bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
How the Ancient Egyptians Brewed Beer
Authors: Williams Nigel
Published: October 2006

Cambridge, U.K.—Ancient Egyptians evidently had a fondness for bread and beer, judging from the many contemporary written and pictorial references to them. But just how these staples were made has remained tantalizingly vague, for no one has ever found a recipe. Some clues can, however, be found in tombs, where these foods were often left for sustenance in the afterlife. Now a Cambridge archaeologist reports on
page 488
that she has taken beer residues and dry crumbs that have survived in this arid atmosphere, examined them with an electron microscope, and by comparing them to the residues of modern food processing has come up with a theory of how ancient Egyptians brewed and baked which challenges the current understanding.
Comparative Earth History and Late Permian Mass Extinction
Authors: Knoll A. H. , Bambach R. K. , Canfield D. E. , Grotzinger J. P.
Published: October 2006

The repeated association during the late Neoproterozoic Era of large carbon-isotopic excursions, continental glaciation, and stratigraphically anomalous carbonate precipitation provides a framework for interpreting the reprise of these conditions on the Late Permian Earth. A paleoceanographic model that was developed to explain these stratigraphically linked phenomena suggests that the overturn of anoxic deep oceans during the Late Permian introduced high concentrations of carbon dioxide into surficial environments. The predicted physiological and climatic consequences for marine and terrestrial organisms are in good accord with the observed timing and selectivity of Late Permian mass extinction.
Investigation of Ancient Egyptian Baking and Brewing Methods by Correlative Microscopy
Authors: Samuel Delwen
Published: October 2006

Ancient Egyptian methods of baking and brewing are investigated by optical and scanning electron microscopy of desiccated bread loaves and beer remains. The results suggest that current conceptions about ancient Egyptian bread and beer making should be modified. Bread was made not only with flour from raw grain, but sometimes also with malt and with yeast. Brewing blended cooked and uncooked malt with water; the mixture was strained free of husk before inoculation with yeast.
Control Strategies for Tuberculosis Epidemics: New Models for Old Problems
Authors: Blower S. M. , Small P. M. , Hopewell P. C.
Published: October 2006

Tuberculosis, although preventable and curable, causes more adult deaths than any other infectious disease. A theoretical framework for designing effective control strategies is developed and used to determine treatment levels for eradication, to assess the effects of noneradicating control, and to examine the global goals of the World Health Organization. The theory is extended to assess how suboptimal control programs contribute to the evolution of drug resistance. A new evaluation criterion is defined and used to suggest how control strategies can be improved. In order to control tuberculosis, treatment failure rates must be lower in developing countries than in developed countries.
Spinal Cord Repair in Adult Paraplegic Rats: Partial Restoration of Hind Limb Function
Authors: Cheng Henrich , Cao Yihai , Olson Lars
Published: October 2006

Complete spinal cord gaps in adult rats were bridged with multiple intercostal nerve grafts that redirected specific pathways from white to gray matter. The grafted area was stabilized with fibrin glue containing acidic fibroblast growth factor and by compressive wiring of posterior spinal processes. Hind limb function improved progressively during the first 6 months, as assessed by two scoring systems. The corticospinal tract regenerated through the grafted area to the lumbar enlargement, as did several bulbospinal pathways. These data suggest a possible repair strategy for spinal cord injury.
Web-Crawling Up the Tree of Life
Authors: Morell Virginia
Published: October 2006

Systematic biologists have planted a tree on the World Wide Web, and it's growing faster and further than Jack's proverbial beanstalk. This prolific plant is nothing less than the
Tree of Life
, a vast on-line endeavor that will ultimately include the genetic and evolutionary relationships, photographs, and life histories of every type of living organism. With just a few mouse clicks or keystrokes, a mycologist can climb a fungal family tree, read accompanying discussions about the tree's various inhabitants, and shinny back down the trunk to see fungal ancestors. A few more clicks, and the researcher can hook up to
TreeBASE
, a site that will eventually contain all the morphological and molecular data, including gene sequences, that underlie the phylogenies. Although it's still just a sapling—it's been on-line for a mere 20 months—the tree already has a sizable girth: It currently holds over 1000 pages, with data on organisms in nearly 7500 taxa branching across 10 computers on two continents, and it's drawing raves from other scientists. Computers/Math
Reports Bolster Viral Cause of KS
Authors: Cohen Jon
Published: October 2006

New findings from antibody tests strengthen earlier claims that a new herpesvirus is the cause of Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), a tumor famous for the purple skin splotches that 20% of HIV-infected gay men develop. But not everybody is convinced that the work, by teams at Columbia University and the University of California, San Francisco, proves causality. Among the unanswered questions is why the virus is found predominantly among gay men, while other human herpesviruses are widespread in the general population.
Software Matchmakers Help Make Sense of Sequences
Authors: Taubes Gary
Published: October 2006

Genome projects are spinning out new sequence at a mind-boggling rate, leaving computational biologists with the challenge of quickly identifying new genes in that sequence and inferring the function of the proteins they code for. The key is to find related genes whose function is already known, and that requires spotting obvious, or less than obvious, similarities in different strings of data. Computational biologists have been churning out algorithms for doing so, using strategies borrowed from machine learning, artificial intelligence, statistics, and speech recognition. Computers/Math
Do Java Users Live Dangerously?
Authors: Seife Charles
Published: October 2006

