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Between 38 000 and 115 000, say yesterday's press conferences on the human genome.

Does the mouse, biology's model mammal, mean the human genome race is still on?

Coloured cotton, a giant carp, Bt-resistant poplars - is anything holding Chinese biotechnology back? Yes, says Zhao Zhizen - a government that won't take any risks.

What's behind today's announcement of the first draft of the genome.

Graphic: Cathleen Heard Twenty years ago, venture capitalists knew little about biotechnology. The scientific community knew only a fraction more. "With respect to immune system hormones, not a single interleukin gene had been cloned by 1981. No cytokine had actually been purified to molecular homogeneity," writes Steven Gillis, chairman and CEO of Corixa Corp., a Seattle-based immunotherapeutics company.1 Gillis recollects that preclinical efficacy data in animals did not exist for the earliest

Editor's Note: On May 2, the National Academy of Sciences announced the election of 60 new members and 15 foreign associates from nine countries in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Nearly half of the new members are life scientists. In this article, The Scientist presents photographs of some of the new members and comments from a few of them on their careers and on past and current research. A full directory of NAS members can be found online a

Courtesy of Charles S. Hopkinson Jr.Brackish tidal marsh along the Plum Island estuary in northeastern Massachusetts Lessons learned decades ago resurfaced this spring when the National Research Council of the National Academies issued a report calling for a nationwide plan to combat the nitrogen and phosphorus pollution threatening U.S. coastal waters. Lesson one: Ecosystems are interdependent. Lesson two: Virtually every human being is part of the problem and can be part of the solution. "We

Acknowledging that it is important for medical schools to adapt educational programs to changes in the real world, Michael Whitcomb, senior vice president for medical education at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), explains, "Successful medical education will produce doctors who are effective practitioners." The AAMC is establishing three Medical School Objective Project (MSOP) expert panels on health care quality, clinical research, and basic science. The MSOP was started four

Model of an inhibitor targeted to g-secretase interacting with presenilin. The background shows an Alzheimer's brain that carried a presenilin mutation, with immunohistochemistry revealing abundant amyloid plaques (red-orange patches). For years researchers have been perplexed by the identity of g-secretase, an enzyme that cuts amyloid precursor protein (APP) into amyloid ß (Aß) fragments that form telltale plaques in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Now researchers from Merck Rese

Vical Inc.'s naked DNA nonviral delivery technology Even as gene transfer research endures criticism for inadequate clinical trial monitoring and underreporting of adverse events, the first several treatments are poised to enter final stages of development. Gene therapy for cancers of the skin and kidney, for severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) or "bubble boy" disease, and for hemophilia B, all have produced promising early clinical trial results, attendees were told during the American Soc

10 000 in its kitty aims to represent - and professionalize - rank-and-file British scientists.

The World Health Organisation (WHO)'s World Health Report for the year 2000 faces health ministries head on, and refuses to take their data for granted. Instead, it makes its own statistical analysis of how well 191 different national health systems are functioning. Tables cover a wide range of indicators, but summing up performance into a single measure, the report ranks the massively costly US system way down the list.WHO's Chris Murray