June 2002

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 10 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Fueling the Fears of Science By Arlene Judith Klotzko Image: Anthony Canamucio In so many ways, it is hard to remember what life was like before the carnage of Sept. 11. What it felt like to be safe from unknown horrors. What seemed so important and now does not. What was top of the national policy agenda and now is not. All through last

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 11 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next On the Disappearance of Biology Labs On the Disappearance of Biology Labs, 1 ... After reading this article on the potential disappearance of laboratory-based biology courses across the United States,1 I would like to cite one tangible effect of the loss of these courses in California that we have witnessed. During the last couple of de

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 12 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Psst! Gene Therapy Research Lives COVER STORY | Progress registers experiment by experiment, trial by trial | By Josh P. Roberts Image: Getty Images In 1990, three men--W. French Anderson, R. Michael Blaese, and Kenneth Culver--led a trial in which the genetically corrected adenosine deaminase (ADA) T cells, belonging to a 4-year-old gir

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 15 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next The Leprosy Watcher Armed with recent genomics data, Bill Levis ponders leprosy's immunological fork in the road--and awaits a government decision regarding his own career | By Tom Hollon Graphic: Marlene J. Viola Patients come to him by referral, dreading what they may hear after being poked and palpated and scrutinized by one puzzled

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 18 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Film Fest Fetes Science At Issue: How do you communicate science without dumbing it down? | By Barry A. Palevitz Image: Erica P. Johnson It's getting to be an old story: the National Science Board recently concluded, "Science literacy in the U.S. is fairly low." Moreover, said the board, "most Americans are unfamiliar with the scientifi

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 20 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Science in the Make-up Chair Scientists, seeking more active roles as film consultants, try not to get 'sandwiched by the script' | By Hal Cohen Image: Erica P. Johnson Ever try to get bitten by a radioactive spider to acquire web-slinging powers in your wrists? Baffled as to the lack of matter transporters for sale on the market? Think

When Ellen Vitetta launched into the fifth Charlotte Friend Memorial Lecture on April 6 at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in San Francisco, the audience, expecting the tale of an immunotoxin's journey from bench to bedside, instead saw a hilarious presentation contrasting the male and female human brain. With huge distinctions in skills allocation, such as sex lobe vs. sex particle and commitment lobe vs. commitment neuron, the two displayed brains were equal for ski

When researchers consider disease model options, cows generally remain in the pasture. But a bovine tuberculosis epidemic in the United Kingdom has made the grazers invaluable, not only for studying ways to stymie Mycobacterium bovis, the bovine version of the tubercle bacilli that causes disease, but the human version, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, as well. At the Fourth World Congress on Tuberculosis, held recently in Washington, DC, tuberculosis (TB) investigator Glyn Hewinson, Department of Ba

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 22 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Honeybee Sequencing: One Honey of an Idea The little buzzers are a magic well for discoveries in biology | By Myrna E. Watanabe Photo: Courtesy of Chip Taylor TOGETHERNESS: A swarm of Neotropical African honeybees in Venezuela In late May, the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) released its priority list of organisms

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 24 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Nature's Own Version of Superglue Understanding how insect feet adhere to slippery, wet surfaces has been a centuries-long quest | By Leslie Pray Image: Courtesy of Isle of Wight History Centre A close-up picture of the common fly. "The foot of a fly is a most admirable and curious contrivance, for by this the flies are enabled t

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 26 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Cell Death: Different Mechanisms Produce Different Outcomes Cells die for diverse reasons, and the consequences are just as distinct | By Nicole Johnston Cell death keeps the cellular balance in check by ridding organisms of unwanted cells, ensuring normal development and protecting against tumor formation and viral infection. Yet increasingly, cell death is being implicated in a

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 28 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Form and Function Finally Prove Mitchell's Proton Motive Force Perseverance, perspiration and a creative bent pay off | By Susan Jenkins The Faculty of 1000 is aWeb-based literature awareness tool published by BioMed Central. For more information visit www.facultyof1000.com. In 1961, Nobel laureate Peter Mitchell's provocative pairing of

