February 2005

On April 30, 2003, my office phone rang.

The post-SARS rush of research on human coronaviruses (CoVs) might not result in an immediate cure for SARS.

When the Huygens probe landed on Titan last month, astrobiologists were realistic about what they hoped to gain from the mission.

Nebraska has been a "red state" for decades, but Nebraska state senator Joel Johnson, a Republican and former surgeon, was bothered by Senate colleagues' attempts in recent years to pass a bill banning somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).

Neuroscientists today are peering into the brain to understand the drive of romantic love, and they are finding evidence backing the 19th-century philosopher's observation: Love has a striking neural kinship with drug addiction.

The central pillar upon which toxicological assessments are built is the dose-response relationship.

In many ways the laboratory tools we use today may remind us of computers in the late 1970s.

Nod1 and Nod2 are no strangers to Hot Papers.

, an ancient protist long considered to be asexual, may have a sex life.

Researchers at deCODE Genetics in Reykjavik, Iceland, have discovered a large chromosomal rearrangement in the human genome that appears to have been selected for in some European populations.1The rearrangement, a 900-kilobase inversion polymorphism at chromosome 17q21.31, appears in two lineages, H1 and H2, that have diverged for as many as 3 million years with no evidence of having recombined. The H2 lineage – rare in Africans, almost nonexistent in East Asians, but found in 20% of Europ

), governs axon and dendrite growth in determining cell polarity, according to research groups from China and Japan.

Imagine controlling a computer with just your mind.

The immune system is often likened to the military.

When it comes to enzymes, protein abundance does not necessarily translate into protein activity: Post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation can dramatically alter enzyme function.

of Hamburg, Germany, has blurred the lines between cDNA and oligonucleotide probes.

new LSM 5 LIVE confocal microscope system may be the equivalent of moving from flip books to movie cameras.

Courtesy of Atsushi MiyawakiA group of researchers at RIKEN in Japan have developed a fluorescent protein that can be switched on and off more than 100 times.1 Atsushi Miyawaki and colleagues engineered monomeric fluorescent protein 22Gm3 (renamed "Dronpa") from the coral Pectiniidae and found that strong irradiation at 488 nm converts it to a nonfluorescent state absorbing at 390 nm. This darkened protein can be switched back to its original emission state by irradiation for several minutes at

Biotech drugs such as genetically engineered hormones and monoclonal antibodies make up a sizeable and growing proportion of the pharmaceutical market.

Angela Howard was concerned when her infant daughter stopped crying, despite repeated jabs with an IV needle.

More that three years after Sept. 11, 2001, researchers and scholars who wish to come to America to study, conduct research, or attend scientific meetings are still feeling the reverberations of that day.

asks postdocs from the United States, Canada, and Europe to reveal how they feel about their jobs, and this year more than 3,500 answered the call.

Courtesy of Justin Smith, UNC-Chapel HillInstitutional ReportsCustomized reports are available in PDF form for the following institutions. Click on an institution name to access the report.Readers are advised to study the survey methodology to assist in interpreting the reports.If you do not see an institution listed, please e-mail postdocsurvey@the-scientist.com to find out if it is available.US InstitutionsCedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los AngelesCenters for Disease Control and Prevention, Atla

Five government organizations, four universities, three private institutes, two cancer centers, and one hospital.

Postdocs in Canada and Europe are a lot like their compatriots in the United States.

Biology is getting bigger.

Stephen Wolniak knows the bad side of exposure on the Web, as you can read on page 10. After he was misidentified on an online message board, he was forced to change his number and consult lawyers. None of this, however, has kept him from his research and teaching, answering questions online about mitosis or, in his latest pursuit, a gallery of digital photos of plants and other species available at http://www.pbase.com/sigmasd9/steve_wolniak.Qiagen CEO Peer Schatz may have inherited his mitocho

In John Eppig's world, the egg reigns supreme.

Re: "RNA Therapeutics Enter Clinical Trials."1 We are involved in nucleic acids delivery by electrical methods in vitro as well as in vivo. We were a little bit puzzled that this approach was not covered, as we have found it a very efficient way to obtain a safe targeted delivery in specific organs.2 Gene silencing by siRNA following its electrical delivery has been achieved in muscles,34 while other reports have described results in retina5 and in the brain.6 Electrical drug delivery – so

We would like to comment on John Ashkenas' recent article on molecular karyotyping in the Jan. 17, 2005, issue of The Scientist.1 We attended the American Society of Human Genetics meeting as well and came away with a different impression of molecular karyotyping. While this technique will eventually and undoubtedly reveal new insights into human genome structure and copy-number variation, the data are still quite noisy and often unconvincing. Indeed, this copy-number variation is probably the s

In "On Downsizing the Status of Science," Dave Britton writes "... Truth is only what scientists can get each other to agree is true.

It is an old maxim that if you want to get on, invent a new word for your particular niche in an old area, and so become an instant expert.