Vampires, Slashers, Or Zombies: Opening Weekends Favorite Box Office Monster

Red-billed oxpeckers: vampires or tickbirds?

Many recent studies have shown that classic examples of mutualism are either far more complicated than originally believed, or that they are not mutualisms at all. Red-billed oxpeckers (Buphagus erythrorhynchus) are just such an example of an ‘‘adaptive story.’’ These small birds feed almost exclusively on what they can glean from the skin of large African mammals. The relationship is obligate ...

Opening the Credit Box

Opening the Black Box

Controversy over the aggregate impact of foreign aid has focused on reduced form estimates of the aid-growth link. The causal chain, through which aid affects developmental outcomes including growth, has received much less attention. We address this gap by: (i) specifying a structural model of the main relationships; (ii) estimating the impact of aid on a range of final and intermediate outcome...

Apoptosis: Opening PANdora's BoX

Extracellular nucleotides have been reported to act as a 'find-me' signal in the context of phagocyte recruitment by apoptotically dying cells. A new study now examines the mechanisms of nucleotide release during apoptosis and describes the hemichannel-forming protein pannexin 1 as a crucial player in this scenario.

Opening the HIV Mystery Box

Nearly 36 million people live with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Despite incredible advances in combined antiretroviral therapy, the hopes for a definitive cure and an effective vaccine have been frustrated by the seemingly endless capacity of the virus to subvert the host defenses, to persist in a latent state, and to resist drug interventions. Recent work, however, sheds new light o...