[Special Issue News] Runners-up
In addition to the Breakthrough of the Year, Science listed nine unranked finalists as runners-up. They include missions to the dwarf planets Pluto and Ceres, studies of the DNA of Kennewick Man, efforts to make psychology research more reproducible, the discovery of fossils of a new human species in a South African cave, confirmation of the existence of deep plumes of hot rock rising from the bottom of Earth's mantle, an effective vaccine against Ebola, the surprising discovery that the body's lymph vessels extend to the central nervous system, engineered yeast that produce painkilling opioids, and a loophole-free experim...
Source: Science: This Week - December 18, 2015 Category: Science Authors: Science Magazine (mailto:soleditor at aaas.org) Source Type: research
[Special Issue News] Making the cut
The genome-editing method called CRISPR has matured into a molecular marvel that much of the world—not just biologists—has noticed notice, which is why it has been selected Science's 2015 Breakthrough of the Year. CRISPR has appeared in Breakthrough sections twice before, in 2012 and 2013, each time as a runner-up in combination with other genome-editing techniques. But this is the year it broke away from the pack, revealing its true power in a series of spectacular achievements. Two striking examples—the creation of a long-sought "gene drive" that could eliminate pests or the diseases they carry, and the first delib...
Source: Science: This Week - December 17, 2015 Category: Science Authors: John Travis Source Type: research
[Special Issue News] Aging: The final countdown
The allure of an objective test for human aging is powerful. Such a test could, for example, aid the search for antiaging drugs and help doctors plan treatments for older patients. After decades of failed efforts to identify "biomarkers" in blood and different tissues that correspond to the aging process, however, scientists still don't agree on whether "biological age" can be measured, or even what it means. Recent advances in the molecular biology of aging have yielded a host of candidates. All rely on molecular changes linked to aging, but must still overcome confounding factors such as individual variation and disease,...
Source: Science: This Week - December 4, 2015 Category: Science Authors: Emily Underwood Tags: Aging Source Type: research
[Special Issue News] Aging: Death–defying experiments
The longest lived laboratory animals shed light on the forces that lead some to any early grave and others to beat the odds and see many more birthdays than the norm. Experiments with mice, flies, and worms have won that manipulating genes, restricting calorie intake, and giving animals drugs can extend life span—by as much as 10-fold. Researchers also have elucidated several biochemical pathways that lead to longevity. And one lab animal, the hydra, appears to have found a fountain of youth of sorts: Unless it sexually reproduces, it appears immortal.
Author: Jon Cohen (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - December 4, 2015 Category: Science Authors: Jon Cohen Tags: Aging Source Type: research
[Special Issue News] Aging: Why we outlive our pets
Dogs live an average of 12 years, cats about 15—and they both have much shorter life spans than we do. Why? The question is part of a larger mystery that has stumped scientists for centuries: Just why do some animals live longer than others? Aristotle thought it had something to do with how much moisture an animal contained; modern scientists have suggested everything from metabolic rate to free radicals. Now researchers may finally be homing in on some answers. The findings could shed light on the mysteries of our pets' life spans—as well as our own.
Author: David Grimm (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - December 3, 2015 Category: Science Authors: David Grimm Tags: Aging Source Type: research
[Special Issue News] Oceans and Climate: Moveable feast
In the early 2000s, trawler crews working the Celtic Sea off Ireland noticed something unusual. Small, spiny, bright orange fish, called boarfish, began appearing in their nets in huge numbers. Previously, the intruders had been a minor nuisance; their sharp spines jammed equipment and damaged the soft flesh of more valuable species, such as cod and hake. Irritated crews tossed them overboard. As boarfish schools grew, however, the problem became an opportunity. Trawlers retooled to target the fish, which were turned into meal and oil. Boarfish went from trash to treasure, and they now generate more than $10 million annual...
Source: Science: This Week - November 13, 2015 Category: Science Authors: Marianne Lavelle Tags: Oceans and Climate Source Type: research
[Special Issue News] Oceans and Climate: Breaking the waves
When Hurricane Irene hit North Carolina's coast in 2011, waves 2 meters high began pounding the shore. Two properties on Pine Knoll Shores, a community on one of the state's many barrier islands, provided a study in contrasts. One homeowner had installed a concrete bulkhead to protect his yard from the sea. But the churning waves overtopped and ultimately toppled the wall, washing away tons of sediment and leaving a denuded mud flat. Less than 200 meters away, another owner had installed a "living shoreline"—a planted carpet of marsh grass that gently sloped into the water, held in place by a rock sill placed a few meter...
