COMMENTARY Strengthening relationships A new window to the natural world on pulsars 817 821 LETTERS I BOOKS I POLICY FORUM I EDUCATION FORUM I PERSPECTIVES LETTERS edited by Jennifer Sills Evolution of the Monkey Crouch calculations? Did he record wind T. PFAU ET AL. (“MODERN RIDING STYLE IMPROVES HORSE RACING pressure scores or take biome- times,” Brevia, 17 July, p. 289) nicely document the effectiveness of chanical readings to assess his new riding style? Probably not. It is the “monkey crouch” riding style on race times and horse-jockey bio- more likely that he merely proceeded by trial and error, much as did mechanics. This style produced measurable speed benefits to winning Olympic champion Dick Fosbury when he invented his famous high race times at the English Epsom Derby Stakes (1900–1910). jumping “flop” (2). The change in riding style across a decade of different jockeys Inventive behavior is often attributed to creativity or to genius when prompts the question: How did the monkey crouch originate? Many a simpler explanation suffices. The origin of the monkey crouch per- authors credit two American jockeys—Willie Simms and Tod Sloan— fectly fits the Law of Effect: Successful behavioral variations are with bringing this style to England in 1895 and 1897, respectively. retained and unsuccessful variations are not. This positively Darwinian on August 13, 2009 However, English rider Harding Cox claimed to have adopted the mon- process works for human inventions just as it does for earthly orga- key crouch still earlier. Cox even described how he developed the style nisms—mechanically and without design or purpose. and what benefits it conferred: “When hunting, I rode very short, and EDWARD A. WASSERMAN* AND MARK S. BLUMBERG leant well forward in my seat. When racing, I found that by so doing I Department of Psychology and Delta Center, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. avoided, to a certain extent, wind pressure, which … is very obvious to the rider. By accentuating this position, I discovered that my mount *To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected] had the advantage of freer hind leverage” (original italics) (1). Measurements taken by Pfau et al. support Cox’s impressions. References 1. H. Cox, Chasing and Racing (John Lane, London, 1922), p. 212. www.sciencemag.org Did Cox intend to design his new riding position? Did he purpose- 2. E. A. Wasserman, M. S. Blumberg, Assoc. Psych. Sci. Observ. 19, 25 (2006); fully reposition himself on his horse after painstaking mathematical (www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=2072). Energy Strategies leum usage in areas that require fuels with high Response energy density will be greatly diminished. BRIGGS ARGUES THAT ENERGY STRATEGIES and Efficiency Our ultimate goal should be to transition should not focus exclusively on efficiency. We Downloaded from J. E. CAMPBELL ET AL. (“GREATER TRANSPOR- completely away from fossil fuels. To do that, agree and explicitly state a wide range of cri- tation energy and GHG offsets from bio- we need to look at each type of energy use and teria in our Report. Briggs also argues that electricity than ethanol,” Reports, 22 May, assess how best to meet that demand. While biomass should be dedicated to liquid fuel p. 1055) compared the efficiency of using producing electricity from biofuels to power production to allow for a complete transition biomass to power vehicles through either electric vehicles may be a more efficient use of away from fossil fuels, whereas other renew- ethanol production or electricity production that biomass itself, we have many other options ables should be used for electricity. His argu- (for electric vehicles). However, it is prema- available for producing nonfossil electricity ment would be compelling if the complete ture to conclude that biomass use should (such as nuclear, geothermal, wind, and solar transition away from fossil fuels were within focus on the latter simply because it boasts power). However, those options cannot be as reach in the near term. greater overall efficiency. easily used to create high energy density fuels. Instead, we expect the transition away from Some energy uses, such as air travel and Biomass can meet that need, and therefore fossil fuels to be more gradual. In the mean- long-distance shipping, require fuel with high would be most wisely used to fill that need, time, we must find the mix of fossil fuels, bio- energy density, which current and foreseeable rather than to produce electricity (1). mass energy, and other renewables that best batteries cannot achieve. Those applications MICHAEL S. BRIGGS meets the interacting goals of energy inde- will continue to require a liquid hydrocarbon Department of Physics, University of New Hampshire, pendence, climate mitigation, economic com- fuel to meet their needs. Currently, our only Durham, NH 03824, USA. E-mail: [email protected] petitiveness, and clean air. Multiple forms of viable nonfossil option for satisfying that biomass energy could contribute to this mix, demand is biofuels. If biomass that could be Reference but much of the current policy focus is