The National Institutes of Health may be getting a healthy funding boost by year's end. Within the next couple of weeks, the US Senate is expected to debate a supplementary funding package that includes $500 million to NIH for 2008. Senate Committee on Appropriations chairman Robert Bryd (D- WVa) linkurl:introduced the supplement;http://appropriations.senate.gov/News/2008_07_31_Byrd_Comments_on_Second_Stimulus_Supplemental,_Releases_Details_of_Legislation.pdf?CFID=8566385&CFTOKEN=62920191 at t

Three researchers, linkurl:Victor Ambros,;http://www.umassmed.edu/faculty/show.cfm?faculty=1266 at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, linkurl:Gary Ruvkun,;http://www.hms.harvard.edu/dms/bbs/fac/ruvkun.html at Massachusetts General Hospital, and linkurl:David Baulcombe,;http://www.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/research/davidbaulcombe.html at the University of Cambridge in the UK, will share the 2008 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research for their discovery of microRNAs, the Albert and

A new bill seeks to undo the NIH mandate requiring federally-funded research papers to be made publicly available within 12 months of acceptance for publication. In a hearing yesterday (September 11) the US House Committee on the Judiciary considered whether the mandate violates publishers' copyright. The committee's chairman, John Conyers (D-Mich), sponsored the bill, linkurl:HR6845, titled the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act,;http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c110:H.R.6845: which wo

A government hearing set for next week will discuss a bill in the works that may address publishers' concerns with public access laws, according to the linkurl:Library Journal.;http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6593398.html?desc=topstory The House Committee on the Judiciary hearing is slated for September 11, according to the committee's linkurl:online schedule.;http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/legislation.html Although text for the legislation, entitled "Fair copyright in research wo

To ensure complete accuracy and fairness in determining the winners for the Life Science Industry Awards, The Scientist selected BioInformatics, an unbiased third-party research firm based in Arlington, Va. The Life Science Industry Awards are unique as they allow the scientists to determine the winners. BioInformatics designed and fielded a 34-question electronic survey to registered members of The Science Advisory Boar

John Porter Advocating science from inside the House By Andrea Gawrylewski © Jordan Domont In 1995 when the Republicans took over the US House of Representatives, times were tight for the Appropriations Subcommittee for Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, which allocates funds to the National Institutes of Health. Under a new budget resolution, the House budget committee told John Porter, then subcommittee chair, he needed to shave

Scientists' picks as their top suppliers of key instruments and services.

AstraZeneca's Karen Gotting-Smith is using a newly-created position to tackle some old problems.

Researchers have known for almost a decade that the linkurl:adult brain;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/52849/ produces new neurons. But a new study appearing yesterday (August 31) online in Nature Neuroscience gets a better look at what adult neurogenesis in two regions of the brain is actually for. "I think the conclusions are really groundbreaking," linkurl:Barbara Beltz,;http://www.wellesley.edu/Biology/Faculty/barbspersonal/Barb_personal.htm#research neuroscientist at Wellesley C

When it comes to matters of science, Republican US presidential hopeful John McCain is with his party on some issues, not quite on others. This week the Republican Party released linkurl:a draft of;http://www2.nationalreview.com/dest/2008/08/25/fulldraftaug25.pdf its 2008 platform, one that will be debated in the days leading up to the GOP convention in St Paul, Minnesota, starting Monday (September 1). Some of the party's points regarding science differ from the campaign points McCain has be

For the first time, researchers have converted fully-differentiated cells in vivo into another type of cell without first reprogramming them to a pluripotent state. The conversion of pancreatic exocrine cells into fully functioning linkurl:beta cells;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53256/ in living mice is described in a paper to be published tomorrow (August 28) in Nature. "This paper is an important milestone on the road that hopefully leads to the generation of new beta cells from

Over the past several weeks editors at The Scientist have received announcements from Allerca, the controversial company selling purportedly hypoallergenic cats, stating that some of their felines will be doubling in price this fall. According to a release sent out from the company last week, the price of the standard Allerca cat will go from $5,950 to $7,900 on September 1. But starting on November 1, the cost is skyrocketing to $15,000. The other cat breeds that Allerca sells are also going