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Science, April 18, 2008

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Optical or electrical pulses can rapidly locate and manipulate the spin of a single electron in a quantum dot or of a nitrogen vacancy in diamond. Such techniques represent progress toward solid-state quantum computing.

The Greening of Synfuels
An old, dirty technology to make transportation fuels from coal could fight global warming, say proponents. The trick is using more biomass and burying the carbon dioxide that's generated.

The Movement of Aquatic Mercury Through Terrestrial Food Webs
Industrial mercury in a contaminated river can spread beyond the immediate area to nearby terrestrial ecosystems through food web connections.

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Science, April 25, 2008

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Representatives of diverse species from the plant kingdom. The genomes of thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), grape (Vitis viniferva), rice (Oryza sativa), and the moss Physcomitrella patens have been sequenced, and there is ongoing genetic research on apple (Malus domestica), rose (Rosa spp.), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), Gerbera daisy (Gerbera hybrida), monkey flower (Mimulus lewisii), columbine (Aquilegia formosa), maize (Zea mays), wheat (Triticum aestivum), tulip poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), and the fern Ceratopteris richardii. The special section includes News stories and Perspectives exploring plant biology, ecology, economic applications, and the future of plant genomics research.

GM Crops: A World View
Science maps where genetically modified crops are grown and imported, as well as which countries avoid them.

Bypassing Medicine to Treat Diabetes
By altering the gut's production of hormones, gastric bypass surgery may be able to eliminate type 2 diabetes. But scientists worry that this radical operation can also cause dangerously low blood sugar.

Japanese Experts Steal a Glance at Once-Taboo Royal Tomb
Japan's key-shaped burial mounds offer tantalizing glimpses into prehistory. Researchers have been given access for the first time to those built for the imperial family.

Picking Up Evolution's Beat
Pardis Sabeti mixes geek cool with hot science as she studies how human populations have evolved to resist malaria and Lassa fever.

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Science, May 2, 2008

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Graphic representation of an integrated quantum optics controlled-NOT chip. Single photons (represented as flashes) propagate on the chip, confined by silica waveguides, and are then coupled into optical fibers for detection.

A Bruising Battle Over Lung Scans
Doctors and researchers are sharply divided over the merits of screening smokers and others at high risk of lung cancer with costly computed tomography scans; a $200 million clinical trial has become a lightning rod.

Wishing for an African Einstein
Hoping to nurture Africa's talent into becoming elite scientists, cosmologist Neil Turok has plans to clone the math institute he founded.

Two Teams Report Progress in Reversing Loss of Sight
The first safety trials of gene therapy for a degenerative eye disease produced good results in adults; researchers now intend to treat children.

Tuberculosis Jumped From Humans to Cows, Not Vice Versa
At the American Association of Physical Anthropologists meeting, a DNA study showed that early humans were infected with strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which cause tuberculosis, long before they began herding cattle, suggesting that it was humans who transmitted the disease to bovids and other animals.

Fire-Derived Charcoal Causes Loss of Forest Humus
Charcoal enhances the microbial activity in soils, which in turn decreases the amount of carbon and humus in forests over time.

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Science, May 9, 2008

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Lake Boku at the Ounianga oasis in remote northeastern Chad, one of the few remaining bodies of water in the almost rainless Sahara. Still sustained by fossil groundwater dating from the humid past, it is doomed because of encroaching dunes.

The Roots of Morality
Neurobiologists, philosophers, psychologists, and legal scholars are probing the nature of human morality using a variety of experimental techniques and moral challenges.

To Touch the Water of Mars and Search for Life's Abode
The Phoenix lander will soon arrive at Mars to perform the first analyses of martian water and to probe the rocky polar soil as a habitat for life; it has been a struggle.

Talk Nerdy to Me
A surprise hit, the new TV comedy The Big Bang Theory plumbs science for laughs, thanks to aid from physicist David Saltzberg and friend.

Into the Wild: Reintroduced Animals Face Daunting Odds
Researchers in the emerging field of wildlife reintroduction battle hawks, habitat loss, and poachers to give animals a second chance.

Climate-Driven Ecosystem Succession in the Sahara: The Past 6000 Years
A climate record from lake sediments in Chad shows that the Sahara changed gradually from a tropical ecosystem to a desert, not abruptly as implied by Atlantic dust layers.

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Science, May 16, 2008

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Male flowers of Gurania makoyana, a Central American plant in the cucumber family, harbor larvae (not visible) of two species of fly; a third fly species infests female flowers of the same species of plant. Some plant species in this family can host as many as 13 different fly species.

A Mosquito Goes Global
The Asian tiger mosquito is on a rampage. Entomologists are impressed, public health officials are nervous, and many of the rest of us are swatting furiously. How did Aedes albopictus become such a scourge?

Layers Within Layers Hint at a Wobbly Martian Climate
Scientists scrutinizing layered rocks on Mars this week in Science that the layers formed in sync with changes in the planet's orbit.

Click Chemistry Clicks Along
Researchers seeking new ways to forge molecules are saving steps and effort by adapting high-yield reactions to fill a variety of needs.

The Hot Question: How New Are the New Superconductors?
Do iron-and-arsenic superconductors work the same way as the older, inscrutable copper-and-oxygen compounds? Early evidence points both ways.

The Energetic Cost of Climbing in Primates
Large primates expend less energy walking than climbing, but smaller ones walk and climb with similar efficiencies, possibly facilitating an evolutionary shift into trees.

Turbulence and Magnetic Fields in the Large-Scale Structure of the Universe
Simulations suggest that shock waves in the early universe could have amplified small magnetic fields into the large, complex intergalactic fields we see today.

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Science, May 23, 2008

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A hot spring in Bali, Indonesia. The discovery of thriving microbial communities in such unexpected places has motivated investigation into the diversity and distribution of microbial life. The special issue explores the microbial world.

Microbial Ecology
News stories look at the hidden microbial world inside sponges and ongoing efforts to classify microbes with respect to their environments, while Review articles discuss the microbial processes that drive earth's biogeochemical cycles and approaches to understanding the distribution of microbial taxa and their traits.

Sichuan Disaster
Landslides unleashed by the rupture on 12 May of a more than 200-kilometer section of the Longmenshan fault in Sichuan, China, followed by powerful aftershocks, dammed parts of nine rivers, creating 24 new lakes; experts are worried about another catastrophe.

A New Great Lake -- or Dead Sea?
Turkmenistan intends to create a huge lake in the desert by filling a natural depression with drainage water. Critics say it's a bad idea that could even spark a war.

All That Makes Fungus Gardens Grow
The discovery of a parasitic yeast draws attention to the ways that pathogens can stabilize ant agriculture and other symbiotic networks.

GLAST Mission Prepares to Explore the Extremes of Cosmic Violence
NASA's new gamma ray observatory will probe the most energetic radiation ever studied, the product of cataclysmic events deep in space.

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