Catálogo de publicaciones - revistas

<jats:p> <jats:bold>SEOUL</jats:bold> —:Increasing contributions from corporations eager to bolster their own technological capabilities have helped Korean universities erect new buildings, stock labs, and support first-class research. But they are driving a wedge between departments that cater to industry and those whose work has fewer commercial applications. </jats:p>

<jats:p>Scientists hoping to pinpoint genes involved in complex diseases have a new facility to turn to for high-powered help. Earlier this week, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it will fund a center at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore devoted to genotyping, the painstaking process of searching for culprit genes in families afflicted with inherited diseases.</jats:p>

<jats:p> <jats:bold>WASHINGTON, D.C.</jats:bold> —Robert Walker, the former chair of the House Science Committee, stepped through a well-worn revolving door on 6 January: He was named president of the Wexler Group, a prominent Washington lobbying firm. </jats:p>

<jats:p> <jats:bold>CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA</jats:bold> —The rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus—so far—is working exactly as Australian animal-control and health officials hoped when they released the deadly agent last fall in a controversial effort to combat a century-old plague of European rabbits. With a fatality rate of 95% in some regions, the virus is clearing the way for a rejuvenation of species ranging from the showy groundsel shrub to the western gray kangaroo. </jats:p>

<jats:p>For decades, molecular biologists have suspected that a chemical modification called acetylation plays an important role in regulating gene activity, but they have had trouble proving it. Now researchers in several labs have identified several acetylating and deacetylating enzymes, and they have linked the reaction directly to the machinery that reads the genes: The acetylating enzymes have turned out to be proteins already known to associate with the transcription factors that turn genes on and off. What's more, the new work indicates that acetylation is important for cell growth control, and that when it becomes misdirected, cancer may develop.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Classical physics—and common sense—dictates that the vacuum is devoid not only of matter but also of energy. But quantum mechanics implies that the vacuum seethes with an infinite number of “virtual” photons that, like unobservable Cheshire cats, wink in and out of existence. These fleeting photons can exert a pressure known as the Casimir force, and a high-precision experiment has now measured it.</jats:p>

<jats:p> <jats:bold>CHICAGO</jats:bold> —Astronomers have withdrawn a dramatic claim made last year: that the early universe had 10 times more deuterium than other evidence suggested. Because the amount of this scarce hydrogen isotope created in the big bang is inversely related to the universe's total density of matter, the high levels, measured in a distant gas cloud, implied a surprisingly rarefied universe. But it now appears that the researchers may have misinterpreted the cloud's spectrum. </jats:p>

<jats:p> <jats:bold>CHICAGO</jats:bold> —The world's largest neutrino detector, a 50,000-metric-ton water tank in a Japanese mine, has begun to collect enough data to satisfy an international audience of astronomers trying to explain why there are fewer of these particles than predicted by current theories of matter. Along the way, researchers hope to learn much more about the energy spectrum of these elusive cosmic messengers. </jats:p>

<jats:p> <jats:bold>SAN FRANCISCO</jats:bold> —Oceanographers have had a hard time identifying where and how the oceans' deep, salty bottom waters mix with the overlying warmer layers. But a deep-diving instrument package has discovered a clue, researchers reported last month at the American Geophysical Union meeting here: a zone of intense mixing over a region of rugged ocean bottom off Brazil, 5600 meters down. By churning the overlying waters, regions of rough bottom may account for much of the oceans' missing mixing. </jats:p>

<jats:p> <jats:bold>SAN FRANCISCO</jats:bold> —Geophysicists have long hoped that by studying the magnetic field at Earth's surface, they would be able to unlock the mysteries of the liquid iron core, where the field is generated. But they received a rude shock at last month's meeting of the American Geophysical Union here, when researchers running computer simulations of the churning core reported that very different “geodynamos” can yield the same Earth-like magnetic field at the surface. </jats:p>