SCIENCE News Summaries, Volume 332, Issue 6026
dated April 8 2011, is now available at: - http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol332/issue6026/news-summaries.dtl
A copy of the "SCIENCE News This Week" section has been appended below.
SCIENCE News This Week
April 8 2011, 332 (6026)
NEWS:
Superconductivity's Smorgasbord of Insights: A Movable Feast Adrian Cho On 8 April 1911, physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes made perhaps the most important discovery in the physics of materials. When he and his team at Leiden University cooled a sample of mercury to within 3{ring} of absolute zero, or 3 kelvin, its electrical resistance vanished so that current flowed through the metal with no energy to push it. Kamerlingh Onnes had discovered superconductivity, one of the most bizarre tricks of nature. Physicists struggled for nearly 50 years to explain the phenomenon. When they finally did, the resulting theory would prove to be far more than just the explanation for one weird property of some metals. Physicists have applied the theory of superconductivity directly to nuclear matter, liquid helium, and ultracold atomic gases. Historically, insights from superconductivity convinced theorists of the importance of symmetries and the ways in which a physical system can muddle or "break" them. The concept of "spontaneous symmetry breaking" now undergirds theory in many fields, especially particle physics. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/190?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.190
Search for Majorana Fermions Nearing Success at Last? Robert F. Service In most materials, defects, impurities, and other imperfections generate too much noise for researchers to spot the vanishingly small signals of ephemeral subatomic particles. Even so, one of the most fleeting of all may be on the point of discovery, more than 70 years after it was first proposed. In recent years, theoretical physicists have suggested that a handful of exotic materials could give rise to this never-before-seen type of particle, known as a Majorana fermion. Now experimental groups around the world are racing to spot it, using devices made in most cases with superconducting materials. And it looks as if some groups are closing in fast or may even have bagged Majoranas already. If they exist, the novel particles are expected to display fundamentally new properties that could open a new window into the mysterious world of quantum mechanics. Their behavior is also expected to make Majorana fermions ideally suited to be stable bits of information in a quantum computer, something that has eluded researchers for decades. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/193?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.193
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 World In science news around the world this week, Japan's nuclear crisis is dragging on, two new studies support an Asian source for Haiti's cholera outbreak, U.K. scientists took a new accelerator on a test run, oceanographers have found the remains of Air France Flight 447 in the South Atlantic Ocean, and Brazil's science ministry is creating a commission on scientific integrity after Elsevier said it would retract 11 papers, the senior author of which is a chemist at the State University of Campinas. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/154-b?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.154-b
Newsmakers This week's Newsmakers are Caltech neuroscientist Christof Koch, who is moving to Seattle to become chief scientific officer of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and astrophysicist Martin Rees, who has been awarded the Templeton Foundation's annual prize for his "profound insights on the cosmos [that] have provoked vital questions that speak to humanity's highest hopes and worst fears." Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/155-a?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.155-a
Random Sample The biggest animals ever to walk the Earth are about to invade the Big Apple. A new scanning-and-prototyping technique has helped to explain why Knut, the world-famous polar bear, died suddenly in front of hundreds of shocked visitors to the Berlin Zoological Garden last month. And this week's numbers quantify India's population and the zettabytes of business-related information processed by the world's computer servers in 2008. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/155-b?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.155-b
FINDINGS
The Curse of the Mummy's Arteries Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/157-a?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.157-a
Chinese Ducks Felled By New Virus Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/157-b?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.157-b
Paper, Plastic, or Steel? Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/157-c?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.157-c
NEWS & ANALYSIS
First Specific Drugs Raise Hopes for Hepatitis C Martin Enserink A virus that chronically infects 170 million people around the world is about to meet some new and formidable foes. Regulatory agencies in both the United States and Europe are soon expected to green-light the first two antiviral drugs specifically developed to treat chronic hepatitis C, a treacherous infection that can cause cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer, often decades after infection occurs. The drugs, both of which target a viral enzyme called the NS3-4A protease, promise to rid 70% to 80% of patients of their infection—a significant step up from the current, nonspecific therapy, which cures barely half of those treated. And they are just the first to emerge from a pipeline bursting with other candidates, which has galvanized the field and made hepatitis C the most prominent topic at the International Liver Congress last week. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/159?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.159