Source: Science: This Week - November 13, 2015 Category: Science Authors: Gabriel Popkin Tags: Oceans and Climate Source Type: research
[Special Issue News] Oceans and Climate: Ghosts of oceans past
Andrea Dutton's hunt for ancient coral reefs has taken her from white sand beaches along the Indian Ocean to wave-beaten cliffs beside the Caribbean. Last year, Dutton made the trek from her lab at the University of Florida in Gainesville to a Mexican amusement park carved from the seaside jungle of the Yucatán Peninsula to sample the rocks that the park's builders had cut and exposed: the remains of coral reefs more than 100,000 years old. Dutton seeks out ancient reefs to understand what's in store for Earth's coastlines. She's one of a small cadre of scientists scouring the planet for evidence of how high the oceans ro...
Source: Science: This Week - November 12, 2015 Category: Science Authors: Warren Cornwall Tags: Oceans and Climate Source Type: research
[Special Issue News] Mutation and Human Disease: Who has your DNA—or wants it
As DNA sequencing gets cheaper, more and more organizations, companies, and countries are amassing computer server–busting amounts of human DNA data, typically for studies of the links between genes, lifestyle factors and disease risk. Science's informal survey found at least 17 biobanks that hold—or plan to hold—genomic data on 75,000 or more people who have volunteered to share their health information for research. The data range from scans of common mutations known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to the protein-coding portions (exomes) to whole genome sequences. Here we have highlighted many of these ef...
Source: Science: This Week - September 25, 2015 Category: Science Authors: Jocelyn Kaiser Tags: Mutation and Human Disease Source Type: research
[Special Issue News] Mutation and Human Disease: Can 23andMe have it all?
How much do your eyes water when cutting onions? Does fresh cilantro taste like soap to you? Do you have stretch marks on your hips, thighs, or the backs of your arms? Have you ever been diagnosed with brain cancer? Mail off your spit for a $99 genetic analysis from 23andMe, and you will get information about your ancestry, served up on a web account. You will also encounter a list of optional survey questions. A lot of survey questions. Some are quirky queries about your tastes and habits. Others are intimate probes into your experiences with disease and medicine.
Author: Kelly Servick (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - September 24, 2015 Category: Science Authors: Kelly Servick Tags: Mutation and Human Disease Source Type: research
[Special Issue News] Forest Health: Second act
When it came to studying forests, ecologist Robin Chazdon took the road less traveled. In the 1990s, when many tropical researchers were scrambling to study tropical forests before they disappeared, she focused on what grew back once the trees were burned or logged. Many colleagues worked in the forest's shaded understory, an ecosystem celebrated in Hollywood films. She labored in less charismatic deforested plots in the broiling sun, covered head to toe to keep prickly bushes and biting chiggers at bay. For decades, Chazdon worked in relative obscurity on long-term studies of these so-called secondary forests. She took is...
Source: Science: This Week - August 21, 2015 Category: Science Authors: Elizabeth Pennisi Tags: Forest Health Source Type: research
[Special Issue News] Forest Health: The new North
For 7 weeks last year, Yellowknife was besieged by smoke. In the vast evergreen forests encircling this small city in Canada's Northwest Territories, years of drought had set the scene for a historic fire year. Across the territories, 3.4 million hectares burned—an area equal to the state of Maryland, and seven times the annual average. The smoke darkened the sky, stung eyes, and filled Yellowknife residents with "a sense of panic," says Frank Lepine, who manages wildfire response for the Northwest Territories government. When the snow fell and the fires died, Lepine's army of firefighters—about 1000 strong at one poin...
Source: Science: This Week - August 21, 2015 Category: Science Authors: Tim Appenzeller Tags: Forest Health Source Type: research
[Special Issue News] Forest Health: Battling a giant killer
The eastern hemlock is one of eastern North America's largest native conifers. It has been called the "redwood of the east" and the "queen of the conifers." A healthy tree resembles an evergreen waterfall; overlapping layers of short, downy needles cascade from the crown almost to the ground. But the iconic tree, found from Georgia to Canada, is under attack. The hemlock woolly adelgid, a tiny sap-sucking insect about the size of a pinhead, has infested more than half of the hemlock's range, killing countless trees. Barring human intervention, it ultimately kills nearly every tree it attacks. Forest managers have been figh...
Source: Science: This Week - August 20, 2015 Category: Science Authors: Gabriel Popkin Tags: Forest Health Source Type: research
[Special Issue News] Artificial Intelligence: Fears of an AI pioneer
Stuart Russell argues that AI is as dangerous as nuclear weapons
Author: John Bohannon (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - July 17, 2015 Category: Science Authors: John Bohannon Tags: Artificial Intelligence Source Type: research
[Special Issue News] Artificial Intelligence: The synthetic therapist
Some people prefer to bare their souls to computers rather than to fellow humans
Author: John Bohannon (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - July 16, 2015 Category: Science Authors: John Bohannon Tags: Artificial Intelligence Source Type: research
