NewsBlog: Making sense of floral scents Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 28th August 2008 07:08 PM GMT] The nectar of plants may be more than just nourishment for the birds and bees that feed off of them - instead, suggests a study published in this week's issue of Science, it may be a complex chemical cocktail that simultaneously attracts and repels pollinators in order to optimize the amount of time they spend at each... Click to continue View comment (1) | Comment on this blog NewsBlog: Head of Austrian med school canned Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 27th August 2008 09:16 PM GMT] The rector of a prominent Austrian medical university has been fired in the midst of a scientific misconduct investigation that has plagued the institution for months. The Medical University of Innsbruck's seven-person council unceremoniously dumped Clemens Sorg, an immunologist and the rector of the university, from his position on August 21, according to a... Click to continue View comments (3) | Comment on this blog NewsBlog: Dems promise support for science Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 26th August 2008 04:56 PM GMT] Upon last night's opening of the giant pep rally known as the Democratic National Convention, Democrats formally approved their platform, pledging to double federal funding of basic science research, lift the ban on funding embryonic stem cell research, and make the R&D tax credit permanent. The platform makes these promises against the backdrop of the current Administration's... Click to continue View comments (2) | Comment on this blog NewsBlog: Biden VP pick good for research Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 26th August 2008 04:52 PM GMT] Barack Obama added Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) to the Democratic electoral ticket over the weekend, and Obama's choice of vice presidential running mate may be very good for the research community. Biden's voting record and past comments regarding science policy indicate that he supports robust funding for biomedical and... Click to continue Comment on this blog NewsBlog: Bill for CA animal researchers Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 25th August 2008 10:02 PM GMT] Legislation seeking to criminalize some of the key methods used by animal rights protesters to target researchers was passed by the California State Senate last Friday (Aug 22). The Senate unanimously passed the bill, which now makes its way to the State Assembly, where it must be approved before it goes to the governor's desk, according to the ... Click to continue Comment on this blog NewsBlog: eBay score: a new insect species Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 20th August 2008 09:33 PM GMT] Sure, you can score vintage cars, one-of-a-kind guitar straps, even the odd mass spectrometer on eBay. But now it seems that a place in science history can also be purchased on the popular auction website. So learned entomologist Richard Harrington, vice president of the United Kingdom's Royal... Click to continue View comments (2) | Comment on this blog NewsBlog: Psychiatry researcher steps down Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 15th August 2008 08:13 PM GMT] Embattled Stanford psychiatrist and president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association, Alan Schatzberg, has resigned leadership of an NIH-funded research project studying the effects of mifepristone (also known as RU-486) on patients with depression. The drug is made by Corcept Therapeutics, a company which Schatzberg co-founded, and in which he owns... Click to continue View comments (4) | Comment on this blog NewsBlog: Calif. bill to protect researchers Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 15th August 2008 04:21 PM GMT] A bill that would criminalize some of the key methods used by animal rights protestors to target researchers cleared a California senate committee yesterday (Aug 14). Bill AB 2296 makes it a misdemeanor to enter a researcher's home or publish their personal information or that of their immediate families to encourage violent crime against them. University of California administrators... Click to continue View comments (3) | Comment on this blog NewsBlog: Stem cell study trouble Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 14th August 2008 09:46 PM GMT] Ethical lapses and procedural breakdowns plagued an Austrian clinical trial of a stem cell therapy that used patients' own cells to treat urinary incontinence, according to a report recently released by the country's Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES). The AGES report says that urologists involved in the study engaged in a series of questionable activities: They designed... Click to continue Comment on this blog NewsBlog: FDA rolls out new conflict rules Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 5th August 2008 10:27 PM GMT] The Food and Drug Administration unveiled new, tougher conflict of interest rules yesterday (Aug 4). Key among the regulations was one that prohibits physicians or researchers who have more than $50,000 worth of financial interests in pharmaceutical or medical device companies from... Click to continue Comment on this blog NewsBlog: Calif. animal scientists attacked Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 4th August 2008 03:44 PM GMT] A house and car belonging to two University of California, Santa Cruz researchers were firebombed in the wee hours of Saturday (Aug 2) morning. The attacks occurred after anti-animal research pamphlets listing the names and personal information of several UCSC researchers were discovered in a Santa Cruz coffee shop last week. ... Click to continue View comment (1) | Comment on this blog NewsBlog: More Calif. animal research trouble Posted by Bob Grant [Entry posted at 1st August 2008 05:51 PM GMT] Biomedical researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz have again been targeted by animal rights activists opposed to their use of experimental laboratory animals. According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, nearly a dozen threatening pamphlets containing the names, home addresses, phone numbers, and photos of several scientists turned up in a coffee shop in the seaside town on Tuesday (July 29) night. The pamphlets read, in part:... Click to continue Comment on this blog

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