Organisms must adapt to seasonal changes in the environment and time their physiology accordingly. In vertebrates, the annual change in photoperiod is often critical for entraining the neuroendocrine pathways, which drive seasonal metabolic and reproductive cycles. These cycles depend on thyroid hormone (TH), reflecting its ancestral role in metabolic control. Recent studies reveal that--in mam...

The use of space by predators in relation to their prey is a poorly understood aspect of predator-prey interactions. Classic theory suggests that predators should focus their efforts on areas of abundant prey, that is, prey hotspots, whereas game-theoretical models of predator and prey movement suggest that the distribution of predators should match that of their prey's resources. If, however, ...

M olecular biology has made considerable contributions to the study of human history from the earliest days of our species, when our ancestors began to walk on the savannah, to the dawn of civilization and the more recent history of mankind. The analysis of contemporary mitochondrial DNA, for example, has told us that Homo sapiens first appeared in Africa; the sequencing of the Neanderthal geno...

Uricase is an enzyme involved in purine catabolism and is found in all three domains of life. Curiously, uricase is not functional in some organisms despite its role in converting highly insoluble uric acid into 5-hydroxyisourate. Of particular interest is the observation that apes, including humans, cannot oxidize uric acid, and it appears that multiple, independent evolutionary events led to ...

We study the level and severity of asset poverty, the characteristics of asset-poor households, the trends and persistence of asset poverty, and the role of major lifetime events affecting transitions in and out of asset poverty. We find that, contrary to a sharp decline in the official measure of poverty, which is based on income, the asset poverty rate barely changed over the 1984–99 period a...

Demain, A. L. (Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories, Rahway, N.J.), I. M. Miller, and D. Hendlin. Production of extracellular guanosine-5'-monophosphate by Bacillus subtilis. J. Bacteriol. 88:991-995. 1964.-Wild-type Bacillus subtilis colonies were found to feed purineless mutants. A strain with high feeding capacity was selected for study, with a guanineless mutant of B. subtilis used as ...

We report high resolution simultaneous measurements of electrical conductance and force gradient between two sharp gold tips as their separation is varied from the tunneling distance to atomic-size contact. The use of atomically sharp tips minimizes van der Waals interaction, making it possible to identify the short-range metallic adhesion contribution to the total force.