Twenty-two leaders from the British biotech sector pleaded for a government bailout yesterday (Dec. 4) to save the industry's "survival and future viability" in the face of the global financial crisis. The dossier sent to the UK government called for two funds, each worth over £500 ($730) million. One would help smaller companies consolidate, with grants between £10 ($14.6) to £40 ($58) million; the other would give biotechs up to £100 ($146) million to fund acquisitions an

Tenured professors who were given the pink slip last week by the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston said they felt "shocked" and "betrayed" by the action, and have been given little rationale for why they were singled out, and little direction on what to do until they leave. In total, the medical school fired more than 3,000 people -- around one-third of its total staff, including 83 tenured and tenure track faculty and 44 non-tenure track researchers -- after Hurricane Ike

A Texas stem cell researcher falsified data by mucking around with her results in Photoshop, according to an Office of Research Integrity (ORI) linkurl:ruling.;http://ori.dhhs.gov/misconduct/cases/Gu.shtml Peili Gu, a postdoc in linkurl:Austin Cooney's;http://www.bcm.edu/star/?PMID=3007 lab at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston, Texas from 2000 to 2007, falsified images in three papers that investigated the role of the germ cell nuclear factor on the expression of pluripotency genes in

An association representing faculty members at 85 University of Texas institutions is suing university officials on behalf of more than 3,000 University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) employees given the pink slip last week in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. "[The University of Texas officials] had a predetermined agenda that had nothing to do with Ike" that included efforts to privatize universities and weaken the tenure process, Tom Johnson, executive director of the linkurl:Texas Faculty Ass

Researchers have discovered an electrifying love story in the turbid rivers of the lower Congo rapids. Elephant-nosed electric fish find and recognize their mates through crackling communications, according a study published today (Nov. 25) in__ linkurl:Biology Letters.;http://publishing.royalsociety.org/index.cfm?page=1566 Campylomormyrus__ elephant-nosed fish have a specialized muscular organ that emits millivolt-strength electric signals -- too weak for humans to much notice but powerful eno

A Canadian competition celebrates science teachers with a flair for the dramatic

Ministers from more than 60 developing world nations called for urgent action to improve health research this week, although it's unclear what on-the-ground changes will actually be made. Governments should invest 2% of their linkurl:health budgets;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54025/ on research and engage further with the private sector, the ministers said at the closing event of the three-day__ linkurl:Global Ministerial Forum on Research for Health;http://www.bamako2008.org/

The British government and the pharmaceutical industry have struck a deal to allow flexible drug pricing arrangements, a scheme which could shave millions of pounds off the total amount that the government-funded National Health Service (NHS) pays for drugs, according to the linkurl:BBC.;http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7737027.stm Under the agreement, companies can introduce new drugs to the NHS formulary at lower initial prices, with the option of charging more if the meds prove effective. T

The __Journal of Experimental Biology__ (JEB) has issued the first retraction in its 85 year history, the journal reported in an linkurl:editorial;http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/211/23/3651 and a linkurl:retraction;http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/211/23/3764 notice in its December 1 issue. Although the authors' institution told JEB their reuse of images was a careless error, the journal's editor-in-chief called it a case of outright fraud. The linkurl:retracted paper;http

Novel genes, rather than regulatory DNA, underlie the evolution of morphological traits, according to research published today (Nov. 17) in __PLoS Biology__. The new linkurl:study;http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0060278 reports that genes found in simple freshwater animals -- but not in any other evolutionary lineage -- can drive changes in body plan, and stokes the flames of a long-standing debate among evolutionary developmental biologist

Cellular stress during replication induces many small deletions and duplications in the genome, adding fuel for human diversity and disease, researchers reported today (Nov. 13) at the __American Society of Human Genetics__ linkurl:meeting;www.ashg.org/2008meeting/ in Philadelphia. Replication stress is known to be hazardous for the cell, and is thought to contribute to ageing and cancer. But exactly how stress causes DNA damage has remained unclear. Last year, a team led by linkurl:Thomas Glo

Geneticists step out of research role to raise funds for cancer