limited 1. M. Briggs, “A fundamental analysis of means of produc- turned into biofuels is instead burned to pro- ing and storing energy,” dissertation, University of New to liquid fuels (such as ethanol mandates in duce electricity, our ability to reduce petro- Hampshire (2008). the United States and other countries). The ISTOCK CREDIT: 812 14 AUGUST 2009 VOL 325 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org Published by AAAS Gasoline from Why mimic? that’s scientific misconduct.” Without appro- biomass priate permission from all the relevant edi- tors, as well as the inclusion of an overt notice in the later publication to inform readers, it is 822 824 deception and therefore is indeed miscon- duct; copyright may also be a problem if it has been assigned to the original publisher. Moreover, if the second submission occurs with a declaration—signed, implied, or other- efficiency advantages of bioelectricity (1) and versally. The task of identifying boundaries wise—that none of the material has been or bioheat (2) provide a strong motivation for could benefit from the establishment of a sim- will be published elsewhere, it amounts to broadening the research and evaluating these ple and reliable technique that would determine outright fraud. applications along with liquid fuels. where efforts are needed to ensure communica- Authors who have sought editorial per- Support for future research and policy tion across language barriers. Assigning defin- mission and been transparent when reusing analysis should be broad enough to encourage itive language codes is premature until mutual material have nothing to fear from inclu- serious exploration of the prospects for elec- intelligibility criteria and techniques have been sion in Déjà vu. They may ultimately point trifying vehicles, including the potential rate applied consistently. This would require a coop- to the entry as independent confirmation of of adoption, cost, range, and the kinds of vehi- erative effort among linguists in all countries, their integrity. JOHN LOADSMAN cles compatible with electrification. The situ- along with the necessary financial support. Department of Anaesthetics, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, ation to avoid is one in which strong starting WALTER SHEARER Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia. E-mail: science09@ loadsman.com assumptions about the limited potential of 100 East Hartsdale Avenue, Hartsdale, NY 10530, USA. vehicle electrification create so much momen- E-mail: [email protected] tum for liquid fuels from biomass that we Reference forgo the option that makes the most efficient Note 1. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, 1. The author and Sun Hongkai have published a mono- “Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to on August 13, 2009 use of the biomass energy. graph together. biomedical journals: Writing and editing for biomedical J. ELLIOTT CAMPBELL,1* DAVID B. LOBELL,2 publication” (www.icmje.org). CHRISTOPHER B. FIELD3 1College of Engineering, University of California, Merced, Plagiarism: CA 95344, USA. 2Program on Food Security and the Plagiarism: Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, Transparency Required USA. 3Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution of Consider the Context Washington, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. J. COUZIN-FRANKEL AND J. GROM (“PLAGI- arism sleuths,” News Focus, 22 May, p. 1004) THERE SHOULD BE NO DOUBT THAT ANY *To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: suggest that “[r]epetitious reviews and incre- form of covert duplication of data represents [email protected] www.sciencemag.org mental reports are part of an accepted tradi- a serious threat to the integrity of the scien- tion.” Accepted when and by whom? The Inter- tific record (“Plagiarism sleuths,” J. Couzin- References national Committee of Medical Journal Editors Frankel and J. Grom, News Focus, 22 May, 1. J. Ohlrogge et al., Science 324, 1019 (2009). 2. D. deB. Richter Jr. et al., Science 323, 1432 (2009). (ICMJE) has for many years included a detailed p. 1004). Duplication and other types of section on overlapping publications in its redundancy (such as “salami publication”) “Uniform requirements for manuscripts sub- are a source of great concern for science Defining Language mitted to biomedical journals” (1). The need for journal editors (1). In that regard, Skip transparency, both to editors and readers, is a Garner’s eTBLAST and his Déjà vu site Downloaded from Boundaries paramount concern. Nowhere in the ICMJE should be viewed as a welcomed addition in THE NEWS FOCUS STORY “HOW MANY LAN- document is there an exemption for any partic- the arsenal to combat and prevent possible guages? Linguists discover new tongues in ular type of manuscript, including reviews and scientific misconduct. China” (M. Erard, 17 April, p. 332) discusses translations. Essentially all journals include in The issue of wholesale reuse of an author’s an important challenge: defining accurate lan- their instructions to authors a statement such previously published text is slightly more guage boundaries.