Credit: COURTESY OF TASER INTERNATIONAL" /> Credit: COURTESY OF TASER INTERNATIONAL A few years ago, John Webster heard that the US Department of Justice was looking for applications to study the possibility of a link between Tasers and ventricular fibrillation. Amnesty International has claimed that 70 people in the United States have died in association with Tasers since 2001, and "there was an allegation that the heart was getting electrocuted," says Webster, a professor

Race to understand mammalian longevity marries SIRT1 to FOXO

Credit: © PASIEKA/PHOTO RESEARCHERS, INC." /> Credit: © PASIEKA/PHOTO RESEARCHERS, INC. Mutations in mitochondrial DNA have long been suspected as a culprit in aging. But whether these mutations are a cause or a result of aging has been debatable. In 2004, work from Nils-Göran Larsson's group at the Karolinska Institute suggested that mitochondrial mutations indeed promote aging, and a new debate has since arisen.Larsson's group engineered mice to carry an error-prone mitochondri

The last thing McGill University professor Brian Alters expected upon opening a letter late in March was to see his latest $40,000 Canadian ($36,400 US) grant rejected for not providing enough evidence to support a theory he'd made a career of defending: evolution. Alters had applied for funds from Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) to study the effect of intelligent design debates in the United States on Canadian students, teachers, administrat

Open access publisher increases publication charge by up to $1,000

The Nobel laureate and icon in the field of peptide synthesis was 84

Complaints dismissed against whistleblower who critiqued alternative medicine research

Government request to cancel scientist's talk on climate novel raises questions over Canada's political mood on climate change.

The fall and rise (and fall) of a pharmacogenetics poster child

Health Canada decision raises debate over cost-saving of electronic journals

Study and media report spark debate over whether pollution is altering sex ratios in Ontario.

International consortium publishes most comprehensive catalog of human genetic variation to date