Biology by the Numbers

Abstract

The benefits of interdisciplinary collaborations and the need for researchers to read and think broadly have become truisms of today's scientific world. In this special issue of Science, as well as in Science's online sites, our keen-sighted contributors report on gleanings from their travels through the lands of mathematics and biology. Bialek and Botstein (p. 788) propose incorporating mathematical and quantitative approaches into biological sciences curricula, not merely as prerequisite courses to be suffered as a rite of passage but as full-fledged components of the training of a contemporary scientist. May (p. 790) illustrates the insightful use and the unfortunate misuse of mathematical models, with reference to the construction of population genetics on the basis of qualitative Darwinian theory and to modern-day epidemiological wildfires. In a primer for analyzing the challenges of adapting to a world that adapts to you, Nowak and Sigmund (p. 793) review the burgeoning dialogue among evolution, ecology, and game theory. Friedman (p. 799) continues the theme of uncertainty by describing the application of probabilistic graphical models to organizing disparate biological data from genomics, proteomics, and other "omic"-scale projects. Rounding out this topic, Ronquist's Book Review (p. 767) assesses current quantitative approaches to inferring phylogenetic trees.The News section describes three ways in which researchers are applying mathematics, sometimes controversially, to long-standing biological problems. Some are using differential equations to see whether simple dynamical processes can bridge a presumed "information gap" between the amount of information in organisms' genomes and the kaleidoscopic variety of patterns found in the natural world (Cho, p. 782). One statistician proselytizes for a Bayesian approach to clinical trials, which would upend current designs by requiring researchers to take past studies into account (Couzin, p. 784). Finally, Mackenzie (p. 786) describes early efforts to unravel how sudden electrical storms send a normally beating heart reeling into chaotic fibrillation and why defibrillators are so unaccountably good at restoring order. Mathematics pervades the study of signal transduction mechanisms. At Science's STKE (http://stke.sciencemag.org/cgi/ content/abstract/stke.2192004eg3v1), explore interactive computational models of cell signaling and discuss them with the authors in Forums. Applications include modeling of mechanosensitive channel function, calculation of calcium transients in tiny subcellular compartments, and computational prediction of key residues in protein interaction surfaces.In their SAGE KE (www.sageke.org) Perspective, Rueppell et al. discuss the use of social insects such as bees and ants to investigate the influences of social evolution on aging. They also illustrate how mathematics describes the relation between individual-and colony-level demography.Throughout February, Science's Next Wave (www.nextwave.org) will serve as your guide to careers at ...

Cochlear bionic acoustic metamaterials

“…[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] And bionic material has good application potential in noise control and sound camouflage. Bionic material design concept was used in mechanical and optical material design in recently years, for example, a Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) bionic mechanical metamaterial with memory function and optical metamaterial were proposed.…”

Summary of Biomimetic Smart Nanoscale Interfacial Materials

“…The journal Science highlighted the work on thermo-responsive superhydrophobicity/superhydrophilicity reversible switch under the tile of "Super Switcher". 145 The designing concept of such switch materials was inspired from self-cleaning property of lotus leaf in nature, the superhydrophobicity of which is the combination of compound micro/nanoscale surface structure and materials with low surface energy. Meanwhile, the superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic reversible switch exceeds the single superhydrophobicity of lotus leaf.…”

In situ hole doping of wide-gap semiconductors by dual-target simultaneous laser ablation: GaN and SiC epitaxial films

“…[13][14][15] Polytypes, such as 2H, 4H, and 3C-SiC, were grown on sapphire and Si single-crystal substrates at low temperatures of 1200-1300°C. [15][16][17] PLAD has many advantages and is useful for fabricating other wide gap semi-conductors, such as GaN, [18][19][20][21] ZnO, 22,23 and diamond, 24,25 as well as superconductors, 26 ferroelectrics, 27 and magnetoresistance materials, 28 but apparatus and techniques for doping have not been developed. Doping might be possible with conventional apparatus using a single target if mixed targets are to be prepared.…”