Anyone get an Email that looks like it's from Elsevier, asking for papers? Only, it's not really Elsevier, and you shouldn't click on any of the links. The Email, entitled "Elsevier: Building insights; breaking boundaries" and signed by Peter Throwher (Prof.), asks researchers to submit manuscripts in "all fields of human Endeavor." The message is quite bizarre in spots. "Papers submitted will be sorted out and published in any of our numerous journals that best

In an effort to keep good peer reviewers coming back, the National Institutes of Health is letting "permanent" reviewers, who typically serve for four years on chartered study sections, submit their own R01, R21, and R34 grant applications at any time, disregarding standard deadlines. NIH spokesman Don Luckett told me the agency decided to adopt the change after receiving feedback from long-term reviewers that their service put them at a disadvantage by requiring them to review applications whi

It's the first day of voting today in Iowa, and a perfect time to talk about...science? So says a linkurl:group of scientists;http://www.sciencedebate2008.com/www/index.php?id=2 who have joined Sciencedebate2008, now urging the candidates for US president to linkurl:debate their stance;http://www.the-scientist.com/2007/12/1/22/1/ on the environment, medicine, and science policy. This debate is vital, they argue, "given the many linkurl:urgent scientific and technological challenges;http://www.

In case you missed this over the holiday, former Medical Research Council head Colin Blakemore was denied knighthood by the UK, where news reports have attributed the decision to his support of animal research. In 2003, Blakemore was also linkurl:denied knighthood;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/21915/ for a similar reason. The snub smarts, especially since the chief of the MRC would normally automatically be granted a knighthood. That year, Blakemore threatened to resign as MRC he

It's the end of the year, so time to count the number of pennies the NIH has doled out in the last 12 months. Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News linkurl:published a list;http://www.genengnews.com/news/bnitem.aspx?name=28380062 of the top 20 PIs of the year, and Barton F. Haynes at Duke University ($46,482,429) sits at the top of that pyramid. The best-funded institutions were Johns Hopkins University ($566,516,255) and the University of Pennsylvania ($434,874,723). The list is some

In case you have never attended an open house workshop at the NIH's Center for Scientific Review, in which people who participate in NIH peer review gather to discuss how the process is going and could improve, here's how it typically goes: Tuesday morning (December 18), about 80 stakeholders such as study section leaders in the Biomolecular group (about one-sixth of the entire CSR) gathered in a large auditorium of the Natcher Building on the NIH campus to consider two questions. 1. W

For Bruce Alberts, the week Science linkurl:announced;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54026/ he would be the journal's new chief editor was, decidedly, "hectic." Already, "I've got a lot of people sending me advice on how Science magazine could be improved," he told me Wednesday (December 19). His response: Bring it on. "A thousand minds are better than ten," he said, so he's going to be collecting suggestions from all corners about ways to improve t

Bruce Alberts' colleagues are -- not surprisingly -- celebrating his decision to be the 18th editor-in-chief of Science, which the journal announced Monday (December 17). "I don't think [the journal] could have picked a better person," Peter Walter, chairman of the department of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, told The Scientist. The announcement followed months of speculation, during which Alberts' name linkurl:emerged;http://www

I just received a call from Science - the new editor in chief is Bruce Alberts. The journal made him the offer, and he accepted over the weekend. Alberts will assume his duties March 1. Current editor-in-chief Don Kennedy will remain in the position until then. AAAS spokesperson Ginger Pinholster said I was the first call she made with the news. Alberts was linkurl:one of many names;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53603/ that surfaced during the months of speculation over who woul

This year's ASCB conference honored a series of short films about science

There's an interesting "P.S." to the story of James Watson's early retirement after public outcry when he told a UK newspaper that he believed people of African ancestry were less intelligent - he has 16 times more genes of African origin than the average Caucasian. The company deCODE Genetics performed the analysis using Watson's entire genome, which he linkurl:released publicly;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/53415/ this year. "This level is what you wou

I absolutely cannot resist blogging about this - the web site "Oddee," which linkurl:describes itself;http://www.oddee.com/item_90683.aspx as a "blog on the oddities of our world," has listed the 10 most bizarre scientific papers. Obviously, some experiments make the list that could be termed "life science" - including, for example, a 1992 analysis of the linkurl:effect of country music;http://www.uta.edu/depken/ugrad/3318/music-suicide.pdf on suicide rates, detailed cal