A giant thunderstorm on Saturn

Lightning discharges in Saturn's atmosphere emit radio waves with intensities about 10,000 times stronger than those of their terrestrial counterparts. These radio waves are the characteristic features of lightning from thunderstorms on Saturn, which last for days to months. Convective storms about 2,000 kilometres in size have been observed in recent years at planetocentric latitude 35° south (corresponding to a planetographic latitude of 41° south). Here we report observations of a giant thunderstorm at planetocentric latitude 35° north that reached a latitudinal extension of 10,000 kilometres-comparable in size to a 'Great White Spot'-about three weeks after it started in early December 2010. The visible plume consists of high-altitude clouds that overshoot the outermost ammonia cloud layer owing to strong vertical convection, as is typical for thunderstorms. The flash rates of this storm are about an order of magnitude higher than previous ones, and peak rates larger than ten per second were recorded. This main storm developed an elongated eastward tail with additional but weaker storm cells that wrapped around the whole planet by February 2011. Unlike storms on Earth, the total power of this storm is comparable to Saturn's total emitted power. The appearance of such storms in the northern hemisphere could be related to the change of seasons, given that Saturn experienced vernal equinox in August 2009.     

Parallel gradualistic evolution of Ordovician trilobites

There are very few high-resolution studies of the fossil record from which to assess the relative frequency of gradualistic and punctuated evolution. Here I report some of the first detailed evidence of phyletic gradualism in benthic macroinvertebrates, based on a study of approximately 15,000 trilobites from central Wales. Over a period of about three million years, as many as eight lineages underwent a net increase in the number of pygidial ribs, a species-diagnostic character. The end members of most lineages have previously been assigned to different species and, in one case, to different genera. In view of intermediate morphologies and temporary trend reversals, however, practical taxonomic subdivision of each lineage proved impossible. The apparent success of earlier Linnean nomenclature (with its implications of discrete species) could easily have been misinterpreted as evidence of punctuation and stasis, and it is probable that detection of many other gradualistic patterns has been hindered by ready application of binominal taxonomy to fossils.     

地质公园的旅游开发研究——以梭布垭奥陶纪地质公园为例

以恩施州梭布垭地质公园为例，分析地质公园旅游资源开发的特点和条件，在此基础上提出相应旅游产品的开发，并对旅游产品开发的保障要素进行初步探讨．     

地质公园的旅游开发研究——以梭布垭奥陶纪地质公园为例

以恩施州梭布垭地质公园为例，分析地质公园旅游资源开发的特点和条件，在此基础上提出相应旅游产品的开发，并对旅游产品开发的保障要素进行初步探讨．     

Microbialite resurgence after the Late Ordovician extinction

Microbialites, including biogenic stromatolites, thrombolites and dendrolites, were formed by various microbial mats that trapped and bound sediments or formed the locus of mineral precipitation. Microbialites were common and diverse during the Proterozoic, but declined in abundance and morphological diversity when multicellular life diversified during the Cambrian Radiation. A second decline occurred during the Ordovician Radiation of marine animals, and from then until the present microbialites have been confined largely to high-stress environments where multicellular organisms are rare. The microbialite declines in the Phanerozoic are attributed to disruption of the mats by animals. A resurgence of stromatolite abundance and size during reduced animal diversity after the Permian extinction has been documented anecdotally. Here we show, with statistical support, that a microbialite resurgence also occurred after the Late Ordovician extinction event in western North America. The resurgences were associated with loss of mat-inhibiting animals, providing insights into shallow-water community structures after extinction events.     

A giant chlorophyll-protein complex induced by iron deficiency in cyanobacteria

Cyanobacteria are abundant throughout most of the world's water bodies and contribute significantly to global primary productivity through oxygenic photosynthesis. This reaction is catalysed by two membrane-bound protein complexes, photosystem I (PSI) and photosystem II (PSII), which both contain chlorophyll-binding subunits functioning as an internal antenna. In addition, phycobilisomes act as peripheral antenna systems, but no additional light-harvesting systems have been found under normal growth conditions. Iron deficiency, which is often the limiting factor for cyanobacterial growth in aquatic ecosystems, leads to the induction of additional proteins such as IsiA (ref. 3). Although IsiA has been implicated in chlorophyll storage, energy absorption and protection against excessive light, its precise molecular function and association to other proteins is unknown. Here we report the purification of a specific PSI-IsiA supercomplex, which is abundant under conditions of iron limitation. Electron microscopy shows that this supercomplex consists of trimeric PSI surrounded by a closed ring of 18 IsiA proteins binding around 180 chlorophyll molecules. We provide a structural characterization of an additional chlorophyll-containing, membrane-integral antenna in a cyanobacterial photosystem.     