Java is a hot item on the Web, because it allows a user to download foreign programs (“applets”) over the Internet and run them in a local computer. But it could in theory expose a host machine to computer viruses and other digital mischief. Java's designers included an array of software guardians that screen each applet for admission and then keep it from running amok, but several computer experts have learned to use bugs in Java to bypass its safeguards. The flaws are being fixed, but security experts say more are likely to turn up. Computers/Math
Which Came First, Protein Sequence or Structure?
Authors: Kardar Mehran
Published: October 2006

The sequence of amino acids in a protein determines how it will eventually fold into its three-dimensional structure. One way to understand how this works is by considering the protein's “foldability”—that is, the likelihood of folding into a useful structure. Another approach, however, is that taken in the report by Li
et al
. (
p. 666
) and discussed in the Perspective by Kardar. Here, the authors consider the “designability” of proteins—the number of sequences that uniquely fold into a particular structure.
Support for the Prion Hypothesis for Inheritance of a Phenotypic Trait in Yeast
Authors: Patino Maria M. , Liu Jia-Jia , Glover John R. , Lindquist Susan
Published: October 2006

A cytoplasmically inherited genetic element in yeast, [
PSI

+

], was confirmed to be a prionlike aggregate of the cellular protein Sup35 by differential centrifugation analysis and microscopic localization of a Sup35—green fluorescent protein fusion. Aggregation depended on the intracellular concentration and functional state of the chaperone protein Hsp104 in the same manner as did [
PSI

+

] inheritance. The amino-terminal and carboxy-terminal domains of Sup35 contributed to the unusual behavior of [
PSI

+

]. [
PSI

+

] altered the conformational state of newly synthesized prion proteins, inducing them to aggregate as well, thus fulfilling a major tenet of the prion hypothesis.
Lithologic Control of the Depth of Earthquakes in Southern California
Authors: Magistrale Harold , Zhou Hua-wei
Published: October 2006

The depth distribution of southern California earthquakes indicates that areas underlain by schist basement rocks have a shallower (4 to 10 kilometers) maximum depth of earthquakes than do areas with other types of basement rocks. The predominant minerals in the schists become plastic at lower temperatures, and thus at shallower depths, than the minerals in the other basement rocks. The lateral variations in lithology will control the depth extent (and thus the magnitudes) of potential future earthquakes; these depths can be determined from the depth of the current background seismicity.
Coevolution of the Mammalian Middle Ear and Neocortex
Authors: Rowe Timothy
Published: October 2006

Phylogenetic analysis with x-ray computed tomography of fossilized and recent crania implicates differential growth of the neocortex in the evolution and development of the mammalian middle ear. In premammalian tetrapods, the middle ear evolved as a chain of bones attached to the mandible and cranium, but in adult mammals the chain is detached from the mandible and lies behind it. The neocortex evolved concurrently with detachment of the chain. In mammalian development the auditory chain arises connected to the mandible but later detaches, recapitulating the phylogenetic transformation. In modern didelphid development, the auditory chain reaches mature size by the third week after birth and is then separated from the jaw and displaced caudally as the neocortex grows for another 9 weeks.
Reduction of Morphine Abstinence in Mice with a Mutation in the Gene Encoding CREB
Authors: Maldonado Rafael , Blendy Julie A. , Tzavara Eleni , Gass Peter , Roques Bernard P. , Hanoune Jacques , Schütz Günter
Published: October 2006

Chronic morphine administration induces an up-regulation of several components of the cyclic adenosine 5′-monophosphate (cAMP) signal transduction cascade. The behavioral and biochemical consequences of opiate withdrawal were investigated in mice with a genetic disruption of the α and Δ isoforms of the cAMP-responsive element-binding protein (CREB). In CREBαΔ mutant mice the main symptoms of morphine withdrawal were strongly attenuated. No change in opioid binding sites or in morphine-induced analgesia was observed in these mutant mice, and the increase of adenylyl cyclase activity and immediate early gene expression after morphine withdrawal was normal. Thus, CREB-dependent gene transcription is a factor in the onset of behavioral manifestations of opiate dependence.
PTH/PTHrP Receptor in Early Development and Indian Hedgehog—Regulated Bone Growth
Authors: Lanske Beate , Karaplis Andrew C. , Lee Kaechong , Luz Arne , Vortkamp Andrea , Pirro Alison , Karperien Marcel , Defize Libert H. K. , Ho Chrystal , Mulligan Richard C. , Abou-Samra Abdul-Badi , Jüppner Harald , Segre Gino V. , Kronenberg Henry M.
Published: October 2006

The PTH/PTHrP receptor binds to two ligands with distinct functions: the calcium-regulating hormone, parathyroid hormone (PTH), and the paracrine factor, PTH-related protein (PTHrP). Each ligand, in turn, is likely to activate more than one receptor. The functions of the PTH/PTHrP receptor were investigated by deletion of the murine gene by homologous recombination. Most PTH/PTHrP receptor (−/−) mutant mice died in mid-gestation, a phenotype not observed in PTHrP (−/−) mice, perhaps because of the effects of maternal PTHrP. Mice that survived exhibited accelerated differentiation of chondrocytes in bone, and their bones, grown in explant culture, were resistant to the effects of PTHrP and Sonic hedgehog. These results suggest that the PTH/PTHrP receptor mediates the effects of Indian Hedgehog and PTHrP on chondrocyte differentiation.
Hughes Grants Brighten Outlook for Elite Researchers
Authors: Williams Nigel
Published: October 2006

