Earth is about 70% water, the human body is about 53% water, plants use water's unique properties to transport food, and aquatic organisms can survive during the winter due to water's thermal properties. However, as life continues to evolve on Earth, new problems with water emerge. The Sackler NAS Colloquium The Role of Science in Solving the Earth Emerging Water Problems provides a look into these problems ranging from water's agricultural use and importance in society to its scarcity and use in technology. (Sackler NAS Colloquium) The Role of Science in Solving the Earth Emerging Water Problems includes the colloquium, held October 8-14, 2004, program and abstracts of its presentations and posters. Also available in this book is the participant roster.
Over the past half-century, the central dogma, in which DNA makes RNA makes protein, has dominated thinking in biology, with continuing refinements in understanding of DNA inheritance, gene expression, and macromolecular interactions. However, we have also witnessed the elucidation of epigenetic phenomena that violate conventional notions of inheritance. Protein-only inheritance involves the transmission of phenotypes by self-perpetuating changes in protein conformation. Proteins that constitute chromatin can also transmit heritable information, for example, via posttranslational modifications of histones. Both the transmission of phenotypes via the formation of protein conformations and the inheritance of chromatin states involve self-perpetuating assemblies of proteins, and there is evidence for some common structural features and conceptual frameworks between them. To foster interactions between researchers in these two fields, the National Academy of Sciences convened an Arthur M.Sackler Colloquium entitled "Self-Perpetuating Structural States in Biology, Disease, and Genetics" in Washington, DC, on March 22-24, 2002. Participants described new phenomenology and provided insights into fundamental mechanisms of protein and chromatin inheritance. Perhaps most surprising to attendees was emerging evidence that these unconventional modes of inheritance may be common.
One major goal of post-genomic biology is to understand the function of genes. Many gene functions are comprehensible only within the context of chemical communication, and this symposium seeks to highlight emerging research on genomics and chemical communication and catalyze further development of this highly productive interface. Many of the most abundantly represented genes in the genomes characterized to date encode proteins mediating interactions among organisms, including odorant receptors and binding proteins, enzymes involved in biosynthesis of pheromones and toxins, and enzymes catalyzing the detoxification of defense compounds. Determining the molecular underpinnings of the component elements of chemical communication systems in all of their forms has the potential to explain a vast array of ecological, physiological, and evolutionary phenomena; by the same token, ecologists who elucidate the environmental challenges faced by the organisms are uniquely well-equipped to characterize natural ligands for receptors and substrates for enzymes. Thus, partnerships between genome biologists and chemical ecologists will likely be extremely synergistic. To date, these groups have rarely had opportunities to interact within a single forum. Such interactions are vital given the considerable practical benefits potentially stemming from these studies, including the development of biorational products for agricultural and forest pest management, for disease treatment, and for improving the quality of ecosystem health.
Earth is about 70% water, the human body is about 53% water, plants use water's unique properties to transport food, and aquatic organisms can survive during the winter due to water's thermal properties. However, as life continues to evolve on Earth, new problems with water emerge. The Sackler NAS Colloquium The Role of Science in Solving the Earth Emerging Water Problems provides a look into these problems ranging from water's agricultural use and importance in society to its scarcity and use in technology. (Sackler NAS Colloquium) The Role of Science in Solving the Earth Emerging Water Problems includes the colloquium, held October 8-14, 2004, program and abstracts of its presentations and posters. Also available in this book is the participant roster.
Hydrologic science, an important, interdisciplinary science dealing with the occurrence, distribution, and properties of water on Earth, is key to understanding and resolving many contemporary, large-scale environmental issues. The Water Science and Technology Board used the opportunity of its 1997 Abel Wolman Distinguished Lecture to assess the vitality of the hydrologic sciences by the hydrologic community. The format included focus by lecturer Thomas Dunne on the intellectual vitality of the hydrologic sciences, followed by a symposium featuring several invited papers and discussions. Hydrologic Sciences is a compilation of the Wolman Lecture and the papers, preceded by a summarizing overview. The volume stresses a number of needs for furtherance of hydrologic science, including development of a coherent body of transferable theory and an intellectual center for the science, communication across multiple geo- and environmental science disciplines, appropriate measurements and observations, and provision of central guidance for the field.
