The recent expansion of Pluto's atmosphere

Stellar occultations--the passing of a relatively nearby body in front of a background star--can be used to probe the atmosphere of the closer body with a spatial resolution of a few kilometres (ref. 1). Such observations can yield the scale height, temperature profile, and other information about the structure of the occulting atmosphere. Occultation data acquired for Pluto's atmosphere in 1988 revealed a nearly isothermal atmosphere above a radius of approximately 1,215 km. Below this level, the data could be interpreted as indicating either an extinction layer or the onset of a large thermal gradient, calling into question the fundamental structure of this atmosphere. Another question is to what extent Pluto's atmosphere might be collapsing as it recedes from the Sun (passing perihelion in 1989 in its 248-year orbital period), owing to the extreme sensitivity of the equilibrium surface pressure to the surface temperature. Here we report observations at a variety of visible and infrared wavelengths of an occultation of a star by Pluto in August 2002. These data reveal evidence for extinction in Pluto's atmosphere and show that it has indeed changed, having expanded rather than collapsed, since 1988.     

A dynamic upper atmosphere of Venus as revealed by VIRTIS on Venus Express

The upper atmosphere of a planet is a transition region in which energy is transferred between the deeper atmosphere and outer space. Molecular emissions from the upper atmosphere (90-120 km altitude) of Venus can be used to investigate the energetics and to trace the circulation of this hitherto little-studied region. Previous spacecraft and ground-based observations of infrared emission from CO2, O2 and NO have established that photochemical and dynamic activity controls the structure of the upper atmosphere of Venus. These data, however, have left unresolved the precise altitude of the emission owing to a lack of data and of an adequate observing geometry. Here we report measurements of day-side CO2 non-local thermodynamic equilibrium emission at 4.3 microm, extending from 90 to 120 km altitude, and of night-side O2 emission extending from 95 to 100 km. The CO2 emission peak occurs at approximately 115 km and varies with solar zenith angle over a range of approximately 10 km. This confirms previous modelling, and permits the beginning of a systematic study of the variability of the emission. The O2 peak emission happens at 96 km +/- 1 km, which is consistent with three-body recombination of oxygen atoms transported from the day side by a global thermospheric sub-solar to anti-solar circulation, as previously predicted.     

Toxin-induced conformational changes in a potassium channel revealed by solid-state NMR

The active site of potassium (K+) channels catalyses the transport of K+ ions across the plasma membrane--similar to the catalytic function of the active site of an enzyme--and is inhibited by toxins from scorpion venom. On the basis of the conserved structures of K+ pore regions and scorpion toxins, detailed structures for the K+ channel-scorpion toxin binding interface have been proposed. In these models and in previous solution-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) studies using detergent-solubilized membrane proteins, scorpion toxins were docked to the extracellular entrance of the K+ channel pore assuming rigid, preformed binding sites. Using high-resolution solid-state NMR spectroscopy, here we show that high-affinity binding of the scorpion toxin kaliotoxin to a chimaeric K+ channel (KcsA-Kv1.3) is associated with significant structural rearrangements in both molecules. Our approach involves a combined analysis of chemical shifts and proton-proton distances and demonstrates that solid-state NMR is a sensitive method for analysing the structure of a membrane protein-inhibitor complex. We propose that structural flexibility of the K+ channel and the toxin represents an important determinant for the high specificity of toxin-K+ channel interactions.     

Biosignatures as revealed by spectropolarimetry of Earthshine

Low-resolution intensity spectra of Earth's atmosphere obtained from space reveal strong signatures of life ('biosignatures'), such as molecular oxygen and methane with abundances far from chemical equilibrium, as well as the presence of a 'red edge' (a sharp increase of albedo for wavelengths longer than 700?nm) caused by surface vegetation. Light passing through the atmosphere is strongly linearly polarized by scattering (from air molecules, aerosols and cloud particles) and by reflection (from oceans and land). Spectropolarimetric observations of local patches of Earth's sky light from the ground contain signatures of oxygen, ozone and water, and are used to characterize the properties of clouds and aerosols. When applied to exoplanets, ground-based spectropolarimetry can better constrain properties of atmospheres and surfaces than can standard intensity spectroscopy. Here we report disk-integrated linear polarization spectra of Earthshine, which is sunlight that has been first reflected by Earth and then reflected back to Earth by the Moon. The observations allow us to determine the fractional contribution of clouds and ocean surface, and are sensitive to visible areas of vegetation as small as 10 per cent. They represent a benchmark for the diagnostics of the atmospheric composition, mean cloud height and surfaces of exoplanets.     

