 This month in Science Roundup:
Sponsored by: Canadian Science Policy Conference In advance of the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting in Vancouver, AAAS staff will take part in the 2011 Canadian Science Policy Conference (CSPC 2011), November 16-18 in Ottawa. Billed as the most comprehensive, multi-sector, multi-disciplinary science policy forum in Canada, with more than 400 participants, the event will feature a special keynote address by Hon. Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology). Other keynote sessions will feature chief scientists, a university president, three MPs, two provincial legislators, and other high-level speakers. Topics to be addressed will include innovation policy, science and politics in Canada, and much more, encompassing 17 panels, five themes and more than 70 speakers. Register now. Log onto http://www.cspc2011.ca or contact info@cspc2011.ca.  PERSPECTIVE: The Genomic Basis of Local Climatic AdaptationSummary: Many plant populations are locally adapted and genetically differentiated for traits related to fitness, but the genetic basis of this adaptation remains poorly known. The best genomic resources for plants are available either for model species such as Arabidopsis thaliana, or for crop plants such as maize. In contrast, studies of fitness variation in natural conditions are spread over a large number of species with poorly understood genomes. Two reports in the 7 October 2011 issue of Science, by Fournier-Level et al. on page 86 and Hancock et al. on page 83, report a major advance toward finding the genomic sites related to climatic adaptation in A. thaliana by combining genome-wide analysis of single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and fitness estimates. Such information may eventually be used to better predict and manage climate change responses. REPORT: Detection of Pulsed Gamma Rays Above 100 GeV from the Crab Pulsar Abstract: We report the detection of pulsed gamma rays from the Crab pulsar at energies above 100 giga–electron volts (GeV) with the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) array of atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. The detection cannot be explained on the basis of current pulsar models. The photon spectrum of pulsed emission between 100 mega–electron volts and 400 GeV is described by a broken power law that is statistically preferred over a power law with an exponential cutoff. It is unlikely that the observation can be explained by invoking curvature radiation as the origin of the observed gamma rays above 100 GeV. Our findings require that these gamma rays be produced more than 10 stellar radii from the neutron star. Supporting online material  EDITORIAL: Genomics Is Not EnoughSummary: Next week, the international congress of human genetics convenes in Montreal, where genomic science, its technologies, genetic disease, and personalized medicine will be discussed. Translating current knowledge into medical practice is an important goal for the public who support medical research, and for the scientists and clinicians who articulate the critical research needs of our time. However, despite innumerable successful gene discoveries through genomics, a major impediment is our lack of knowledge of how these genes affect the fundamental biological mechanisms that are dysregulated in disease. If genomic medicine is to prosper, we need to turn our attention to this gaping hole. REPORT: A 100,000-Year-Old Ochre-Processing Workshop at Blombos Cave, South Africa Abstract: The conceptual ability to source, combine, and store substances that enhance technology or social practices represents a benchmark in the evolution of complex human cognition. Excavations in 2008 at Blombos Cave, South Africa, revealed a processing workshop where a liquefied ochre-rich mixture was produced and stored in two Haliotis midae (abalone) shells 100,000 years ago. Ochre, bone, charcoal, grindstones, and hammerstones form a composite part of this production toolkit. The application of the mixture is unknown, but possibilities include decoration and skin protection. Supporting online material NEWS FOCUS: Vital Details of Global Warming Are Eluding Forecasters Summary: Climate researchers are quite comfortable with their projections for the world under a strengthening greenhouse, at least on the broadest scales. But ask researchers what's in store for the Seattle area, the Pacific Northwest, or even the western half of the United States, and they'll often demur. Switching from global models to models focusing on a single region creates a more detailed forecast, although it also creates more uncertainty. But help is on the way. Regional modelers are well into their first extensive comparison of global-regional model combinations to sort out the uncertainties.  PERSPECTIVE: Keeping Bacteria at a Distance
Summary: The human intestine harbors enormous amounts of bacteria that have an essential role in host metabolism, but how this mutualistic balance is maintained is unclear. The current understanding has focused on the concept that bacteria continuously interact with the intestinal immune system in a balanced proinflammatory and tolerogenic way. The discovery of a protective inner mucus layer in the colon that separates bacteria from the epithelium has broadened this view. On page 255 of the 14 October 2011 issue, Vaishnava et al. show that the antibacterial protein RegIIIγ secreted by specialized epithelial cells is involved in limiting the epithelial contact with bacteria in the small intestine. This observation further substantiates the role of intestinal epithelial cells and the mucus that covers them as important parts of the innate immune defense. 
