February 2007

Steven Farber did his PhD work and a postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in neuroscience before joining the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Embryology in 1995. Ninety percent of the time, Farber says, he heads a lab studying digestive organ function in zebra fish (see Peering into Carnegie), while the rest of the time he heads an outreach program to excite kids about science - the subject of Making Outreach Work. "We get letters from kids say

Making sure people work well together isn't just the right thing to do. It's the moral thing to do.

Anthrax, tigers, and bison Jack Woodall has raised some very important and contentious issues in wildlife conservation. 1 It is true that improved funding such as that available in countries like Canada could help achieving conservation goals in developing countries like India, where poaching poses a threat to many wild species, including the tiger. Interestingly, Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, where he had an unpleasant and life-threatening experience is supposed to be am

http://www.the-scientist.com/2007/2/1/17/100/ View a slideshow: bombs and biodiversity at Warren Grove Military planes roar over Warren Grove Gunnery Range in southern New Jersey. A puff of smoke spreads across a clear-cut strip of land where a dummy bomb has just kissed its practice target. From the top of the air traffic control tower Captain Rich DeFeo, the base's environmental manager, points to the hazy skyline of Atlantic City on the horizon. Between h

THE BOSS MATTERS » Staff writer Kerry Grens finds out what happens when researchers fight - and how to resolve conflict. Beef up your leadership skills and learn to create a better work environment at the Institute for Emotional Intelligence at Texas A&M University's annual conference, Feb. 22-23. For more, see http://tinyurl.com/ybnhxx. DARWIN DAY » Celebrate international Darwin day on Feb. 12 with parties and lectures hosted around the world (find one ne

For oceanographers Jess Adkins of California Institute of Technology and his then-postdoc Kim Cobb (now at Georgia Institute of Technology), the trouble began when they hired a well-connected local to handle logistics and navigate bureaucracy while they collected samples from caves in Malaysian Borneo. Adkins and Cobb were collecting drip water, bedrock and stalagmites for the Pacific Tropical Climate Study, which they hope will help integrate climate data with geochemistry. Such

http://www.the-scientist.com/2007/2/1/34/1/ What's in Your Milk The hypothesis: Steroid and peptide hormones in milk increase the risk of cancer. IVAN ORANSKY sifts through the data to find the truth. http://www.the-scientist.com/2007/2/1/20/1/ The cow whisperer http://www.the-scientist.com/2007/2/1/37/1/ Dairy economics: Milking blood from a stone http://www.the-scientist.com/2007/2/1/40/1/ Milk and human hea

Credit: © H.C. ROBINSON / PHOTO RESEARCHERS, INC." /> Credit: © H.C. ROBINSON / PHOTO RESEARCHERS, INC. It might be considered the cat's revenge on the dog that chased it around the house and yard: Sometime in the late 1960s or 1970s, deadly feline parvovirus jumped from cats to dogs, becoming canine parvovirus. Then, in 1978, it started killing puppies at an alarming rate. "Most viruses go into a new host and just die out," says Laura Shackelton, a postdoc at Pennsylvania State Univ

Bombs and biodiversity go hand in hand Military installations across the United States include many unique habitats and are home to the most endangered plant and animal species of any federally-owned land. Staff writer Kerry Grens visited the Warren Grove Gunnery Range in southern New Jersey to check out the largest pitch pine pygmy forest in the world and find out what officers there are doing to preserve it. var FO = { movie:"http://www.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/43708/co

The cow whisperer By Silvia SanidesRelated Articles: Feature: What's in your milk? Slideshow: From feed to bottle Milk: It's electric Dairy economics: Milking blood from a stone Milk and human health: What's the state of the evidence linking milk to human disease? Infographic: What's in your milk? A selected list of hormones, growth factors and other substances found in an 8-ounce glass of milk. Peter-Christian Sch?n is an engineer with a heart - an

Lab VisionRelated Articles Feature: Dealing with Conflict The perils of authorship Seven steps to lab harmony The following is a real example from a laboratory whose members drafted a mission statement and behavioral guidelines to create a feeling of common purpose. Ed O'Neil, director of the Center for the Health Professions at the University of California, San Francisco, provides commentary on how to create your own. Download the Lab Philosophy PDF var FO = { movie:

Dealing with Conflict Relationships are cooling off and arguments are heating up. What do you do?By Kerry Grens ARTICLE EXTRAS The Perils of Authorship Seven steps to lab harmony Ease conflict: read an example of a real lab's laws Several years ago Dr. K, a neuroscience professor at a prominent academic institution on the West Coast, found her laboratory in interpersona

