National Academy of Sciences | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

Journal Club

Highlighting recently published papers selected by Academy members

Journal Club: In a first, deep sea robots get a close look at giant larvaceans, a key player in the biological carbon pump

Posted on May 3, 2017 by Gayathri Vaidyanathan

Closer inspection of the giant larvacean, seen here in an undersea video taken by a remotely operated vehicle, could reveal clues about how the deep sea sequesters carbon. Image Credit: © 2017 MBARI In the deeps off Monteray Bay, Calif., … Continue reading →

Journal Club: Geometry of Greenland’s glaciers helps predict future ice melt

Posted on April 28, 2017 by Amber Dance

The changing climate is just one factor contributing to the melting and thinning of the slow-moving rivers of ice that terminate in spots such as Greenland’s fjords. Each glacier’s geometry—including its thickness and how steeply it flows—also makes a difference. … Continue reading →

Categories: Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences | Environmental Sciences | Journal Club | Tagged climate change, Greenland, ice sheet, iceberg | Leave a comment

Journal Club: A new, twisted topological insulator

Posted on April 24, 2017 by Stephen Ornes

About a decade ago, physicists began identifying and probing materials that suffer something of an identity crisis. On the surface of these crystals, electrons flow and form currents, like in a conductor. But in the interior, electrons are pinned and … Continue reading →

Journal Club: Tracking memories in fruit fly brains

Posted on April 13, 2017 by Carolyn Beans

Memories help animals make predictions. A honeybee may remember that the smell of orange blossoms means nectar is nearby. But sometimes memories require updating. “If you know that your fridge is a good source of food, and you go to … Continue reading →

Journal Club: Super-sensitive new microscope uses ultracold atoms to image magnetic fields at high precision

Posted on April 10, 2017 by Stephen Ornes

In recent years, physicists have developed an arsenal of sensitive, high-resolution tools to probe the smallest magnetic fields, revealing nanoscale subtleties lost in larger-scale measurements. An understanding of these structures can offer insights into exotic quantum materials. A new microscope … Continue reading →

Categories: Applied Physical Sciences | Journal Club | Tagged Bose-Einstein Condensate, magnetic field, microscope, quantum materials, superconductors | Leave a comment

Journal Club: New chip allows for rapid, low-cost disease diagnosis from small DNA, RNA samples

Posted on April 1, 2017 by Charles Choi

A new point-of-care biochip enables rapid detection of nucleic acids in blood samples, paving the way for quick, cheap tests for HIV, MRSA, and numerous other diseases. Video Credit: Yeh et al. Sci. Adv. 2016;3:e1501645 Ideally, an urgent diagnosis occurs rapidly and at … Continue reading →

Journal Club: In some cases, water management practices exacerbated California drought, according to model

Posted on March 24, 2017 by Danielle Venton

Many of California’s reservoirs are now fuller than they’ve been in years thanks to an extraordinarily wet winter. Yet drought conditions are likely to return based on historical cycles, even without accounting for climate change. And California’s depleted groundwater is … Continue reading →

Journal Club: Antibiotics alter the honeybee microbiome and increase bee death

Posted on March 23, 2017 by Carolyn Beans

Antibiotics could potentially disrupt the health-promoting microbes that make up the microbiomes in humans and other animals. But pinning down exactly how microbiomes and antibiotics affect human health is complicated by the sheer number of microbes involved. Evolutionary biologist Nancy … Continue reading →

Journal Club: Potential life could have spread with relative ease amongst newly-discovered group of seven exoplanets

Posted on March 10, 2017 by Adam Mann

The odds of life spreading between the worlds of the newly-discovered seven-planet TRAPPIST-1 system are up to 1,000 times greater than in our own solar system. That’s the conclusion of a new analysis posted March 2 to the arXiv, an … Continue reading →