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Slow synaptic transmission grabs the Nobel for Physiology or Medicine.

Collapsing toilets, levitating frogs, and acrobats making love in a magnetic resonance imager: Now who says scientists take themselves too seriously?

Mutual suspicion and hostility in South Africa is dogging strong, practical interventions against AIDS, says UNAIDS chief.

Recent work implicating a single gene in a population with a complex disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, could represent a shift in the study of genetic diseases.

Fear of legal action is hobbling research into a key AIDS threat, which may quadruple the numbers infected with HIV in China.

Excerpts from Rita Colwell's interview with The Scientist.This interview was not published in the print edition. Q. Is biocomplexity your own idea? A. The biocomplexity initiative was begun at NSF after I arrived, building on programs already instituted, such as Life in Extreme Environments. The fundamental and underlying principle is that we must move from strictly reductionist research to research that synthesizes information and work toward a holistic approach to understanding and wisely m

Times are difficult for researchers using human subjects. Over the past few years the federal Office for the Prevention of Research Risk has temporarily lifted the authority of a number of prestigious institutions to do such research. They included, according to the Office of Human Research Protection, OPRR's successor agency, Duke University Medical Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Rush Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, and the

Bill Marx, Harpo Marx's son, makes a "Harpo" face for Justin Ybarra, a patient at the Mattel UCLA Children's Hospital during the Rx Laughter advisory board tour in April. It Came from Hollywood If the scientific community at large was hesitating, the idea that laughter could help heal began emerging on other fronts. Rx Laughter actually came straight from Hollywood, the brainstorm of Sherry Dunay Hilber, a former ABC and CBS network programming executive who oversaw such hit sitcoms as Home Im

At a Sept. 11 meeting of the Royal Society of London, convened to discuss the origin of HIV/AIDS, researchers aired scientific data showing that the hypothesis that HIV/AIDS originated from an experimental oral polio vaccine had no scientific merit. The hypothesis was popularized by journalist Edward Hooper in his 1999 book, The River,1 and supported by the late evolutionary biologist William Hamilton. It states that a type of oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) called CHAT, produced by Hilary Koprows

Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in collaboration with international researchers, recently announced one of the first studies using the completed sequence of a human chromosome to localize, identify, and explain the function of a disease-causing gene. According to John A. Martignetti, of the departments of human genetics and pediatrics, Mount Sinai Medical School, and one of the project's researchers, working with a 112-plus member Italian family with the inherited bleeding disorder known as May-

Photo: Susan L. EggertSo much rain fell on North Carolina during the 1999 hurricanes that the water that normally stays in the sound for about a year flushed out to sea in only two months. Has Pamlico Sound become another 'Dead Zone,' a twin of the infamous dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico?1 According to researchers tracking water quality in the sound over the past year, the answer is a resounding "No." One year ago, three hurricanes--Dennis, Floyd, then Irene--slammed into the North Caro

White blood cells can cause costly complications following transfusions; the US and Germany are joining the list of countries requiring filtration of donor blood to remove them.