ON THE HISTORY AND CHARACTERISTICS OF SOME MULTIPLE DISCOVERIES IN BOTANY, 1648–1965

Historians and others have given attention to multiple independent discoveries because of their implications for the nature of scientific discovery in general. However, previously published lists of such discoveries include almost no examples from botany. That this has been a matter of oversight is shown by the presentation of 22 cases of multiple botanical discoveries, the circumstances of which are briefly described. These examples show a number of the same general characteristics as those in other fields of science. They range in importance from the broadly sweeping to the narrowly specific, and show various degrees of simultaneity. They illustrate the problems of interpretation involved in judging functional equivalence, identity of central message, and priority. The bearing of some of the examples on various theories of the cause of multiple discoveries is also discussed. It is concluded that multiple discoveries have probably occurred as frequently in botany as in other sciences, and they display the same characteristics and generate the same problems of interpretation.     

Developments in the scientific understanding of osteoporosis

During the past 10 years we have experienced very significant developments in our understanding of bone biology, and this has improved our abilities to both diagnose and treat patients with osteoporosis. This review covers some of the significant discoveries in bone biology that have led to a better understanding of osteoporosis, including a few of the discoveries that have been translated into new therapies to treat patients with osteoporosis and the structural deterioration of patients with inflammatory arthritis.     

日本手取群研究的新进展

介绍日本中生代晚期手取群研究的最新进展,并简要评述与中国的对比。手取群从下到上分为九头龙亚群、石白亚群、赤岩亚群。庄川地区九头龙亚群御手洗组新发现菊石,属Tithonian-Berriasian期,改变了以往Callovian期的传统意见。石白亚群发现菊石,属Late Hauterivian-Early Barremian期;亚群上部发现海相双壳类,属Hauterivian期,半咸水相和淡水双壳类也与外带Hauterivian期的对比;绝对年龄测定为135±7Ma和128±8Ma,分别属Hauterivian早期和Barremian早期,其中135Ma被普遍接受;植物群反映的古气候特征与俄罗斯东部Valanginian-Hauterivian期温湿化一致。石白亚群的时代综合为Valanginian-Hauterivian期。赤岩亚群的Trigonioides(Wakinoa)tetoriensis也发现于外带,时代属latest Hauterivian-Early Barremian期;绝对年龄测定数据不稳定,自127±8Ma(Barremian中期)至106±7Ma(Albian中期)。对亚群的Nippononaia ryosekiana作了修订,认为应属N.linhaiensis,与浙江馆头组的同种,比濑林组(Lower Aptian)的N.ryosekiana原始,故时代早于Aptian期。赤岩亚群的时代综合为Barremian期,但不排除上延的可能。区域对比结果认为,中国东北龙爪沟群及绥滨地区的相当地层可与九头龙亚群和石白亚群对比;馆头组、下城子组可与赤岩亚群对比;热河群上部沙海组-阜新组煤系地层可与石白亚群对比;并对义县组的时代提出了看法。     

Developments in aquatic microbiology.

Major discoveries in marine microbiology over the past 4-5 decades have resulted in the recognition of bacteria as a major biomass component of marine food webs. Such discoveries include chemosynthetic activities in deep-ocean ecosystems, survival processes in oligotrophic waters, and the role of microorganisms in food webs coupled with symbiotic relationships and energy flow. Many discoveries can be attributed to innovative methodologies, including radioisotopes, immunofluorescent-epifluorescent analysis, and flow cytometry. The latter has shown the key role of marine viruses in marine system energetics. Studies of the components of the "microbial loop" have shown the significance of various phagotrophic processes involved in grazing by microinvertebrates. Microbial activities and dissolved organic carbon are closely coupled with the dynamics of fluctuating water masses. New biotechnological approaches and the use of molecular biology techniques still provide new and relevant information on the role of microorganisms in oceanic and estuarine environments. International interdisciplinary studies have explored ecological aspects of marine microorganisms and their significance in biocomplexity. Studies on the origins of both life and ecosystems now focus on microbiological processes in the marine environment. This paper describes earlier and recent discoveries in marine (aquatic) microbiology and the trends for future work, emphasizing improvements in methodology as major catalysts for the progress of this broadly-based field.     

