Dateline: 8 November 2004. In a few days time we will proudly launch our upgraded Web site and with it the first daily online newspaper for the life sciences, The Scientist Daily. Simply register your preferences at http://www.the-scientist.com and enjoy The Scientist Daily every working day, delivered electronically to your mailbox completely free of charge.As you'd expect from your favorite newspaper, The Scientist Daily will include:• Breaking news. Our extensive network of contributors

Few voters in next week's US presidential election will embrace absolutely everything that either candidate stands for, or, for that matter, reject absolutely everything. Nevertheless, a change must be made, judged on a few key issues. The most pressing issues include the quagmire that is Iraq, national security, healthcare provision, and the economy. But science should not be too far behind, and anyone with the best interests of science at heart will have no hesitation in selecting John Kerry o

Last month my parents threw a party to mark their 50th wedding anniversary. After dinner, dad gave a speech recalling their honeymoon, for which they traveled from Scotland to Port Bou, a village on the France-Spain border squeezed between the Mediterranean Sea and the Pyrenees. While he was discretely sketchy about certain aspects of the adventure, he vividly described meals as though he'd just eaten them.Food rationing was just ending in the Britain of 1954. After years of compulsory restricti

What is the role of the daily news operation of a magazine such as The Scientist? It's an important question that bears considering periodically. If we start with the magazine's motto, "The News Journal for the Life Scientist," we have somewhat of a guide as to what the editors think: The daily news service is dedicated to informing life scientists of the news of the day in policy and research, which leaves the print magazine you're reading now to reflect on larger trends.But some of the readers

"There are no such things as applied sciences, only applications of science."- Louis Pasteur (1822–1895)It was said of the human genome project that it has the potential to influence the life of every person on the planet. That is a heroic aspiration, and one that can be achieved only through a business-science fusion unlike anything previously experienced.The process has already begun. Researchers are enthusiastically seeking opportunities to commercialize their work, with the full suppor

Scientists and scientific institutions in the United States have undergone a quiet revolution during the last 15 years: Whereas politics and advocacy were previously shunned, they are now embraced. Particularly in the medical research arena, but increasingly also in other areas of science, a dense interactive network of organizations, individual contacts, and campaigns exerts influence on public life. Key issues include, naturally, the levels of funding for science, but also the moral and ethica

"In the last analysis it is our conception of death which decides our answers to all the questions life puts to us."- Dag HammarskjoldDeath and dying are of fundamental importance to biologists and medical doctors. Yet, their study is a backwater of research that deserves far more attention. In a PubMed search, "aging" papers outnumber "dying" papers by 10 to 1, and "sex" outnumbers "dying" by 20 to 1.Death and dying are not being taught, either. Of the three top-selling human biology textbooks,

Have you ever risked disapproval? Have you ever risked a belief? ... real courage is risking something that might force you to rethink your thoughts and suffer change and stretch consciousness. Real courage is risking one's clichés.- From Another Roadside Attraction by Tom RobbinsI recently attended BIO 2004, the annual jamboree of the biotech indus try. The optimism and energy of the place invigorated me as industry pioneers shared their visions of the future and I learned about new techno

"A good marriage would be between a blind wife and a deaf husband"1Actually, it seems that good marriages occur between a deaf husband and a deaf wife: Such is the attraction that, in the United States, 85% of individuals with profound deafness marry another deaf person. One consequence of this, according to a potentially explosive article in the American Journal of Human Genetics, is that the incidence of nonsyndromic deafness may have increased two-fold over the past 200 years.2The article is

Arash of globalization is transferring upscale jobs offshore. This is the politically charged business practice of sending high-paying jobs out of the United States and Western Europe to Eastern Europe and developing countries, where salaries are considerably lower.For us, there are two questions: Will life sciences research, industrial or academic, follow this offshore trend? And if so, who will be the winners and the losers?The life sciences have so far been pretty deaf to the siren song of ou

This issue of The Scientist focuses on biosecurity. More specifically, it deals with the handling and detection of select agents, a catalog of about 80 bacteria, viruses, fungi, and toxins that US authorities have identified as particularly high-risk. See page 12 for a primer.Select agents divide the US research community like few other topics. Regulations for their transport and handling are considered either prudent or draconian, a minor inconvenience or a grave impediment, depending on who yo