Prague—Last year, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) launched a $15-million program to provide grants to elite researchers in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Hughes brought the grantees together here for a meeting in June that provided a snapshot of how science is faring in the region. Most of the 87 researchers who attended the meeting said that their HHMI grants—between $25,000 and $35,000 a year over 5 years—have provided a lifeline at a time when most sources of support are drying up.
European Labs Brace for German Cuts
Authors: Clery Daniel , Watson Andrew
Published: October 2006

Scientists at five of Europe's major international research centers have reacted with dismay to news that Germany intends to make deep cuts in its contributions to their budgets next year. The cuts—part of an austere federal budget, some details of which were announced last month—would range from 9.3% of the amount Germany spends on CERN to 4.3% of its contribution to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. Laboratory directors are especially concerned that other countries may also seek to reduce their contributions if the German cuts go ahead. Germany's budget proposals are scheduled to be debated by the country's parliament this fall.
E-journal: Delayed but Still a Force
Authors: Glanz James
Published: October 2006

Technical and administrative snags have slowed the debut of the first purely electronic physics journal, which was designed to take advantage of the convenience and cost savings of purely electronic submissions, refereeing, and publishing. Now 6 months late, it may never see daylight. But the prospect of this radical new journal has prompted changes among traditional physics publications, accelerating their own efforts to go online and rethink their futures.
Is the New Variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease from Mad Cows?
Authors: Smith Peter G. , Cousens Simon N.
Published: October 2006

Smith and Cousens outline the epidemiological evidence that a new form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is due to the same infectious agent as the one causing the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in British cattle.
Photopolymerization and Mass-Independent Sulfur Isotope Fractionations in Carbon Disulfide
Authors: Colman Jonah J. , Xu Xianping , Thiemens Mark H. , Trogler William C.
Published: October 2006

Irradiation of gaseous carbon disulfide [CS
2(g)
] at 313 nanometers produces a dark brown aerosol of (CS
2
)

x

. Its thermal decomposition products include disulfur (S
2
), carbon monosulfide (CS), and (CS)

x

. The photopolymerization process is accompanied by a large mass-independent isotopic fractionation of sulfur (a 5 to 10 per mil sulfur-33 excess and a 61 to 84 per mil sulfur-36 deficit). Excess sulfur-33 has been observed in several classes of meteorites. Photochemical production of (CS
2
)

x

may be important in the origin and evolution of cosmochemical environments such as the presolar nebula, meteorites, asteroids, and planetary atmospheres.
Absorption of Solar Energy in the Atmosphere: Discrepancy Between Model and Observations
Authors: Arking Albert
Published: October 2006

An atmospheric general circulation model, which assimilates data from daily observations of temperature, humidity, wind, and sea-level air pressure, was compared with a set of observations that combines satellite and ground-based measurements of solar flux. The comparison reveals that the model underestimates by 25 to 30 watts per square meter the amount of solar energy absorbed by Earth's atmosphere. Contrary to some recent reports, clouds have little or no overall effect on atmospheric absorption, a consistent feature of both the observations and the model. Of several variables considered, water vapor appears to be the dominant influence on atmospheric absorption.
Panel Backs S&T Centers Program
Authors: Kaiser Jocelyn
Published: October 2006

A once-controversial program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support university-based centers studying multidisciplinary topics has been given an important endorsement. A joint committee of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine finds that the 7-year-old experiment in funding “medium-size” science through Science and Technology Centers (STCs) should be continued. The program, begun in 1989 by then-NSF director Erich Bloch to fund projects too risky or broad for single labs to tackle, was seen by some researchers at a threat to the limited pot of grant money available to individual scientists. But the panel concluded that most of the centers “are producing high-quality world-class research that would not have been possible without a center structure and presence.”
Early Start for Plant-Insect Dance
Authors: Vogel Gretchen
Published: October 2006

Insects and plants have been exploiting each other for millennia, often to spectacular effect. Hungry insects, for instance, spurred plants to invent attractive flowers, which bribe insects into carrying pollen by offering them meals of nectar. Most scientists have assumed such mutual manipulations date back about 125 million years, when flowering plants first appeared. But paleontologists Conrad Labandeira of the National Museum of Natural History and Tom Phillips of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign report in the 6 August issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that new evidence indicates that insects and plants took some of the first steps in their intimate dance more than twice that early—and that they paired up not for mutual benefit but in a drama of attack and self-defense.
Structure in Thin and Ultrathin Spin-Cast Polymer Films
Authors: Frank C. W. , Rao V. , Despotopoulou M. M. , Pease R. F. W. , Hinsberg W. D. , Miller R. D. , Rabolt J. F.
Published: October 2006