The Perils of Authorship By Kerry Grens Related Articles Feature: Dealing with Conflict Seven steps to lab harmony Ease conflict: read an example of a real lab's laws For about a decade Susan Parkhurst, who leads a developmental biology laboratory at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, served as the informal ombudsman for postdocs. She says authorship disputes were the most common probl

Seven steps to lab harmony By Kerry Grens Related Articles Feature: Dealing with Conflict The Perils of Authorship Ease conflict: read an example of a real lab's laws 1. Be aware "I think the single most important thing a lab director can do is be cognizant of these issues," says Carl Cohen, president of Science Management Associates. Ignoring c

Milk, from feed to bottleDeputy Editor Ivan Oransky traveled to dairy farms in Tennessee and Pennsylvania and a processing plant at Penn State to understand how milk is produced and processed. Click here for a slideshow of images from those trips. var FO = { movie:"http://www.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/43304/milk_ss.swf", width:"500", height:"500", majorversion:"8", build:"0", xi:"true"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); Please download the Adobe Flash Player t

What's in your milk? The hypothesis: Hormones and growth factors in dairy increase cancer risk. By Ivan Oransky Related Articles Slideshow: From feed to bottle Milk: It's electric The cow whisperer Dairy economics: Milking blood from a stone Milk and human health: What's the state of the evidence linking milk to human disease? Infographic: What's in your milk? A selected list of hormones, growth factors and other substances found in an 8-ounce glass of milk.

Dairy economics: Milking blood from a stone A TIGHT SQUEEZE: Dairy farmer Steve Harrison checks on one of his cows during a December milking By Ivan Oransky Related Articles Feature: What's in your milk? Slideshow: From feed to bottle Milk: It's electric The cow whisperer Milk and human health: What's the state of the evidence linking milk to human disease? Infographic: What's in your milk? A selected list of hormones, growth factors and other subst

var FO = { movie:"http://www.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/44329/infographic.swf", width:"550", height:"592", majorversion:"8", build:"0", xi:"true"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); Please download the Adobe Flash Player to view this content: Related Articles Feature: What's in your milk? Milk: It's electric The cow whisperer Dairy economics: Milking blood from a stone Milk and human health: What's the state of the evidence linking milk to human d

Milk and Human HealthRelated Article Feature: What's in your milk? Slideshow: From feed to bottle Milk: It's electric The cow whisperer Dairy economics: Milking blood from a stoneInfographic: What's in your milk? A selected list of hormones, growth factors and other substances found in an 8-ounce glass of milk. Prostate cancer The best evidence linking prostate cancer to milk consumption appears to be that for aggressive and fatal prostate cancers,

WHY PHARMA MUST GO HOLLYWOOD The answer to stagnating R&D can be found in the creativity of the movie industry.By Liam Bernal The pharmaceutical industry should be a tangible demonstration of the value of the scientific enterprise. Enormous benefits to society should, and generally do, flow from a healthy pharma sector. The transformation of AIDS into a treatable chronic disease is an examp

Peering into Carnegie A culture of tough but supportive scrutiny has propelled imaginative research at the nearly 95-year-old embryology department in Baltimore. Will a modern architectural makeover change the science?By Brendan Maher ARTICLE EXTRAS 1 Sánchez Alvarado says the two have since essentially tripled the flatworm research community with their trainees. Spradling

Top Ten Lists: Research from the Embryology Department Peering into Carnegie Research goes flat Slideshow: A tour of Carnegie Institution of Washington embryology department Video: See the flatfish metamorphosis with commentary from Alex Schreiber The Yale Embryo, circa 1934 A Poem on the Youngest Embryo by Elizabeth RamseyCitation statistics are one, albeit imperfect, way to judge the research output of a given institution. A Web of Science search for papers containing the

Carnegie Staff Associate Alex Schreiber talks about the amazing metamorphosis of flatfish.Related Articles Feature: Peering into Carnegie Research goes flat Slideshow: A tour of Carnegie Institution of Washington embryology department Top Ten Lists: Research from the Embryology Department The Yale Embryo, circa 1934 A Poem on the Youngest Embryo by Elizabeth RamseyVideo courtesy Alexander M. Schreiber. Visit his Web Site at Carnegie Institution of

Places and FacesSenior Editor Brendan Maher travels to Baltimore to visit the nearly 95-year-old Carnegie Institution of Washington embryology department, now situated in brand new digs on Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus. var FO = { movie:"http://www.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/42935/carnegie_ss.swf", width:"550", height:"510", majorversion:"8", build:"0", xi:"false"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); Please download the Adobe Flash Player to view this c

Research goes flat By Brendan Maher ARTICLE EXTRAS Feature: Peering into Carnegie Slideshow: A tour of Carnegie Institution of Washington embryology department Video: See the flatfish metamorphosis with commentary from Alex Schreiber Top Ten Lists: Research from the Embryology Department The Yale Embryo, circa 1934 A Poem on the Youngest Embryo by Elizabeth Ramsey

JoAnne Stubbe's determination has unlocked the secrets of ribonucleotide reductase.

