For this article, Steve Bunk interviewed David J. Julius, assistant professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology, University of California, San Francisco. Data from the Web of Science (ISI, Philadelphia) show that this paper has been cited significantly more often than the average paper of the same type and age. M.J. Caterina, M.A. Schumacher, M. Tominaga, T.A. Rosen, J.D. Levin, D. Julius, "The capsaicin receptor: a heat-activated ion channel in the pain pathway," Nature, 389:816-24, Oct. 2

The emergence of biology-based commercial enterprises is not only fostering difficulties between the private and public sectors regarding access to research resources; it may even affect the way basic science is conducted. A letter report issued recently by the National Research Council (NRC) identifies the most pressing issues of this multifaceted problem and recommends how to begin solving it. The report, by a 26-member life sciences commission, derives from an NRC conference held in early 199

One measure of the rising interest in mind-body medicine is the increasing entry of young physicians into specialties that focus on the interface between mental and physical disorders. Yet there is a dire need for controlled, clinical trials of treatments that address this interface in a variety of complex disorders. Such evidence-based support is especially important to doctors who specialize in psychosomatic medicine, because they face a cost-cutting threat from managed care groups. These were

Mounting evidence of estrogen's role in preventing cognitive decline is affecting women's decisions on hormone replacement therapy (HRT), a symposium panel recently told attendees of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine's annual meeting in New Orleans. But causes of variability among women in estrogen's impact on cognition have not yet been identified. Moreover, the continuing emergence of selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), drugs that can imitate the hormone's positive effects whil

Amazing investigations into the life sciences abound under the sponsorship of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the U.S. Department of Defense. Under program director Alan Rudolph, more than 25 projects around the nation and overseas will receive a total through 2004 of about $84 million. Launched in 1998, the research efforts are divided into three broad categories: Controlled Biological Systems that deal directly with living organisms; Tissue-Based Biosensors that are b

J.K. Wong, M. Hezareh, H.F. Gunthard, D.V. Havlir, C.C. Ignacio, C.A. Spina, D.D. Richman, "Recovery of replication-competent HIV despite prolonged suppression of plasma viremia," Science, 278:1291-5, 1997. (Cited in more than 215 papers since publication) Comments by Douglas D. Richman, professor of pathology and medicine, University of California, San Diego, and San Diego VA Healthcare System D. Finzi, M. Hermankova, T. Pierson, L.M. Carruth, C. Buck, R.E. Chaisson, T.C. Quinn, K. Chadwick, J.

If the struggle between religion and science for the amorphous prize of truth had a flashpoint, it might have been 1633, when Galileo revealed the results of his observations supporting the Copernican theory that Earth and the other planets move around the sun. Nowadays, amid countless words written about the still testy relationship between the two institutions, a refrain can be found that perhaps does not enjoy the prominence it deserves. This is the contention that science is actually among t

Content Jumping DNA Semen pharming Screening for heart risk Real-time signaling PubSCIENCE starts, PubMedCentral grows When time stands still Shutting down the pump Brain gain JUMPING DNA Mutations aren't transmitted only by inheritance--they can cross species, too, according to recent findings by John F. McDonald, head of the genetics department at the University of Georgia (I.K. Jordan et al., "Evidence for the recent horizontal transfer of long terminal repeat retrotransposon," Proceedings of

Neuroscientists from the United States and Cuba gathered at the Hotel Nacional in Havana Oct. 19-23 and took a significant step toward enhancing scientific dialogue between the two countries. Their meeting featured 25 American speakers and a similar number of Cuban presenters, as well as representatives of U.S. pharmaceutical companies, Cuban students, and politicians from both nations. The purpose of the Havana gathering, organized as a satellite conference to the Society for Neuroscience

Reprinted with permission from Nature CKI produces complete secondary dorsal axes. Synthetic mRNA encoding CKI, mutant CKI (K > R), or Xwnt-8 was injected at the eight-cell stage into one ventral vegetal blastomere. Embryos injected with CKI or Xwnt-8, but not inactive CKI (K > R), developed complete secondary dorsal axes. CANCER CLUE The rush of discoveries over the past two years concerning the Wnt signaling pathway--known to be crucial to normal development and altered in human melano

Do patents on genetic information hinder research? That long-festering debate arose again recently, following a report in the Guardian newspaper that Great Britain and the United States are negotiating an intergovernmental agreement aimed at preventing entrepreneurs from profiting on such patents.1 Although the accuracy of the report, which drew on documents received under the Freedom of Information Act, was denied by a spokesperson for the Office of Science and Technology Policy's director, Ne

A six-week "debate" on women in science that began Sept. 9 on the Nature Web site is the latest illustration of how media technology is helping to turn the long struggle for female parity with male colleagues into an internationally shared experience. Helen C. Davies "I can't help contrasting this with what has gone before," comments Helen C. Davies, president of the Association for Women in Science and a microbiology professor at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. Recalling effor