The molecular organization in ultrathin polymer films (thicknesses less than 1000 angstroms) and thin polymer films (thicknesses between 1000 and 10,000 angstroms) may differ substantially from that of bulk polymers, which can lead to important differences in resulting thermophysical properties. Such constrained geometry films have been fabricated from amorphous poly(3-methyl-4-hydroxy styrene) (PMHS) and semicrystalline poly(di-
n
-hexyl silane) (PD6S) by means of spin-casting. The residual solvent content is substantially greater in ultrathin PMHS films, which suggests a higher glass transition temperature that results from a stronger hydrogen-bonded network as compared with that in thicker films. Crystallization of PD6S is substantially hindered in ultrathin films, in which a critical thickness of 150 angstroms is needed for crystalline morphology to exist and in which the rate of crystallization is initially slow but increases rapidly as the film approaches 500 angstroms in thickness.
Are Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt Objects Pristine?
Authors: Yamamoto Tetsuo
Published: October 2006

Comets are thought to represent matter from the earliest times of the solar system. In his Perspective, Yamamoto discusses calculations by Farinella and Davis (
p. 938
) that cast doubt on whether comets are actually pristine fossils.
Local Control of Microdomain Orientation in Diblock Copolymer Thin Films with Electric Fields
Authors: Morkved T. L. , Lu M. , Urbas A. M. , Ehrichs E. E. , Jaeger H. M. , Mansky P. , Russell T. P.
Published: October 2006

Local control of the domain orientation in diblock copolymer thin films can be obtained by the application of electric fields on micrometer-length scales. Thin films of an asymmetric polystyrene-polymethylmethacrylate diblock copolymer, with cylindrical polymethylmethacrylate microdomains, were spin-coated onto substrates previously patterned with planar electrodes. The substrates, 100-nanometer-thick silicon nitride membranes, allow direct observation of the electrodes and the copolymer domain structure by transmission electron microscopy. The cylinders aligned parallel to the electric field lines for fields exceeding 30 kilovolts per centimeter, after annealing at 250°C in an inert atmosphere for 24 hours. This technique could find application in nanostructure fabrication.
Biomembrane Templates for Nanoscale Conduits and Networks
Authors: Evans Evan , Bowman Howard , Leung Andrew , Needham David , Tirrell David
Published: October 2006

Long nanotubes of fluid-lipid bilayers can be used to create templates for photochemical polymerization into solid-phase conduits and networks. Each nanotube is pulled from a micropipette-held feeder vesicle by mechanical retraction of the vesicle after molecular bonding to a rigid substrate. The caliber of the tube is controlled precisely in a range from 20 to 200 nanometers merely by setting the suction pressure in the micropipette. Branched conduits can be formed by coalescing separate nanotubes drawn serially from the feeder vesicle surface. Single nanotubes and nanotube junctions can be linked together between bonding sites on a surface to create a functionalized network. After assembly, the templates can be stabilized by photoinitiated radical cross-linking of macromonomers contained in the aqueous solution confined by the lipid bilayer boundary.
Metallization and Electrical Conductivity of Hydrogen in Jupiter
Authors: Nellis W. J. , Weir S. T. , Mitchell A. C.
Published: October 2006

Electrical conductivities of molecular hydrogen in Jupiter were calculated by scaling electrical conductivities measured at shock pressures in the range of 10 to 180 gigapascals (0.1 to 1.8 megabars) and temperatures to 4000 kelvin, representative of conditions inside Jupiter. Jupiter's magnetic field is caused by convective dynamo motion of electrically conducting fluid hydrogen. The data imply that Jupiter should become metallic at 140 gigapascals in the fluid, and the electrical conductivity in the jovian molecular envelope at pressures up to metallization is about an order of magnitude larger than expected previously. The large magnetic field is produced in the molecular envelope closer to the surface than previously thought.
Penetrative Convection and Zonal Flow on Jupiter
Authors: Zhang Keke , Schubert Gerald
Published: October 2006

Measurements by the Galileo probe support the possibility that the zonal winds in Jupiter's atmosphere originate from convection that takes place in the deep hydrogen-helium interior. However, according to models based on recent opacity data and the probe's temperature measurements, there may be radiative and nonconvective layers in the outer part of the jovian interior, raising the question of how deep convection could extend to the surface. A theoretical model is presented to demonstrate that, because of predominant rotational effects and spherical geometry, thermal convection in the deep jovian interior can penetrate into any outer nonconvective layer. These penetrative convection rolls interact nonlinearly and efficiently in the model to generate and sustain a mean zonal wind with a larger amplitude than that of the nonaxisymmetric penetrative convective motions, a characteristic of the wind field observed at the cloud level on Jupiter.
Activation of the Budding Yeast Spindle Assembly Checkpoint Without Mitotic Spindle Disruption
Authors: Hardwick Kevin G. , Weiss Eric , Luca Francis C. , Winey Mark , Murray Andrew W.
Published: October 2006

