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Celera Genomics announced Sept. 9 that the Rockville, Md., company had sequenced the 1.8 billion base pairs that make up the Drosophila melanogaster genome. Now comes the tricky part--putting them together to form an accurate, contiguous fruit fly genome. "The sequence data is good," Paul Gilman, a Celera vice president, claims. "The question is, 'How good is our assembly?'" That's a question that critics of the company's "whole genome shotgun" sequencing approach--blasting the entire genome in

Understanding the genetic structure of ecosystems is important in saving biodiversity. That's especially vital as humans fragment vast natural areas into isolated patches, cutting off avenues for outcrossing. Unfortunately, scientists' understanding of breeding systems and gene flow may be even more fragmented than the ecosystems. Botanists are hard at work remedying the situation. Using genetic markers, they analyze plant paternity and infer how far pollen travels on gentle breezes or the bac

On Aug. 30 Harold Varmus, National Institutes of Health director, invited all members of the scientific publishing world to attend his version of a peer-review free-for-all. Several weeks later, it remains to be seen who will show up. The gala in question is PubMed Central, an Internet research repository first proposed by Varmus May 5 under the name E-biomed. The renamed repository will contain two kinds of research after its January 2000 addition to the popular PubMed Web site: non-peer-revi

A scene from the Missouri Botanical Garden The saying "if you want something done, give it to a busy person" fits Peter Raven like a glove. Director of the Missouri Botanical Garden since 1971, home secretary of the National Academy of Sciences, and author of textbooks in biology and botany, Raven hosted about 5,000 scientists from more than 100 countries as president of the XVI International Botanical Congress in St. Louis August 1-7. With Harvard University's Edward O. Wilson, Raven is biodi

It's a simple but haunting question: Can microgravity influence gene expression? Yes, according to a recent study of human cells conducted aboard NASA's space shuttle. In fact, the results are so promising that the investigators believe their continuing research could lead to better toxicology tests, key elements of tissue engineering, and new treatments for various diseases--while broadening the scope of scientific experimentation. Astronaut Katherine P. Hire works with the bioreader system

When Paul R. Sanberg became a neuroscientist, he focused on Huntington's disease. When he realized that Parkinson's disease was related, he expanded his horizons. And when his father suffered a stroke about five years ago, he shifted his priorities. Some of the things he has learned since may help treat all three diseases, as well as a number of other neurodegenerative disorders. Following his father's stroke, Sanberg recalls months of trips between Tampa, where he worked as a researcher for t

Courtesy of Alan Whanger Facial image of the Man of the Shroud surrounded by "the ghost of flowers past." The topic of the last press conference on Monday, August 2, at the XVI International Botanical Congress in St. Louis seemed to have a nice mix of classical scientific observation, image analysis, and palynology (pollen identification), as well as great historical interest. A team led by Avinoam Danin, a professor of evolution, systematics, and ecology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Neuronal precursors from a particular region of the ventral forebrain--the medial ganglionic eminence (MGE)--are capable of migrating extensively in both the embryonic and adult brain and differentiating into neurons in several brain regions, researchers at Rockefeller University reported recently. The study adds more evidence to the viability of cell transplantation as a treatment for neurogenerative disorders and brain damage.1 "We are for the first time identifying a new population of cells

HARDWIRED HUNGER Two distinct but adjacent sets of cells in the same part of the brain respond in opposite ways to the same hormone: leptin, which, when lacking in the bloodstream, results in a voracious appetite. A group led by Joel K. Elmquist, neuroendocrinology researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and assistant professor of neurology and medicine at Harvard Medical School, set out to understand the leptin pathway by injecting the hormone into rats and following its progress to

For about a decade, Susan Swedo, chief of the Pediatric and Developmental Neuropsychiatry Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), has been investigating how an ordinary strep infection can trigger an autoimmune response leading to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). She, her colleagues at NIMH, and other researchers have been exploring this link with a goal of better understanding the role of the brain in mental disorders and developing better OCD treatments. Though strep is

At the recent theme symposium of the 1999 International Joint Conference on Neural Networks held in Washington, D.C., neurobiologists, psychologists, and engineers presented a wide variety of research projects attempting to make sense of the human brain. But despite the variance among disciplines and approaches, the symposium, entitled "Neuronal Ensembles: Paradigm Shifts in Cognitive Modeling," had a common thread: elucidating brain function by examining the behavior of groups of neurons rathe

Brain development is an awesome feat. Over a trillion neurons make connections with thousands of target cells to create coherent circuits for vision, language, movement, and memory. Most neurons migrate from their birthplace to their permanent home in the developing brain. Once they find a home, some cells send growth cones to different parts of the brain, creating networks with their axons. Corey Goodman, professor of molecular biology at the University of California, Berkeley, elaborates, "Th