First Detection of Ozone Hole Recovery Claimed Richard A. Kerr Although ozone-destroying chemicals have been in decline for a decade now, researchers have long projected that they will not glimpse the first signs that the Antarctic ozone hole is healing until well past 2020. But for the first time, a group of researchers claims they can already see the ozone hole slowly recovering. Many others, however, say the paper, now in press in Geophysical Research Letters, leaves out critical information needed to clinch the case. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/160?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.160
Daring Experiment in Higher Education Opens Its Doors Richard Stone Last month, Zhu Qingshi launched the South University of Science and Technology of China (SUSTC), a bold challenge to the country's education system. Among Chinese universities, SUSTC stands alone in spurning the national entrance exam, or Gao Kao; it enrolls high-flying students nominated not only for their grades but also for their creativity and passion for learning. In another innovation, SUSTC faculty members are not given administrative rank; in China, Zhu says, many professors spend more energy climbing this bureaucratic ladder than improving their teaching. And whereas other mainland universities have two leaders—president and Communist Party secretary—Zhu holds both titles and calls all the shots. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/161?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.161
DOE Pulls the Plug on Massive Training Initiative Jeffrey Mervis In April 2009, President Barack Obama announced an ambitious 10-year, $1.6 billion education and training initiative at the Department of Energy (DOE), dubbed "Regaining our Energy Science and Engineering Edge." But Congress twice declined to fund any portion of its sprawling vision, which would have included graduate and postdoctoral fellowships, summer research projects for undergraduates, professional master's degrees in clean energy, and associate degree programs to train a clean-energy technology workforce. In February, the White House threw in the towel, dropping the program from DOE's 2012 budget request. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/162-a?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.162-a
NSF Hits Ceiling on Graduate Fellowships Jeffrey Mervis Two years ago, President Barack Obama proposed a 5-year tripling of the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) most prestigious awards for graduate students, to 3000 by 2013, as part of his promise to train more scientists and engineers. But instead of continuing to move toward that goal, NSF expects to hold the number of fellows steady next year at 2000. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/162-b?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.162-b
Signature on Visitor's Form Fuels Stanford v. Roche Court Battle Eliot Marshall Mark Holodniy's signature on a visitor's agreement is at the center of a major patent fight before the U.S. Supreme Court. Lawyers representing biotech company Cetus and its successor, Roche Molecular Systems, say the young scientist forfeited not only his own patent rights but also those of his university when he signed the agreement 22 years ago. Stanford says this cannot be so. In its view, a U.S. law to encourage commercialization of research, the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, directs that a university scientist on a U.S. research grant—as Holodniy was—must assign patent rights to the university. Furthermore, when Holodniy was hired by Stanford in 1988, he agreed to assign future patents arising from his work to the university. Two lower courts have considered the claims and given divergent opinions on who should prevail. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/163?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.163
Plans Afoot to Extend Welcome Mat to More U.S.-Trained Science Grads Jeffrey Mervis Last week, a key congressional panel heard proposals to retain the "best and brightest" foreign students without disadvantaging U.S. workers. Those who want to reform the system say they are heartened by the broad interest in the topic. The encouraging signs, they say, include President Barack Obama's State of the Union plea in January to "stop expelling talented, responsible young people who could be staffing our research labs or starting a new business" and bipartisan legislation introduced by Representative Jeff Flake (R–AZ), a Tea Party favorite, that would give Obama much of his wish. But they acknowledge that the approach of the 2012 elections means the political window of opportunity won't stay open for very long. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/164?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.164
Winds of Change Leave Bioscientists Scrambling Dennis Normile Over the past decade, Singapore has generated a lot of buzz by attracting international A-list scientists to its bioscience institutes. Much more quietly, Singapore's universities have been landing top researchers and rising in international rankings. Now, however, the fortunes of these two sets of institutions may be diverging. In a 5-year plan launched this month, Singapore will boost public spending on research by 20% compared with spending during the previous 5 years. This largesse comes with a price: The government is demanding more economic bang from its research bucks. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/165?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.165
