在科学方面科学同大学的相互影响

许多大学的行政领导人似乎相信,由学校教工进行的研究工作可以通过专利和发明被用来为他们的机构带来巨大的经济收入。国家科学院出版社最近出版的一份报告提供了关于工业同大学相互影响的对比看法。该报告是一份访问17名高级工业职员的谈话总结。将可获利的产品推向市场,这要求一套与创造和普及知识不同的动机、组织和文化。企业也注意到,对花费在研究上的每1美元需要投入10美元用于开发,100美元用于设计和建造工厂。这些活动的许多方面都需要有目的明确的跨学科人员的参与。在许多工业部门,主要的活动在于改善现有产品的质量或加工方法。这往往是通过一点一点的累积起     

矿物燃料之后的能源会怎样?--《没有天燃气的时代》作者古德斯坦访谈录

美国加利福尼亚技术学院物理系教授戴维·古德斯坦(DavidGoodstein)最近出版了他的第6本著作——《没有天燃气的时代》。他在书中指出,21世纪注定会成为文明的一个转折点:在不太遥远的将来,随着矿物燃料的逐渐耗尽,迫使人类社会去开发其他的新能源。该书对许多问题作了一个扼要的评述,并提出了一些解决办法。不久前,《美国科学家》记者戴维·施奈德(DavidSchneider)采访了古德斯坦,就书中提出的某些问题请他作进一步的阐述。     

Regulation of cellulose synthesis in Acetobacter xylinum by cyclic diguanylic acid

Cellulose is the most abundant renewable carbon resource on earth and is an indispensable raw material for the wood, paper, and textile industries. A model system to study the mechanism of cellulose biogenesis is the bacterium Acetobacter xylinum which produces pure cellulose as an extracellular product. It was from this organism that in vitro preparations which possessed high levels of cellulose synthase activity were first obtained in both membranous and soluble forms. We recently demonstrated that this activity is subject to a complex multi-component regulatory system, in which the synthase is directly affected by an unusual cyclic nucleotide activator enzymatically formed from GTP, and indirectly by a Ca (2+) -sensitive phosphodiesterase which degrades the activator. The cellulose synthase activator (CSA) has now been identified as bis-(3' 5')-cyclic diguanylic acid (5'G3'p5'G3'p) on the basis of mass spectroscopic data, nuclear magnetic resonance analysis and comparison with chemically synthesized material. We also report here on intermediary steps in the synthesis and degradation of this novel circular dinucleotide, which have been integrated into a model for the regulation of cellulose synthesis.     

数字窄播系统:互联网上的多媒体信息发布网络

互联网和数字窄播系统的产生自从人类有了语言和文字 ,就开始了不断的信息交流和沟通 ,从秦始皇利用烽火台传递敌人入侵的信号 ,到西门子公司第一次使用跨海电缆把电文传递到大洋彼岸 ;从古代的帝王君主通过张贴告示颁布法令 ,到现代企业通过报纸、电视、网络等各种媒体做产品的广告宣传 ,人们早已熟悉了各种信息传递的方式。而社会的文明程度越高 ,需要交流的信息就越多 ,信息发布的渠道就越广 ,同时信息传递的速度也越快。正因为如此 ,新世纪的世界将会是一个高度发达的信息化社会 ,一个海量信息飞速传递和交换的世界。正是由于这样大量的…     

征收碳税 还利于民

<正>一方面,劳动力和企业利润是社会经济繁荣的动力,政府从中获取税收;另一方面,资源的耗竭——可能是经济健康发展的最大威胁——却仍未触及税收的调整,这显然是不公平的。当思考如何重建业已受到威胁的经济时,全面征收碳税应该提到议事日程上来。     

汽车工业如何适应人类社会可持续发展——丹尼尔·斯珀林访谈录

汽车是构成人类社会最大的威胁之一，尽管这种看法存在一定争议。”加利福尼亚大学戴维斯分校工程学教授、该校交通研究所首任所长丹尼尔·斯珀林（Danjel SPerljng）在与政策评论家德博拉·戈登（Deborah Gordon）合著的《20亿辆汽车》一书中指出，新技术、燃料、石油和汽车工业的改革以及最新形成的汽车文化，能够造就一个内含集成交通系统的安全、繁荣而有效率的世界。     

Recognition of DNA damage by the Rad4 nucleotide excision repair protein

Mutations in the nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway can cause the xeroderma pigmentosum skin cancer predisposition syndrome. NER lesions are limited to one DNA strand, but otherwise they are chemically and structurally diverse, being caused by a wide variety of genotoxic chemicals and ultraviolet radiation. The xeroderma pigmentosum C (XPC) protein has a central role in initiating global-genome NER by recognizing the lesion and recruiting downstream factors. Here we present the crystal structure of the yeast XPC orthologue Rad4 bound to DNA containing a cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer (CPD) lesion. The structure shows that Rad4 inserts a beta-hairpin through the DNA duplex, causing the two damaged base pairs to flip out of the double helix. The expelled nucleotides of the undamaged strand are recognized by Rad4, whereas the two CPD-linked nucleotides become disordered. These findings indicate that the lesions recognized by Rad4/XPC thermodynamically destabilize the Watson-Crick double helix in a manner that facilitates the flipping-out of two base pairs.     

Identification of stem cells in small intestine and colon by marker gene Lgr5

The intestinal epithelium is the most rapidly self-renewing tissue in adult mammals. It is currently believed that four to six crypt stem cells reside at the +4 position immediately above the Paneth cells in the small intestine; colon stem cells remain undefined. Lgr5 (leucine-rich-repeat-containing G-protein-coupled receptor 5, also known as Gpr49) was selected from a panel of intestinal Wnt target genes for its restricted crypt expression. Here, using two knock-in alleles, we reveal exclusive expression of Lgr5 in cycling columnar cells at the crypt base. In addition, Lgr5 was expressed in rare cells in several other tissues. Using an inducible Cre knock-in allele and the Rosa26-lacZ reporter strain, lineage-tracing experiments were performed in adult mice. The Lgr5-positive crypt base columnar cell generated all epithelial lineages over a 60-day period, suggesting that it represents the stem cell of the small intestine and colon. The expression pattern of Lgr5 suggests that it marks stem cells in multiple adult tissues and cancers.