A stability limit for the atmospheres of giant extrasolar planets

Recent observations of the planet HD209458b indicate that it is surrounded by an expanded atmosphere of atomic hydrogen that is escaping hydrodynamically. Theoretically, it has been shown that such escape is possible at least inside an orbit of 0.1 au (refs 4 and 5), and also that H3+ ions play a crucial role in cooling the upper atmosphere. Jupiter's atmosphere is stable, so somewhere between 5 and 0.1 au there must be a crossover between stability and instability. Here we show that there is a sharp breakdown in atmospheric stability between 0.14 and 0.16 au for a Jupiter-like planet orbiting a solar-type star. These results are in contrast to earlier modelling that implied much higher thermospheric temperatures and more significant evaporation farther from the star. (We use a three-dimensional, time-dependent coupled thermosphere-ionosphere model and properly include cooling by H3+ ions, allowing us to model globally the redistribution of heat and changes in molecular composition.) Between 0.2 and 0.16 au cooling by H3+ ions balances heating by the star, but inside 0.16 au molecular hydrogen dissociates thermally, suppressing the formation of H3+ and effectively shutting down that mode of cooling.     

安徽东至早奥陶世红花园组生物礁:奥陶纪生物大辐射前的微生物礁

通过对安徽东至建新剖面红花园组的生物礁、微生物岩进行研究,发现蓝绿菌类Girvanella在生物礁中大量分布,是生物礁的主要造礁成分。其他造礁生物包括瓶筐虫、石海绵、腹足类、腕足类、棘皮类等。Girvanella以散乱分布、包壳、组成内碎屑以及与海绵伴生等4种方式在本区生物礁中存在,并且在生物礁成礁过程中以生物本体矿化作用及粘结、捕获颗粒的作用形成生物礁格架;瓶筐虫及石海绵为生物礁中的居住者,因此,生物礁性质为瓶筐虫/石海绵-微生物礁,微生物起到了主要的造礁作用。此外红花园组典型含生物礁沉积序列是由底部的生屑灰岩基底、中部的海绵层(少量微生物岩)及顶部的微生物岩组成的。通过与其他地区同时代生物礁的对比发现,东至建新剖面红花园组中瓶筐虫/石海绵-微生物礁的发育及微生物的繁盛是全球性的,是由于底栖生物扰动对潮下带微生物发育影响尚未彰显造成的。     

安徽东至早奥陶世红花园组生物礁:奥陶纪生物大辐射前的微生物礁

通过对安徽东至建新剖面红花园组的生物礁、微生物岩进行研究,发现蓝绿菌类Girvanella在生物礁中大量分布,是生物礁的主要造礁成分.其他造礁生物包括瓶筐虫、石海绵、腹足类、腕足类、棘皮类等.Girvanella以散乱分布、包壳、组成内碎屑以及与海绵伴生等4种方式在本区生物礁中存在,并且在生物礁成礁过程中以生物本体矿化作用及粘结、捕获颗粒的作用形成生物礁格架;瓶筐虫及石海绵为生物礁中的居住者,因此,生物礁性质为瓶筐虫/石海绵-微生物礁,微生物起到了主要的造礁作用.此外红花园组典型含生物礁沉积序列是由底部的生屑灰岩基底、中部的海绵层(少量微生物岩)及顶部的微生物岩组成的.通过与其他地区同时代生物礁的对比发现,东至建新剖面红花园组中瓶筐虫/石海绵-微生物礁的发育及微生物的繁盛是全球性的,是由于底栖生物扰动对潮下带微生物发育影响尚未彰显造成的.     

A molecular solution to the riddle of the giant panda's phylogeny

Although it is generally agreed that the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is a member of the order Carnivora, there has long been disagreement over whether it should be classified with bears, raccoons or as a single member of its own family. Four independent molecular and genetic measures lead to a consensus phylogeny for the giant and lesser pandas. The lesser panda diverged from New World procyonids at approximately the same time as their departure from ursids, while ancestors of the giant panda split from the ursid lineage much later, just before the radiation which led to modern bears. The giant panda's divergence was accompanied by a chromosomal reorganization which can be partially reconstructed from the ursid karyotype, but not from that of procyonids or the lesser panda. The apparently dramatic, but actually limited, distinctions between the giant panda and the bears in chromosomal and anatomical morphology provide a graphic mammalian example of the discordance of molecular and morphological (and chromosomal) evolutionary change.     

