NewsBlog: Science and Ethics at NIH--and FDA Posted by Tabitha M. Powledge [Entry posted at 29th August 2005 03:34 PM GMT] Many of the headlines suggested that the proposed ethics rules for NIH employees have been relaxed. But that's not quite true, as Ted Agres pointed out here. The rules on stock ownership have loosened, yes. But the most important restriction remains. That's the one forbidding those who labor at NIH to do outside consulting for businesses with a stake in NIH's labor. These decisions are a smart move for NIH director Elias A.... Click to continue Comment on this blog NewsBlog: Phi Zappa Quakka Posted by Brendan Maher [Entry posted at 24th August 2005 06:11 PM GMT] It?s nice to see a Frank Zappa fan working in the Nature press office. A recent release extolling the current issue?s report on space dust from meteorites was titled: ?Who you jivin? with that cosmik debris?? The line is pulled from a 1974 classic railing against quackery from the same jester who had hypothesized that there?s more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe (and that... Click to continue Comment on this blog NewsBlog: Legionnaires hits close to home Posted by Brendan Maher [Entry posted at 12th August 2005 09:47 PM GMT] Two cases of Legionnaire?s disease were confirmed the other day; the irresistible hook being that the men, ages 60 and 70 were Legionnaires. They came down with flu-like symptoms shortly after attending a meeting of the American Legions in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, just miles from Philadelphia where the first cases were documented and the culprit Legionella pneumophila was first... Click to continue Comment on this blog NewsBlog: Genomes galore Posted by Tabitha M. Powledge [Entry posted at 11th August 2005 06:54 PM GMT] I see that the $1000 genome is now an official US government project. NIH's genome institute (NHGRI) just announced this genetic equivalent of going to the moon. The agency is spending $32 million to develop technology aimed explicitly at sequencing genomes of individual patients for $1000, long an informal goal among genome scientists. NHGRI's announcement comes on the heels of (and was perhaps provoked by?) papers describing Click to continue Comment on this blog NewsBlog: Profiting from insider clinical data Posted by Ivan Oransky [Entry posted at 8th August 2005 04:38 PM GMT] The Seattle Times ran a great package of stories yesterday that resulted from an investigation into how hedge funds obtain their cutting-edge information on clinical trials. The investigation found ?at least 26 cases in which doctors have leaked confidential and critical details of their ongoing drug research to Wall Street firms.? Such information is of incredible value to hedge funds, of course; if... Click to continue Comment on this blog NewsBlog: What did the President say? It's a fund-amental question. Posted by Tabitha M. Powledge [Entry posted at 3rd August 2005 07:51 PM GMT] So did President Bush really advocate teaching "intelligent design" in his interview with Texas reporters the other day? Or were his musings about exposing students to different ideas simply a better-than-average example of political weasel-speak? The fact is the remarks gave comfort to his religious political base while disclosing nothing of his actual beliefs about creationism. And they... Click to continue Comment on this blog NewsBlog: Ivory-billed woodpecker spotted; plays tennis Posted by Ivan Oransky [Entry posted at 3rd August 2005 07:33 PM GMT] Well, it now appears that the ivory-billed woodpecker does exist. The three skeptics who had questioned the evidence presented in a Science paper that the birds were living in an Arkansas swamp now say they are ?strongly convinced that there is at least a pair of ivory bills out there,? according to the New York Times. Very good for... Click to continue Comment on this blog NewsBlog: Gorilla Marketing Posted by Brendan Maher [Entry posted at 1st August 2005 05:22 PM GMT] This morning, fellow editor Jeff Perkel, and I ran into a hairy ape and a healthy dose of irony. A man wearing a gorilla mask and a dark grey suit passed just in front of our office. The monkey-man?s unmasked companion was wearing a yellow t-shirt with the words ?Has Evolution Made a Monkey out of You?? Catching the whiff of unchecked creationist dogma on the streets of Philadelphia, we dashed out for a quick interview. Fortunately, ID... Click to continue Comment on this blog

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