By Charles Q. Choi Who's in Charge? What it takes to manage diversity. © JENNIFER TRENCHARD Ten years ago, a chief diversity officer or vice president of diversity was almost unheard of, but today about one in five Fortune 1000 companies have diversity ma

By Charles Q. Choi Getting Results You've started a diversity program. But how do you know if it's having any effect? Harvard Medical School has offered a voluntary diversity-training program every year since 2000. Immediately after each session, organizers asked how much volunteers liked learning about the importance of diversity for organizations. People

Double-stranded RNA is a warning flag to the cell, indicating the presence of a virus. In 2004, Takashi Fujita and colleagues at Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science identified an RNA-helicase, retinoic acid inducible gene I (RIG-I), as linking dsRNA and the interferon response.1 In the same year, Richard Randall at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and his group revealed that the V protein of paramyxoviruses short-circuits the interferon response by binding mda-5, a

Credit: © STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/PHOTO RESEARCHERS, INC" /> Credit: © STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/PHOTO RESEARCHERS, INC It?s a constant nagging problem, how cancers loaded with mutant proteins escape immune response. In 2004, Weiping Zou, now at the University of Michigan School of Medicine in Ann Arbor, and his colleagues showed that human ovarian tumors can recruit regulatory T cells to suppress other T cells.1 They do this by generating large amounts of the chemokine CCL22. Their findings poi

Rising temperatures cause worldwide genetic changes in Drosophila subobscura

Scientists have developed a tool to obtain embryonic stem cells from a single human embryo cell, apparently without harming the embryo

Credit: © KAREN KASMAUSKI/CORBIS" /> Credit: © KAREN KASMAUSKI/CORBIS HIV-1 is unable to replicate in Old World monkeys, even though it can enter their cells. In 2004, Joseph Sodroski at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and his colleagues identified the factor responsible. They transduced human cells with a complementary DNA (cDNA) library prepared from rhesus monkeys. Resistant cells commonly harbored cDNA for the cytoplasmic body component TRIM5α. The research revealed a

Counterintuitive findings could shed light on how proteins bind to DNA

Microbes may use electrically conductive nanowires to help transport electrons

Insertion-in-process provides firsthand look at how retroviruses get incorporated into genomes

Credit: © YORGAS NIKAS/PHOTO RESEARCHERS" /> Credit: © YORGAS NIKAS/PHOTO RESEARCHERS Scientists once believed that human embryonic stem cells were extraordinarily stable in culture. In 2004, Peter Andrews at the University of Sheffield, UK, and colleagues revealed definitive evidence that lines can develop chromosomal abnormalities.1 Sheffield's group discovered three independent human embryonic stem cell lines that gained chromosome 17q on five independent occasions,

Gene silencing causes marked behavior changes, may help map brain circuitry