Number and condition of seeds in ponderosa pine cones in central Arizona

Ponderosa pine cones from 10 areas in Arizona were collected prior to natural seed dispersal and dissected to determine the number of sound, hollow, and insect-damaged seeds in each cone. Total and sound seed yields per cone did not vary significantly among areas but did vary significantly among trees within each area. Numbers of hollow and Megastigmus -infested (Hymenoptera: Torymidae) seeds varied significantly among areas and trees within areas. Numbers of sound seed increased significantly with increasing cone length but did not change with increasing numbers of cones per cluster. The percentages of Megastigmus -infested seed did not change significantly with increasing cone length or number of cones per cluster.     

Effects of the adenylate cyclase activator forskolin and its inactive derivative 1,9-dideoxyforskolin on insect cytochrome P-450 dependent steroid hydroxylase activity

The adenylate cyclase activator forskolin and its pharmacologically inactive derivative 1,9-dideoxyforskolin were found to inhibit in a dose-dependent fashion the ecdysone 20-monooxygenase activity associated with wandering stage larvae ofDrosophila melanogaster and fat body and midgut from last instar larvae of the tobacco hornworm,Manduca sexta. The concentrations of these labdane diterpenes required to elicit a 50% inhibition of the cytochrome P-450 dependent steroid hydroxylase activity in the insect tissues ranged from approximately 5×10^–6 to 5×10^–4 M.     

A telomerase component is defective in the human disease dyskeratosis congenita

The X-linked form of the human disease dyskeratosis congenita (DKC) is caused by mutations in the gene encoding dyskerin. Sufferers have defects in highly regenerative tissues such as skin and bone marrow, chromosome instability and a predisposition to develop certain types of malignancy. Dyskerin is a putative pseudouridine synthase, and it has been suggested that DKC may be caused by a defect in ribosomal RNA processing. Here we show that dyskerin is associated not only with H/ACA small nucleolar RNAs, but also with human telomerase RNA, which contains an H/ACA RNA motif. Telomerase adds simple sequence repeats to chromosome ends using an internal region of its RNA as a template, and is required for the indefinite proliferation of primary human cells. We find that primary fibroblasts and lymphoblasts from DKC-affected males are not detectably deficient in conventional H/ACA small nucleolar RNA accumulation or function; however, DKC cells have a lower level of telomerase RNA, produce lower levels of telomerase activity and have shorter telomeres than matched normal cells. The pathology of DKC is consistent with compromised telomerase function leading to a defect in telomere maintenance, which may limit the proliferative capacity of human somatic cells in epithelia and blood.     

Regional climate shifts caused by gradual global cooling in the Pliocene epoch

The Earth's climate has undergone a global transition over the past four million years, from warm conditions with global surface temperatures about 3 degrees C warmer than today, smaller ice sheets and higher sea levels to the current cooler conditions. Tectonic changes and their influence on ocean heat transport have been suggested as forcing factors for that transition, including the onset of significant Northern Hemisphere glaciation approximately 2.75 million years ago, but the ultimate causes for the climatic changes are still under debate. Here we compare climate records from high latitudes, subtropical regions and the tropics, indicating that the onset of large glacial/interglacial cycles did not coincide with a specific climate reorganization event at lower latitudes. The regional differences in the timing of cooling imply that global cooling was a gradual process, rather than the response to a single threshold or episodic event as previously suggested. We also find that high-latitude climate sensitivity to variations in solar heating increased gradually, culminating after cool tropical and subtropical upwelling conditions were established two million years ago. Our results suggest that mean low-latitude climate conditions can significantly influence global climate feedbacks.     

Super-resolving phase measurements with a multiphoton entangled state

Interference phenomena are ubiquitous in physics, often forming the basis of demanding measurements. Examples include Ramsey interferometry in atomic spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction in crystallography and optical interferometry in gravitational-wave studies. It has been known for some time that the quantum property of entanglement can be exploited to perform super-sensitive measurements, for example in optical interferometry or atomic spectroscopy. The idea has been demonstrated for an entangled state of two photons, but for larger numbers of particles it is difficult to create the necessary multiparticle entangled states. Here we demonstrate experimentally a technique for producing a maximally entangled three-photon state from initially non-entangled photons. The method can in principle be applied to generate states of arbitrary photon number, giving arbitrarily large improvement in measurement resolution. The method of state construction requires non-unitary operations, which we perform using post-selected linear-optics techniques similar to those used for linear-optics quantum computing.     

Mantle compensation of active metamorphic core complexes at Woodlark rift in Papua New Guinea

In many highly extended rifts on the Earth, tectonic removal of the upper crust exhumes mid-crustal rocks, producing metamorphic core complexes. These structures allow the upper continental crust to accommodate tens of kilometres of extension, but it is not clear how the lower crust and underlying mantle respond. Also, despite removal of the upper crust, such core complexes remain both topographically high and in isostatic equilibrium. Because many core complexes in the western United States are underlain by a flat Moho discontinuity, it has been widely assumed that their elevation is supported by flow in the lower crust or by magmatic underplating. These processes should decouple upper-crust extension from that in the mantle. In contrast, here we present seismic observations of metamorphic core complexes of the western Woodlark rift that show the overall crust to be thinned beneath regions of greatest surface extension. These core complexes are actively being exhumed at a rate of 5-10 km Myr(-1), and the thinning of the underlying crust appears to be compensated by mantle rocks of anomalously low density, as indicated by low seismic velocities. We conclude that, at least in this case, the development of metamorphic core complexes and the accommodation of high extension is not purely a crustal phenomenon, but must involve mantle extension.