The spindle assembly checkpoint keeps cells with defective spindles from initiating chromosome segregation. The protein kinase Mps1 phosphorylates the yeast protein Mad1p when this checkpoint is activated, and the overexpression of Mps1p induces modification of Mad1p and arrests wild-type yeast cells in mitosis with morphologically normal spindles. Spindle assembly checkpoint mutants overexpressing Mps1p pass through mitosis without delay and can produce viable progeny, which demonstrates that the arrest of wild-type cells results from inappropriate activation of the checkpoint in cells whose spindle is fully functional. Ectopic activation of cell-cycle checkpoints might be used to exploit the differences in checkpoint status between normal and tumor cells and thus improve the selectivity of chemotherapy.
A Receptor in Pituitary and Hypothalamus That Functions in Growth Hormone Release
Authors: Howard Andrew D. , Feighner Scott D. , Cully Doris F. , Arena Joseph P. , Liberator Paul A. , Rosenblum Charles I. , Hamelin Michel , Hreniuk Donna L. , Palyha Oksana C. , Anderson Jennifer , Paress Philip S. , Diaz Carmen , Chou Michael , Liu Ken K. , McKee Karen Kulju , Pong Sheng-Shung , Chaung Lee-Yuh , Elbrecht Alex , Dashkevicz Mike , Heavens Robert , Rigby Mike , Sirinathsinghji Dalip J. S. , Dean Dennis C. , Melillo David G. , Patchett Arthur A. , Nargund Ravi , Griffin Patrick R. , DeMartino Julie A. , Gupta Sunil K. , Schaeffer James M. , Smith Roy G. , Van der Ploeg Lex H. T.
Published: October 2006

Small synthetic molecules termed growth hormone secretagogues (GHSs) act on the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus to stimulate and amplify pulsatile growth hormone (GH) release. A heterotrimeric GTP-binding protein (G protein)-coupled receptor (GPC-R) of the pituitary and arcuate ventro-medial and infundibular hypothalamus of swine and humans was cloned and was shown to be the target of the GHSs. On the basis of its pharmacological and molecular characterization, this GPC-R defines a neuroendocrine pathway for the control of pulsatile GH release and supports the notion that the GHSs mimic an undiscovered hormone.
Galileo Gazes at Jupiter and Its Moons
Authors: Vogel Gretchen
Published: October 2006

With the public still dazzled by the possibility of life on Mars, space scientists announced new views of another set of alien worlds: Jupiter and its moons. As it swung through the Jovian system, the Galileo spacecraft took new images of Jupiter and another moon, Europa. The data suggest that a watery ocean—one of the criteria for life as we know it—may lie beneath the cracked, icy shell of Europa's surface. And on Jupiter itself, Galileo snapped images of Earth-like thunderclouds, shoring up the idea that thunderstorms sweep across the planet.
Universal Quantum Simulators
Authors: Lloyd Seth
Published: October 2006

Feynman's 1982 conjecture, that quantum computers can be programmed to simulate any local quantum system, is shown to be correct.
Late Pleistocene Desiccation of Lake Victoria and Rapid Evolution of Cichlid Fishes
Authors: Johnson Thomas C. , Scholz Christopher A. , Talbot Michael R. , Kelts Kerry , Ricketts R. D. , Ngobi Gideon , Beuning Kristina , Ssemmanda Immacculate , McGill J. W.
Published: October 2006

Lake Victoria is the largest lake in Africa and harbors more than 300 endemic species of haplochromine cichlid fish. Seismic reflection profiles and piston cores show that the lake not only was at a low stand but dried up completely during the Late Pleistocene, before 12,400 carbon-14 years before the present. These results imply that the rate of speciation of cichlid fish in this tropical lake has been extremely rapid.
BTK as a Mediator of Radiation-Induced Apoptosis in DT-40 Lymphoma B Cells
Authors: Uckun Fatih M. , Waddick Kevin G. , Mahajan Sandeep , Jun Xiao , Takata Minoru , Bolen Joseph , Kurosaki Tomohiro
Published: October 2006

Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) is a member of the SRC-related TEC family of protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs). DT-40 lymphoma B cells, rendered BTK-deficient through targeted disruption of the
btk
gene by homologous recombination knockout, did not undergo radiation-induced apoptosis, but cells with disrupted
lyn
or
syk
genes did. Introduction of the wild-type, or a SRC homology 2 domain or a plecstrin homology domain mutant (but not a kinase domain mutant), human
btk
gene into BTK-deficient cells restored the apoptotic response to radiation. Thus, BTK is the PTK responsible for triggering radiation-induced apoptosis of lymphoma B cells, and its kinase domain is indispensable for the apoptotic response.
Three-Dimensional Images Are Conjured in a Crystal Cube
Authors: Glanz James
Published: October 2006

Engineers have long struggled to build displays that create the illusion of three dimensions. A Research Article on
page 1185
reports something that may be better than illusions: true 3D images, traced within a cube of special glass by a pair of lasers. The lasers deliver invisible infrared light; where their beams cross, they create a point of fluorescence. The prototype display is small and its information content is low, but some researchers think full-fledged versions could have applications in everything from medicine to air-traffic control.
Synthetic Aperture Radar for Geodesy
Authors: Meade Charles , Sandwell David T.
Published: October 2006

Synthetic aperture radar is a technique for mapping Earth's surface that offers tremendous spatial resolution. In their Perspective, Meade and Sandwell report on a recent meeting at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in which future geodetic uses of this technique were discussed.
Triggering Bacterial Virulence
Authors: Cotter Peggy A. , Miller Jeff F.
Published: October 2006