NEWS FOCUS
Can Biotech and Organic Farmers Get Along? Erik Stokstad With so much of U.S. fields planted with genetically modified (GM) crops—93% for soybeans—everyone agrees it's impossible to completely exclude transgenes from organic fields, but they can be kept to minimal levels. With a defined threshold, scientists can figure out the appropriate distances between fields to minimize gene flow. In the future, computer models of pollinator behavior may help provide recommendations tailored to particular landscapes. Another approach to prevent the spread of transgenes is to breed crops that can't be fertilized by transgenic pollen; the first commercial varieties of corn with this protection should be released this fall. But the sides remain split on key issues. Organic groups demand more government oversight, that the biotech industry share the cost of preventing gene flow, and the creation of a compensation fund for damages if their crops cannot be sold as organic. The biotech industry opposes all of these goals. So far, USDA seems to continue to lean toward the industry in how it approves GM crops. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/166?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.166
Scientist in the Middle of the GM-Organic Wars Dan Charles* For Carol Mallory-Smith of Oregon State University, the migration of genes in agricultural crops is not just a research topic or a matter of policy debate. It's the cause of a vexing quarrel among her neighbors: the farmers of Oregon's Willamette Valley. This valley, because of its mild climate and ample water for irrigation, is one of the world's great seed-growing centers, supplying farms, gardens, and golf courses worldwide. Because pollination is at the heart of seed production, the valley is now the scene of heated debates—and one far-reaching lawsuit—over the consequences of genetically modified pollen or seeds drifting into fields filled with sexually compatible non-GM crops. Organic farmers who fear contamination of their crops are on one side; the growers of seed for genetically engineered sugar beets are on the other. And Mallory-Smith is in the middle. Her publications have found an avid readership among biotech industry lawyers and activists opposed to GM crops. * Dan Charles is a writer based in Washington, D.C. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/168?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.168
Electrons Surf Sound Waves To Connect the Quantum Dots Adrian Cho Physicists have found a way to transport individual electrons using sound waves. On a wafer of gallium arsenide, they laid out electrodes 4 micrometers apart that defined two quantum dots and also a channel between them. They also laid out a ladderlike electrode that, when charged, causes the gallium arsenide to contract, setting off a sound wave that ripples across the surface. The sound wave in turn produces a corrugated electric field that travels with it and can predictably pick up an electron from one dot and transfer it to the other. Literally surfing along at the speed of sound, the electron covers the distance between the dots in 1.5 nanoseconds, they reported at the American Physical Society meeting. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/170-a?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.170-a
Ice Is Predicted to Be Weirder Still Adrian Cho A team of theorists says that a film of ice only two molecules thick may form the oddest of all crystalline structures, a so-called quasicrystal, which lacks the exact repeatability of an ordinary crystal structure but preserves other symmetries of a crystal. They considered two layers of water molecules that are confined between two generic metallic surfaces and subjected to low temperatures and high pressures. Near the surface, the V-shaped molecules, with an oxygen atom between two hydrogen atoms, must balance several influences. The oxygen atoms prefer to sit atop the atoms in the surface. The molecules also try to maintain the lengths of their oxygen-hydrogen bonds and to arrange themselves so that none of those bonds is left dangling. Simulations that account for those factors reproduce the known phases of ice on surfaces and predict the existence of a quasicrystal, they reported at the American Physical Society meeting. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/170-b?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.170-b
One Cool Way to Erase Information Adrian Cho When your computer erases a bit of information—a "0" or a "1" stored in some electronic switch—it must generate a minimum amount of heat. Or so says a principle of thermodynamics. However, a tiny system can sometimes dip below that limit while erasing information, physicists reported at the American Physical Society meeting. The finding won't lead to infinitely cool computers, as on average the tiny bit still obeys the rule. But the exceptional events underscore the importance of fluctuations in very small systems and could point to a mechanism that cells might naturally exploit. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/171-a?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.171-a
Snapshots From the Meeting Adrian Cho Snapshots from the American Physical Society meeting include lowering the energy of a vibrating widget enough to achieve the least motion allowed by quantum mechanics—the so-called ground state of motion—and a network model that demonstrates that if 10% of the members of a group hold an unshakable conviction, their view will eventually win out. Full story at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/332/6026/171-b?sa_campaign=Email/sntw/8-April-2011/10.1126/science.332.6026.171-b
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