Depth and Nature of Giant Petroleum Discoveries Through Time as an Indicator of Resource Depletion

A striking increase of the depth of giant petroleum discoveries in the past 15 years coincides with a shift to discoveries in subsalt plays that require more challenging exploration and drilling. Technological advances have facilitated these changes, but technological advances alone could not have induced these changes in petroleum exploration on a planet in which shallow and less challenging targets remained in abundance like that of previous decades. Instead, the trends toward greater discovery depths and more challenging plays suggest that most of the conventional petroleum accumulations of the kind that fueled the global economic system of the 1900s have already been found.     

Culture evolves

Culture pervades human lives and has allowed our species to create niches all around the world and its oceans, in ways quite unlike any other primate. Indeed, our cultural nature appears so distinctive that it is often thought to separate humanity from the rest of nature and the Darwinian forces that shape it. A contrary view arises through the recent discoveries of a diverse range of disciplines, here brought together to illustrate the scope of a burgeoning field of cultural evolution and to facilitate cross-disciplinary fertilization. Each approach emphasizes important linkages between culture and evolutionary biology rather than quarantining one from the other. Recent studies reveal that processes important in cultural transmission are more widespread and significant across the animal kingdom than earlier recognized, with important implications for evolutionary theory. Recent archaeological discoveries have pushed back the origins of human culture to much more ancient times than traditionally thought. These developments suggest previously unidentified continuities between animal and human culture. A third new array of discoveries concerns the later diversification of human cultures, where the operations of Darwinian-like processes are identified, in part, through scientific methods borrowed from biology. Finally, surprising discoveries have been made about the imprint of cultural evolution in the predispositions of human minds for cultural transmission.     

Accessory proteins in the biogenesis of G protein-coupled receptors

Intracellular accessory proteins can be critical for G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) biogenesis, including aspects of GPCR trafficking. Recent discoveries include the identification of multiple membrane-associated proteins that dictate not only the intracellular sequestration and/or transport of GPCRs, but also modulate-quite dramatically-GPCR ligand specificity subsequent to delivery to the cell surface. These exciting discoveries have shifted earlier paradigms of GPCR functionality.     

器官发育和程序性细胞死亡中的基因调控——2002年诺贝尔生理学和医学奖工作介绍

2002年的诺贝尔生理学和医学奖授予了在器官发育和程序性细胞死亡研究领域中做出奠基性贡献的三位英美科学家．他们建立了线虫实验模型,完成了其细胞谱图的绘制,而且系统深入地研究了线虫的器官发育和程序性细胞死亡中的基因规则,并在高等哺乳动物中发现了相关的功能基因．这些研究对认识发育过程和揭示人类重大疾病的发病机理具有重要的理论价值和现实意义．     

Relevance and irrelevance of DNA damage response to radiotherapy

Ionizing radiation (IR) has been used to treat human malignancies since the early part of the 20th century. To date, most of the advances in radiotherapy have focused on optimization of treatment delivery schedules and technologic improvements in the physical targeting of dose. By comparison, many of the discoveries regarding the molecular basis of DNA damage and repair have not yet been translated to clinical practice. This article offers some perspectives regarding modulators of radiation effects and the challenges faced as we approach newer molecular targets. Our goal is to frame the issues that contribute to the apparent disconnect between laboratory discoveries and improvements in clinically relevant therapeutics.     

Translational research in immunology: Japanese perspectives

Japan has a formidable tradition in immunological research, starting with Shibasaburo Kitasato (1852-1931), who, after returning to Japan from his studies with Robert Koch, went on to build almost single-handedly a research tradition in investigative medical research, while engaging himself in the fight against infectious diseases. Over the past few decades, Japanese immunologists have been involved in many important discoveries at the forefront of immunological research, yet, when it comes to the translation of new discoveries into clinical innovations and new therapies, Japan's track record seems more modest.     

