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The University of Alberta's pre-eminence in The Scientist's postdoc survey came as little surprise to many of the institution's researchers. These scientists cited as particularly important the April 2003 opening of a campus postdoc office, which provides a wide range of training and support services. The new office has encouraged postdocs to attend sessions on teaching, communication, and leadership, with which science graduates all too often lack experience, says postdoc Sheryl Gares.Carlos Fl

Courtesy Sidarta RibeiroSleep, to the joy of nappers everywhere, appears to be a building time for memories. Researchers at the Duke University Medical Center successfully recorded the electric signature of individual neurons firing during the two types of sleep, slow-wave sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.The team, led by postdoc Sidarta Ribeiro, implanted microscale probes into rat forebrain to determine the firing patterns of individual neurons "resonating" with recently captured memor

James King-Holmes/Science Photo LibraryIn the world of life-extending therapies, a lobotomy doesn't sound like an attractive option, but for the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, destruction of particular sensory neurons can extend, or reduce, lifespan by as much as 30%. Joy Alcedo and Cynthia Kenyon at the University of California, San Francisco, have used a laser to kill individual neurons; they suggest that what may be happening to modify the lifespan of worms may also be at play in higher org

These papers were selected from multiple disciplines from the Faculty of 1000, a Web-based literature awareness tool http://www.facultyof1000.com.Q.L. Ying et al., "BMP induction of Id proteins suppresses differentiation and sustains embryonic stem cell self-renewal in collaboration with STAT3," Cell, 115:281–92, Oct. 31, 2003.Embryonic stem (ES) cells can be derived and propagated in the presence of bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) without serum or

Would popping daily citaloprams, I wonder, have restrained Jackie Kennedy's celebrated spending sprees and prevented the purported ensuing marital discord? How about a fluvoxamine prescription? Or natrexone? And what about publisher William Randolph Hearst who, at the peak of his purchasing power in the 1920s, spent $15 million a year? Even after achieving near bankruptcy, Hearst continued feeding his mania for antiquities, tapestries, oriental rugs, paintings, and other collectibles. Would medd

Genetics researchers welcome a decision that will make the gene freely available in Europe

Nat'l Institute of Standards and Technology director Arden Bement to be acting director

say lab chiefs threatening to quit en masse

The winners of £5 million worth of grants for basic and clinical neuroscience were announced by Britain's Medical Research Council (MRC) on Monday (February 9) as part of a push to strengthen the UK's position in the field.The 29 grants cover a wide variety of scientific approaches to address disorders such as depression, Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, Huntington disease, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder, the MRC said.Brain science is among the top areas of medical research in Bri

Female researchers in former communist states are plentiful, but kept out of the best jobs

der suggests

Greenpeace, Indian groups challenge company's rights to strain known as Nap Hal