[News Focus] The Hunt for Missing Genes
Daniel MacArthur is intrigued by the prospect that hidden in the human population are people who lack certain genes yet remain healthy. Finding such natural human "knockouts" and looking for differences between their physiology and that of people with the intact gene may be the only way to fully understand the function of many of our genes, he and others contend. It could also have biomedical payoffs. To get started, MacArthur and others want to comb through many thousands of people's genomes for missing genes to seed what MacArthur calls the Human Knockout Project. But identifying dispensable genes is only the start of th...
Source: Science: This Week - May 16, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Jocelyn Kaiser Source Type: research
[News Focus] Beyond the Temples
Studying pyramids and deciphering cryptic writing systems have helped archaeologists piece together the political, cultural, and religious characteristics of many Mesoamerican civilizations. But ceremonial architecture and official records may not reveal how societies actually work. Mapping lost neighborhoods can help archaeologists see an ancient city through the eyes of its residents, rather than through its leaders.
Author: Lizzie Wade (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - May 16, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Lizzie Wade Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] Climate Change: No Stopping the Collapse of West Antarctic Ice Sheet
A disaster may be unfolding—in slow motion. Earlier this week, two teams of scientists reported that Thwaites Glacier, a keystone holding the massive West Antarctic Ice Sheet together, is starting to collapse. In the long run, they say, the entire ice sheet is doomed. It would release enough meltwater to raise sea levels by more than 3 meters.
Author: Thomas Sumner (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - May 16, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Thomas Sumner Tags: Climate Change Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] Universities: Job Change Lands Egyptian Scientist in Legal Battle
Misr University for Science & Technology (MUST) near Cairo has filed suit against one of its former employees, Rania Siam, claiming that her resignation damaged its reputation and caused it to forfeit a grant. Siam has been ordered by an Egyptian court to pay MUST $63,000. The feud casts a spotlight on what kind of compensation universities can claim when a promising faculty member jumps ship.
Author: Jennifer Carpenter (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - May 16, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Jennifer Carpenter Tags: Universities Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] Paleoanthropology: Bones From a Watery 'Black Hole' Confirm First American Origins
Most researchers agree that the earliest Americans came over from Asia via the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska, beginning at least 15,000 years ago. But many have long puzzled over findings that some of the earliest known skeletons—with long skulls and prominent foreheads—do not resemble today's Native Americans, who tend to have rounder skulls and flatter faces. Some have even suggested that at least two migrations into the Americas were involved, one earlier and one later. But the discovery of a nearly 13,000-year-old teenage girl in an underwater cave in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula argues against that hypot...
Source: Science: This Week - May 16, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Michael Balter Tags: Paleoanthropology Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] National Institutes of Health: Needed: More Females in Animal and Cell Studies
The heavy reliance on male animals and cells in research ignores female biology. And that's a mistake because this research guides therapies that move into humans, say two top National Institutes of Health officials. In a policy to be rolled out this October, the agency will require grant applicants to address the imbalance.
Author: Jennifer Couzin-Frankel (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - May 16, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Jennifer Couzin-Frankel Tags: National Institutes of Health Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] Infectious Diseases: Crippling Virus Set to Conquer Western Hemisphere
The chikungunya virus, which causes rashes, fever, and agonizing, sometimes lasting, joint pains, is spreading rapidly in the Caribbean. More than 45,000 suspected and confirmed infections have already been reported. Now that it has arrived in the Western Hemisphere, the virus will spread as far as the southern United States and Argentina, scientists say, because its main vector, the mosquito species Aedes aegypti, is widespread. There are no drugs against chikungunya, but several vaccines are in various stages of development.
Author: Martin Enserink (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - May 16, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Martin Enserink Tags: Infectious Diseases Source Type: research
[News of the Week] Random Samples
Nereus, a deep-diving remotely operated vehicle that was an integral part of a mission to explore life in deep-ocean trenches, has been lost at sea, after likely imploding due to intense pressures during one of its deepest dives. (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - May 16, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Stewart Wills (mailto:swills at aaas.org) Source Type: research
[News of the Week] Newsmakers
President Barack Obama has named oceanographer Richard "Rick" Spinrad to be the next chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—the agency's first chief scientist since the mid-1990s. (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - May 16, 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, new forecasts suggest El Niño is likely to emerge later this year, Australia's new conservative government slashes science funding, the European Union unveils a new university ranking system, and more. (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - May 16, 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 - May 15, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Stewart Wills (mailto:swills at aaas.org) Source Type: research
[News Focus] Maritime Ambitions
Thirty years ago, China didn't have a single underwater archaeologist. Today the country is spearheading exploratory missions in its waters and beyond, with an estimated hundreds of wrecks awaiting excavation. As it makes a soft power push into Asia and Africa, China is also resuscitating the memory of the 15th century seafarer Zheng He, claiming that his voyages were peaceful, and funding projects in countries with submerged riches. But foreign archaeologists note that the outlay comes as China is pressing territorial claims in the South China Sea—and worry that Zheng He's history is being rewritten.
Author: Mara Hvist...
Source: Science: This Week - May 9, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Mara Hvistendahl Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] Synthetic Biology: Designer Microbes Expand Life's Genetic Alphabet
All living things use two pairs of DNA nucleotides, or bases, to write their DNA. Now, researchers have created a microbe capable of adding a third pair. So in addition to the usual A-T and C-G base pairs, there is now X and Y. Not only do the designer microbes take up presynthesized X and Y nucleotides introduced into the surrounding culture medium, but they also use them to copy genes containing X-Y pairs. The advance opens the way for creating a wide variety of proteins with amino acids other than the standard 20 used in biology, which could lead to new protein-based materials and pharmaceuticals.
Author: Robert F. Serv...
Source: Science: This Week - May 9, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Robert F. Service Tags: Synthetic Biology Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] Aging: 'Rejuvenation Factor' in Blood Turns Back the Clock in Old Mice
Researchers may have found a protein that acts as an elixir of youth, at least in mice. In recent years, researchers studying mice found that giving old animals blood from young ones can reverse some signs of aging, and last year one team identified a growth factor in the blood that they think is partly responsible for the antiaging effect on a specific tissue—the heart. Now that group has shown this same factor can also rejuvenate muscles and the brain. Independently, another team has found that simply injecting plasma from young mice into old mice can boost learning.
Author: Jocelyn Kaiser (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - May 9, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Jocelyn Kaiser Tags: Aging Source Type: research
[News & Analysis] Global Change: 'Sea Butterflies' Are a Canary for Ocean Acidification
Researchers aboard a 2011 cruise found severe damage to shells of Limacina helicina, a sea snail that plays an important role in the ecosystem of the California Current off the Pacific coast. Scientists estimate that one-fifth of the pteropods had damaged shells in preindustrial times, owing to the natural acidity of the water, and anthropogenic emissions of CO2 made the water more acidic, more than doubling the number of individuals with damaged shells.
Author: Eli Kintisch (Source: Science: This Week)
Source: Science: This Week - May 9, 2014 Category: Science Authors: Eli Kintisch Tags: Global Change Source Type: research
