Best science papers in 2007
2007 is almost gone and like in many other areas, it is popular in science to look back at the things that stood out in the year.
There is a list of the most best papers in 2007 in the latest issue of the science magazine Nature. The magazine asked its editors to pick their favourite
papers from two categories. Their favourite papers from other scientific journals and their favourite Nature papers.
In the first category they highlight among others the following papers. View the full list here (Notice that you need access to read the full artcile).
Hans Krause and his research team from the University of Toronto in Canada describe, how cells rather move information in the form of mRNA than the large proteins themselves. From the mRNA they then produce the proteins directly where they are needed.
Marilyn Roossinck from the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation in Oklahoma, US and her colleagues report of an extended three-way symbiosis from the Yellowstone National Park, where a grass species only can grow in the geothermic heated soil because of its symbiotic relationsship with a fungi. However, the fungi itself needs to be infected by a virus to provide the grass with thermal resistance.
Gert van der Heijden and Eugene Starostin (2007). The shape of a Möbius strip. Nature Materials. Nature Mater. doi:10.1038/nmat1929
Gert van der Heijden and Eugene Starostin from University College London in the UK came up with a clever new way of mathematially describing the shape and the potential energy in the bends of Möbius strips.
Scientists led by Niels Stenseth from the University of Oslo in Norway discovered that pikes are subjected to two opposite selection pressures. Natural predators hunt the smallest pikes, but the largest pikes are preferred by fishermen. The pikes divert less energy to growth and more to reproduction in fishing intense periods.
In the other category with papers from Nature, the favourite papers include some of the following. View the full list here (Notice that you need access to read the full artcile).
Lene Hau and her research team from Harvard University in the US succeeded to extinguish a light beam in one box and revive in another box. This was done by using Einstein-Bose condensators to change light waves into matter waves, which are easier to manipulate.
Poul Nissen and his research team from the University of Aarhus described the crystal structure of the sodium-potassium pump with a resolution of 3.5 Ångstrøm.
This international research group found the first evidence for changes in rainfall over land as a result of man. The Northern Hemisphere received more rains in mid lattitudes whereas other areas such as the Northern Hemispheres tropics received less. Climate models show that this pattern is a direct result of human activity.