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'Best of the Web' from Science Magazine |
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Editors' Choice
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Highlights of the recent literature, from the editors of Science Magazine
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CLIMATE SCIENCE: Ringing in the Old Years
The annual rings of the bristlecone pine trees in eastern California, extending back in live trees about 8000 years, are a lynchpin for calibrating radiocarbon dates. They have also provided … [Read more]
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CELL BIOLOGY: Inflammation Activates Neurons
Cell fusion is common in some tissues such as skeletal muscle. Studies using transplanted bone marrow-derived cells (BMDCs) have been complicated by observations that cell fusions between BMDCs and resident … [Read more]
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BIOPHYSICS: Polar Preferences
In rod-shaped bacteria, proteins that mediate chemotaxis, cell division, and development are observed to localize to the poles. Recent evidence of heterogeneity in the composition of the bacterial cytoplasmic membrane … [Read more]
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PHYSICS: Guiding Gamma Rays
Early exposure in high-school science labs to geometrical optics with lenses and mirrors fosters wide familiarity with how to focus and manipulate light in the visible spectrum. A very broad … [Read more]
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CHEMISTRY: Can SWNTs Swim Apart?
Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) form as bundles, and to facilitate their processing, they are usually solubilized by some sort of surface treatment, such as coating with surfactants or protonation with … [Read more]
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NEUROSCIENCE: Are You a Morning Person?
Some neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, have been implicated in adjusting a person's mood. The circadian clock mechanisms, meanwhile, keep the organism's physiology tuned for appropriate responses to day or night. … [Read more]
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PSYCHOLOGY: Seen in a Positive Light
A frequently observed and seemingly antisocial behavior is that a morally dubious action taken by oneself will be regarded as less sinful than the same act committed by someone else. … [Read more]
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Science Editors' Choice 
