Planck's Principle

Two views about the Darwinian revolution are tested: that nearly all scientists in Great Britain had been converted to a belief in the evolution of species within 10 years after the publication of the Origin of Species, and that younger scientists were converted much more rapidly than older scientists. Both views are shown to be less than accurate.     

Poster: the macaque genome

The rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) facilitates an extraordinary range of biomedical and basic research, and the publication of the genome only makes it a more powerful model for studies of human disease; moreover, the macaque's position relative to humans and chimpanzees affords the opportunity to learn about the processes that have shaped the last 25 million years of primate evolution. To allow users to explore these themes of the macaque genome, Science has created a special interactive version of the poster published in the print edition of the 13 April 2007 issue. The interactive version includes additional text and exploration, as well as embedded video featuring seven scientists discussing the importance of the macaque and its genome sequence in studies of biomedicine and evolution. We have also created an accompanying teaching resource, including a lesson plan aimed at teachers of advanced high school life science students, for exploring what a comparison of the macaque and human genomes can tell us about human biology and evolution. These items are free to all site visitors.     

Fish as model systems

Fish represent the largest and most diverse group of vertebrates. Their evolutionary position relative to other vertebrates and their ability to adapt to a wide variety of environments make them ideal for studying both organismic and molecular evolution. A number of other characteristics make them excellent experimental models for studies in embryology, neurobiology, endocrinology, environmental biology, and other areas. In fact, they have played a critical role in the development of several of these disciplines. Research techniques that enable scientists to make isogenic lines in a single generation, create and maintain mutants, culture cells, and transfer cloned genes into embryos signal an increasing role for fish as experimental models.     

Perspectives on artificial intelligence programming

Programs are judged not only by whether they faithfully carry out the intended processing but also by whether they are understandable and easily changed. Programming systems for artificial intelligence applications use specialized languages, environments, and knowledge-based tools to reduce the complexity of the programming task. Language styles based on procedures, objects, logic, rules, and constraints reflect different models for organizing programs and facilitate program evolution and understandability. To make programming easier, multiple styles can be integrated as sublanguages in a programming environment. Programming environments provide tools that analyze programs and create informative displays of their structure. Programs can be modified by direct interaction with these displays. These tools and languages are helping computer scientists to regain a sense of control over systems that have become increasingly complex.     

Honor thy gut symbionts redux

Exploring our gut microbial communities with new tools is allowing us to revisit old questions; to develop new concepts about our evolution, postnatal development, systems physiology, individuality, and definitions of health; and to further delineate the impact of our changing life-styles. It is also allowing us to envision exciting new ways for addressing global health problems. This area is inherently interdisciplinary, offering a wealth of opportunities to create new fields, partnerships, and educational initiatives. It is captivating to the public and carries substantial expectations. As such, participating scientists need to sponsor proactive, solution-focused discussions of its societal implications.     

江西省农业科研人员收入满意度调查与分析

利用问卷调查、统计资料和走访座谈等形式对江西境内农业科技人员收入状况进行了调查,并对收集整理的与收入相关问题进行了分析。结果表明,江西农业科研机构科研人员工资低,科技人员对收入满意度不高。分析了收入低的原因:主要与农业科研单位公益性强,农业科技成果转化社会效益大,科研人员收入主要依靠财政拨款有关。在此基础上提出了提高农业科技人员收入的建议。     

Corrections and clarifications

In the special section "Minorities in science: The pipeline problem" (13 Nov., p. 1175), the graph on page 1199 showing the field distribution of employed scientists and engineers by ethnicity should have been labeled "Percentage" along the x axis. Also, the designation "Engineers" should have read, "Engineers, total." Labeled correctly, the graph would indicate, for example, that among all employed white scientists and engineers in 1988, about 50% were scientists and 50% were engineers. Of employed black scientists and engineers, about 70% were scientists and only about 30% were engineers. Among Hispanics, the breakdown was about 45% scientists and 55% engineers.     

现代农业科技革命与农技推广人才队伍发展

现代农业科技革命的标志是现代高新的生物技术和信息技术在农业领域的具体应用。面向现代农业科技革命的农技推广人才队伍发展对策是:加大政策扶持力度,提高农技推广人才的社会地位;加强培训工作,提高农技推广人才的素质;增强创新意识,提高农技推广人才解决实际生产问题的能力。     

Patterns in productivity of scientists

Bibliographies of 53 eminent research scientists in different fields are analyzed in terms of total publications, type of publication, coauthorship, and mean number of publications per year. For the physical and biological scientists, comparisons are made with the publication records of 153 eminent 19th-century scientists.     

