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Weekly Editors' Picks

Defining a Link between Perceptual Learning and Attention

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Takeo Watanabe and Yuko Yotsumoto explore the implications of a new study that shows that for perceptual learning of visual features involving multiple stimuli to occur, the brain needs to temporally "tag" the features, a learning process that requires paying attention.

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Where Does Bluetongue Virus Sleep in the Winter?

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Bluetongue recently spread to northern Europe for the first time. Outbreaks in temperate regions are often interrupted by cold weather, but may reappear months later. Where, then, might bluetongue virus sleep in the winter?

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Is Sleep Essential?

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No current hypothesis can explain why animals need to sleep. Yet, sleep is universal, tightly regulated, and cannot be deprived without deleterious consequences. This suggests that searching for a core function of sleep, particularly at the cellular level, is still a worthwhile exercise.

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Retinoblastoma Makes Its Mark on Imprinting in Plants

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Imprinting in flowering plants and mammals causes monoallelic expression of parental alleles, but how is this achieved? New evidence in plants implicates the retinoblastoma pathway in establishing imprints during gametogenesis.

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Whisker-Mediated Texture Discrimination

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Rats use their whiskers to rapidly and accurately measure the texture of objects. The authors evaluate recent evidence about how whisker movement across a surface produces texture-specific motion signals, and how the signals are represented by the brain.

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SAW: Breaking Down Barriers between Art and Science

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The Science, Art and Writing initiative teaches young children that science and the arts are interconnected, taking advantage of the power of striking scientific images to stimulate children's interest in science and in understanding the natural world.

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The Spectrum of Mitochondrial Mutation Differs across Species

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Mitochondrial DNA mutation rates have now been measured in several model organisms. The patterns of mutation are strikingly different among species and point to modulation of mutation-selection balance in the evolution of nucleotide composition.

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August 2008 Issue

August 2008 Issue : Featured Image

PLoS Biology is a peer-reviewed open-access journal featuring research articles of exceptional significance in all areas of biological science, from molecules to ecosystems.

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