New Science/AAAS Webinar
Sourcing niche cell populations: Techniques for isolating and characterizing progenitor cells
Wednesday, June 24, 2015, at 12 noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. UK (BST), 6 p.m. Central Europe (CEST)
Understanding stem/progenitor cells—which can develop into various types of tissue—are key to developing novel approaches for regenerative medicine. In this webinar, we will hear from experts about different ways to isolate and characterize specific cell populations.
Register TODAY: webinar.sciencemag.org
Produced by the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office and EMD Millipore.
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Science
Weekly News
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| A roundup of the week’s top stories in Science:
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| In Brief |
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In science news around the world, Paris’s historic Musee de l’Homme is set to reopen in October after a 6-year hiatus, a joint mission of health experts says South Korea’s outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome may now be contained, the International Energy Agency finds that nations’ current promised greenhouse gas emissions cuts won’t be enough to slow global warming for more than a few months, a leaked version of Pope Francis’s climate encyclical reveals that the Vatican firmly blames the burning of fossil fuels for climate change, the University of Minnesota announces sweeping changes to how it will protect its research subjects, and more. Also, astronomers have spotted a bright galaxy from the early universe, possibly from the very first generation of stars. And six scientists who have spent the past 8 months in a solar-powered dome meant to simulate living on Mars—and to study how astronauts handle group conflict, bad food, and long, mundane days in cramped quarters—”returned” to Earth this week.
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| In Depth |
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Space Science
Eric Hand and Daniel Clery
The Philae comet lander has woken up from a 7-month slumber; now the European Space Agency is trying to communicate with it and get it to embark on new experiments. Following an awkward landing in a heavily shadowed area on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November, Philae’s batteries quickly exhausted themselves. Many were worried that its solar panels would not receive enough light to resume operations. But a weak 85-second burst of communication on 13 June provided hope: The small spacecraft was warm enough to get to work. This week, mission managers were altering the pointing and orbit of Rosetta, the lander’s mothership, in order to renew radio contact. If they can regain control, first experiments would include ambient measurements of temperature and electrical conductivity that make few power demands.
Animal Research
David Grimm
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced that it will classify all captive chimpanzees as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The move gives captive chimps the same status as their wild counterparts and could deal a significant blow to biomedical research involving the animals. More than 700 chimps are involved in research in U.S. labs today. Under the new designation, which goes into effect on 14 September, anyone working with captive chimps in the United States must apply for a permit. Permits will be required for the sale and import of these animals, as well as for “any activities that are likely to result in stress or harm.”
Infectious Diseases
Jon Cohen
Three new studies report progress in the drive to rationally design AIDS vaccines that can teach the immune system how to mount an effective antibody response against the virus. Some HIV-infected people make “broadly neutralizing” antibodies (bNAbs) that work against a wide array of viral variants, but researchers have struggled to figure out how to reverse engineer them. Two reports online this week in Science and one in Cell show in animal experiments that two different approaches can help steer antibody-producing B cells onto pathways that ultimately will produce bNAbs. One strategy uses a nanoparticle based on a small part of HIV’s surface protein, gp120, as an “immunogen” to kick-start the bNAb process. A second effort uses a natural mimic of the entire gp120 as it appears on viral surfaces, clumped together in groups of three known as trimers. Ultimately, researchers believe they will need to combine the nanoparticle, natural trimer, and other unknown immunogens to make a vaccine that can stop most every HIV variant circulating through humans around the world.
U.S. Research Funding
Jeffrey Mervis
Republicans control both houses of Congress, but they don’t speak with one voice when it comes to funding research at the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, and other agencies. That difference became clear last week after the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a 2016 spending bill that does not call for the steep cuts to climate and social science programs approved a week earlier by the House of Representatives. And whereas the House would give NSF a bit more money, the Senate version hews closer to the balanced portfolio that most scientists prefer. And nothing more will happen to either version until the two parties can reconcile their differences over how much the government can spend for the fiscal year that begins on 1 October.
