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Senate open access mandate at risk

By Andrea Gawrylewski | October 22, 2007

The open access movement will take a hit if two amendments are voted into a bill currently on the Senate floor. The two amendments were filed in the Senate on Friday to either strike or modify language from a Senate appropriations bill that would require NIH-funded research to be made publicly available. The provisions are part of the Senate appropriations bill for 2008, which totals about $150 billion in funding for the departments of Health and Human Services and Education. This bill, if pas

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Sense prevails on MRI rules

By Stephen Pincock | October 22, 2007

Scientists in Europe have been expressing linkurl:relief;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/oct/22/medicalresearch.health this week at the news that the European Union is dropping rules on the levels of radiation medical staff can be exposed to. The EU physical agents directive had triggered linkurl:consternation;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/22775/ a couple of years ago, with researchersworried it would be impossible to do certain kinds of studies and keep within the prescri

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CSHL suspends Watson's duties

By Ivan Oransky | October 19, 2007

In a linkurl:statement;http://www.cshl.edu/public/releases/07_statement2.html issued tonight, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Board of Trustees said that they had "decided to suspend the administrative responsibilities of Chancellor James D. Watson, Ph.D., pending further deliberation by the Board." This follows their harsh response to his comments in the Sunday Times that he believed people of African descent are less intelligent, as Alison McCook linkurl:wrote;http://www.the-scientist.com/b

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Watson cancels book tour

By Alla Katsnelson | October 19, 2007

According to the Science Media Center in the UK, James Watson has cancelled all his remaining speaking engagements in the UK and will be returning to the US, in the aftermath of the linkurl:uproar;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/53714/ created by his linkurl:comments;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/53712/ on race and intelligence. In today's news reports, Watson appears almost befuddled by the words that came out of his mouth. "I am mortified about what has happened," Watso

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Senate drops stem cell provision; OA likely to pass

By Andrea Gawrylewski | October 18, 2007

The US Senate dropped language from a bill yesterday that would have directed federal money to research on stem cell lines derived before June 15, 2007, the linkurl:Chronicle of Higher Education;http://chronicle.com/news/article/3262/senate-removes-stem-cell-provision-opposed-by-bush-from-spending-bill reported. The move was made in hopes to avert a presidential veto over the stem cell provision. The language was part of a Senate Appropriations Committee budget measure for 2008, proposed in Jun

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UC rejects tobacco money ban

By Andrea Gawrylewski | October 18, 2007

The University of California finally made the decision to allow researchers to accept funding from tobacco companies last month, the Sacramento Bee linkurl:reported;http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/391011.html . As I linkurl:wrote;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/44525/ in January, the issue had been brewing since 2004, when several UC campuses voted not to accept funding from tobacco companies, falling in line with several other prominent research institutions. The university has accep

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Watson faces harsh criticisms

By Alison McCook | October 18, 2007

James Watson is coming under fire for telling the Sunday Times that he believed people of African descent are less intelligent. Yesterday (October 17), Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (where Watson is Chancellor) Board of Trustees and President Bruce Stillman released a statement distancing the center from one of its most vocal representatives. Watson's comments "are his own personal statements and in no way reflect the mission, goals, or principles of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's

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FDA approves second novel HIV drug

By Alla Katsnelson | October 16, 2007

Till recently, just two classes of antiretroviral drugs, reverse transcriptase inhibitors and protease inhibitors, were on the market to treat HIV infection. Last week, the FDA linkurl:approved;http://www.reuters.com/article/health-SP/idUSN1221331120071015 Merck's raltegravir (Isentress), which interferes with viral replication at a different point, blocking the enzyme integrase to prevent the integration of the viral genetic material into host DNA. In our September issue, The Scientist reporte

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Geneticist pleads guilty to misdemeanor in "art bioterror" case

By Alla Katsnelson | October 12, 2007

Robert Ferrell, a geneticist at the University of Pittsburgh who was linkurl:indicted;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/22260/ in June, 2004, along with Steven Kurtz, an artist at the State University of New York in Buffalo, after Ferrell shipped bacteria to Kurtz to use in an art project, pled guilty yesterday to charges of "mailing an injurious article," according a linkurl:report;http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--artvsterror1011oct11,0,7989955.story by the AP

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Gore, IPCC win Nobel Peace Prize

By Alla Katsnelson | October 12, 2007

This morning former vice president Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) were awarded the linkurl:2007 Nobel Prize;http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2007/ "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change." According to a linkurl:statement;http://blog.algore.com/2007/10/i_am_deeply_honored.html posted on his Web site, Go

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