Preserving US microbe collections sparks future discoveries

Collections of micro-organisms are a crucial element of life science research infrastructure but are vulnerable to loss and damage caused by natural or man-made disasters, the untimely death or retirement of personnel, or the loss of research funding. Preservation of biological collections has risen in priority due to a new appreciation for discoveries linked to preserved specimens, emerging hurdles to international collecting and decreased funding for new collecting. While many historic collections have been lost, several have been preserved, some with dramatic rescue stories. Rescued microbes have been used for discoveries in areas of health, biotechnology and basic life science. Suggestions for long-term planning for microbial stocks are listed, as well as inducements for long-term preservation.     

Prolegomenon to a history of paleoanthropology: The study of human origins as a scientific enterprise. Part 2. Eighteenth to the twentieth century

Modern scientific theories of human origins can be traced directly back to the discoveries, arguments, and theories of the seventeenth century. But as we have seen in the first part of this paper, a great many critical steps had been taken, ideas proposed, and discoveries made long before this. The scientific advances of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries owed much to ancient science, while still retaining many aspects of the medieval Christian world view. Yet both science and Christianity changed significantly as a result of the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, the voyages of exploration, and the changes wrought on European society as a result of industrialization. The question of human origins was directly affected by the archeological study of prehistoric ruins, new geological theories, the study of fossils, the discovery of “savage” peoples living in the New World, and the comparison of prehistoric stone implements from Europe with those collected in the New World. This proliferation of new discoveries, new theories, and the emergence of completely new scientific disciplines in the seventeenth century laid the foundation for the dramatic new discoveries and theories that came over the next three centuries.     

New principles of cell plasticity

Recent discoveries demonstrating surprising cell plasticity in animals and humans call into question many long held assumptions regarding differentiative potential of adult cells. These assumptions reflect a classical paradigm of cell lineage development projected onto both prenatal development and post-natal maintenance and repair of tissues. The classical paradigm describes unidirectional, hierarchical lineages proceedings step-wise from totipotent or pluripotent stem cells through intermediate, ever more restricted progenitor cells, leading finally to 'terminally differentiated' cells. However, in light of both the recent discoveries and older clinical or experimental findings, we have suggested principles comprising a new paradigm of cell plasticity, summarized here.     

Prion hypothesis: the end of the controversy?

Forty-three years have passed since it was first proposed that a protein could be the sole component of the infectious agent responsible for the enigmatic prion diseases. Many discoveries have strongly supported the prion hypothesis, but only recently has this once heretical hypothesis been widely accepted by the scientific community. In the past 3 years, researchers have achieved the 'Holy Grail' demonstration that infectious material can be generated in vitro using completely defined components. These breakthroughs have proven that a misfolded protein is the active component of the infectious agent, and that propagation of the disease and its unique features depend on the self-replication of the infectious folding of the prion protein. In spite of these important discoveries, it remains unclear whether another molecule besides the misfolded prion protein might be an essential element of the infectious agent. Future research promises to reveal many more intriguing features about the rogue prions.     

Th17 cells in immunity to Candida albicans

Our understanding of immunity to fungal pathogens has advanced considerably in recent years. Particularly significant have been the parallel discoveries in the C-type lectin receptor family and the Th effector arms of immunity, especially Th17 cells and their signature cytokine, IL-17. Many of these studies have focused on the most common human fungal pathogen, Candida albicans, which is typically a commensal microbe in healthy individuals but causes various disease manifestations in immunocompromised hosts, ranging from mild mucosal infections to lethal disseminated disease. Here, we discuss emerging fundamental discoveries with C.?albicans that have informed our overall molecular understanding of fungal immunity. In particular, we focus on the importance of pattern recognition receptor-mediated fungal recognition and subsequent IL-17 responses in host defense against mucosal candidiasis. In light of these recent advances, we also discuss the implications for anticytokine biologic therapy and vaccine development.     

Progress in Arabidopsis starch research and potential biotechnological applications

For the past decade, Arabidopsis has been the model higher plant of choice. Research into leaf starch metabolism has demonstrated that Arabidopsis is a useful system in which to make fundamental discoveries about both starch biosynthesis and starch degradation. This review describes recent discoveries in these fields and illustrates how such discoveries might be applied in the green biotechnology sector to improve and diversify our starch crops.