Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:title>Zap the dust away? Not so fast</jats:title> <jats:p> It would be great to clean up dust by vaporizing it, but even powerful blasting by an exploding star doesn't seem capable of this. Supernovae produce vast amounts of dust, but it is a mystery how that dust survives ensuing hostile conditions. Lau <jats:italic>et al.</jats:italic> used the SOFIA telescope to observe the dust associated with the supernova remnant Sgr A East. They found that this dust had endured far longer than expected, which indicates that dust in the universe's oldest galaxies can also be attributed to supernovae. </jats:p> <jats:p> <jats:italic>Science</jats:italic> , this issue p. 413 </jats:p>

<jats:title>Galaxies stripped down and evicted</jats:title> <jats:p>It is easy to imagine that the relatively small and dense compact elliptical galaxies once had more to them. Especially when massive galactic neighbors are seen nearby that may have robbed them of their matter, but sometimes there are no such neighbors. Chilingarian and Zolotukhin have mined survey data to show that stripped-down galaxies are found in varied environments, with and without obvious disruptive companions. These isolated galaxies may still have been tidally stripped and then ejected from more crowded neighborhoods.</jats:p> <jats:p> <jats:italic>Science</jats:italic> , this issue p. 418 </jats:p>

<jats:title>A more direct way to synthesize styrene</jats:title> <jats:p> Foam cups, foam pellets, plastic cutlery: All are made of polystyrene, which in turn is made of styrene. The massive manufacturing scale of this commodity chemical places a premium on the efficiency of its synthesis. The current industrial route requires three steps to make styrene from benzene and ethylene. Vaughan <jats:italic>et al.</jats:italic> present a rhodium catalyst that achieves the coupling in a single step by using a recyclable copper salt as an oxidant. Although the catalyst is slow for industrial application, it demonstrates the viability of a more direct process. </jats:p> <jats:p> <jats:italic>Science</jats:italic> , this issue p. 421 </jats:p>

<jats:title>Creating unusual nanostructures</jats:title> <jats:p> Self-assembly often occurs when dissimilar molecular fragments are forced together by covalent bonding. Surfactants or block copolymers are two common examples. Huang <jats:italic>et al.</jats:italic> grafted four different nanoparticles, based on polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes with slightly different compositions, onto a single tetrahedal core (see the Perspective by Yang). Depending on the type of nanoparticle, they assembled into a range of defined, ordered supramolecular lattices similar to a range of metal alloys. These include phases that have higher coordination numbers than usually found in the packing of spherical objects. </jats:p> <jats:p> <jats:italic>Science</jats:italic> , this issue p. 424; see also p. 396 </jats:p>

<jats:title>What controls clumped isotopes?</jats:title> <jats:p> Stable isotopes of a molecule can clump together in several combinations, depending on their mass. Even for simple molecules such as O <jats:sub>2</jats:sub> , which can contain <jats:sup>16</jats:sup> O, <jats:sup>17</jats:sup> O, and <jats:sup>18</jats:sup> O in various combinations, clumped isotopes can potentially reveal the temperatures at which molecules form. Away from equilibrium, however, the pattern of clumped isotopes may reflect a complex array of processes. Using high-resolution gas-phase mass spectrometry, Yeung <jats:italic>et al.</jats:italic> found that biological factors influence the clumped isotope signature of oxygen produced during photosynthesis (see the Perspective by Passey). Similarly, Wang <jats:italic>et al.</jats:italic> showed that away from equilibrium, kinetic effects causing isotope clumping can lead to overestimation of the temperature at which microbially produced methane forms. </jats:p> <jats:p> <jats:italic>Science</jats:italic> , this issue p. 431; p. 428; see also p. 394 </jats:p>

<jats:title>What controls clumped isotopes?</jats:title> <jats:p> Stable isotopes of a molecule can clump together in several combinations, depending on their mass. Even for simple molecules such as O <jats:sub>2</jats:sub> , which can contain <jats:sup>16</jats:sup> O, <jats:sup>17</jats:sup> O, and <jats:sup>18</jats:sup> O in various combinations, clumped isotopes can potentially reveal the temperatures at which molecules form. Away from equilibrium, however, the pattern of clumped isotopes may reflect a complex array of processes. Using high-resolution gas-phase mass spectrometry, Yeung <jats:italic>et al.</jats:italic> found that biological factors influence the clumped isotope signature of oxygen produced during photosynthesis (see the Perspective by Passey). Similarly, Wang <jats:italic>et al.</jats:italic> showed that away from equilibrium, kinetic effects causing isotope clumping can lead to overestimation of the temperature at which microbially produced methane forms. </jats:p> <jats:p> <jats:italic>Science</jats:italic> , this issue p. 431; p. 428; see also p. 394 </jats:p>

<jats:title>Proof that peer review picks promising proposals</jats:title> <jats:p>A key issue in the economics of science is finding effective mechanisms for innovation. A concern about research grants and other research and development subsidies is that the public sector may make poor decisions about which projects to fund. Despite its importance, especially for the advancement of basic and early-stage science, there is currently no large-scale empirical evidence on how successfully governments select research investments. Li and Agha analyze more than 130,000 grants funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health during 1980–2008 and find clear benefits of peer evaluations, particularly for distinguishing high-impact potential among the most competitive applications.</jats:p> <jats:p> <jats:italic>Science</jats:italic> , this issue p. 434 </jats:p>

<jats:title>Ebola virus vaccine candidate</jats:title> <jats:p> As there are so few possibilities for drugs and vaccines that protect against the Ebola virus (EBOV), we need more options. Marzi <jats:italic>et al.</jats:italic> present initial studies in monkeys of a promising whole Ebola virus vaccine based on a defective form of the virus in which an essential viral gene ( <jats:italic>VP30</jats:italic> ) is knocked out. One or two doses of this defective virus, with or without further peroxide inactivation, protected against a lethal challenge of EBOV. In limited immunological analyses, protection correlated with the production of antibodies to the EBOV envelope. </jats:p> <jats:p> <jats:italic>Science</jats:italic> , this issue p. 439 </jats:p>