When pathogenic bacteria invade a host, virulence genes are induced that allow the bacteria to evade the host's defense mechanisms. Two reports in this week's issue [Pettersson
et al
. (
p.1231
) and Zhang
et al
. (
p. 1234
)] show that cell-cell contact between bacteria and host is a key trigger in this induction, at least in a strain of
Escherichia coli
and in
Yersinia
. In their Perspective, Cotter and Miller draw parallels between these two systems and predict that cell-cell contact may be a general mechanism for virulence gene regulation.
A Three-Color, Solid-State, Three-Dimensional Display
Authors: Downing Elizabeth , Hesselink Lambertus , Ralston John , Macfarlane Roger
Published: October 2006

A three-color, solid-state, volumetric display based on two-step, two-frequency upconversion in rare earth-doped heavy metal fluoride glass is described. The device uses infrared laser beams that intersect inside a transparent volume of active optical material to address red, green, and blue voxels by sequential two-step resonant absorption. Three-dimensional wire-frame images, surface areas, and solids are drawn by scanning the point of intersection of the lasers around inside of the material. The prototype device is driven with laser diodes, uses conventional focusing optics and mechanical scanners, and is bright enough to be seen in ambient room lighting conditions.

QuickTime movie of the three-dimensional display.
Phase and Morphology Changes in Lipid Monolayers Induced by SP-B Protein and Its Amino-Terminal Peptide
Authors: Lipp M. M. , Lee K. Y. C. , Zasadzinski J. A. , Waring A. J.
Published: October 2006

Both human lung surfactant protein, SP-B, and its amino-terminal peptide, SP-B
1-25
, inhibit the formation of condensed phases in monolayers of palmitic acid, resulting in a new fluid phase. This fluid phase forms a network, separating condensed-phase domains at coexistence. The network persists to high surface pressures, altering the nucleation, growth, and morphology of monolayer collapse structures, leading to lower surface tensions on compression and more reversible respreading on expansion. The network is stabilized by the low line tension between the fluid phase and the condensed phase as confirmed by the formation of “stripe” phases.
Induction of Gene Expression in

Escherichia coli

After Pilus-Mediated Adherence
Authors: Zhang Jian Ping , Normark Staffan
Published: October 2006

The induction of cascades of virulence factors after contact between bacteria and host cells was investigated. P-pili mediate the binding of uropathogenic
Escherichia coli
to its host cell receptor. After P-pili binding there was transcriptional activation of a sensor-regulator protein that is essential for the bacterial iron-starvation response. An insertion mutation of the sensor-regulator gene eliminated the ability of uropathogenic
E. coli
to produce siderophores and their iron-regulated membrane receptors, thereby abolishing their ability to grow in urine. These results suggest that P-pilus-mediated attachment may be an important part of the sensor-regulatory process involved in uropathogenic
E. coli
urinary tract infection.
Pilot Study Teaches NSF Costly Lesson
Authors: Mervis Jeffrey
Published: October 2006

A positive review of the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Science and Technology Centers has turned out to be a $727,000 lesson in how not to measure the value to society of basic research. The problem is that NSF's reach may have exceeded its grasp: Officials had hoped the outside review would serve both as a tool to help them decide whether to renew the program and as a model for how to assess the NSF's entire $3 billion research and education portfolio. But the result was a procedural nightmare, and NSF officials have promised not to repeat the effort.
Japan's R&D Budget: Proposed Increases Follow 5-Year Plan
Authors: Normile Dennis
Published: October 2006

Tokyo—Three months ago, the Japanese government adopted a plan to spend $170 billion on science and technology over the next 5 years —an investment that would double, by 2000, what was being spent in 1992. Last week various government ministries unveiled their budget proposals for the upcoming fiscal year, and the double-digit increases being requested for many R&D programs are a clear downpayment on that investment. If the Diet approves these proposals later this year, Japanese graduate students and young scientists will find it easier to make ends meet, neuroscience will get a major new research institute, and research-industry ties will proliferate.
A New Look at Maternal Guidance
Authors: Pennisi Elizabeth
Published: October 2006

Until relatively recently, the so-called maternal effects, which occur when something about the mother's environment alters how her offspring look, act, and function, were thought to be little more than random noise that made it difficult for researchers to interpret the results of their experiments. But new results suggest that by influencing an organism's ability to adapt, they may influence the course of evolution. And because maternal effects can also drive fluctuations in population size, they may need to be taken into account in efforts to protect endangered species and control insecinfestations.
Structure of Gene-Tag Protein Solved
Authors: Gura Trisha
Published: October 2006

The green fluorescent protein from the Pacific Northwest jellyfish has proved to be a valuable tool for tracking gene expression and tracing the workings of their protein products in living cells and tissues. The determination of the protein's three-dimensional structure, which is described in a Report on
page 1392
, may now make it even more useful, by helping researchers design new models in a wider range of colors.
Plants, Like Animals, May Make Use of Peptide Signals
Authors: Marx Jean
Published: October 2006

For many years, plant biologists assumed that the rigid cell walls of plant cells close off one major avenue of cell-to-cell communication—the peptide and protein signals through which animal cells coordinate their activities. These signaling molecules, the prevailing wisdom held, are just too big to penetrate the plant cell wall. But a cluster of recent findings is changing that view. A
Report
in a recent issue of Science described a peptide signal that regulates the formation of nitrogen-fixing root nodules in legumes. And a series of findings, reported on
page 1406
and elsewhere, shows that plant cells have receptor molecules that look very much like the peptide receptors of animal cells.
Fossil Velvet Worms in Baltic and Dominican Amber: Onychophoran Evolution and Biogeography
Authors: Poinar George
Published: October 2006