Geoscience
Julia Rosen
Before 2008, Oklahoma experienced roughly one noticeable earthquake per year. By 2014, that number had soared to almost one a day, and the state is not alone. Scientists have documented an astronomical rise in seismic activity across the central and eastern United States, linking it to wastewater pumped into the ground from burgeoning oil and gas production. Now, new research suggests that high rates of fluid injection—rather than other factors such as volume or depth—may be the root of the problem. In a paper published this week in Science, researchers report that they compiled and analyzed the first comprehensive data set of all injection wells for waste disposal and enhanced oil recovery in the eastern and central United States. The results showed that disposal wells were 1.5 times more likely than enhanced recovery wells to be associated with earthquakes, and that the number of quakes increased steadily at high rates of pumping. Meanwhile, another study, published this week in Science Advances, confirmed the association between wastewater injection and earthquakes in the state of Oklahoma.
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| Feature |
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Marianne Lavelle
Once, as many as 2 million lesser prairie chickens occupied the grass and shrublands of the midwestern and southwestern United States. Today, however, just some 22,000 birds remain as a result of habitat loss and other threats. They occupy about 16% of the species’ historic range. In 2012 and 2013, a punishing drought hit the heart of the bird’s territory, resulting in a decision to list it as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. The decision has fueled an urgent $5 million effort, stretching across five states and involving nearly 100 researchers, to learn more about this relatively mysterious bird and save it from extinction. More is at stake than the fate of a single showy bird, whose home range coincides with the heartland of American agriculture and the epicenter of an energy boom. The research effort could help generate tens of millions of dollars to protect prairie habitats—and determine how lucrative industries that employ thousands of people will operate in prairie chicken country. It will test the scientific, political, and economic feasibility of a controversial Obama administration plan to give state governments and private landowners a bigger voice in endangered species management. And it could provide a valuable template for resolving a much bigger looming battle over the fate of another rangeland bird: the sage grouse. “That’s the scary and exciting part about doing this work right now,” says ecologist Andrew Gregory of Bowling Green State University in Ohio. “We’re doing work that matters [and is] going to feed directly into management recommendations.” The effort is surrounded by controversy. Some members of Congress are trying to block the conservation effort, and at least a dozen industry groups, four states, and three environmental groups are challenging it in federal court. Not surprisingly, industry groups and states generally argue it goes too far; environmentalists say it doesn’t go far enough. “The federal government is giving responsibility for managing the bird to the same industries that are pushing it to extinction,” says one critic, biologist Jay Lininger of the Center for Biological Diversity in Ashland, Oregon.
Marianne Lavelle
When Jack Connelly first began studying the greater sage grouse in Idaho in the late 1970s, “it was not unusual to see 500 in a single flock,” says the biologist, who is retired from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. “Today, it would be unusual to see 200.” That dramatic decline has made the sage grouse—a large, pointy-tailed bird with showy mating habits—the subject of one of the biggest endangered species battles ever in the United States. President Barack Obama’s administration is under court order to decide by 30 September how to protect the bird: declare it an endangered species—the nuclear option in conservation—or opt for the less onerous conservation strategies that officials are testing on its fellow rangeland bird, the lesser prairie chicken. An endangered listing could have widespread economic and environmental consequences. The sage grouse’s remaining population is spread over 67 million hectares in 11 western states, pitting it against farming, ranching, mining, and energy interests. Some members of Congress are trying to block any listing, because of the potential cost to industry and private landowners. They have even vowed to stop ongoing government efforts to protect grouse on federal lands, which hold about 65% of its key remaining habitat. “I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that this issue is the mother of all [endangered species] decisions,” says forestry scientist Eric Washburn, of the law and lobbying firm Bracewell & Giuliani in Washington, D.C.
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New Science/AAAS Webinar
Sourcing niche cell populations: Techniques for isolating and characterizing progenitor cells
Wednesday, June 24, 2015, at 12 noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. UK (BST), 6 p.m. Central Europe (CEST)
Understanding stem/progenitor cells—which can develop into various types of tissue—are key to developing novel approaches for regenerative medicine. In this webinar, we will hear from experts about different ways to isolate and characterize specific cell populations.
Register TODAY: webinar.sciencemag.org
Produced by the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office and EMD Millipore.
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Science and the future 