公众和科学家对GMF风险认知的比较研究

采用东中西部经济发达城市的调查数据,分析公众和科学家对GMF健康风险和生态环境风险的认知现状,并利用有序分类Logistic回归模型分析导致风险认知差异的主要因素。研究结果表明:公众认知的GMF健康风险和生态环境风险均高于科学家所认知的风险;导致公众与科学家风险认知差异的根源之一是公众缺乏GMF相关知识;在知识、信息不全的情况下,公众易于受到外在信息因素和内在心理因素的影响;信息来源于传统媒介、GMF争论了解越多的公众,其认知的GMF风险越大;而专家、政府、企业的可信度以及对食品安全的信心能够有效降低公众的认知风险;科学家因相关知识储备较多,受信息因素和心理因素的影响较小。此外,个体特征因素亦对公众和科学家的GMF风险认知有影响。     

Bibliography: Farmer knowledge and management of crop disease

Nearly all contemporary people subsist on cultivated plants, most of which are vulnerable to diseases. Yet, there have been few studies of what traditional people know – and do not know – about crop disease. Agricultural scientists in general are becoming aware of the potential contribution of social scientists and farmers in developing integrated management of crop diseases. The International Potato Center (CIP) has focused on stimulating farmer-scientist collaboration in developing management of late blight, a major fungal disease of potatoes and other plants. Understanding farmers' knowledge of this and other plant diseases is an important element in furthering such collaboration. Although not all agricultural scientists recognize the value of social science, this literature search shows that some agricultural scientists now actively collaborate with farmers, in ways that cross the boundary into social science research. During this search, much of the work we found was written by plant pathologists and entomologists. We found over fifty publications on farmer knowledge of crop disease, and we have annotated the material that we thought most relevant to farmer- scientist collaboration for research of crop diseases, especially late blight.     

Gender differences in patenting in the academic life sciences

We analyzed longitudinal data on academic careers and conducted interviews with faculty members to determine the scope and causes of the gender gap in patenting among life scientists. Our regressions on a random sample of 4227 life scientists over a 30-year period show that women faculty members patent at about 40% of the rate of men. We found that the gender gap has improved over time but remains large.     

NanoManipulator Lets Chemists Go Mano a Mano With Molecules

Because objects only a few molecules across are too small to be seen or touched directly, scientists approach them essentially blind and numb. Now a team of physicists, chemists, biologists, and computer scientists at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has developed a tool that restores their eyes and fingers. It's called the nanoManipulator.     

农业科研单位青年科技人员思想政治工作初探

思想政治工作是党的建设工作的重要法宝，充分体现了党组织的统领全局作用和凝聚作用。随着农业体制机制改革的日益深入，农业科研单位正经历着复杂而又深刻的改革，同时，青年科技人员的思想也在悄然变化。农业科技创新归根到底取决于青年科技人员，面对青年科技工作者新的思想动态、精神状态的变化，必须开展有效的思想政治工作，以帮助青年科技人员树立正确的思想信念，克服错误的思想倾向，为深入推进农业科研单位健康、协调发展提供强大的精神正能量。     

NUCLEAR ESPIONAGE: Report Details Spying on Touring Scientists

A congressional report released this week details dozens of sometimes clumsy attempts by foreign agents to obtain nuclear secrets from U.S. nuclear scientists traveling abroad, ranging from offering scientists prostitutes to prying off the backs of their laptop computers. The report highlights the need to better prepare traveling researchers to safeguard secrets and resist such temptations, say the two lawmakers who requested the report and officials at the Department of Energy, which employs the scientists.     

Corrections and clarifications

In Joseph Palca's article "The case of the Florida dentist" (News & Comment, 24 Jan., p. 392), it should have been made clear that when Barbara Mishkin was indirectly quoted as saying that data gathered by government scientists is fair game for Freedom of Information Act requests, she was speaking of data generated by scientists in the National Institutes of Science intramural research program, unless those data fall within one of the statutory exemptions.     

上海农业专家现状浅析

通过对上海各农业机构提供的具有高级职称科技人员资料的统计分析,表明:上海农业专家专业分布面广,但缺少都市型农业人才和高新技术研究人才;专家集中在科研单位,在科技推广部门较少;在职称评定中,重学历但不唯学历;上海将有70％的农业专家在5年内退休,所以必须迅速构筑上海农业高级人才高地。提出,建设上海自己的都市农业研究生基地,为青年科技人员成才创造一个宽松的竞争氛围,选拔和造就一大批青年农业高级专家,注意在年富力强的中年农业科技人才中晋升高级农业专家;应当制定条例,明确延聘专家的主要工作是带教青年科技人才等对策。     

Biology, politics, and the emerging science of human nature

In the past 50 years, biologists have learned a tremendous amount about human brain function and its genetic basis. At the same time, political scientists have been intensively studying the effect of the social and institutional environment on mass political attitudes and behaviors. However, these separate fields of inquiry are subject to inherent limitations that may only be resolved through collaboration across disciplines. We describe recent advances and argue that biologists and political scientists must work together to advance a new science of human nature.     

试论环境伦理学在生态恢复中的意义

通过对生态恢复的界定和考察环境伦理观念的变迁,探讨了在不同的生态恢复阶段环境伦理教育的重点问题,即在生态恢复实．践中引导人们树立正确的责任观、抚育观、监管观。     

Bioethics. Financial conflicts get more scrutiny in clinical trials

At a national conference on clinical research last week, the incoming head of the federal government's new Office for Human Research Protections, Greg Koski, surprised his audience by suggesting that some conflicts should be avoided. His support for the idea that scientists should have no financial ties to companies whose products they are testing hints at an upcoming shift in government rules that govern the relationship between scientists and the pharmaceutical industry. But most of the discussion at the conference revolved around questions of how to "manage" conflicts rather than do away with them.