Alkis Psaltis has seen more than his share of sheep with the sniffles. Over the past year or two, in the course of researching the role of bacterial biofilms in sinusitis, woolly ruminants with nasal congestion have become almost a daily event for the scientist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide, Australia. "Basically, the sheep get runny noses," Psaltis explains. "They get a purulent discharge and all the signs of an inflammatory response, including frank pus and friable muc

After all the linkurl:wailing and gnashing of teeth;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/52939/ in the UK recently over science budget cuts, the government is in the good books again. Why? The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, has vowed long term increases in funding in his latest (and probably last) linkurl:budget;http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget/budget_07/bud_bud07_index.cfm announcement. Broadly speaking, the budget includes a promise that total investment in the public sci

Budget cuts and emphasis on applied research have sparked concerns among scientists and politicians

Colin Blakemore decides not to apply for a second term at the agency, currently in the midst of major reforms

Who can argue with a punk rock anthem about the search for statistical certainty? Not me, at least. In fact, I couldn't help but smile this week when I came across a jaunty little tune called Increase the N by an outfit called Hefe from Vancouver. I first saw reference to the song (lyrics below) on linkurl:The World's Fair;http://www.myspace.com/heferocks, where they kindly offered a link to the group's linkurl:myspace;http://www.myspace.com/heferocks account. Apparently, they're a group broug

Slideshow: A devil of a disease by Stephen Pincock var FO = { movie:"http://www.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/52874/devil.swf", width:"550", height:"450", majorversion:"8", build:"0", xi:"true"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); Please download the Adobe Flash Player to view this content:

Credit: Stephen Pincock" /> Credit: Stephen Pincock The oversized, fluffy "Taz" looks decidedly out of place in the gift shop at Narawntapu national park, a wildlife-rich reserve on the north coast of Tasmania. Nearly two feet high, it looms over a small selection of other, more refined, souvenirs. But the plush toy, modeled on Warner Brothers' whirlwind Looney Tunes cartoon character, is on sale for a good cause. Each one raises money for research into Devil Facial Tumor Diseas

Novartis shares diabetes genomic data, and experts say there's more to come

A university investigation says a pre-eminent paper contains "significantly flawed" data, author argues conclusions still valid

A recent PhD pens a wildly popular online novel based on Phantom of the Opera

Credit: SHARYN CAIRNS PHOTOGRAPHY LOCATION CREDIT: AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA" /> Credit: SHARYN CAIRNS PHOTOGRAPHY LOCATION CREDIT: AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA When James Whisstock finished his PhD at the University of Cambridge in 1996, he was in the mood for an adventure. So he didn't have to think too hard when Monash University biochemist Stuart Stone offered him a postdoc to study the serpin superfamily of prote

Scientists hope the move, by one of Europe's strictest regulators of stem cell research, causes waves across the continent