Embryo Recollections By Adrianne NoeRELATED: Feature: Peering into Carnegie Research goes flat Slideshow: A tour of Carnegie Institution of Washington embryology department Video: See the flatfish metamorphosis with commentary from Alex Schreiber Top Ten Lists: Research from the Embryology Department The Yale Embryo, circa 1934The hunt was on. When Yale physician Elizabeth Maplesden Ramsey described "her" prize specimen for the Department of Embryo

How do you change the public's perception of science in a country where it's not valued?

NKT-cell triggers lead to therapeutic applications in cancer and asthma.

The paper: C. Reyes et al., "Structure of the ABC transporter MsbA in complex with ADP vanadate and lipopolysaccharide," Science, 308:1028-31, 2005. (Cited in 79 papers) The finding: In 2001, researchers led by Geoffrey Chang of the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, Calif. used X-ray crystallography to model the structure of an ATP binding cassette transporter - the bacterial MsbA. After four years, research in the field continued to

Credit: COURTESY OF MICHAEL SAWAYA, DAVID EISENBERG/UCLA" /> Credit: COURTESY OF MICHAEL SAWAYA, DAVID EISENBERG/UCLA The paper: R. Nelson et al., "Structure of the cross-β spine of amyloid-like fibrils," Nature, 435:773-8, 2005. (Cited in 119 papers) The finding: In 2005, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator David Eisenberg and his team at the University of California Los Angeles successfully determined the atomic structure o

Credit: © FELIX MÖCKEL" /> Credit: © FELIX MÖCKEL The paper: B. Chen et al., "Structure of an unliganded simian immunodeficiency virus gp120 core," Nature, 433:834-41, 2005. (Cited in 67 papers) The finding: Using X-ray crystallography, researchers at Harvard Medical School, led by Stephen Harrison, determined the structure, at 4 Å resolution, of the un-bound simian immunodeficiency virus envelope glycoprotein-gp120.

For several years researchers thought that bithoraxoid noncoding RNAs (bxd ncRNAs) prevented the silencing of the Hox gene, Ultrabithorax, during Drosophila development. "If that's true, then the transcript for bxd should be expressed in the same cell as the transcript for Ubx," explains Faculty of 1000 member Pamela Geyer, a professor of Biochemistry at the University of Iowa. But recent experiments show that bxd transcripts aren't present in the same cells that expres Ubx transcripts.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo showed that jawless sea lampreys use a specific immune response mechanism involving "copy choice" that creates variable lymphocyte receptors (VLRs).1 This mechanism differs from the system in most vertebrates, which involves somatic recombination producing immunoglobulin receptors. "This species has such an evolutionarily interesting position," says Faculty of 1000 member Joachim Kurtz at the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin. "It's no

K.M. Wassarman, R.M. Saecker, "Synthesis-mediated release of a small RNA inhibitor of RNA polymerase," Science, 314:1601-3, Dec. 3, 2006. "Besides confirming that the natural 6S RNA acts as a decoy by mimicry of the DNA promoter open complex, the authors show that inhibitory RNA can act as a transcriptional template, and that the inhibitory complex is destabilized by such transcription." Jim MaherMayo Clinic College of Medicine, United States

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

Whether studying proteins, nucleic acids, or small molecules, there's an ideal configuration for everyone.

Genzyme CSO Alan Smith discovered the initiation codon and mapped out SV40, then started himself on a career in biotech.

Elizabeth Ramsey (1906-1993) discovered a 14 day-old embryo in 1934 that helped launch her career. Credit: © CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON" />Elizabeth Ramsey (1906-1993) discovered a 14 day-old embryo in 1934 that helped launch her career. Credit: © CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON In 1934 Elizabeth Ramsey a recent Yale graduate was performing an autopsy on a young woman at New Haven Hospital when she discovered a tiny blob that would help define her career. The blob, an appar