More than just a pretty face: men's priority shifts toward bodily attractiveness in short-term versus long-term mating contexts

Studies of physical attractiveness have long emphasized the constituent features that make faces and bodies attractive, such as symmetry, skin texture, and waist-to-hip ratio. Few studies, however, have examined the reproductively relevant cues conveyed by faces and bodies as whole units. Based on the premise that fertility cues are more readily assessed from a woman's body than her face, the present study tested the hypothesis that men evaluating a potential short-term mate would give higher priority to information gleaned from her body, relative to her face, than men evaluating a potential long-term mate. Male and female participants (N=375) were instructed to consider dating an opposite sex individual, whose face was occluded by a “face box” and whose body was occluded by a “body box,” as a short-term or long-term mate. With the instruction that only one box could be removed to make their decision about their willingness to engage in the designated relationship with the occluded individual, significantly more men assigned to the short-term, compared to the long-term, mating condition removed the body box. Women's face versus body information choice, in contrast, was unaffected by the temporal dimension of the mating condition. These results suggest that men, but not women, have a condition-dependent adaptive proclivity to prioritize facial cues in long-term mating contexts, but shift their priorities toward bodily cues in short-term mating contexts.     

Behind the folding funnel diagram

This Commentary clarifies the meaning of the funnel diagram, which has been widely cited in papers on protein folding. To aid in the analysis of the funnel diagram, this Commentary reviews historical approaches to understanding the mechanism of protein folding. The primary role of free energy in protein folding is discussed, and it is pointed out that the decrease [corrected] in the configurational entropy as the native state is approached hinders folding, rather than guiding it. Diagrams are introduced that provide a less ambiguous representation of the factors governing the protein folding reaction than the funnel diagram.     

当我们走入后台——志愿者的感悟

志愿者最初几乎都是动物园的常客,成为志愿者之后,他们有机会走进动物园的后台。身份的转变使他们对动物单纯的喜爱转变为对自然的关切。也许,只有接触到后台真实故事的人才能有这样的转变和感受,如今他们正通过自己的工作,努力让这种转变发生在更多人身上。[编者按]     

"海洋2号"的幕后

庞大的维生系统，为海洋馆人工模拟的海洋生态提供了保障。     

PCI complexes: pretty complex interactions in diverse signaling pathways

Three protein complexes (the proteasome regulatory lid, the COP9 signalosome and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 3) contain protein subunits with a well defined protein domain, the PCI domain. At least two (the COP9 signalosome and the lid) appear to share a common evolutionary origin. Recent advances in our understanding of the structure and function of the three complexes point to intriguing and unanticipated connections between the cellular functions performed by these three protein assemblies, especially between translation initiation and proteolytic protein degradation.     

支撑美丽的是和谐

眼前的老荷叶寨,不也是一个本底吗?它记录着人与自然之间不可失去的和谐得到保护区管理局的特殊许可,我来到荷叶坝背后山上的老寨子。踏出车门,诗画一般的村寨风光一下子就惊呆了每一个人:雪山森林环抱着分散在山坡上的几个小小村寨,每个寨子都是由错落有致的藏式木楼和随风飘扬着的红、黄、蓝、白、绿色的经幡彩