The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, usually referred to as PNAS, is the official journal of the United States National Academy of Sciences (NAS). PNAS is an important scientific journal that printed its first issue in 1915 and continues to publish highly cited research reports, commentaries, reviews, perspectives, feature articles, profiles, letters to the editor, and actions of the Academy. Coverage in PNAS broadly spans the biological, physical, and social sciences. Although most of the papers published in the journal are in the biomedical sciences, PNAS recruits papers and publishes special features in the physical and social sciences and in mathematics. PNAS is published weekly in print, and daily online in PNAS Early Edition. PNAS was established by NAS in 1914, with its first issue published in 1915. The NAS itself had been founded in 1863 as a private institution, but chartered by the US Congress, with the goal to "investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science or art." By 1914, the Academy was well established.
When boy fish build castles to impress girls, boy genes get 'turned on' and 'tuned in'
Call it instinct, but something compels some animals to behave in certain ways, perhaps programs in their genes. Researchers have directly connected activities of genes with instinctive behavior in little male fish that make ...
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How plants evolved to make ants their servants
Plants are boring. They just sit there photosynthesizing while animals have all the fun. Right? Not so much. Take a look at the interactions between ants and plants—plants have evolved features specifically to make them ...
Primates of the Caribbean: Ancient DNA reveals history of mystery monkey
Analysis of ancient DNA of a mysterious extinct monkey named Xenothrix—which displays bizarre body characteristics very different to any living monkey—has revealed that it was in fact most closely related to South America's ...
Structure of fossil-fuel source rocks is finally decoded
The fossil fuels that provide much of the world's energy orginate in a type of rock known as kerogen, and the potential for recovering these fuels depends crucially on the size and connectedness of the rocks' internal pore ...
Long-term study shows atmospheric biome fluctuates by season
A team of researchers with the LTER Environmental Monitoring Observatory in the Aigüestortes National Park in Spain has found that there is seasonal variation in atmospheric microbes. In their paper published in Proceedings ...
Color vision variation in guppies influences female mate preference
A variety of animals have male-specific ornament traits and these ornaments are favored by female choice. Which male traits are preferred by females often varies among females. Genetic mechanisms that create and maintain ...
Scientists develop new and more realistic model of human interaction
Indirect reciprocity is a model of how humans act when their reputation is at stake, and which social norms people use to evaluate the actions of others. Researchers seek to know which social norms lead to cooperation in ...
Resonant mechanism discovery could inspire ultra-thin acoustic absorbers
New research led by academics at the University of Bristol has discovered that the scales on moth wings vibrate and can absorb the sound frequencies used by bats for echolocation (biological sonar). The finding could help ...
Alpine ice shows three-fold increase in atmospheric iodine
Analysis of iodine trapped in Alpine ice has shown that levels of atmospheric iodine have tripled over the past century, which partially offsets human-driven increases in the air pollutant, ozone.
Escape responses of coral reef fish obey simple behavioral rules
The escape response to evade perceived threats is a fundamental behavior seen throughout the animal kingdom, and laboratory studies have identified specialized neural circuits that control this behavior. Understanding how ...
