模拟结果为什么比实际更暖:简化气候模型结果（英文）

设计了一个非专业人士能够使用、最简化的气候敏感模型,用来研究人类活动所导致的全球变暖的幅度问题.在1990年的第一次IPCC评估报告中,IPCC对其报告中预测的未来全球变暖幅度很有信心,但是随后的观测结果显示全球的变暖幅度只有预测的一半.而自2001年起,全球变暖出现停滞,但是仅仅考虑到二氧化碳浓度的增加,很少有模型能够模拟出这一变化.在已出版的IPCC第五次评估报告的草稿中,IPCC大幅度削减了近期变暖的幅度,并以专家评估代替了模型预测.但是报告中关于未来气候长期变化的预测仍被保留.如果把IPCC模型的总反馈从1.9 W m–2 K–1调整到1.5 W m–2 K–1,气候敏感模型中模拟的温度将从3.2 K降至2.2 K.同时由于反馈很可能是净负反馈,更合适的估计应该是1.0 K.1.0 K是一个能够实现的增幅,21世纪的实际变暖将会小于1 K.即使燃烧所有可开采的化石燃料也不会使全球变暖的幅度超过2.2 K,这一增加幅度也将趋于平稳.本文认为解决IPCC第四、五次报告中评估方法的差异非常关键.一旦这些差异得到解决,人类活动导致的全球变暖在22世纪以及几个世纪以后的平稳态将有可能不会超过IPCC当前模型预测的1/3~1/2.     

Regional brain [Met]-enkephalin in alcohol-preferring and non-alcohol-preferring inbred strains of mice

Scrutiny of the data from these studies reveals that the C58/J alcohol-preferring mice have significantly lower baseline methionine-enkephalin levels in both the corpus striatum and hypothalamus compared to C3H/CHRGL/2 non-alcohol-preferring mice. In other brain regions in these two strains, specifically, pituitary, amygdala, midbrain, and hippocampus, analysis of methionine-enkephalin levels did not show any significant differences. This suggests that the hypothalamus may indeed be a specific locus involved in the regulation of alcohol intake, via the molecular interaction between neuroamines, opioid peptides, as they are influenced by genetics and environment.     

Regional brain [Met]-enkephalin in alcohol-preferring and non-alcohol-preferring inbred strains of mice

Summary Scrutiny of the data from these studies reveals that the C58/J alcohol-preferring mice have significantly lower baseline methionine-enkephalin levels in both the corpus striatum and hypothalamus compared to C3H/CHRGL/2 non-alcohol-preferring mice. In other brain regions in these two strains, specifically, pituitary, amygdala, midbrain, and hippocampus, analysis of methionine-enkephalin levels did not show any significant differences. This suggests that the hypothalamus may indeed be a specific locus involved in the regulation of alcohol intake, via the molecular interaction between neuroamines, opioid peptides, as they are influenced by genetics and environment.     

Animal welfare: protestors as laboratory animals

In a test lawsuit brought by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, the Royal College of Surgeons has been fined for causing unnecessary suffering to a macaque monkey at the College's Buckston Browne Research Establishment. Meanwhile, members of the Middlesex animal rights group are challenging the Colindale Public Health Laboratory by offering themselves for antiviral antibody testing, usually done with rabbits. Animal rights groups remain unconvinced that pending government regulations go far enough in setting guidelines for animal experimentation.     

Analysis of one million base pairs of Neanderthal DNA

Neanderthals are the extinct hominid group most closely related to contemporary humans, so their genome offers a unique opportunity to identify genetic changes specific to anatomically fully modern humans. We have identified a 38,000-year-old Neanderthal fossil that is exceptionally free of contamination from modern human DNA. Direct high-throughput sequencing of a DNA extract from this fossil has thus far yielded over one million base pairs of hominoid nuclear DNA sequences. Comparison with the human and chimpanzee genomes reveals that modern human and Neanderthal DNA sequences diverged on average about 500,000 years ago. Existing technology and fossil resources are now sufficient to initiate a Neanderthal genome-sequencing effort.