Editor's Note: On May 2, the National Academy of Sciences announced the election of 60 new members and 15 foreign associates from nine countries in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Nearly half of the new members are life scientists. In this article, The Scientist presents photographs of some of the new members and comments from a few of them on their careers and on past and current research. A full directory of NAS members can be found online a

The changes, which affect the declarations authors have to sign and the peer-review process, have received a mixed response from the scientific community.

The scientific community said goodbye to a number of leading researchers this year.

The Scientist’s 5th installment of its annual competition attracted submissions from across the life science spectrum. Here are the best and brightest products of the year.

On June 14, a House Appropriations subcommittee gave some researchers cause for celebration when it surprisingly voted to remove a provision in a government spending bill that extended a ban on federal funding of human embryo research. However, their glee was short-lived. The full panel turned around on June 25 and adopted an amendment to continue the research ban. John Eppig, senior staff scientist at Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, doubts that the ban will be overturned anytime soon,

Interferons (IFs) and interleukins (ILs) are immune system biochemicals at the intersection of basic research and medical technology. Part of the class of secreted cellular regulators known as cytokines, IFs and ILs have experienced dizzying public relations ups and downs, hailed one season as tomorrow's wonder drugs, derided the next as toxic side effects emerge during therapy. type_Document_Title_here With many questions about the basic biology of these enigmatic immunochemicals stil