Front Matter

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• Opinion: Climate policy needs more than muddling
  Muddling through climate policy with incremental steps, as is the case with the Paris accord, can sometimes allow for progress. But if climate policy is ultimately to be successful, such “muddling” will need to be combined with some longer-term “visioning.” Image courtesy of Shutterstock/Calin Tatu.

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• Science and Culture: Musical genes
  Scientists are using epigenetic and gene expression data to create musical compositions. Their aspirations are both aesthetic and practical. Image courtesy of Rie Takahashi and Jeffrey H. Miller (University of California, Los Angeles, CA).

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• Inner Workings: Sitting still, for science
  With the help of scanners, the developing brains of young children could reveal crucial clues about how neurological diseases progress. But first, researchers have to get their subjects to sit skill. Image courtesy of Hilary Richardson and Rebecca Saxe (McGovern Center for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA).

PNAS in the News

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• Overlap of shark and fishing vessel ranges
  Researchers report significant geographic overlap between shark and fishing activity.
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• Competition and extinction of Neanderthals
  A study suggests how Neanderthals could have been driven to extinction by competition with modern humans.
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• Microplastics and Pacific oyster reproductive cycle
  Pollutants known as microplastics may endanger the Pacific oyster and other marine bivalves, according to a study.
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