Velvet worms identified in Baltic and Dominican amber demonstrate that terrestrial onychophorans were present in the early Tertiary. Characters of the amber fossils are similar to those of the Cambrian
Aysheaia
and the Pennsylvanian
Helenodora
, which suggests that these Paleozoic lobopods are ancestral to extant velvet worms. The presence of slime secretions in the Dominican amber fossil shows that the slime gland-pore complex had developed by the mid-Tertiary and could have been an adaptation to terrestrial life. The Baltic amber fossil shows that the range for this now predominately gondwanan group was expanded in the Tertiary.
A Model of Host-Microbial Interactions in an Open Mammalian Ecosystem
Authors: Bry Lynn , Falk Per G. , Midtvedt Tore , Gordon Jeffrey I.
Published: October 2006

The maintenance and significance of the complex populations of microbes present in the mammalian intestine are poorly understood. Comparison of conventionally housed and germ-free NMRI mice revealed that production of fucosylated glycoconjugates and an α1,2-fucosyltransferase messenger RNA in the small-intestinal epithelium requires the normal microflora. Colonization of germ-free mice with
Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron
, a component of this flora, restored the fucosylation program, whereas an isogenic strain carrying a transposon insertion that disrupts its ability to use L-fucose as a carbon source did not. Simplified models such as this should aid the study of open microbial ecosystems.
The Lessons of Qinglong County
Authors: Mervis Jeffrey
Published: October 2006

Days before a magnitude 7.8 quake leveled the neighboring big city of Tangshan in northeastern China, Qinglong County officials decided to act on anomalous data collected by the State Seismological Bureau that pointed to a major earthquake in the region during the latter half of July 1976. The initiative—no official prediction was issued—paid off handsomely when the earthquake struck at 3:42 a.m. on 28 July. Only one person from Qinglong County died in the quake, while more than 240,000 people were killed in Tangshan and the surrounding area.
Researchers Find Neurons That May Help Us Navigate
Authors: Barinaga Marcia
Published: October 2006

Walking a straight line or steering a car down a road may seem effortless, but your brain has to perform a difficult computation to keep you on course. The images of oncoming objects provide a clue to where you are headed, because their images appear to expand from a central point. But that point doesn't stay fixed on your retina, because your eyes are continually moving about. Results reported on
page 1544
by a research team help explain how the brain compensates: The researchers have found individual neurons that combine visual information with information about eye movements to calculate the correct heading.
Has CERN Made the Stuff of the Newborn Universe?
Authors: Taubes Gary
Published: October 2006

Not since the universe was 10 microseconds old have the primary constituents of ordinary matter, quarks and gluons, existed outside the more complex particles, such as protons and neutrons, in which they are irrevocably bundled today. But physicists at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory outside Geneva, recently reported evidence suggesting that they might indeed have created this long-lost state of matter in high-energy collisions of lead nuclei. The possibility has set the physics community abuzz over the past few months, although the hints of quark-gluon plasma are far from definitive.
Making Cells Selectively Sticky
Authors: Service Robert F.
Published: October 2006

Living cells are coated with sticky sugars, which are attached to the ends of the protein receptors and other structures on the cell surface. Investigators have long wanted to turn these sugars, called oligosaccharides, into the molecular equivalent of Velcro by modifying them to bind specific molecular partners, such as drugs aimed at specific cells. Now a research team has devised a scheme for harnessing cells' own machinery to add an additional chemical group to the ends of the oligosaccharides, turning them into potential targets for anticancer drugs.
The Future of Genetic Studies of Complex Human Diseases
Authors: Risch Neil , Merikangas Kathleen
Published: October 2006

The identification of the genetic basis of complex human diseases such as schizophrenia and diabetes has proven difficult. In their Perspective, Risch and Merikangas propose that we can best accomplish this goal by combining the power of the human genome project with association studies, a method for determining the basis of a genetic disease.
The Benefits of Natural Disasters
Authors: Tilman David
Published: October 2006

Humans have worked hard to eliminate the negative effects of fires and floods. These efforts sometimes have unexpected consequences; for instance, the dikes along the Mississippi River eliminated the flood plain and thus exacerbated the flooding in 1993. As discussed in Tilman's Perspective, two reports in this week's issue [Leach and Givnish (
p. 1555
) and Wootton
et al
. (
p. 1558
)] show that interference with natural disasters can also affect the abundance of species.
Seismic Evidence for Partial Melt at the Base of Earth's Mantle
Authors: Williams Quentin , Garnero Edward J.
Published: October 2006

The presence of an intermittent layer at the base of Earth's mantle with a maximum thickness near 40 kilometers and a compressional wave velocity depressed by ∼10 percent compared with that of the overlying mantle is most simply explained as the result of partial melt at this depth. Both the sharp upper boundary of this layer (<10 kilometers wide) and the apparent correlation with deep mantle upwelling are consistent with the presence of liquid in the lowermost mantle, implying that the bottom of the thermal boundary layer at the base of the mantle may lie above its eutectic temperature. Such a partially molten zone would be expected to have enhanced thermal and chemical transport properties and may provide constraints on the geotherm and lateral variations in lowermost mantle temperature or mineralogy.
Geoarchaeological Evidence from Peru for a 5000 Years B.P. Onset of El Niño
Authors: Sandweiss Daniel H. , Richardson James B. , Reitz Elizabeth J. , Rollins Harold B. , Maasch Kirk A.
Published: October 2006

