Contents
11 March 2016
Vol 351, Issue 6278
Vol 351, Issue 6278
Special Issue
Forensics
News
- Evidence on trial
Forensic science is reforming in the wake of a landmark report.
- Sizing up the evidence
Statisticians are on a mission to reverse a legacy of junk science in the courtroom.
- When DNA is lying
DNA analysis has helped free thousands of wrongly convicted people. But sometimes DNA lands innocent people in prison, Greg Hampikian warns.
- How hair can reveal a history
Sophisticated methods are giving hair a new role in forensic analysis.
- A trail of microbes
The unique mix of bacteria you leave behind wherever you go might be used to identify you.
- Who dropped the bomb?
Postdetonation forensics may help provide answers if the nuclear nightmare becomes a reality.
- Whose voice is that?
New research may make speaker recognition systems more accurate and more objective.
- Clues from the ashes
Were the bodies of 43 missing Mexican students burned at a dumpsite? Fire investigator José Torero says the science doesn't add up.
- The microbial death clock
The succession of microbes breaking down a human cadaver may provide precise information about the time of death.
- The Bitcoin busts
Its anonymity made Bitcoin popular among criminals. But even with cryptocurrency, researchers can follow the money.
Contents
This Week in Science
Editorial
Editors' Choice
Multimedia
Products & Materials
- New Products
A weekly roundup of information on newly offered instrumentation, apparatus, and laboratory materials of potential interest to researchers.
In Brief
In Depth
- Mars orbiter to sniff for methane
Mission aims to settle whether gas exists—and whether it could hint at life.
- Evidence grows for Zika virus as pregnancy danger
Lab experiments and new clinical data suggest that fast-spreading virus attacks developing brain.
- In search of spacetime megawaves
Timing in celestial radio beacons could reveal gravitational tsunamis.
- Why high ‘good cholesterol’ can be bad news
A faulty transport system sometimes causes high HDL.
- Plans for new research hub get critical reception
Scientists welcome new money but worry about lack of transparency.
Working Life
Letters
Books et al.
- Getting into grad school
Who benefits from the Ph.D. admissions process and who falls through the cracks?
Policy Forum
- Ending hide and seek at sea
New technologies could revolutionize ocean observation
Perspectives
- The invisible dimension of fungal diversity
Can microbial taxa be defined from environmental molecular sequences?
- The time is right for multiphoton entangled states
A chip-based microresonator enables time-bin entanglement
- Unraveling a pathway to autism
A signaling pathway that controls protein synthesis may be a target for autism therapeutics
- Feeding on plastic
A bacterium completely degrades poly(ethylene terephthalate)
- To see the world in a grain of spins
A universal simulator is developed that can model the workings of any classical spin system
Research Articles
- Architecture of the type IVa pilus machine
Structural models show how bacteria switch from pilus extension to retraction.
- Rare variant in scavenger receptor BI raises HDL cholesterol and increases risk of coronary heart disease
A human genetics study sheds light on how HDL (good) cholesterol protects against cardiovascular disease.
- Wavelike charge density fluctuations and van der Waals interactions at the nanoscale
The description of van der Waals interactions in nanostructures must include delocalized electron density fluctuations.
Reports
- Generation of multiphoton entangled quantum states by means of integrated frequency combs
Optical frequency combs are taken into the quantum regime.
- Simple universal models capture all classical spin physics
The two-dimensional Ising model with fields can simulate all classical spin models.
- Quasiparticle interference of the Fermi arcs and surface-bulk connectivity of a Weyl semimetal
High-resolution scanning tunneling spectroscopy reveals the connection between the surface and bulk states in tantalum arsenide.
- Accelerated crystallization of zeolites via hydroxyl free radicals
Hydroxyl radicals generated with ultraviolet light or Fenton reagents can approximately double the rate of zeolite synthesis.
- Early-branching gut fungi possess a large, comprehensive array of biomass-degrading enzymes
Anaerobic fungi in the guts of herbivorous mammals produce an enormous suite of lignocellulose-degrading enzymes.
- A bacterium that degrades and assimilates poly(ethylene terephthalate)
Two specialized enzymes from a newly isolated bacterium break down plastic into its simplest building blocks.
- CLK2 inhibition ameliorates autistic features associated with SHANK3 deficiency
Small-molecule therapeutics improve the social response in a mouse model of one of the autism spectrum disorders.
- Schedule-dependent interaction between anticancer treatments
The effectiveness of radiation on cancer cells depends on the dynamic cell state.
- Disordered methionine metabolism in MTAP/CDKN2A-deleted cancers leads to dependence on PRMT5
Tumors cope with a genomic change by rewiring their metabolism, but this makes them more susceptible to certain drugs.
- MTAP deletion confers enhanced dependency on the PRMT5 arginine methyltransferase in cancer cells
Tumors cope with a genomic change by rewiring their metabolism, but this makes them more susceptible to certain drugs.
- Measurement of gene regulation in individual cells reveals rapid switching between promoter states
Precise quantitation reveals the properties of a phage gene promoter.
Technical Comments
From the AAAS Office of Publishing and Member Services
About The Cover
COVER Bullets fired from the same pistol by the Prince George's County Police Department, in Maryland, show similar but not identical markings—an example of the ambiguity that plagues much crime-scene evidence. The bullets were fired as part of a research effort to bring greater rigor to forensic analysis, conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. See page 1128. For more on the process behind the cover image, see http://scim.ag/1LPKy4C.
Photo: Matthew Rakola
