HHMI BULLETIN DECEMBER ’05 VOL 18 • No. 03 • Howard Hughes Medical Institute Howard • www.hhmi.org NONPROFIT ORG. US POSTAGE PAID 4000 Jones Bridge Road HYATTSVILLE, MD Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815-6789 PERMIT NO. 61 www.hhmi.org Change Service Requested Scientific Visionaries In the quest to understand the neural processes of vision, vol. vol. HHMI investigators have uncovered important clues. 18 / no. / no. 03 IN THIS ISSUE: AVIAN FLU / STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY / EVOLUTION At the junction between brain nerve cells, known have learned some surprising things, including pg10 as the synapse, chemicals congregate, creating the fact that transmission of chemical messages pg 52 electrical impulses that control, among other can occur in areas other than the synapse. In this things, motor movements, mood, and memory. colorized electron micrograph of an excitatory Scientists in three HHMI laboratories who study nerve cell, the synaptic zone is pink; chemical- synaptic events from very different perspectives filled vesicles are shaded purple. DENNIS KUNKEL/PHOTOTAKE vol.18/december’M5 no.M3 3 37 51 DEPARTMENTS President’s Letter Perspectives and Opinons Chronicle: Excerpts “Grandeur in This View of Life” Simon W.M. John, Valerie Mizrahi, Ask a Scientist and Q&A 4 42 52 Centrifuge Chronicle: Institute News Chronicle: Tool Box The physics of roller coasters / Janelia Farm Construction Update / DReAMM Scheme: Tools for better Argentina’s Mr. Wizard / An under- Loudoun County Science Academy / images at the subcellular level graduate’s wayward mosquito Janelia Farm Graduate Track / A lab manager’s run-in with a car 7 46 54 Upfront Chronicle: Science Education Chronicle: Nota Bene Neurodegenerative diseases / Synapses / Bringing the Sizzle to Science in the News of recent awards and other Better mouse models / Rules for proteins Schools / Interdisciplinary Crosstalk notable achievements 48 Inside Back Cover Chronicle: Lab Book Observations The fate of brain cells / A mechanism Life: The Most Remarkable of for coordinating genes / New screens All Emergent Systems for colon cancer F E AT U R E S 14 20 26 32 Scientific Evolution Is Viewing Vital A Bout Visionaries Our Laboratory Structures With Flu [COVER STORY] Neuroscientists strive to map the Studying how evolution acts on Researchers angle for better As influenza smashes evolutionary brain’s remarkable visual system. all levels—molecular, cellular, 3-D structures of the molecular barriers, scientists wonder: organismic, ecological, social— machines that produce our Is this the coming of the next investigators find thematic threads proteins, repair our DNA, defend human pandemic? that draw the disciplines together. us against microbes, and, in effect, control our health. WEB EXCLUSIVE Chronicle: International WWW.HHMI.ORG / BULLETIN COVER IMAGE: MOSHE KATVAN Science Visit the Bulletin Online for additional Is There a Junior Doctor in the content and relevant links. House? The story of the successful program “Mini Médicos” CONTRIBUTORS Steve Mirsky is an editor at Scientific American magazine. He also writes the mag- azine’s Antigravity column. A freelance contributor to numerous other publications, Mirsky studied chemistry in college and became a science writer after being award- ed a AAAS Mass Media Fellowship in 1985. He was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT in the 2003–04 academic year. (1) Maya Pines edited and was the principal writer of HHMI’s book Exploring the Bio- medical Revolution (1999), which includes reports on genetics, development, the (1) senses, and microbes. She has written four books in the fields of science and edu- cation, as well as numerous articles for national magazines. She is a contributing editor of the HHMI Bulletin. (2) After earning a master’s degree in biomedical sciences from the University of Cal- ) ifornia, San Diego, Kendall Powell attended the science writing graduate program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She writes news and features regular- PINES ly for the journals Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Biotechnology, and the Jour- (2) (3) nal of Cell Biology, among others. Powell happily works from her home office near Denver, Colorado, with her two Labrador retrievers for company. (3) A freelance science writer and novelist based in London and Paris, Laura Spinney writes for New Scientist, The Economist, and the Guardian, among other publications, on biological subjects, and particularly on neuroscience. Her novel, The Doctor, was pub- lished by Methuen in the UK in 2001. A second novel is coming soon. (4) (4) ELLIS MIRSKY (MIRSKY); KAY CHERNUSH ( HHMI TRUSTEES HHMI OFFICERS James A. Baker, III, Esq. Thomas R. Cech, Ph.D. / President Senior Partner / Baker & Botts Peter J. Bruns, Ph.D. / V.P. for Grants & Special