The colloquium on "Imaging of Cognitive Function" speaks to the many audiences whose interests relate to efforts to map cognitive processes in the human brain. There are things of great interest in this collection of papers for specialists in cognition and neuroscience and imaging science as well as in disciplines interested in human development through education and training and others with intrinsic interest in the latest information on how the human brain supports thought. The papers were presented at a meeting sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences in its western home the Beckman Center at the University of California, Irvine.
One major goal of post-genomic biology is to understand the function of genes. Many gene functions are comprehensible only within the context of chemical communication, and this symposium seeks to highlight emerging research on genomics and chemical communication and catalyze further development of this highly productive interface. Many of the most abundantly represented genes in the genomes characterized to date encode proteins mediating interactions among organisms, including odorant receptors and binding proteins, enzymes involved in biosynthesis of pheromones and toxins, and enzymes catalyzing the detoxification of defense compounds. Determining the molecular underpinnings of the component elements of chemical communication systems in all of their forms has the potential to explain a vast array of ecological, physiological, and evolutionary phenomena; by the same token, ecologists who elucidate the environmental challenges faced by the organisms are uniquely well-equipped to characterize natural ligands for receptors and substrates for enzymes. Thus, partnerships between genome biologists and chemical ecologists will likely be extremely synergistic. To date, these groups have rarely had opportunities to interact within a single forum. Such interactions are vital given the considerable practical benefits potentially stemming from these studies, including the development of biorational products for agricultural and forest pest management, for disease treatment, and for improving the quality of ecosystem health.
The technological revolution has reached around the world, with important consequences for business, government, and the labor market. Computer-aided design, telecommunications, and other developments are allowing small players to compete with traditional giants in manufacturing and other fields. In this volume, 16 engineering and industrial experts representing eight countries discuss the growth of technological advances and their impact on specific industries and regions of the world. From various perspectives, these distinguished commentators describe the practical aspects of technology's reach into business and trade.
There has been a sea change in how we view genetic recombination. When germ cells are produced in higher organisms, genetic recombination assures the proper segregation of like chromosomes. In the course of that process, called meiosis, recombination not only assures segregation of one chromosome of each type to progeny germ cells, but also further shuffles the genetic deck, contributing to the unique inheritance of individuals. In a nutshell, that is the classical view of recombination. We have also known for many years that in bacteria recombination plays a role in horizontal gene transfer and in replication itself, the latter by establishing some of the replication forks that are the structural scaffolds for copying DNA. In recent years, however, we have become increasingly aware that replication, which normally starts without any help from recombination, is a vulnerable process that frequently leads to broken DNA. The enzymes of recombination play a vital role in the repair of those breaks. The recombination enzymes can function via several different pathways that mediate the repair of breaks, as well as restoration of replication forks that are stalled by other kinds of damage to DNA. Thus, to the classical view of recombination as an engine of inheritance we must add the view of recombination as a vital housekeeping function that repairs breaks suffered in the course of replication. We have also known for many years that genomic instability--including mutations, chromosomal rearrangements, and aneuploidy--is a hallmark of cancer cells. Although genomic instability has many contributing causes, including faulty replication, there are many indications that recombination, faulty or not, contributes to genome instability and cancer as well. The (Nas colloquium) Links Between Recombination and Replication: Vital Roles of Recombination was convened to broaden awareness of this evolving area of research. Papers generated by this colloquium are published here. To encourage the desired interactions of specialists, we invited some contributions that deal only with recombination or replication in addition to contributions on the central thesis of functional links between recombination and replication. To aid the nonspecialist and specialist alike, we open the set of papers with a historical overview by Michael Cox and we close the set with a commentary on the meeting and the field by Andrei Kuzminov.
The colloquium on "Imaging of Cognitive Function" speaks to the many audiences whose interests relate to efforts to map cognitive processes in the human brain. There are things of great interest in this collection of papers for specialists in cognition and neuroscience and imaging science as well as in disciplines interested in human development through education and training and others with intrinsic interest in the latest information on how the human brain supports thought. The papers were presented at a meeting sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences in its western home the Beckman Center at the University of California, Irvine.
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