小麦异源多倍体中亲本基因组相互作用产生快速基因组变异的ISSR标记分析

通过ISSR标记分析,研究了异源多倍体基因组的进化现象.结果表明,基因组组成和普通小麦相同的人工合成异源六倍体小麦,在形成早期发生了迅速、广泛、以非随机性为主的基因组变化,包括遗传变异--主要表现为序列变异和表观遗传变异--主要表现为DNA甲基化变异.而且异源六倍体小麦中来自父本的基因组比来自母本的基因组发生了更多的遗...     

Genetic diversity in Penaeus chinensis shrimp as revealed by RAPD technique

The random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis was used to estimate genetic diversity in one successively cultivated stock and three wild stocks of Penaeus chinensis shrimp, two of which were collected from the spawning and wintering grounds in the west coast of Korean Peninsula, and one from the feeding ground in the China coast of the Yellow Sea. A random primer kit was employed to scan the genomic DNA in 20 individuals of each index stock. A total of 110 reproducible RAPD markers were obtained, 68.2 % of which showed a sound eonformability within all the individuals detected, implying that the genetic variability in P. chinensis is relatively low. The proportions of polymorphic loci among these four stocks ranged from 20% to 33.3%, while the degrees of genetic polymorphisms varied from 0.0093 to 0.0307. The genetic variability of inter-stocks was higher than that of intra-stock. The genetic diversity in different stocks differed from each other; that is, a less genetic differentiation in the spawning and wintering stocks from the west coast of Korean Peninsula was revealed and their genetic diversities were higher than that of the spawning stock in the Bohai Sea and the China coast of the Yellow Sea. As detected, the genetic diversity in the successively cultivated stock was the lowest among these four stocks. Through genetic distance analysis between a random pair of individuals, a dendrogram of the above-mentioned four stocks was constructed by unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean. The results based on cluster analysis well fitted with the geographical distribution of P. chinensis in the Bohai and Yellow Seas.     

Global warming and climate forcing by recent albedo changes on Mars

For hundreds of years, scientists have tracked the changing appearance of Mars, first by hand drawings and later by photographs. Because of this historical record, many classical albedo patterns have long been known to shift in appearance over time. Decadal variations of the martian surface albedo are generally attributed to removal and deposition of small amounts of relatively bright dust on the surface. Large swaths of the surface (up to 56 million km2) have been observed to darken or brighten by 10 per cent or more. It is unknown, however, how these albedo changes affect wind circulation, dust transport and the feedback between these processes and the martian climate. Here we present predictions from a Mars general circulation model, indicating that the observed interannual albedo alterations strongly influence the martian environment. Results indicate enhanced wind stress in recently darkened areas and decreased wind stress in brightened areas, producing a positive feedback system in which the albedo changes strengthen the winds that generate the changes. The simulations also predict a net annual global warming of surface air temperatures by approximately 0.65 K, enhancing dust lifting by increasing the likelihood of dust devil generation. The increase in global dust lifting by both wind stress and dust devils may affect the mechanisms that trigger large dust storm initiation, a poorly understood phenomenon, unique to Mars. In addition, predicted increases in summertime air temperatures at high southern latitudes would contribute to the rapid and steady scarp retreat that has been observed in the south polar residual ice for the past four Mars years. Our results suggest that documented albedo changes affect recent climate change and large-scale weather patterns on Mars, and thus albedo variations are a necessary component of future atmospheric and climate studies.     

Rossby waves on the Sun as revealed by solar 'hills'

It is a long-standing puzzle that the Sun's photosphere--its visible surface--rotates differentially, with the equatorial regions rotating faster than the poles. It has been suggested that waves analogous to terrestrial Rossby waves, and known as r-mode oscillations, could explain the Sun's differential rotation: Rossby waves are seen in the oceans as large-scale (hundreds of kilometres) variations of sea-surface height (5-cm-high waves), which propagate slowly either east or west (they could take tens of years to cross the Pacific Ocean). Calculations show that the solar r-mode oscillations have properties that should be strongly constrained by differential rotation. Here we report the detection of 100-m-high 'hills' in the photosphere, spaced uniformly over the Sun's surface with a spacing of (8.7 +/- 0.6) x 10(4) km. If convection under the photosphere is organized by the r-modes, the observed corrugated photosphere is a probable surface manifestation of these solar oscillations.     

