First there were the BRCA genes. Now, dozens or more breast cancer genes have been unmasked. But unlike BRCA1 and BRCA2, the risk these genes pose is uncertain. And that leaves doctors and genetic counselors in a bind. With understanding so limited, is information on these genes even helpful? Should women with a family history of breast cancer be tested for them? And what do you tell them if the test comes back positive?
Author: Sam Kean (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - March 28, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Sam Kean Tags: Breast Cancer Source Type: research
[Special Issue News] Breast Cancer: Dare to Do Less
More than 60,000 U.S. women each year are diagnosed with abnormal breast tissue known as DCIS, or ductal carcinoma in situ. Their numbers surged in the 1980s as the use of x-ray mammography increased. DCIS is usually treated with surgery, radiation, and hormone therapy, even though most DCIS—98%—does not lead to fatal cancer. Some oncologists are developing less aggressive methods, including gene-based tools to identify low- and high-risk DCIS types. They aim to help women avoid unnecessary radiation and mastectomy.
Author: Eliot Marshall (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - March 28, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Eliot Marshall Tags: Breast Cancer Source Type: research
[Special Issue News] Breast Cancer: Breast Cancer: A World of Differences
Advances in detecting and treating breast cancer offer an ever brightening outlook for women diagnosed in wealthy countries, but the recent progress has been far from uniform, and in poor countries mortality remains disproportionately high.
Author: Kelly Servick (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - March 28, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Kelly Servick Tags: Breast Cancer Source Type: research
[News Focus] Student Assembly Drives Yeast Project
Six years ago, a researcher desperate to figure out how to complete all the work needed to make synthetic yeast chromosomes started an undergraduate course where students built genome "building blocks." Participants learned molecular biology techniques and how to approach problems in a scientific way, and each put together about 10,000 bases toward the new genome. For at least one of them, the course led to a new career.
Author: Elizabeth Pennisi (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - March 28, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Elizabeth Pennisi Source Type: research
[News Focus] Building the Ultimate Yeast Genome
Although Jef Boeke first scoffed at the idea of building an artificial chromosome for yeast, he and his colleagues eventually decided to tackle what at the time was a very daunting task. They spent more than a year figuring out what DNA they should remove to make the new chromosome more stable and what DNA to add to be able to mutate it at will. They started with just the 90,000-base arm of one chromosome and when that worked, began remaking chromosome 3. Now, with the help of partners from around the world, the New York University geneticist has set his sights on the whole genome.
Author: Elizabeth Pennisi (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - March 28, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Elizabeth Pennisi Source Type: research
[News Focus] The Camel Connection
Evidence is mounting that camels play a key role in spreading Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) virus, and the camel-borne threat may extend far beyond the Middle East. As a result, scientists are shifting their focus from human cases to camels. One idea gaining traction is to vaccinate camels. But vaccines against coronaviruses, the group to which MERS belongs, are difficult to make, and researchers face multiple hurdles. To make matters worse, there are very few labs capable of safely studying deadly viruses in animals as big and unruly as camels.
Author: Kai Kupferschmidt (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - March 28, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Kai Kupferschmidt Source Type: research
