A news story in this week's Nature linkurl:reports;http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070910/full/449124b.html on problems with research that in the last quarter-century has spawned a controversial but influential theory in neurophysiology. According to the theory, neurotransmitter is released at the linkurl:synapse;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/15002/ in discrete vesicles, each containing approximately equal amounts of neurotransmitter, and with each synaptic bouton releasing just

After a linkurl:contentious;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/home/53480/ search, the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine on Friday named Australian stem cell research Alan Trounson as the new president of the institute. Trounson, director of the immunology and stem cell laboratories at Monash University, is a long-time expert in IVF and stem cell research and founder of the Australian Stem Cell Center. He has also started a handful of companies to commercialize stem cell research (a

According to a linkurl:news report;http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v449/n7159/full/449121a.html in today's Nature, Leszek Borysiewicz, a vaccinologist and deputy rector at Imperial College London, has been selected to become the chief executive of the UK Medical Research Council. Colin Blakemore, who has held the post since 2003, linkurl:plans;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/52932/ to step down at the end of this month. The changeover comes amidst a period of turbulence at the age

In July, The Scientist linkurl:reported;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53389/ on plans for a collaboration between NASA and NIH to conduct life science experiments aboard the International Space Station. Those plans, it seems, are taking off, with the two agencies holding a public signing at the Capitol tomorrow (Sept. 12) of a memorandum sealing the deal. The linkurl:release;http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/sep2007/od-10.htm from NIH does not specify projects for the collaboration, sayi

The UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on Friday released the findings of its investigation on the source of linkurl:last month's;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/53473/ foot and mouth disease outbreak that had been traced to three neighboring labs in Pirbright, Surrey, which worked with the virus. As we linkurl:reported;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53474/ at the time, original speculations faulted the site's drainage system, which, overwhelmed by heavy rains, could ha

The House of Representatives this afternoon approved a linkurl:bill;http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c110:2:./temp/~c110eyTziP:: outlining major changes to the patent process. Attempts at legislation reforming the system have been linkurl:brewing;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/15750/ for about five years, but biotech and pharma have vociferously protested some of the proposed changes. Chief among them is its proposal to reduce damages that can be demanded in infringement suit

An outbreak investigation of a Maine poultry vaccine facility concluded last week that a spill infected about a third of the facility's 74 employees with salmonella poisoning, according to a linkurl:notice;http://www.promedmail.org/pls/promed/f?p=2400:1001:10722522844908593057::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,39119 on ProMED-mail, an information service of the International Society for Infectious Diseases. The notice, also linkurl:published;http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/previe

J. Craig Venter, famed geneticist (and member of The Scientist's linkurl:editorial board;http://www.the-scientist.com/about/themagazine/editorialboard/ ) who this summer made headlines with the development of a technique for creating a linkurl:synthetic;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53341/ bacterial cell, once again hit the news with today's linkurl:publication;http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0050254 of his own genome in a paper

Related Articles Lab Tools: Bad virbation Passive vibrational isolation tables offer the most vibrational noise reduction for the price. They work on the same basic principle as the suspension of a car - though the wheels move up and down rapidly as you drive over a bumpy road, the spring supporting the mass of the cab keeps passengers from feeling the vertical bounce. Unlike air tables, in which air pumped into the system acts as the spring, and active tables, which use sensors and a

As of January 25, 2008, researchers conducting genome-wide association studies with NIH funding will be required to submit their data, stripped of information that could identify individual study participants, to the a linkurl:central repository;http://www.genome.gov/Pages/About/OD/OPG/GWASFR-082807.pdf at the National Library of Medicine. The database will allow researchers not connected with an original study to mine another lab?s data in search of further gene associations. linkurl:Plans;ht

Researcher falsified data while a postdoc at Dartmouth, according to ORI

The FDA yesterday linkurl:updated the label;http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2007/NEW01684.html on a widely used blood thinner, warfarin, to include information about how a patient's genes will linkurl:predict response;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/14864/ to the drug. Patients with certain genetic variations should receive a lower dose of the drug, according to the added text. Although a handful of drugs already note such genetic information on their labels, most of these are