Programs Richard G. Darman David A. Clayton, Ph.D. / V.P. & Chief Scientific Officer Partner / The Carlyle Group Stephen M. Cohen / V.P. & Chief Financial Officer Chairman of the Board / AES Corp. Joseph D. Collins / V.P. for Information Technology Frank William Gay Joan S. Leonard, Esq. / V.P. & General Counsel Former President & CEO / SUMMA Corporation Avice A. Meehan / V.P. for Communications & Public Affairs Gerald M. Rubin, Ph.D. / V.P. & Director, Janelia Farm Research Campus Joseph L. Goldstein, M.D. Landis Zimmerman / V.P. & Chief Investment Officer Professor & Chairman, Department of Molecular Genetics / University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas Hanna H. Gray, Ph.D., Chairman HHMI BULLETIN STAFF President Emeritus & Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor of History / The University of Chicago Stephen G. Pelletier / Editor Jim Keeley / Science Editor Garnett L. Keith Jennifer Donovan / Education Editor SeaBridge Investment Advisors, L.L.C. Patricia Foster / Former Vice Chairman & Chief Financial Officer / Associate Director of Communications for Web & Special Projects The Prudential Insurance Company of America Mary Beth Gardiner / Assistant Editor Jeremy R. Knowles, D.Phil. ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTORS Dean Emeritus & Amory Houghton Professor of Steven Marcus, Cay Butler, Kathy Savory / Editing Chemistry & Biochemistry / Harvard University Laura Bonetta, Katherine Wood / Fact Checking William R. Lummis, Esq. Maya Pines / Contributing Editor Former Chairman of the Board of Directors & CEO / VSA Partners, NYC / Concept & Design The Howard Hughes Corporation David Herbick Design / Publication Design Kurt L. Schmoke Dean / Howard University School of Law Anne M. Tatlock Chairman & CEO / Fiduciary Trust Company International HOWARD HUGHES MEDICAL INSTITUTE The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by authors in the HHMI Bulletin do not Telephone (301) 215.8855 • Fax (301) 215.8863 • www.hhmi.org necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, viewpoints, or official policies of the Howard Hughes © 2005 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Medical Institute. 2 HHMI BULLETIN | DECEMBER 2005 PRESIDENT’S LETTER Thomas R. Cech President “GRANDEUR IN THIS VIEW OF LIFE” Howard Hughes Medical Institute As we approach the bicentennial of the birth of Charles developing educational resources and programs to serve Darwin (in 2009) and the 150th anniversary of the pub- a broad spectrum of students and teachers. One vibrant lication of The Origin of Species, the subject of evo- component is our annual Holiday Lectures on Science, lution remains as central to scientific discourse today which have an immediate impact on the Washington- as it was in the mid-19th century. Pick up a newspa- area high school students in attendance and then an ongo- per or magazine, turn on the television or radio, cruise ing impact through television rebroadcasts and the the Web and you will invariably encounter a discus- thousands of DVDs and educational materials we dis- sion about evolution—from reports about new scien- tribute. This year’s Holiday Lectures—“Evolution: tific insights that deepen our understanding of the Constant Change and Constant Threads”—feature connectedness of life forms, to debates about whether Sean Carroll, an investigator at the University of Wis- evolution should be taught in tandem with creation- consin–Madison and author of a popular book about ism or intelligent design, and data that point to deep evolution, and David M. Kingsley, an investigator at public ambivalence about science as a way of under- the Stanford University School of Medicine. Their talks standing the world. can be viewed at www.holidaylectures.org. A plurality of Americans believe that human beings and Carroll and Kingsley use tools of genetics and molec- other creatures have evolved over time—a central prem- ular biology that Darwin could hardly have imagined. ise of Darwin’s theory of evolution—but an almost Although focused on different questions, these scien- equal number (41 percent) believe that all living things tists have shown that an understanding of the function have existed in their present form since the beginning of key genes can elucidate general rules of evolution that of time, according to research by the Pew Center for can then be applied to diverse organisms. For example, People and the Press. Moreover, fully one-third of the Kingsley has demonstrated that changes in a single public believes there’s no consensus among scientists gene triggered a major shift in the armor plating found about evolution, and a clear majority of those polled in wild populations of stickleback fish. Interestingly (65 percent) believes that creationism should be taught enough, the gene that controls the armor plating in alongside evolution.