The Scientist - Home

Decision could see use of embryonic stem cells barred across Europe.

Technique used to craft new H5N1 vaccine could speed development for all new strains.

Britain's regulatory authority rules out explosion in the production of designer babies.

Security specialist proposes international regulation of potentially dangerous research.

New head of UK gene bank project tries to woo critics.

Budget hearing raises still unresolved management and funding disparities

Microbiologists told their talks with the agency about data-sharing will be secret

Courtesy of Steven Rock HEADING OFF RUNOFF: Trees planted in Amana, Iowa, to protect stream from agricultural run-off Humankind has passed a remarkable environmental milestone: People now consume more of Earth's natural resources than the planet can replace.1 In light of this, pollution abatement technologies, coupled with development of renewable energy resources, seem destined to become big business during the 21st century. What is unfolding is a multidisciplinary, biology-led wave of

Snapshot | Married to Science  Click for larger version (40K) And some even like it Of the 308 surveyed readers of The Scientist who are married or in long-term relationships, 36% have scientists as partners, 8% working together in the lab. More than 100 respondents commented on such an arrangement--most are enthusiastic, or at least content with their lot. Most who work with their scientist partners extol the benefits of cooperation and mutual understanding. Said one: "It's great to

Credit in science is not always distributed fairly. The losers are often graduate students or people otherwise in no position to protest. Among the most egregious examples, in my view, was the 1974 Nobel physics prize for the discovery of pulsars which was awarded to Anthony Hewish even though the radio-emitting objects had been first discovered, and their stellar nature verified, by his graduate student Jocelyn Bell Burnell.1 Feminists have made much of the case of Rosalind Franklin, whose

Foundations | DNA Base Pairs, and Erwin Chargaff  Click for larger version (32K) Erwin Chargaff's groundbreaking research, which showed that DNA base pairs had a complementary relationship, laid the foundation for James Watson's and Francis Crick's DNA model. When word spread that Watson and Crick had solved the structure, Chargaff wrote to Maurice Wilkins, who worked with Rosalind Franklin at Kings' College, London--and who later received the Nobel Prize, along with Watson and Crick.

Genaissance deal illustrates stark outlook for basic researchers