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The paper wasp Polistes atrimandibularis is an obligatory social parasite of another Polistes species, P. biglumis bimaculatus. To control the host nest, the parasite sequentially changes the composition of its chemical signature, the cuticular hydrocarbons, during the colonial cycle. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry of the cuticular hydrocarbons at every stage of the cycle showed that the parasite can switch on and off an entire chemical family, namely, the unsaturated hydrocarbons. In this way the parasite can match the host signature at a critical moment of the colonial cycle., Having no worker caste and being incapable of nest building, P. atrirwndibularis is an obligatory social parasite. During the short 4-month summer colonial cycle of the host, a P. atrimandibularis [...]

To learn the evolutionary trajectories of caste differentiation in eusocial species is a major goal of sociobiology. We present an explanatory framework for caste evolution in the eusocial wasp genus Polistes (Vespidae), which is a model system for insect eusocial evolution. We hypothesize that Polistes worker and gyne castes stern from two developmental pathways that characterized the bivoltine life cycle of a solitary ancestor. Through individual-based simulations, we show that our mechanistic framework can reproduce colony-level characteristics of Polistes and, thereby, that social castes can emerge from solitary regulatory pathways. Our explanatory framework illustrates, by specific example, a changed perspective for understanding insect social evolution., The essence of eusociality in Polistes wasps is the differentiation of female offspring into two castes: nonreproductive females that work in their natal colony and reproductive gynes that found colonies [...]

Even in the best of times, 95% of Jan Hendrik Schon's experiments fizzled out. It's the other 5% that made him one of nanotechnology's brightest stars and the envy of [...]

WHEN A TEAM OF RESEARCHERS PUBLISHED A paper in Cell in April 1986, (*) they probably expected to generate scientific controversy, for they were reporting results that challenged the conventional [...]

Gravitational lensing, now taken as an important astrophysical consequence of the general theory of relativity, was found even before this theory was formulated but was discarded as a speculative idea without any chance of empirical confirmation. Reconstruction of some of Einstein's research notes dating back to 1912 reveals that he explored the possibility of gravitational lensing 3 years before completing his general theory of relativity. On the basis of preliminary insights into this theory, Einstein had already derived the basic features of the lensing effect. When he finally published the very same results 24 years later, it was only in response to prodding by an amateur scientist., Sixty years ago, Einstein published a short note in Science entitled 'Lens-Like Action of a Star by the Deviation of Light in the Gravitational Field' (1). The note is often [...]

SOUTHERN FLORIDA IS RAPIDLY GETTING A reputation for sensational court cases. Last month, the West Palm Beach rape trial of William Kennedy Smith captivated the country's attention. In March, the [...]

THREE WEEKS AGO SCIENCE PREDICTED THAT the National Institutes of Health was likely to issue a harsh critique of Tufts immunologist Thereza Imanishi-Kari's role in what has become known as [...]

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Modern conveniences can be so inconvenient. A billion of us now cart around laptops, cell phones, and other portable electronic gadgets. But as nifty as these accessories are, they have [...]

Recently, Philip Morris, the nation's largest cigarette company, has run full-page newspaper ads proclaiming that 'minors should not use tobacco' and has lent its support to a raft of measures [...]

A new report paints a darker picture of what may be the highest profile case of scientific fraud in postwar Germany. After a 2-year investigation of all 347 scientific articles [...]

For more than a year, a study claiming to show that transgenic potatoes may make rats sick was at the center of a furious debate, even though its findings had [...]

Controversial plans for a Web-based repository of biomedical literature, to be hosted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have undergone another shift in the past few weeks. After the [...]

The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein In 1985, at the age of 16, Albert Einstein left Germany, by himself, for Switzerland. He began his independent life by failing the entrance [...]

AS TODAY'S PUBLIC AND GOVERNMENTS BECOME MORE environmentally conscious we are increasingly concerned about the environmental component of product and service options available in our affluent society. Our choices are [...]

Piltdown is the most famous forgery in anthropology and perhaps even in science. Of the making of theories about who did it there seems no end. The essentials are these. [...]

In an exhibition hall at the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi, Japan, a gigantic newspaper covering more than 5 square meters delivers the news to passersby in crisp black and [...]

The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein. This publication of the papers of the greatest physicist of the modern age is a momentous and welcome event. Over half of the 142 [...]

Flat panel displays used in laptops and personal organizers are increasing both in resolution and in size, but, for applications requiring larger areas, such as newspapers, these expensive technologies are [...]

SEOUL AND TOKYO -- Embattled Korean stem cell scientist Woo Suk Hwang and his university have bowed to pressure for an investigation into a growing list of questions about a [...]

Six months after scientific societies and publishers won a hard-fought battle with the U.S. government to edit and publish manuscripts from countries under a U.S. trade embargo, the American Institute [...]

BERLIN AND PARIS -- While moves in the United States to make scientific research results available--for--free at the click of a mouse have generated intense debate, European research organizations have [...]

Ending months of uncertainty, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Elias Zerhouni last week unveiled a policy aimed at making the results of research it funds more freely available. But [...]

Cambridge, U.K. -- The nascent 'open-access' publishing movement got a qualified, but high-profile, endorsement this week. After a 7-month investigation, the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee concluded that [...]

Scientific Development as Chronicled by Historic Papers in the Philosophical Magazine--with Commentaries and Illustrations. Vol. 1, 1798-1850. E. A. DAVIS, Ed. Taylor and Francis, Philadelphia, 1995. xxxvi, 401 pp., illus., [...]

Recent discoveries at Bell Laboratories--the research arm of Lucent Technologies in Murray Hill, New Jersey--said to be of Nobel quality suddenly became mired in questions last week. Outside researchers presented [...]

The heat from the controversy alone is nearly enough to trigger a nuclear reaction. This week in Science (p. 1868), scientists led by nuclear engineer Rusi Taleyarkhan of Oak Ridge [...]

Peter Schwartz says he knew he was getting into trouble when he clashed with his lab director last year over a nanotechnology problem that Schwartz claims to have solved. But [...]

The First Hundred Years. A selection of Seminal Papers and Commentaries. H. HENRY STROKE, Ed. AIP Press, Woodbury, NY, 1995. xx, 1266 pp., illus., + CD-ROM. $75; to members of [...]

Atlanta - Twenty two years ago, Alfred Steinschneider made a splash in the medical community with a landmark paper detailing multiple cases of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in a [...]

Veteran physicists know that if you ask a simple question, nature by no means guarantees a simple answer. But even the most case-hardened researchers may be taken aback by the [...]

Arturo Casadevall, an expert on infections that prey on people with weakened immune systems, says he has worked with a 'wonderful compound' made at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). [...]

One of the authors of two plant biology papers that were retracted last year is suing the senior author who withdrew the papers. She is alleging that her former lab [...]

Rarely has an article in a scientific journal managed to upset so many people, in so many different ways, for so long. Two and a half years after the Canadian [...]

NIH clears GAllo on charges of stealing AIDS virus, but now will investigate details of key paper 'NIH bolsters claim of AIDS pioneer. Gallo all but cleared...' read a headline [...]

Amsterdam--LAST SPRING, HENK BUCK AND Jaap Groudsmit were the darlings of the Dutch media. buck, an organic chemist at Eindhoven Technical University, and Goudsmit, a retrovirologist at the University of [...]

NIH Sees Plagiarism in Vision Paper THE RETINA OF THE EYE has been compared to a piece of film. Light causes film to bleach as an image is recorded. But [...]