Differentiation of the asteroid Ceres as revealed by its shape

The accretion of bodies in the asteroid belt was halted nearly 4.6 billion years ago by the gravitational influence of the newly formed giant planet Jupiter. The asteroid belt therefore preserves a record of both this earliest epoch of Solar System formation and variation of conditions within the solar nebula. Spectral features in reflected sunlight indicate that some asteroids have experienced sufficient thermal evolution to differentiate into layered structures. The second most massive asteroid--4 Vesta--has differentiated to a crust, mantle and core. 1 Ceres, the largest and most massive asteroid, has in contrast been presumed to be homogeneous, in part because of its low density, low albedo and relatively featureless visible reflectance spectrum, similar to carbonaceous meteorites that have suffered minimal thermal processing. Here we show that Ceres has a shape and smoothness indicative of a gravitationally relaxed object. Its shape is significantly less flattened than that expected for a homogeneous object, but is consistent with a central mass concentration indicative of differentiation. Possible interior configurations include water-ice-rich mantles over a rocky core.     

Fast core rotation in red-giant stars as revealed by gravity-dominated mixed modes

When the core hydrogen is exhausted during stellar evolution, the central region of a star contracts and the outer envelope expands and cools, giving rise to a red giant. Convection takes place over much of the star's radius. Conservation of angular momentum requires that the cores of these stars rotate faster than their envelopes; indirect evidence supports this. Information about the angular-momentum distribution is inaccessible to direct observations, but it can be extracted from the effect of rotation on oscillation modes that probe the stellar interior. Here we report an increasing rotation rate from the surface of the star to the stellar core in the interiors of red giants, obtained using the rotational frequency splitting of recently detected 'mixed modes'. By comparison with theoretical stellar models, we conclude that the core must rotate at least ten times faster than the surface. This observational result confirms the theoretical prediction of a steep gradient in the rotation profile towards the deep stellar interior.     

基于年代数据的青藏高原东北部全新世风沙活动研究

本文对青藏高原东北部全新世风成沉积剖面的年代数据应用概率密度方法结合年代数据分布情况重建了该区全新世风沙活动历史.结果表明:青藏高原东北部早全新世风沙活动强烈,但也存在不同尺度的空间差异,表现在共和盆地、柴达木盆地及青海湖盆地风成砂都广泛发育,但青海湖盆地同期还有古土壤发育,冬给措纳湖流域在这一时期也有少量的风成砂层出现;中全新世古土壤广泛发育,风沙活动较弱,整个东北部具有较好的一致性;晚全新世以来,柴达木盆地和冬给措纳湖流域风成砂发育较好,而共和盆地古土壤广泛发育,同时青海湖盆地风成砂和古土壤均有出现,说明风沙活动强度的区域差异较大,这可能是由于局部地区受到了人为活动强烈干扰的影响.风沙活动强度与区域有效湿度密切相关,区域有效湿度较高时,风沙活动较弱;反之,风沙活动较强.另外,大面积湖泊的存在使得青海湖盆地和冬给措纳湖流域全新世风沙活动的特点与柴达木盆地和共和盆地不尽相同,湖泊水位与湖泊增湿降温效应的相互关系以及物源供给特点可能是造成这一现象的原因.年代数据的概率密度方法相对于频率统计直方图具有一定的优势,充分利用了单个年代数据符合正态分布的特点,能够反映年代数据的范围和精度.     

Ultrafast isomerization dynamics of retinal in bacteriorhodopsin as revealed by femtosecond absorption spectroscopy

A femtosecond （fs） broad-band absorption apparatus was used to measure the early photoisomerlzation process of bacteriorhodopain＇s （BR） photocycle to reveal the character of the important Intermediate of J625 and to obtain a deeper understanding of the role of photoisomerizaUon in BR photocycle. Two time constants of 0.5 pa （95%） and 2.0 pa （5%） were brought out by global fitting on thirty curves In the nser-lnfrared reglon. We suggest that the first time constant results from the decay of I480 intermediate, and the longer component might be associated with BR isomer. The global analysis over 450, 540, 630, 710 and 870 nm traces identified two time constants, -0.5 and -3 pa. The slower component can be extracted from the processes of both J625→BR568 （540 nm） and J625→K590 （630 nm）, suggesting J-intermediate takes a partial cis configuration. The obvious negative feature in early delay time of 700- 760 nm reglona was attributed to the radiative transition （stimulated emission） from the Franck-Condon actlve conflguratlon along the isomerization potential surface of all-trans-retinal.     

