Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:title>Tunable Metamaterials</jats:title> <jats:p> The electromagnetic response of metamaterials gives rise to exciting phenomena such as cloaking, negative refraction, and perfect lensing. Their response, however, tends to depend strongly on resonant effects, thereby limiting the application bandwidth. <jats:bold> Driscoll <jats:italic>et al.</jats:italic> </jats:bold> (p. <jats:related-article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="doi" page="1518" related-article-type="in-this-issue" vol="325" xlink:href="10.1126/science.1176580">1518</jats:related-article> , published online 20 August) combine a split ring resonator array with the phase change material, VO <jats:sub>2</jats:sub> , to form a metamaterial in which the response can be tuned. The heat-induced phase change of VO <jats:sub>2</jats:sub> from an insulator to a metal alters the response of split-ring resonator, and, because it displays a hysteresis, the device can retain a “memory” of the induced change. The results may lead to a flexible method for achieving metamaterials operating over a wide bandwidth and to novel switching applications. </jats:p>

<jats:title>Cold Atom Magnetism</jats:title> <jats:p> Magnetic ordering arises from the strong interactions between atoms, with its origins deeply rooted in quantum mechanics. How the ordering comes about, however, has long been a topic of debate because most condensed-matter systems are limited by a somewhat fixed parameter space. Cold atom systems, by comparison, provide the ability to tune the magnitude and sign of the atom-atom interaction, as well as the density. <jats:bold> Jo <jats:italic>et al.</jats:italic> </jats:bold> (p. <jats:related-article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="doi" page="1521" related-article-type="in-this-issue" vol="325" xlink:href="10.1126/science.1177112">1521</jats:related-article> ; see the Perspective by <jats:bold> <jats:related-article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="doi" issue="5947" page="1507" related-article-type="in-this-issue" vol="325" xlink:href="10.1126/science.1179767">Zwerger</jats:related-article> </jats:bold> ) exploit this flexibility to use an ensemble of ultracold fermionic atoms as a “quantum simulator” to explore the possibility of magnetic ordering. As the repulsive interaction between atoms is increased, an instability occurs in the free two-component Fermi gas (or jellium), which results in a phase transition and the ferromagnetic ordering of the atoms. </jats:p>

<jats:title>The Meteorite Who Fell to Earth</jats:title> <jats:p> Orbital data is available for only a handful of meteorites. Some are found long after they fell to Earth. Others are recovered after they have been observed falling through the atmosphere, but their trajectories are rarely recorded. <jats:bold> Bland <jats:italic>et al.</jats:italic> </jats:bold> (p. <jats:related-article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="doi" page="1525" related-article-type="in-this-issue" vol="325" xlink:href="10.1126/science.1174787">1525</jats:related-article> ) used a photographic camera network located in the Australian desert to track a fireball in the sky, find the meteorite, and establish its orbit. The meteorite is a basaltic achondrite; most such rocks have been traced to the major asteroid Vesta. In this case, the meteorite's isotopic composition and orbital properties suggest a distinct parent asteroid—a different source of basaltic material residing in the innermost main belt. </jats:p>

<jats:title>Oblique Reasoning</jats:title> <jats:p> In Milankovich theory, the canonical theory of glaciation and deglaciation, ice sheets wax and wane in response to the amount of summer insolation at a latitude of 65°N, which is consistent with the observed timing of the last deglaciation. The penultimate glaciation behaved quite differently, however. Now, <jats:bold> Drysdale <jats:italic>et al.</jats:italic> </jats:bold> (p. <jats:related-article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="doi" page="1527" related-article-type="in-this-issue" vol="325" xlink:href="10.1126/science.1170371">1527</jats:related-article> , published online 13 August) offer firmer constraints on the timing of the penultimate deglaciation, by correlating a difficult-to-date marine record of ocean volume to a precisely datable nearby speleothem (terrestrial stalagmite). Ocean volume began to increase about 141,000 years ago, thousands of years before the rise in 65°N summer insolation. Thus, instead of the forcing mechanism proposed by Milankovich, variations in Earth's obliquity may be mostly responsible for the disappearance of ice sheets. </jats:p>

<jats:title>A Separate System for Itch Processing</jats:title> <jats:p> It has been a long-standing question if itch is a subquality of pain involving the same neuronal elements or if distinct, so-called labeled lines exist in the nervous system for both sensations. To address this question directly, <jats:bold> Sun <jats:italic>et al.</jats:italic> </jats:bold> (p. <jats:related-article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="doi" page="1531" related-article-type="in-this-issue" vol="325" xlink:href="10.1126/science.1174868">1531</jats:related-article> , published online 6 August) destroyed neurons in the superficial spinal dorsal horn that express the gastrin-releasing peptide receptor. This receptor is known to be involved in mediating itch but not pain sensations. In various animal models, ablation of gastrin-releasing peptide receptor-expressing spinal dorsal horn neurons reduced itch without changing pain perception. Thus, itch and pain indeed appear to be mediated by distinct labeled lines in the central nervous system. </jats:p>

