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Seven years after the last UK (Conservative) government 'White Paper' on science, Tony Blair's Labour administration will try to make its own marriage between science and government policy.

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are good for the poor and hungry, say seven national and international academies of science.

Contrary to much reporting in the West, China is having to pay attention to public concerns about biotechnology, says Zhao Zhizen, TV science broadcaster.

Robert Walgate asks: Do Thabo Mbeki's opening words at the 13th International AIDS Conference in Durban at the weekend justify the reported reaction?

Photo: John CalambokidisA blue whale diving off the coast of Northern California. Whales, dolphins, and seals seem to defy reality with every deep dive into the big blue. They descend tens to hundreds of meters and, despite limited oxygen, can stay submerged for 30 minutes or more. How they achieve these feats has mystified oceanic observers since physiological studies first began some 70 years ago. During the last several years, a team of researchers headed by Terrie M. Williams, profess

Exciting preclinical data have led scientists to a search for a "bypass in a test tube," a drug that stimulates the growth of blood vessels. However, efforts in the past year to stimulate angiogenesis in patients have been discouraging. "We need to go back to the lab and do some more preclinical experiments and gain a better understanding of the mechanism," says Napoleone Ferrara of the department of molecular oncology at Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, Calif. When the leg or heart a

Career Development Advice "Every research scientist needs to develop leadership skills." This was the take-home message of a breakfast seminar cosponsored by The Scientist and Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute for attendees of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology/American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics meeting in Boston, June 6. The seminar panel consisted of Michelle Graham, director of leadership development and strategic plan

Graphic: Cathleen Heard Results of two studies from the Johns Hopkins Children's Center challenge accepted medical practice of "sex reassignment"--surgically converting XY males with absent or minuscule penises into anatomical females, then raising them as girls. The investigations, which are the first to go beyond individual case reports, reveal outcomes that are remarkably consistent with rare instances of infants who lost their penises in accidents and who were reassigned as females. Both cli

Photo courtesy of David G. Kingston From left, Kim Wright; a tribal healer (name unknown); and Frits Van Troon, a Suriname ethnobotanist, examine a medicinal plant. In his new book, Medicine Quest,1 ethnobotanist Mark J. Plotkin describes a plant that forest dwellers in Suriname, on the northern coast of South America, call nekoe. They crush its stems and sprinkle them on streams to stun fish. The local Maroons, who are descendants of 17th century slaves of the Dutch, claim that tapirs eat neko

Europe's forest area is expanding by half a million hectares a year, enough to cover Belgium in six years or Switzerland in eight, according to a joint report of the Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN Economic Commission for Europe.Moreover, claims the report, temperate and boreal forests absorb about as much carbon every year as is released by tropical deforestation, thus slowing the speed of climate change.The report covers the forest resources of not only Europe, but also the Commo

The General Medical Council promises reform.

"The illegal wildlife trade is the third biggest form of smuggling from Latin America, after the illegal smuggling of drugs and arms" says a Colombian expert. And now genetic material can be "hidden under your nail".