Biochemist earned a Nobel for synthesizing DNA in a test tube

A science journalist and university president are trading barbs this week over the administrator's less-than-glowing book review in Nature. Last week, Nature published a linkurl:letter;http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v449/n7164/full/449781b.html from science policy journalist Daniel Greenberg, who linkurl:criticized;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/24892/ the review of his latest book in the journal. (Greenberg linkurl:spoke to us;http://www.the-scientist.com/podcasts/thew

James Watson is immediately stepping down as chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. The move follows days of linkurl:public criticism;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/53712/ of his remarks to a UK newspaper that people of African descent are less intelligent. "Closer now to 80 than 79, the passing on of my remaining vestiges of leadership is more than overdue," he said in a statement released this morning. "The linkurl:circumstances;http://www.the-scientis

James Watson is coming under fire for telling the Sunday Times that he believed people of African descent are less intelligent. Yesterday (October 17), Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (where Watson is Chancellor) Board of Trustees and President Bruce Stillman released a statement distancing the center from one of its most vocal representatives. Watson's comments "are his own personal statements and in no way reflect the mission, goals, or principles of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's

Bruce Flamm, a doctor and former research chairman is being sued for defamation by Kwang Yul Cha, the co-author of a 2001 paper that showed couples who were prayed for (but didn't know it) were more likely to conceive during in vitro fertilization. Flamm has linkurl:publicly criticized the paper;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/15149/ for years, arguing it was too implausible to be believed. The lawsuit was a complete surprise, Flamm told me today. "I never would have dream

We'll all find out who takes this year's Nobel Prizes the morning they do (sometime next week), but there are some early predictions. Thomson Scientific predicts this year's linkurl:Prize for Physiology or Medicine;http://scientific.thomson.com/nobel/med/ will go to linkurl:Fred H. Gage;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/12172/ (adult neurogenesis); Joan Massague (action of growth factor beta); and R. John Ellis, F. Ulrich Hartl, and linkurl:Arthur Horwich;http://www.the-scientist.com

This in from news editor Alla Katsnelson: At a congressional hearing on linkurl:biosafety;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53626/ today (October 4), the Government Accountability Office reported that the federal government doesn't know how many labs are involved in biosafety level 3 and level 4 work, or where those labs are. Although labs working with certain "select agents" are under the oversight of the CDC, labs working with other pathogens such as SARS or Hantavirus a

AAAS's search committee doesn't plan to get going until next year

An interesting news release from the NIH landed in my inbox Tuesday (September 18). The headline said the agency "Announces Plan to Implement President's linkurl:Stem Cell;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/36654/ Executive Order." I know, I know -- the linkurl:executive order;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53059/ came six years ago. But apparently, now the agency is taking new steps -- for instance, asking for grant applications to study non-embryonic sources of

The Association of American Publishers' campaign against open access has angered one member of an AAP division so much that he has resigned, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. James D. Jordan, president and director of Columbia University Press, linkurl:told;http://chronicle.com/news/article/3009/university-press-leader-quit-publishers-panel-over-anti-open-access-campaign The Chronicle yesterday that he had resigned from the Executive Council of the AAP's Professional and S

South Korean universities are apparently cracking down on research fraud following the admission by several high-profile Korean scientists (led by linkurl:Woo Suk Hwang;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/22933/ at Seoul National University) that they fabricated findings that they derived embryonic stem cells from cloned human embryos. linkurl:According to;http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/tech_view.asp?newsIdx=9907&categoryCode=133 The Korean Times, 96 public and private Korean l

The linkurl:National Postdoctoral Association;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/13511/ is only four years old, but is already weighing in on serious issues in science. Last week, I received a linkurl:white paper;http://www.nationalpostdoc.org/atf/cf/%7B89152E81-F2CB-430C-B151-49D071AEB33E%7D/IPC%20WHITE%20PAPER%20letterhead.pdf from the NPA suggesting the US make changes to linkurl:visa requirements;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/53418/ for foreign-born postdocs. The gr