A Channel at Large What is the mechanotransduction channel in hearing that has evaded scientists for decades? 

Two economists from the University of Chicago won the linkurl:Eugene Garfield Economic Impact of Medical and Health Research Award;http://www.researchamerica.org/outreach/garfieldaward.html this month, given out by the advocacy group Research!America. linkurl:Tomas Philipson;http://harrisschool.uchicago.edu/faculty/web-pages/tomas-philipson.asp and linkurl:Anupam Jena;http://www.rand.org/economics/jena.html looked at how much consumers save and companies profit from the development of life-exten

Findings may help explain reverse heartbeats in Drosophila

This afternoon I was corresponding electronically with linkurl:Joshua Schimel,;http://www.lifesci.ucsb.edu/eemb/faculty/schimel/ a professor in the department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, about a story on climate change. He mentioned that last night part of a reserve managed by the university was burned by one of the numerous wildfires whipping up California's southwestern flank. Schimel wrote, "it sounds like it burned our experimental

Researcher convicted of fraud reportedly practicing dentistry

A company that develops "stem cell enhancers" as dietary supplements posted a linkurl:complaint;http://tinyurl.com/ypmjdy over 1,000 words in length on its website regarding an linkurl:article;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53194 I wrote in May about its product. StemEnhance is an algal extract linkurl:promised;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/53186/ to enhance circulating stem cells and promote wellness. In my article, responses from stem cell researchers on whether the prod

Functional divergence of former alleles may explain an asexual organism's evolutionary success

The former president of McLean Hospital outside Boston has admitted to sexual misconduct and is now under investigation. The Boston Globe linkurl:reported;http://tinyurl.com/2mz54u this week that Jack Gorman, who linkurl:resigned;http://tinyurl.com/ythq62 from McLean in 2006, admitted to the New York Board of Professional Medical Conduct that he had inappropriate sexual contact with a patient. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health directed McLean to look into whether Gorman abused patien

This morning, at the annual meeting of the linkurl:American Thyroid Association,;http://www.thyroid.org/ann_mtg/2007_78th/index.html I was captivated by a talk that included a very resourceful experimental design. linkurl:Joanne Rovet's;http://www.sickkids.on.ca/RovetLab/default.asp group, at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, described her research on the effects of hypothyroidism in pregnant women on the visual processing of their babies. Rovet's group found that babies exposed to l

As she walks into her microbiology laboratory at Oregon State University, Kate Field hands her graduate student a Ziploc bag full of tubes of fecal samples. "These are just in from New Zealand," she says with a smile. For just being handed what essentially amounts to a bag of poop, her graduate student seems pretty excited as well. Now, the student's job is to test whether the genetic markers Field has developed can reliably identify what type of animal produced the sample. "Right no

Credit: © Lincoln Barbour PHOTOGRAPHY" /> Credit: © Lincoln Barbour PHOTOGRAPHY Though it's been decades since he was a kid turning over rocks in St. Joseph, Missouri, Dee Denver, now assistant professor in the zoology department at Oregon State University, still enjoys looking at nematodes. "It's beautiful," he says, watching through a microscope in his laboratory as a tiny worm makes sinusoidal tracks through a plate of Escherichia coli. It's no coincidence that the a

Scientists say they were duped into agreeing to interviews for an upcoming movie promoting intelligent design. In a __New York Times__ linkurl:article;http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/science/27expelled.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 today, evolutionary biologist linkurl:Richard Dawkins;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/14767 says he would not have agreed to appear in the movie had he known what it was about, while anthropologist Eugenie Scott claims she was also misled. linkurl:"Expelled: