Paleomagnetism and the nature of the geodynamo

Records of direct observations of the earth's magnetic field cover less than a ten-millionth ofthe known lifetime of the field. Thus our knowledge of several geomagnetic phenomena, critical to our understanding of the geodynamo, must come firom the paleomagnetic record. A combination of substantial advances during the past decade or so both in dynamo theory (previously the domain of the mathematician) and in paleomagnetism (previously the domain of the geologist) has led to provocative models of the earth's magnetic field and a better understanding of the geodynamo.     

Rare structural variants disrupt multiple genes in neurodevelopmental pathways in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a devastating neurodevelopmental disorder whose genetic influences remain elusive. We hypothesize that individually rare structural variants contribute to the illness. Microdeletions and microduplications >100 kilobases were identified by microarray comparative genomic hybridization of genomic DNA from 150 individuals with schizophrenia and 268 ancestry-matched controls. All variants were validated by high-resolution platforms. Novel deletions and duplications of genes were present in 5% of controls versus 15% of cases and 20% of young-onset cases, both highly significant differences. The association was independently replicated in patients with childhood-onset schizophrenia as compared with their parents. Mutations in cases disrupted genes disproportionately from signaling networks controlling neurodevelopment, including neuregulin and glutamate pathways. These results suggest that multiple, individually rare mutations altering genes in neurodevelopmental pathways contribute to schizophrenia.