June 2007

Stuart Blackman completed a PhD in evolutionary biology at the University of Edinburgh in 1995 and immediately began working as freelance writer. He has since written for Nature Publishing Group, New Scientist, BBC radio, and The Scientist. On page 17, Blackman writes about a marine bacterium that produces dimethyl sulfide (DMS)- a major source of sulfur in the earth's atmosphere and a long-missing link in the climate system. Some have dubbed the gene for DMS "the weather gene.

Ferreting out online opportunities for scientists

"The EU must first support home-grown researchers until they can compete on a level playing field with US scientists." Putting companies on notice As a public relations counselor, I agree completely with your requirement that companies seeking coverage should provide news, not "unquestioning boosterism."1 They should understand that real news about their products serves their interests, not just the journalist. At the same time,

Credit: Right: © Ron Bergeron" /> Credit: Right: © Ron Bergeron Andrew Johnston, of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, United Kingdom, is usually found studying the molecular genetics of the nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live in the roots of leguminous plants such as peas and beans. One day, he found himself in a chance lunchtime conversation about dimethyl sulfide (DMS). The DMS story started in 1972 with the publication of an influential paper by James Lovelock

Credit: Right: © Ron Bergeron" /> Credit: Right: © Ron Bergeron ENDANGERED SPECIES>> For the first time in almost a decade, the US Supreme Court will hear and decide an Endangered Species Act case, EPA v. Defenders of Wildlife, according to the organizers of CLE International's conference on the subject on June 25 in San Diego. Travel with Ivan Oransky to Washington and Oregon to find out what scientists and veterinarians are doing to protect one endang

William Calezon's group purifies salvinorin A from bags of dried Salvia divinorum bought off the Internet." />William Calezon's group purifies salvinorin A from bags of dried Salvia divinorum bought off the Internet. For Karen Schrock, it started with a big hit off a smoking pipe filled with Salvia divinorum and a crash to the kitchen floor. From there she was off to an alien world of silhouetted figures who lived by a complex social structure. Any sense that there had ever been

When the English racing driver Lewis Hamilton finished third at Formula One's Australian Grand Prix in March, it made him the first rookie driver to reach the podium since Canada's Jacques Villeneuve managed it 11 years before. During the race, commentators praised Hamilton's finesse and confidence as he steered his silver McLaren Mercedes through the streets of the Albert Park circuit, south of Melbourne. A few, notably racing legend Jackie Stewart, mentioned the extensive tra

Credit: Courtesy of Janeet Stocks" /> Credit: Courtesy of Janeet Stocks On the first day of school after spring break, nine British children had an unusual tale to tell regarding "what I did on my vacation": They climbed Mount Everest. At least part of it, that is. Ranging in age from 6 to 13 years, the kids were part of an expedition that Janet Stocks led. As a professor of respiratory physiology at University College London, Stocks designed a study to investigate how

Credit: Photo by Gail Simons" /> Credit: Photo by Gail Simons In August 1806, an English whaling captain by the name of Abraham Bristow was sailing home to England from the colony of Van Diemen's Land (now the Australian state of Tasmania) when he came across a remote, windswept archipelago of small islands. He named them "Lord Auckland's," in honor of his father's friend William Eden, First Baron Auckland. These seven sub-Antarctic specks - Auckland Island is the largest,

Why senile dementia was misclassified as "Alzheimer's disease," and how it confused the field.

Human nature and the end of menstruation.

Does one gene drive all progress in science and the arts?

Green Lab: A list of resources Related Articles Feature: Can Labs Go Green? Anatomy of a Green Lab Green lab slideshow List of resources If you are interested in finding out more about the resources needed to create a more environmentally friendly lab, the following list of websites should provide a good starting point. American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers http://www.ashrae.org/ Center for Sustainable Sys

Interactive Q&A: Need advice on making your lab green? Post a question here. Need advice on making your lab green? Post a question here. Our panel of experts will answer your questions about creating an environmentally friendly lab By Bob Grant Related Articles Feature: Can Labs Go Green? Interactive Q&A: Need advice on making your lab green? Greenest of the Green Anatomy of a Green Lab Green lab slideshow List of resources Greening a

Green Labs: Audio Slideshow By Bob Grant var FO = { movie:"http://www.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/53207/xmlSlideshow.swf", width:"500", height:"511", majorversion:"8", build:"0", xi:"true"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); Please download the Adobe Flash Player to view this content: ARTICLE EXTRAS Feature: Can labs go green? Greenest of the green Anatomy of a green lab Interactive Q&A List of resources

Can labs go green? Sustainable solutions may involve trade-offs, but proponents say research facilities with an environmental sensibility can be affordable and effective. By Bob Grant ARTICLE EXTRAS Greenest of the greenAnatomy of a green lab Green lab slideshow List of resources Howard Beittenmiller's pale blue eyes light up as he points to a coaster-size, perforated metal disk embedded in the walkway under our feet. We're standing above the vast

