How does cage enrichment affect rodents? 

By Alla Katsnelson Audrey Dussutour: Insect Traffic Cop © Julie Cerise Audrey Dussutour never had a special fondness for ants, but over the last decade, she’s gotten to know them very well—especially their propensity to act as a single organism though hundreds or thousands of individuals may comprise a single colony. “It’s fascinating, because it works exactly opposite to humans—there&

A new government body should be formed to oversee the increasing number of high-containment laboratories that work with dangerous pathogens, according to a linkurl:Government Accountability Office (GAO) report;http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09574.pdf released yesterday (September 21). Bacillus anthracis Image:P Paul Keim, linkurl:CDC EID,;http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol10no1/03-0238.htm via WikipediaIn the report, the GAO pointed out that such laboratories have proliferated since 2001; in 200

Altus Pharmaceuticals, a 17-year-old Boston-area biotech whose struggle for survival we linkurl:profiled last month,;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55882/ will join the boneyard of companies that have not made it through the current economic crisis. Yellow stickers in the company's lab mark equipment to be sold"Very simply, we have not been able to secure financing," Georges Gemayel, Altus's CEO, told The Scientist this morning. The company announced in a linkurl:Securities and Ex

What happens in the far corners of the animal kingdom when no one is looking? A lot, as you might imagine. Armadillos scamper, tripod fish sit at the bottom of the ocean, waiting for prey to pass by, laughing kookaburras nest in gum trees. And you can watch it all from the comfort of your cubicle at a recently launched online museum called the linkurl:Museum of Animal Perspectives.;http://www.sameasterson.com/map "I feel like if people see this footage -- because it's so immersive -- they

By Alla Katsnelson Transcription Surprise A strange finding sparks a closer look at this fundamental process. An enzyme separating two strands of DNA © Nucleus Medical Art, Inc / Phototake / Images.com According to the textbook model of gene transcription, the process is sparked by the recruitment of RNA polymerase II (Pol II) to a gene’s promoter. But a 2007 Cell paper from Richard Young’s lab at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Mass.,

Clinical trial registries -- set up in the last few years to ensure trial data see the light of day -- are a long ways from correcting the problem, says linkurl:a report;http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/302/9/977?home to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) tomorrow (September 2). Image: Wikimedia Commons "This sort of evidence is disappointing, I think," said linkurl:Ian Roberts,;http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/people/roberts.ian a professor of epidemiology an

Researchers from the J. Craig Venter Institute have developed a technique for generating modified strains of bacteria with novel, genetically engineered properties, they report online today (August 20) in Science. The advance could help scientists tweak microorganisms to more efficiently produce biofuels, the researchers say. Modified M. Mycoides Image: The J. Craig Venter Institute "I think it's an important and interesting advance," said linkurl:James Collins,;http://www.bu.edu/abl/ a bioen

Confusion over an upcoming cardiology conference in Shanghai has forced registered scientists and clinicians to fight for reimbursements, including one who faced more than $2000 in spurious credit card charges he suspects are related to the conference. Image: Wikimedia Commons"This is the strangest thing that I've ever been involved in -- it's very weird," said linkurl:C. Richard Conti,;http://www.medicine.ufl.edu/cardio/cr_conti.asp a professor of cardiology at the University of Florida and ed

Research stations in Antarctica are sullying the pristine environment by improperly disposing of sewage waste, reports linkurl:a study;http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121413758/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 published this month in Polar Research. Downtown McMurdo Station Image: Wikimedia Commons via linkurl:Flickr;http://www.flickr.com/photos/elisfanclub/tags/mcmurdo/ The study found that more than half of the research stations that operate on the continent lack sewage systems to prop

Icelandic biotech deCODE Genetics may become another casualty of tough economic times. The company linkurl:announced today;http://tinyurl.com/rcf3pb (August 11) that it has only $3.8 million dollars left in its coffers -- enough to fund operations "into the latter half of the third quarter," which in Iceland runs through September. In a conference call this morning, the company said it was restructuring its business, dropping its medicinal chemistry and structural biology operations, and inste

Around noon on a sunny Wednesday in mid-May, 25 or so employees of the Waltham, Mass-based biotech linkurl:Altus Pharmaceuticals;http://www.altus.com/ are unwrapping their offerings for a company-wide potluck; orzo salad, meatballs, curried cauliflower, chicken wings, fancy fruits, and an assortment of sweets soon cover a long table by the kitchen's window. "What is this, the last supper?" quips Nazer Khalaf, a small, round-faced man with a salt and pepper moustache, and at 15 years, Altus's mo