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 29 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next New & Notable Selected articles from faculty member reviews | Compiled by Jeffrey M. Perkel The Faculty of 1000 is aWeb-based literature awareness tool published by BioMed Central. For more information visit www.facultyof1000.com. RIBOZYME DESIGN D.H. Burke et al., "Allosteric Hammerhead Ribozyme TRAPs," Biochemistry, 41:6588-94, May 28,

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 30 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Mitochondria: Cellular Energy Co. Researchers strive to keep the energy pipeline open in the face of damaging cellular insults | By Amy Adams Where fossil fuels power the world, mitochondria power the cell. They provide the energy that allows your eyes to scan this page, and fuel each nerve impulse as your brain processes the words. Mu

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 34 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Refining Transgenic Mice Emerging technologies allow researchers to make tissue- and developmental stage-specific knockouts | By Leslie Pray Image: Courtesy of Taconic Farms MOUSE HOUSE: Scientists at Taconic's Molecular Analysis Laboratory genotype transgenic rat and mouse lines. Mice have been freeloading on humans for millenni

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 36 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next USPS, Biotech Forge Alliance Companies vie for lucrative pathogen-detection system contracts | By Jim Kling Photo Image Graphic Courtesy of SILENT SENTINEL: Cepheid's Gene- Xpert system, core of a developmental bio-hazard detection system intended for use in postal processing facilities. In its ongoing efforts to ensure the safety

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 37 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next QIAGEN Reveals a Sensitive Side Highly sensitive microarrays provide a true expression profile | By Hillary E. Sussman Photo: Courtesy of Qiagen SensiChip DNA microarray bar Since their inception, DNA microarrays have been valuable in fields ranging from drug discovery to agricultural engineering. But the high-density chips suited

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 38 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Five-Color Analysis, One Laser New detection capabilities let users perform simultaneous five-color flow cytometry | By Susan Jenkins Fullerton, Calif.-based Beckman-Coulter recently released the Cytomics™ FC 500, an automated, bench-top flow cytometer that, for the first time, allows researchers to perform five-color analyses usi

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 38 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Automating the 'Proteomics Street' Tecan aims to streamline the proteomics workflow | By Jeffrey M. Perkel Swiss company Tecan is marketing the first two instruments in its ProTeam™ product line, intended to help automate "the complete proteomics street," from sample fractionation to mass spectrometry (MS) sample preparation, acco

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 40 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Playing the EU Funding Game They've got the money; you've got the need. Here's how to align your interest with the bureaucrats in Brussels | By Sam Jaffe Image: Marlene J. Viola Protests against McDonalds and high tariffs against Hollywood movies suggest that Europe fights hard to defend its traditions and heritage against US cultural

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 42 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Scientists Parlay Youth into Top French Jobs Sluggish reform in France's rigid tenure systems assuages some young researchers | By Clare Kittredge Image: Getty Images Dana Philpott enjoys rare success among scientists in their thirties in France. Many French postdoctoral trainees leave the country to do research and return home only to

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 44 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Enter the Heavyweights The world's largest computer companies climb into the bioinformatics ring | By Sam Jaffe Photo: Courtesy of Hormone Sekine BLUE GENE: Japanese artist Hormone Sekine chose blue for his primordial gene composition because, to him, it represents freedom. Will the big blue gene super- computer bring scientists mor

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Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 43 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Helping Reporters Get it Right By Barbara Gastel Photo: Courtesy of Barbara Gastel Barbara Gastel Accurate, engaging, informative reporting on science abounds in the popular media. So does science reporting that is less--sometimes much less--accurate, engaging, and informative than it could be. Universities and professional societ

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 6 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Frontlines MOO over, mouse Photo: ©2001 Jessica Rhiannon Smith When researchers consider disease model options, cows generally remain in the pasture. But a bovine tuberculosis epidemic in the United Kingdom has made the grazers invaluable, not only for studying ways to stymie Mycobacterium bovis, the bovine ver

Volume 16 | Issue 13 | 8 | Jun. 24, 2002 Previous | Next Awash in DNA News By Barry A. Palevitz Like most writers, I wield a mean scissors. I love to clip articles from assorted newspapers, magazines, Web sites, and research journals. Who knows, I tell myself, maybe the flotsam and jetsam will come in handy some day. Sometimes the clippings sort themselves into meaningful piles (I gave up file