Rapid changes of mitochondrial Ca2+ revealed by specifically targeted recombinant aequorin.

Introduction of Ca2+ indicators (photoproteins, fluorescent dyes) that can be trapped in the cytosolic compartment of living cells has yielded major advances in our knowledge of Ca2+ homeostasis. Ca2+ however regulates functions not only in the cytosol but also within various organelles where indicators have not yet been specifically targeted. Here we present a novel procedure by which the free Ca2+ concentration of mitochondria, [Ca2+]m, can be monitored continuously at rest and during stimulation. The complementary DNA for the Ca2+ sensitive photoprotein aequorin was fused in frame with that encoding a mitochondrial presequence. The hybrid cDNA was transfected into bovine endothelial cells and stable clones were obtained expressing variable amounts of mitochondrially targeted apoaequorin. The functional photoprotein could be reconstituted in intact cells by incubation with purified coelenterazine and [Ca2+]m could thus be monitored in situ. This allowed the unprecedented direct demonstration that agonist-stimulated elevations of cytosolic free Ca2+, [Ca2+]i, (measured in parallel with Fura-2) evoke rapid and transient increases of [Ca2+]m, which can be prevented by pretreatment with a mitochondrial uncoupler. The possibility of targeting aequorin to cellular organelles not only offers a new and powerful method for studying aspects of Ca2+ homeostasis that up to now could not be directly approached, but might also be used in the future as a tool to report in situ a variety of apparently unrelated phenomena of wide biological interest.     

The formation of cluster elliptical galaxies as revealed by extensive star formation

The most massive galaxies in the present-day Universe are found to lie in the centres of rich clusters. They have old, coeval stellar populations suggesting that the bulk of their stars must have formed at early epochs in spectacular starbursts, which should be luminous phenomena when observed at submillimetre wavelengths. The most popular model of galaxy formation predicts that these galaxies form in proto-clusters at high-density peaks in the early Universe. Such peaks are indicated by massive high-redshift radio galaxies. Here we report deep submillimetre mapping of seven high-redshift radio galaxies and their environments. These data confirm not only the presence of spatially extended regions of massive star-formation activity in the radio galaxies themselves, but also in companion objects previously undetected at any wavelength. The prevalence, orientation, and inferred masses of these submillimetre companion galaxies suggest that we are witnessing the synchronous formation of the most luminous elliptical galaxies found today at the centres of rich clusters of galaxies.     

Large contribution of sea surface warming to recent increase in Atlantic hurricane activity

Atlantic hurricane activity has increased significantly since 1995 (refs 1-4), but the underlying causes of this increase remain uncertain. It is widely thought that rising Atlantic sea surface temperatures have had a role in this, but the magnitude of this contribution is not known. Here we quantify this contribution for storms that formed in the tropical North Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico; these regions together account for most of the hurricanes that make landfall in the United States. We show that a statistical model based on two environmental variables--local sea surface temperature and an atmospheric wind field--can replicate a large proportion of the variance in tropical Atlantic hurricane frequency and activity between 1965 and 2005. We then remove the influence of the atmospheric wind field to assess the contribution of sea surface temperature. Our results indicate that the sensitivity of tropical Atlantic hurricane activity to August-September sea surface temperature over the period we consider is such that a 0.5 degrees C increase in sea surface temperature is associated with a approximately 40% increase in hurricane frequency and activity. The results also indicate that local sea surface warming was responsible for approximately 40% of the increase in hurricane activity relative to the 1950-2000 average between 1996 and 2005. Our analysis does not identify whether warming induced by greenhouse gases contributed to the increase in hurricane activity, but the ability of climate models to reproduce the observed relationship between hurricanes and sea surface temperature will serve as a useful means of assessing whether they are likely to provide reliable projections of future changes in Atlantic hurricane activity.     

Formations of groundwater hydrogeochemistry in a karst system during storm events as revealed by PCA

High-frequency samples have been collected at Jiangjia Spring, the outlet of Qingmuguan underground river system (QURS) in Chongqing in late April, 2008. The variations of hydrogeochemical compositions are found responding rapidly to storm events. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the 20 variables is employed to interpret the relationships with specific processes that control the groundwater hydrogeochemical formations. Through PCA, 84.961% of the total amount information is extracted to indicate the fo...