This month marks the 100-year anniversary of BCG, still the only approved vaccine against the lethal pathogen. But there are new vaccines for this wily foe on the horizon.

Extracellular webs expelled by neutrophils trap invading pathogens, but these newly discovered structures also have ties to autoimmunity and cancer.

Lyme disease–causing bacteria can outmaneuver antibiotics in vitro and manipulate the mouse immune system.

Ned Shaw US scientists have reason to feel both heady and scared. The federal government recently released unprecedented billions of dollars to fund bioterrorism research. Yet, the merits of this sudden shift in focus are being debated, and some worry that the money will be squandered or wasted. "I have been really very upset by the focus on bioterrorism," says Stanley Falkow, professor of microbiology and immunology and of medicine at Stanford University. "Everybody's talking about it, but th

Contents PATHOGENIC NECKTIES TWENTY-TWENTY VISION PROGRESS IN PARKINSON'S OLD BONES MARS ATTACKS FORECASTING CANCER FASHION CONTAGION: Roger Freeman and his pathogen-inspired silk ties, shown here with images of syphilis and herpes. PATHOGENIC NECKTIES: The late musician and artist Jerry Garcia may have some microscopic competitors in the necktie business. At the American Society for Microbiology annual meeting in Atlanta May 17-21, a company called Health Media International sold Contagious

David Holtzman and Friend SNAKE LOGIC David Holtzman, an assistant professor of brain and cognitive science at the University of Rochester, has loved snakes since childhood. But in college, when he wanted to investigate how snake brains develop, he found that serpents weren't exactly model organisms. "I wanted to devise a task that could show that snakes can learn as well as rodents--if you ask them to do the right thing," he recalls. Now Holtzman and his colleagues are doing just that (D.

The Faculty of 1000 is a Web-based literature awareness tool published by BioMed Central. It provides a continuously updated insider's guide to the most important peer-reviewed papers within a range of research fields, based on the recommendations of a faculty of more than 1,400 leading researchers. Each issue, The Scientist publishes a review of some related papers highlighted by the Faculty of 1000, plus comments on new and notable research. For more information visit www.facultyof1000.com.

'ABSOLUTELY AMAZING': Yerkes' Harriet Robinson notes that research in the field has grown at an extraordinarily rapid rate. With more pathogens developing resistance to antibiotics, and with the increasing vulnerability of human populations to infectious diseases, vaccine research has taken on a new urgency. Among the technologies being developed for the vaccines of the 21st century is the novel idea of using naked DNA-a simple loop of DNA containing an antigen gene-to induce an immune respons

Efforts are under way to develop a vaccine against one of the world's deadliest illnesses, cervical cancer. Along with a number of university research laboratories, at least a half-dozen biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies are beginning clinical trials or are in preclinical development of such drugs. Efficacy in humans remains to be firmly established, but if the vaccines progress to later-phase trials, challenging jobs for immunologists, microbiologists, and biochemists will multiply. "

Strive To Improve The Health Of Impoverished Populations Author: Steve Sternberg The World Bank, once a stronghold of public-spirited but nonscientific economists, has over the past decade emerged as the major financier of research to improve the health of people in Third World countries. Banking on Health: Richard G.A. Feachem, World Bank senior adviser on human development, has put health at the top of the bank's agenda. Each year, the World Bank invests $2 billion for health programs in i