Academic research could be strengthened by thinking more and doing less.

Rich with Meaning Language shapes the way we think. For this reason the precise choice of words is as important in science as in any other field of scholarly endeavor. The use of "enrichment" to describe more complex housing environments for laboratory animals1 is misleading. A better term might be "naturalized". The continued use of enrichment in describing environments that provide some improved attempt to offer artificial equivalents of the range of stimuli and experiences an animal mi

The biomedical and pharmaceutical powerhouses of North America and Europe disproportionately focus their resources on the mostly chronic diseases affecting the relatively well-to-do. Of the $70 billion (US) the international health community spends on research, only 10% goes toward diseases responsible for 90% of the international health burden; it's called the 10/90 gap1 and it's deadly for poor countries. So, when an American private foundation announces a major investment in global health

Like it did for so many others on the East Coast of the United States, my day of Sept. 11, 2001 dawned clear and bright. Later, the day would grow warm, but the morning air held the crisp promise of autumn. The streets of the neighborhood around the Bethesda hotel hosting the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism-sponsored conference seemed peaceful and safe in the early light. The sunshine matched the conference's optimistic mood. We were a multidisciplinary group of scientists bra

As someone who haphazardly participates in local sprint triathlons with "finishing" as my goal, I am awed and inspired by athletic feats accomplished through magnificent displays of endurance, heart, and grace. This year's Tour de France, won for the third time in a row by the American Lance Armstrong, had moments so powerful and so moving that I recall the images over and over--convinced they carry a message about human endeavors far beyond the esoteric world of elite road cycling. There were

Recently, a colleague posed a seemingly simple question that took my thoughts down an unexpected path. Selected for a prestigious award, she had been asked to write something on mentoring and wanted to go beyond the personal reminiscences common to such pieces. Aware of my interest in issues related to the advancement of women in science, she wondered if I knew of any quantitative data that demonstrated the effects of mentoring on career development. The key word: quantitative. There is signif

"Our results suggest that a genetic enhancement of mental and cognitive attributes such as intelligence and memory in mammals is feasible." This sentence, from a scientific paper published in the Sept. 2 issue of the international journal Nature by the laboratory of Joe Tsien of Princeton University,1 ignited a firestorm of publicity. The study, using genetically modified mice (I'll get to the actual scientific findings in a moment), was reported as news by major print and broadcast outlets. T

The authors of the recent National Research Council (NRC) report Trends in the Early Careers of Life Scientists deserve kudos for their honest, unsentimental view of life science graduate student and postdoctoral experiences. What is unfortunate is that it took so long for the truth to win out. The report contained recommendations to freeze graduate school enrollment to prevent a flood of researcher applicants on a tightening job market (P. Smaglik, E. Russo, The Scientist, 12[19]:6, Sept. 28,

Depends On Following Agencies' Rules Securing research support increasingly occupies the time and energy of academic scientists. As a program officer with a private foundation supporting biomedical, behavioral, and educational research, I am experiencing first-hand how the shrinking supply of federal funding dollars is driving more and more investigators to the terre incognito of private foundation funding. Recently, The Scientist provided some tips on how to improve the chances of a submissio