A giant gamma-ray flare from the magnetar SGR 1806-20

Two classes of rotating neutron stars-soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars-are magnetars, whose X-ray emission is powered by a very strong magnetic field (B approximately 10(15) G). SGRs occasionally become 'active', producing many short X-ray bursts. Extremely rarely, an SGR emits a giant flare with a total energy about a thousand times higher than in a typical burst. Here we report that SGR 1806-20 emitted a giant flare on 27 December 2004. The total (isotropic) flare energy is 2 x 10(46) erg, which is about a hundred times higher than the other two previously observed giant flares. The energy release probably occurred during a catastrophic reconfiguration of the neutron star's magnetic field. If the event had occurred at a larger distance, but within 40 megaparsecs, it would have resembled a short, hard gamma-ray burst, suggesting that flares from extragalactic SGRs may form a subclass of such bursts.     

Types and biotic successions of Ordovician reefs in China

Ordovician reefs are located in the South China,Tarim,and North China blocks,in low-latitude epicontinental marine regions and mostly consist of large-scale carbonate platforms.During the Paleozoic,faunal radiation reef biota diverged and thrived in diverse paleogeographic settings.Algal reefs of the Early Ordovician,Calathium-lithistid sponge-algal reefs of the late Early Ordovician to early Middle Ordovician,and coral-stromatoporoid-algal reefs of the early Late Ordovician,indicate change from Cambrian to Paleozoic biota.Coral-stromatoporoid-algal reefs were the basic communities after 100 Ma.The macroevolution of biotic struc-tures generally shows increased complexity;the evolution of China’s reef biota parallels that worldwide.Important aspects are:(1) The Calathium-algal reefs from the early Tremadocian Nantzinkuan Formation,Zhangjiajie,western Hunan are the pioneer reefs,and the Darriwillian Yijianfang Formation,Bachu are the relic reefs.(2) The bryozoan-dominated reefs of the late Tremadocian Fenhsiang Formation,Middle Yangtze Platform are unique.(3) The early coral-stromatoporoid-algal reefs are highly restricted in China.(4) The algal reefs from the latest Katian on the western margin of the Yangtze Platform,represent an abnormal reef-building environment during the initial stages of Gondwanan glaciations.     

A regional tectonic event of Katian (Late Ordovician) age across three major blocks of China

The present paper deals with a tectonic event of Late Ordovician age affecting three blocks of China,i.e.South China,North China and Tarim.In the North China and the Tarim platforms,as well as their marginal belts,there was a regional uplift during the early Katian Stage of the Ordovician.The uplift was indicated by the unconformities between the Ordovician successions and overlying late Paleozoic strata.New biostratigraphic studies of conodonts and graptolites from many sections at Longxian and Yaoxian,North China shows that the youngest Ordovician strata are of the early Katian age corresponding to graptolite Diplacanthograptus spiniferus Biozone.The same level has been recognized to represent the uppermost Ordovician in the platform area of Tarim,whereas in the marginal belt the top boundary of the Ordovician is slightly younger,corresponding to the graptolite Dicellograptus complanatus Biozone.Thus,the regional uplift in North China and Tarim is shown by the disconformity between the early Katian strata and Late Paleozoic strata,the onset coinciding with that of the Kwangsian Orogeny in South China.The designation Kwangsian Orogeny later fell into disuse and was replaced by the term Caledonian Orogeny.However,in terms of geographic location,tectonic nature,and the timing of activity,the Caledonian Orogeny differs significantly from the orogenic event in South China,and the continued use of this term in South China is inappropriate and misleading.     

颅内巨细胞胶质母细胞瘤

为探讨巨细胞胶质母细胞瘤的临床病理特征,组织发生学及预后,观察了１１例巨细胞胶质母细胞瘤,占１７２１例ＣＮＳ肿瘤的０．６４％。方法;采用电镜观察和胶质纤维酸性蛋白,Ｓ－１００蛋白,波形细丝蛋白等免疫组化染色,研究了此类肿瘤的病理,电镜,免疫组化及临床特点。