A science journalist and university president are trading barbs this week over the administrator's less-than-glowing book review in Nature.

Last week, Nature published a letter from science policy journalist Daniel Greenberg, who criticized the review of his latest book in the journal. (Greenberg ... Click to continue

James Watson is immediately stepping down as chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. The move follows days of public criticism of his remarks to a UK newspaper that people of African descent are less intelligent.

"Closer now to 80 than 79, the passing on of my remaining vestiges of leadership is more than overdue," he said in a statement released this morning. "The... Click to continue

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... Click to continue

Bruce Flamm, a doctor and former research chairman is being sued for defamation by Kwang Yul Cha, the co-author of a 2001 paper that showed couples who were prayed for (but didn't know it) were more likely to conceive during in vitro fertilization. Flamm has publicly criticized the paper for years, arguing it was too implausible to be believed.

The lawsuit was a complete surprise, Flamm told me today. "I never would have... Click to continue

We'll all find out who takes this year's Nobel Prizes the morning they do (sometime next week), but there are some early predictions.

Thomson Scientific predicts this year's Prize for Physiology or Medicine will go to Fred H. Gage (adult neurogenesis); Joan Massague (action of growth factor beta); and R. John Ellis, F. Ulrich Hartl, and ... Click to continue

This in from news editor Alla Katsnelson:

At a congressional hearing on biosafety today (October 4), the Government Accountability Office reported that the federal government doesn't know how many labs are involved in biosafety level 3 and level 4 work, or where those labs are.

Although labs working with certain "select agents" are under the oversight of the CDC, labs working with other pathogens such as SARS or Hantavirus... Click to continue