NEWS & ANALYSIS: Pre-Clovis Mastodon Hunters Make a PointSummary: On page 351 of the 21 October 2011 issue of Science, researchers report new analyses of the remains of a mastodon found in the 1970s with a bone spear point in its rib. Scientists used DNA and radiocarbon dating to demonstrate that the point came from a mastodon bone shaped into a weapon by humans and used a startling 13,800 years ago. That's nearly 1000 years before the Clovis culture, long considered to be the first culture in the New World. The find adds to the wave of recent compelling evidence demonstrating an earlier, pre-Clovis settling of the Americas. Although a few Clovis-first holdouts remain unconvinced, the early bone point also suggests that the extinction of large mammals such as mastodons and mammoths may have begun long before the Clovis people came on the scene. REPORT: Pre-Clovis Mastodon Hunting 13,800 Years Ago at the Manis Site, Washington Abstract: The tip of a projectile point made of mastodon bone is embedded in a rib of a single disarticulated mastodon at the Manis site in the state of Washington. Radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis show that the rib is associated with the other remains and dates to 13,800 years ago. Thus, osseous projectile points, common to the Beringian Upper Paleolithic and Clovis, were made and used during pre-Clovis times in North America. The Manis site, combined with evidence of mammoth hunting at sites in Wisconsin, provides evidence that people were hunting proboscideans at least two millennia before Clovis. Supporting online material  NEWS FOCUS: The Sterile Neutrino: Fertile Concept or Dead End?
Summary: For 15 years, researchers have accumulated hints that the "sterile neutrino"—a more-elusive cousin of the nearly undetectable neutrinos—might be out there. But most physicists have found the evidence unconvincing, as most of the results pointing toward sterile neutrinos are of marginal statistical significance. Recently, however, the case for sterile neutrinos has grown stronger, bolstered by a new analysis of data from nuclear reactors. So last month 60 physicists from around the world gathered to hash out the arguments for and against the existence of sterile neutrinos and to try to decide whether it's worth staging a dedicated experiment to settle the matter. Performing such an experiment won't be easy. The hypothetical neutrinos are called sterile because they do not interact at all with known particles. Still, physicists say, it's time to figure out what it will take to discover or rule out sterile neutrinos once and for all. Podcast Interview REPORT: Fatty Acids Identified in the Burmese Python Promote Beneficial Cardiac Growth Abstract: Burmese pythons display a marked increase in heart mass after a large meal. We investigated the molecular mechanisms of this physiological heart growth with the goal of applying this knowledge to the mammalian heart. We found that heart growth in pythons is characterized by myocyte hypertrophy in the absence of cell proliferation and by activation of physiological signal transduction pathways. Despite high levels of circulating lipids, the postprandial python heart does not accumulate triglycerides or fatty acids. Instead, there is robust activation of pathways of fatty acid transport and oxidation combined with increased expression and activity of superoxide dismutase, a cardioprotective enzyme. We also identified a combination of fatty acids in python plasma that promotes physiological heart growth when injected into either pythons or mice. Supporting online material NEWS & ANALYSIS: Dispute Over Tumor Suppressor Gene Runx3 Boils Over Summary: A key, decade-old finding by a prominent Japanese cancer researcher based at the National University of Singapore (NUS) is under fire from a group in Israel that calls it "irreproducible." If the challenge overturns the original work, which identified a gene called Runx3 as a tumor suppressor, hundreds of scientific papers might be affected. The dispute began with a scientific disagreement almost a decade ago and escalated sharply after the group in Israel filed a formal complaint earlier this fall with NUS, which recently launched an investigation. NEWS & ANALYSIS: Dismay, Confusion Greet Human Stem Cell Patent Ban Summary: Has the environmental group Greenpeace dealt a major blow to the medical use of human embryonic stem (hES) cells in Europe? That's what biologists, patent specialists, and lawyers are furiously debating after the European Union's Court of Justice ruled last week that processes and products that involve such cells are not patentable. Patents on hES cells are forbidden by a 1998 E.U. Directive on biopatents that bans the "use of human embryos for industrial or commercial purposes," the court concluded in a case that Greenpeace had initiated. In Science Signaling RESEARCH ARTICLE: Agrobacterium Counteracts Host-Induced Degradation of Its Effector F-Box Protein
REVIEW: Working Without Kinase Activity: Phosphotransfer-Independent Functions of Extracellular Signal–Regulated Kinases
In Science Translational Medicine RESEARCH ARTICLE: Vitamin D Is Required for IFN-γ–Mediated Antimicrobial Activity of Human Macrophages
RESEARCH ARTICLE: A Neutralizing Human Monoclonal Antibody Protects African Green Monkeys from Hendra Virus Challenge
RESEARCH ARTICLE: The Impact of a Consortium of Fermented Milk Strains on the Gut Microbiome of Gnotobiotic Mice and Monozygotic Twins
IMAGE CREDITS (In order of appearance): NORWAY SPRUCE, MICHAEL HIEBER/ISTOCKPHOTO.COM; A. THALIANA, ALBERTO SALGUERO/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, TEK IMAGE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY, B. STRAUCH/SCIENCE, CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF THE FIRST AMERICANS, TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY, LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY,
Sponsored by: Canadian Science Policy Conference In advance of the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting in Vancouver, AAAS staff will take part in the 2011 Canadian Science Policy Conference (CSPC 2011), November 16-18 in Ottawa. Billed as the most comprehensive, multi-sector, multi-disciplinary science policy forum in Canada, with more than 400 participants, the event will feature a special keynote address by Hon. Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology). Other keynote sessions will feature chief scientists, a university president, three MPs, two provincial legislators, and other high-level speakers. Topics to be addressed will include innovation policy, science and politics in Canada, and much more, encompassing 17 panels, five themes and more than 70 speakers. Register now. Log onto http://www.cspc2011.ca or contact info@cspc2011.ca. |