Taming tempests through telegraphy and media appearances: Science communication and the construction of a Swedish storm-warning system before the Great War

The aim of this paper is to explore relations between science and the public. Specifically, Swedish meteorology around 1900 and the rôle of media relations in the construction of a storm-warning system will be discussed. It is argued that science–public interaction can be a factor in the process of establishing priorities in science.     

Improved molecular replacement by density- and energy-guided protein structure optimization

Molecular replacement procedures, which search for placements of a starting model within the crystallographic unit cell that best account for the measured diffraction amplitudes, followed by automatic chain tracing methods, have allowed the rapid solution of large numbers of protein crystal structures. Despite extensive work, molecular replacement or the subsequent rebuilding usually fail with more divergent starting models based on remote homologues with less than 30% sequence identity. Here we show that this limitation can be substantially reduced by combining algorithms for protein structure modelling with those developed for crystallographic structure determination. An approach integrating Rosetta structure modelling with Autobuild chain tracing yielded high-resolution structures for 8 of 13 X-ray diffraction data sets that could not be solved in the laboratories of expert crystallographers and that remained unsolved after application of an extensive array of alternative approaches. We estimate that the new method should allow rapid structure determination without experimental phase information for over half the cases where current methods fail, given diffraction data sets of better than 3.2?? resolution, four or fewer copies in the asymmetric unit, and the availability of structures of homologous proteins with >20% sequence identity.     

A new genus and two new species of Argeiinae (Crustacea: Isopoda: Bopyridae) from the Indo-west Pacific

Three hosts from Indo-west Pacific including Kiribati, Guam Island and Australia were examined, and found to be infested by three species of the subfamily Argeiinae. We describe Paraeragia kiribatiensis gen. nov., sp. nov. from Kiribati infesting Synalpheus gracilirostris. The new genus is most related to Eragia and it can be distinguished by female with triangular pleon, lateral plates extend posteriorly, paired uropods, widely opened brood pouch. Argeiopsis guamensis sp. nov. from Guam Island infesting Synalpheus cf. stimpsoni. The new species is most similar to Argeiopsis inhacae but differs in female with curved posterior margin of first oostegite, partly fused pleomeres, and male with head separated from first pereomere, pleon as wide as seventh pereomere. We also record Stegoalpheon kempi from Australia for the first time, infesting Alpheus cf. perplexus. Keys to the nine genera of Argeiinae, and to three species of Argeiopsis are provided. A table for all 13 species of Argeiinae with localities and host records is also provided. A table comparing the distribution of lateral plates and morphology of pleopods and uropods among argeiine genera is presented.

http://www.zoobank/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:284AB32C-6AE5-45BC-9C5D-01B3030D6DE6     

Mechanizing the astronomer's vision: On the role of photography in Swedish astronomy,c.1880–1914

The beginnings of photographic astronomy in Sweden are taken as a case study of the incorporation of a new scientific technology. The introduction of photography during the late nineteenth century profoundly changed the way astronomers worked. Observational material became more mobile; photographic plates could be examined at a later date or transported to another location. Photography was presented in a rhetorical language, making it a truly objective way of observing the sky. The new technology was developed at the leading observatories, and was imported into countries such as Sweden through a network of scientific communication.     

Conventional taxonomy obscures deep divergence between Pacific and Atlantic corals

Only 17% of 111 reef-building coral genera and none of the 18 coral families with reef-builders are considered endemic to the Atlantic, whereas the corresponding percentages for the Indo-west Pacific are 76% and 39%. These figures depend on the assumption that genera and families spanning the two provinces belong to the same lineages (that is, they are monophyletic). Here we show that this assumption is incorrect on the basis of analyses of mitochondrial and nuclear genes. Pervasive morphological convergence at the family level has obscured the evolutionary distinctiveness of Atlantic corals. Some Atlantic genera conventionally assigned to different families are more closely related to each other than they are to their respective Pacific 'congeners'. Nine of the 27 genera of reef-building Atlantic corals belong to this previously unrecognized lineage, which probably diverged over 34 million years ago. Although Pacific reefs have larger numbers of more narrowly distributed species, and therefore rank higher in biodiversity hotspot analyses, the deep evolutionary distinctiveness of many Atlantic corals should also be considered when setting conservation priorities.     

The double helix and immunology

The immune system can recognize and produce antibodies to virtually any molecule in the Universe. This enormous diversity arises from the ingenious reshuffling of DNA sequences encoding components of the immune system. Immunology is an example of a field completely transformed during the past 50 years by the discovery of the structure of DNA and the emergence of DNA technologies that followed.