<jats:title>Predicting Terrorism?</jats:title> <jats:p> Terrorists may be extremists whose opinions do not reflect the mainstream views in their country. Alternatively, public opinion could provide a useful indicator of the likelihood of terrorism. <jats:bold>Krueger and Malečková</jats:bold> (p. <jats:related-article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="doi" page="1534" related-article-type="in-this-issue" vol="325" xlink:href="10.1126/science.1170867">1534</jats:related-article> ) used data from the Gallup World Poll of public opinion and the National Counter Terrorism Center to demonstrate a positive relationship between the percentage of people in a country who disapprove of the leadership of another country and the number of terrorist attacks carried out by people or groups from the former country against the latter. Although the data do not demonstrate causality, they do suggest that public opinion can provide an “early warning signal” of future terrorist threats. </jats:p>

<jats:title>Limits to Invasion Predictions</jats:title> <jats:p> Using mathematical models linked to experiments on laboratory insect populations, <jats:bold>Melbourne and Hastings</jats:bold> (p. <jats:related-article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="doi" page="1536" related-article-type="in-this-issue" vol="325" xlink:href="10.1126/science.1176138">1536</jats:related-article> ) show that current models seriously underestimate variability in spatial spread. Genetic founder effects resulting from small population sizes are probably responsible for the surprising increase in variability and for increased uncertainty of ecological forecasts. Thus, even without exogenous sources of variability such as weather, fundamental uncertainties arise biologically from inherent differences among individuals and small population sizes. </jats:p>

<jats:title>Monitoring Massive Microbial Dispersal</jats:title> <jats:p> Quantifying the relative influence of present-day environmental conditions and geological history on the spatial distribution of species represents a major challenge in microbial ecology. Ecological approaches to distinguish between these two biogeographic controls are limited by environmental variability both in space and through time (see the Perspective by <jats:bold> <jats:related-article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="doi" issue="5947" page="1506" related-article-type="in-this-issue" vol="325" xlink:href="10.1126/science.1179690">Patterson</jats:related-article> </jats:bold> ). Using a 1.5-million-year fossil record of marine diatoms, <jats:bold>Cermeño and Falkowski</jats:bold> (p. <jats:related-article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="doi" page="1539" related-article-type="in-this-issue" vol="325" xlink:href="10.1126/science.1174159">1539</jats:related-article> ) show that, even at the largest (global) spatial scale, the dispersal of marine diatoms is not very limited. Environmental factors are the primary control shaping the global biogeography of marine diatom morphospecies. Thermophilic microorganisms are routinely detected in permanently cold environments from deep sea sediments to polar soils. <jats:bold> Hubert <jats:italic>et al.</jats:italic> </jats:bold> (p. <jats:related-article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="doi" page="1541" related-article-type="in-this-issue" vol="325" xlink:href="10.1126/science.1174012">1541</jats:related-article> ) provide a quantitative analysis of a potentially large-scale dispersion of thermophilic bacteria in the ocean. Approximately 10 <jats:sup>8</jats:sup> thermophilic spores are deposited each year on every square meter of Arctic sediment. </jats:p>

<jats:title>Monitoring Massive Microbial Dispersal</jats:title> <jats:p> Quantifying the relative influence of present-day environmental conditions and geological history on the spatial distribution of species represents a major challenge in microbial ecology. Ecological approaches to distinguish between these two biogeographic controls are limited by environmental variability both in space and through time (see the Perspective by <jats:bold> <jats:related-article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="doi" issue="5947" page="1506" related-article-type="in-this-issue" vol="325" xlink:href="10.1126/science.1179690">Patterson</jats:related-article> </jats:bold> ). Using a 1.5-million-year fossil record of marine diatoms, <jats:bold>Cermeño and Falkowski</jats:bold> (p. <jats:related-article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="doi" page="1539" related-article-type="in-this-issue" vol="325" xlink:href="10.1126/science.1174159">1539</jats:related-article> ) show that, even at the largest (global) spatial scale, the dispersal of marine diatoms is not very limited. Environmental factors are the primary control shaping the global biogeography of marine diatom morphospecies. Thermophilic microorganisms are routinely detected in permanently cold environments from deep sea sediments to polar soils. <jats:bold> Hubert <jats:italic>et al.</jats:italic> </jats:bold> (p. <jats:related-article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="doi" page="1541" related-article-type="in-this-issue" vol="325" xlink:href="10.1126/science.1174012">1541</jats:related-article> ) provide a quantitative analysis of a potentially large-scale dispersion of thermophilic bacteria in the ocean. Approximately 10 <jats:sup>8</jats:sup> thermophilic spores are deposited each year on every square meter of Arctic sediment. </jats:p>

<jats:title>Now Shown in 3D</jats:title> <jats:p> With the advent of systems-wide technologies and the development of analytical methods, data produced by analyzing individual or small groups of molecular components can be integrated to reassemble whole biological systems. <jats:bold> Zhang <jats:italic>et al.</jats:italic> </jats:bold> (p. <jats:related-article xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="doi" page="1544" related-article-type="in-this-issue" vol="325" xlink:href="10.1126/science.1174671">1544</jats:related-article> ) have undertaken a major technological challenge: to integrate biochemical data with experimentally determined or predicted three-dimensional structures of all proteins involved in the central metabolism of a bacterial cell. This integration of large-scale data sets provides evolutionary and functional insights and furthers our understanding of the molecular assembly of complex biological networks. </jats:p>