"I'm all out of ideas," says hydrologist Mike Gooseff, still smiling despite his frustration.On a crisp, unusually warm and dry August afternoon on Alaska's North Slope, a few miles from the Toolik Lake Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) field station, a two-meter metal rod is wedged in pristine streambed, irretrievable despite nearly an hour of yanking, pushing, prodding, and countless Rube-Goldberg-like brainstorms. Someone had forgotten to slip on a metal piece that would give a jack enough

TAMARISK ASSESSMENT:Courtesy of James ClossFour sites in Colorado and Utah where joint USGS-NASA teams are conducting studies of the invasive species, tamarisk.While aerospace engineers at NASA's Goddard Laboratories, northeast of Washington, DC, look down from the heavens, ecologists at a neighboring United States Geological Survey (USGS) have a closer view. Scientists from these disparate fields, ecology and aerospace, have begun collaborating in hopes of stemming a huge and ever-growing invas

Nothing to be gained from restricting access to bioterror agent genomes, says report

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UNPRECEDENTED ACCESS:Courtesy of Fabrizio BenedettiDuring a deep brain stimulation clinical trial, researchers detected elements of the placebo effect. The pre-placebo neuron was recorded from the left subthalamic nucleus as a control. The post-placebo neuron was recorded from the right subthalamic nucleus. Other neurons demonstrated a similiar decrease in activity.Revealing the complexities of the pain experience may offer a window into the mind-body interaction. Several recent studies into the

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Delegates at a CSPI meeting dismayed at corporate influence, politicization of science

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FIRST BITE:Courtesy of CDC/Jim GathanyFemale Anopheles gambiae mosquito feeding.A decade ago, scientists around the world recognized that despite malaria's tremendous disease burden, research on the topic had stagnated. With funding at low levels, robust molecular biology tools numbered few. Today, genome sequences for Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite causing malaria, and for Anopheles gambiae, the mosquito that spreads it, have already fundamentally changed the research landscape. Plasmodium

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Brad FitzpatrickA group of slow-witted, mutant mice and a protein called RIM1α may provide insight into learning and memory mechanisms. University of Texas Southwestern researchers showed that knockout mice missing RIM1α, a presynaptic protein previously studied in vitro, performed worse at learning and memory tasks than did two other sets of genetically altered mice, each a mutant for proteins involved in neurotransmitter release.1The oft-studied molecular players in learning and memo