For the tropical west coast of South America, where El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is most pronounced, archaeological and associated paleontological deposits in northern Peru revealed a major climate change at about 5000 years before the present (yr B.P.). The data implied the presence of stable, warm tropical water as far south as 10°S during the early mid-Holocene (about 8000 to 5000 yr B.P.). These data suggest that ENSO did not occur for some millennia preceding 5000 yr B.P., when global and regional climate was warmer than today.
α Helix-RNA Major Groove Recognition in an HIV-1 Rev Peptide-RRE RNA Complex
Authors: Battiste John L. , Mao Hongyuan , Rao N. Sambasiva , Tan Ruoying , Muhandiram D. R. , Kay Lewis E. , Frankel Alan D. , Williamson James R.
Published: October 2006

The solution structure of a human immunodeficiency virus type-1 (HIV-1) Rev peptide bound to stem-loop IIB of the Rev response element (RRE) RNA was solved by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The Rev peptide has an α-helical conformation and binds in the major groove of the RNA near a purine-rich internal loop. Several arginine side chains make base-specific contacts, and an asparagine residue contacts a G·A base pair. The phosphate backbone adjacent to a G·G base pair adopts an unusual structure that allows the peptide to access a widened major groove. The structure formed by the two purine-purine base pairs of the RRE creates a distinctive binding pocket that the peptide can use for specific recognition.
Appetite-Suppressing Effects of Urocortin, a CRF-Related Neuropeptide
Authors: Spina Mariarosa , Merlo-Pich Emilio , Chan Raymond K. W. , Basso Ana Maria , Rivier Jean , Vale Wylie , Koob George F.
Published: October 2006

The neuropeptide corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is well known to act on the central nervous system in ways that mimic stress and result in decreases in exploration, increases in sympathetic activity, decreases in parasympathetic outflow, and decreases in appetitive behavior. Urocortin, a neuropeptide related to CRF, binds with high affinity to the CRF
2
receptor, is more potent than CRF in suppressing appetite, but is less potent than CRF in producing anxiety-like effects and activation. Doses as low as 10 nanograms injected intracerebroventricularly were effective in decreasing food intake in food-deprived and free-feeding rats. These results suggest that urocortin may be an endogenous CRF-like factor in the brain responsible for the effects of stress on appetite.
The Mental Representation of Hand Movements After Parietal Cortex Damage
Authors: Sirigu Angela , Duhamel Jean-René , Cohen Laurent , Pillon Bernard , Dubois Bruno , Agid Yves
Published: October 2006

Recent neuroimagery findings showed that the patterns of cerebral activation during the mental rehearsal of a motor act are similar to those produced by its actual execution. This concurs with the notion that part of the distributed neural activity taking place during movement involves internal simulations, but it is not yet clear what specific contribution the different brain areas involved bring to this process. Here, patients with lesions restricted to the parietal cortex were found to be impaired selectively at predicting, through mental imagery, the time necessary to perform differentiated finger movements and visually guided pointing gestures, in comparison to normal individuals and to a patient with damage to the primary motor area. These results suggest that the parietal cortex is important for the ability to generate mental movement representations.
A Recipe for River Recovery?
Authors: Barinaga Marcia
Published: October 2006

Efforts to restore rivers damaged by diversion of their waters to agriculture and cities have mostly focused on optimizing habitats for a single fish species, such as the salmon. But plans proposed for Northern California's Trinity River and the streams feeding Mono Lake, also in California, take a more radical tack: They aim to restore the physical processes, including floods, that help a river shape its banks and bottoms. Proponents maintain that restoring natural habitats will also restore fisheries. The idea is controversial, however. The higher flows needed will take water away from agricultural and urban users, and even some ecologists question whether the approach will indeed increase fish numbers. The dispute is far from academic, for the Trinity River and Mono Lake projects may well provide models for restoration of other damaged rivers.
Serious Setback for Patarroyo Vaccine
Authors: Marshall Eliot
Published: October 2006

A 2-year, $1.5 million trial of a once-promising malaria vaccine called SPf66, created by Colombian biochemist Manuel Patarroyo, has found no evidence that the vaccine is effective in preventing or delaying the disease in children. The results, from a U.S. Army-sponsored trial of SPf66 among more than 1200 children in Thailand from 1993 to 1995, indicate that the vaccine “does not protect against clinical falciparum malaria,” according to a report published in the 14 September issue of
The Lancet.
Moreover, the authors write that the data are so disappointing that “further efficacy trials are not warranted.”
How Great a Need for Speed?
Authors: Taubes Gary
Published: October 2006

In some areas, the payoff of a petaflops computer—more than 1000 times faster than the fastest existing machine—will be surprisingly modest: only a sixfold increase in spatial and temporal resolution in climate models and other three-dimensional simulations. Buta petaflops also marks a threshold where other kinds of computation will become feasible or practical for the first time. They include time-critical problems such as computational support for surgery and applications combining many different kinds of simulations in a computational world, in which multiple users could run simultaneous experiments