I never met Stephen Jay Gould, though I did attend a lecture he gave two years ago. Still, that hour explained many of the opinions I'd heard of him: love, hate, joy, envy, and respect. Like a lot of people who make a difference, Gould was a study in contrasts. You also had to wonder whether he ran according to a different clock than the rest of us. The campy cliché 24/7 didn't apply to Gould—he could not have fit so much in a 24-hour day and a 60-year life. Gould was first and forem

When President George W. Bush signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act into law early this year, he came close to penning his approval to a provision that many scientists say would have opened the door to antievolution lessons in America's classrooms. Congress passed the new law, which overhauls federal primary and high school education mandates including testing requirements, after a joint conference committee resolved differences between House and Senate versions of the bill. The Sen

An article in a recent issue of the Wall Street Journal questioned whether forensics courses belong in the elementary and high school curricula.1 Teachers and forensics professionals are promoting the subject because it exemplifies the kind of evidence-based, objective investigation that permeates science. It also captures the attention of students weaned on TV crime stories. Burlington, NC-based Carolina Biological Supply Co. is helping out with several forensics packages, including kits on DNA

I got a letter from the Sierra Club not long after the 2000 election, sandwiched between the usual bills. In an envelope ominously marked "priority," the granddaddy of environmental groups pleaded for "an emergency contribution of $75." Why the crisis? According to the Sierra Club, George W. Bush was going to "sacrifice our natural treasures, air, and water for the profits of special interests." The new regime in Washington was "very bad news for the environment." Sorry; while the administratio

On April 4, Nature sent ripples through the scientific community and the popular press by admitting it made a mistake. In an unprecedented action, editor Philip Campbell concluded in the journal's online version that "evidence available is not sufficient to justify publication" of a paper that appeared in the Nov. 29, 2001 issue. It wasn't exactly a retraction, but it was close. Along with its statement, Nature published two rebuttals to the original paper, plus a response from authors David Qui

A study group appointed by the 5,200-member Society of Toxicology, based in Reston, Va., recently issued a draft position paper affirming the safety of foods made from genetically modified (GM) crops. If approved by the society's full membership and council, the report should make biotech enthusiasts happy: It supports key principles governing federal regulatory policy and nixes pet arguments made by the technology's critics. The draft report was posted on a 'members only' page of the society'

Amorphophallus titanum—the botanical mouthful is the Latin name for Titan arum, a Sumatran cousin of the common philodendron. Unlike the diminutive houseplant, Titan lives up to its label by producing giant leaves more than 20 feet long and 50 feet around. Only one leaf appears each growing season, springing from an underground storage organ, or tuber, that can weigh more than 100 pounds. The tropical Titan doesn't do sex very often—just a few times in its 40-year life span—but

The Ames, Iowa-based Council for Agricultural Science and Technology recently issued a report on the dangers posed by invasive pests to agriculture, public health, and natural ecosystems. A six-member task force co-chaired by Don Huber of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., and Martin Hugh-Jones of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, documented research on the problem and recommended how to alleviate it. "If a pest can enter the United States, over time, it will find a way here, s

The US National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), the repository for protein and gene sequences at the National Library of Medicine, now offers links to Internet sites for users interested in more than just nucleotides, amino acids, and protein structure. The system, called LinkOut, expands the biological relevance of NCBI's molecular information by allowing scientists to tap into ancillary subjects such as taxonomy, medicinal applications, and crop cultivation. It also pulls in off-s

Besides music, Jack Daniels, and the color orange, Tennessee also signifies opposition to evolution in the minds of many people, especially biologists. By banning the teaching of evolution in its schools, the state set the stage for the famous Scopes monkey trial in 1925, which pitted two giants of American history, William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow, in a battle immortalized in books and film. The public controversy over evolution continues to this day, to the consternation of the vast

The National Science Foundation gave young investigators interested in plant genomics a New Year's present: money, in the form of a research grant competition just for them. In a statement released on Dec. 28, 2001, Mary Clutter, assistant director of NSF's Biological Sciences Directorate, said the program, called YIA-PGR, "seeks to increase participation of young scientists in [NSF's] plant genome research, especially those at institutions that have not participated in its plant genome research

Scientists don't put much stock in the popular press. They think reporters do a miserable job covering science, either inflating a story beyond reality or just getting it wrong. Who can forget the now infamous cancer cure story on page one of the Sunday New York Times four years ago. The news that, in James Watson's reported words, "Judah [Folkman] is going to cure cancer in two years," sent desperate patients running to their oncologists and argumentative science writers logging into chat rooms