WHY X Y? Cloning is not just for females anymore. The same University of Hawaii researchers that cloned 50 healthy female mice a year ago (T. Wakayama et al., "Full-term development of mice from enucleated oocytes injected with cumulus cell nuclei," Nature, 394:369-74, July 23, 1998) recently reported the first-ever cloning of an adult male mouse (T.W. Wakayama, R. Yanagimachi, "Cloning of male mice from adult tail-tip cells," Nature Genetics, 22:127-8, June 1999). Named "Fibro" after the fibro

Ah, the privileged life of a salamander. Chop off a limb, and within days a new one grows in its place. In recent years, scientists have become increasingly interested in tracing the molecular origins of this seemingly magical ability. By harnessing the mechanisms involved in a number of animal models, researchers hope to one day grow a variety of new human tissues in place of the old or defective, thereby supplanting the need for less "natural" remedies such as bionic limbs or organ transplant

The Penrose-Hameroff Orch OR model places the essential aspect of consciousness at the level of quantum computation in microtubules within the brain's neurons. "Tubulin" proteins comprising microtubules can switch between states ("bits") and also be in quantum superposition of both states simultaneously ("protein qubits"). In the last several years, books, papers, and conferences have, with varying degrees of success, attempted to link the once-strange bedfellows of science and conscio

The Penrose-Hameroff Orch OR model places the essential aspect of consciousness at the level of quantum computation in microtubules within the brain's neurons. "Tubulin" proteins comprising microtubules can switch between states ("bits") and also be in quantum superposition of both states simultaneously ("protein qubits"). In the last several years, books, papers, and conferences have, with varying degrees of success, attempted to link the once-strange bedfellows of science and consciou

A mouse in which vitiligo has been induced as part of a recent NCI study. When the subjects of experimental melanoma vaccine studies lose pigment in their skin after receiving treatment, few of them seem to mind. They overlook the cosmetically undesirable side effect because it's an excellent prognostic sign. For about 20 years, cancer research immunologists have known that some patients with melanoma develop vitiligo, an autoimmune disease--or, as some investigators contend, a complex of dis

When Herbert Boyer of the University of California and Stanley Cohen of Stanford University found a way to recombine DNA molecules in test tubes using restriction enzymes,1 they crossed the ultimate milestone in genetic engineering in the early 1970s. They also set the stage for a firestorm of controversy. Scientists and nonscientists feared that the new technology could be used to create hazardous biological materials. Could, for example, pathogenic genes cloned into E.coli plasmids transform

Bioethics is "definitely a growth industry," says Norman Fost. So you want to be a bioethicist. Join the rather crowded, ever-growing club. Bioethics centers and programs continue to proliferate as doctors, lawyers, and persons of every conceivable background remain intrigued by issues ranging from human cloning to managed health care. As Arthur Caplan, the director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, puts it, bioethics has moved from "infancy into adolescence." Th

NHGRI director Francis Collins speaks with students after participating in a panel discussion at Princeton's student-run bioethics conference. How might undergraduate students interested in discussing bioethics with the top people in the field get science superstars such as Francis Collins and Ian Wilmut to show up at their doorstep? Simple: E-mail them and ask. At least that's what worked for the group of Princeton University undergraduates who orchestrated the first-ever student-run nationa

The Joint Steering Committee for Public Policy (JSC), a coalition of four basic biomedical research societies whose mission is to advocate federal funding for basic biomedical research, has asked scientists to respond to a recently proposed Fiscal Year 1999 Freedom of Information Act provision. The seemingly minor addition to last year's omnibus budget bill threatens to have a negative impact on scientific research (E. Russo, "Does accountability legislation threaten integrity of U.S. research

With private sector sequencing efforts nipping at its heels, the consortium directing the international Human Genome Project recently pushed up the deadline for completing a "working draft" of the human genetic blueprint from December 2001 to spring 2000. A "final draft" of the genome, with gaps closed and errors corrected, is scheduled for completion by 2003.1 The new deadline is based on a recent successfully completed three-year pilot phase of the project. Scientists will construct a worki

Be prepared. That was essentially the take-home message of a mid-February conference on bioterrorism held in Crystal City, Va., and sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the American Society for Microbiology. Conference speakers addressed the following: Could a bioterrorist attack occur in the United States? The answer: absolutely--in fact, the chances are pretty good, given

Particle physicists use massive accelerators to push the theoretical envelope; astronomers use increasingly high-powered telescopes to inch farther into the universe. But scientists specializing in biodiversity have decided that to better understand the planet's known organisms, as well as their habitats and ecosystems, they don't need a mammoth physical structure. Instead, many advocate a vast virtual facility that would compile and catalog detailed data sets on the billions of living things s