Greenest of the Green Related Articles Feature: Can labs go green? Anatomy of a green lab Green lab slideshow List of resources The Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) rating system, established by the non-profit US Green Building Council (USGBC) is a widely accepted framework for evaluating of the greenness of any building. LEED buildings are judged on six quantifiable measures of sustainability - sustainable sites, water effici

Anatomy of a Green Lab Sigma-Aldrich's Life Science and High Technology Building in St. Louis, Missouri. var FO = { movie:"http://www.the-scientist.com/supplementary/flash/53243/anatomy_lab.swf", width:"675", height:"409", majorversion:"8", build:"0", xi:"true"}; UFO.create(FO, "ufoDemo"); Please download the Adobe Flash Player to view this content: ARTICLE EXTRAS Feature: Can labs go green? Anatomy of a green lab Green lab slidesh

Stem Cell Survey Results By The Readers and Editors of The Scientist Related Articles Cracking Cloning A Stem Cell "Makeover" Original feature: Participate in our stem cell cloning discussion Hot Paper in Embryonic Stem Cells Hot Paper in Adult Stem Cells The state of the science in stem cell research We gauged opinions from our readers on the state of the science behind nuclear transfer. Here's how they voted on the

Cracking Cloning Nuclear transfer research encompasses some of the most compelling biological and ethical puzzles of our time. In an online publishing experiment, we asked you, The Scientist readers, to help us create the article. Here's how you would solve the mysteries of the egg, fertilization, and cloning. By The Readers and Editors of The Scientist Related Articles 1. The guidelines were similar, but differed in how research should be overseen. Still, say Leo

A Stem Cell "Makeover" We asked readers and experts in the field whether terminology in nuclear transfer and stem cell research needed to be updated. We found a range of opinions. Here are some selections from comments posted to our website: Related Articles Primate customs Original feature: Participate in our stem cell cloning discussion Stem Cell Survey Results Hot Paper in Embryonic Stem Cells Hot Paper in Adult Stem Cells "What is wrong with

Deputy Editor Ivan Oransky traveled to Washington and Oregon to learn more about the challenges that vets and others are facing in their efforts to save the endangered pygmy rabbit. 

On a trip to Washington and Oregon to learn more about the challenges that vets and others are facing in their efforts to save the endangered pygmy rabbit, deputy editor Ivan Oransky stopped in to see Michael Garner, the zoo pathologist who examined the pygmy rabbit evidence.

Undeterred by an outbreak, a band of vets and others make heroic efforts to save an endangered species. 

Addictive Research 20 years ago, scientists got hooked on a single transcription factor that responds to a number of drugs of abuse. Will their work lead to treatments? By Kerry Grens Related Articles 1 When the drug was removed, the enzyme's activity spiked, which the authors interpret as a cellular withdrawal from dependency: "This phenomenon can be likened to the abstinence syndrome in animals." "You're profoundly altering the nature of nerve cells." -E

CREB, alcohol, and anxiety By Kerry Grens ARTICLE EXTRAS 1 Another quality of the rats interested Subhash Pandey of the University of Illinois at Chicago. "When they drink alcohol," Pandey says, "their anxiety disappears." Pandey wanted to find out what was responsible. He turned to CREB and one of its targets, neuropeptide Y (NPY), a potent, endogenous anxiolytic compound. Heilig, when he was a postdoc with George Koob at the Scripps Research Institute, had shown that N

The brain on drugs Drugs elevate CREB activity in the nucleus accumbens by activating cyclic AMP pathway, causing protein kinase A to translocate to the nucleus and phosphorylate CREB. Target genes involved in addiction include dynorphin, corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH or CRF ), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), glutamate receptor subunit GluR1.By Kerry Grens ARTICLE EXTRAS Addictive Research Ho

How pharmacogenomics might help addiction treatment Naltrexone Molecule 20 years ago, scientists got hooked on a single transcription factor that responds to a number of drugs of abuse. Will their work lead to treatments? By Kerry Grens Related Articles 1 In 2003 David Oslin and Charles O'Brien at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Addiction Treatment and their colleagues reported an association between this SNP and how well patients responded to naltrexo

Related Articles Genotyping with PCR Selected Reading List .tablestyle { padding:5px; border: 1px solid #83292b; border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px } .header { padding:5px; font: bold 13px arial, helvetica, trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height:16px; color:#ffffff; background-color:#83292b; border: 1px solid #83292b } .categories { padding:5px; font: bold 11px arial, helvetica, trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height:16px; color:#000000; b

Selected Reading By M. Tevfik Dorak ARTICLE EXTRAS Genotyping with PCR Selected Genotyping Platforms Vendor Luminex Corporation, Bio-Rad Affymetrix Illumina Applied Biosystems Idaho Technology, Roche Applied Science Sequenom Biotage Orchid Biosciences, Beckman Coulter Applied Biosystems Further Reading J.B. Fan et al., "Highly

Related Articles Better Work Through the Network Building a Profile that Pops .tablestyle { padding:5px; border: 1px solid #66CC66; border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0px } .header { padding:5px; font: bold 13px arial, helvetica, trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height:16px; color:#ffffff; background-color:#66CC66; border: 1px solid #66CC66 } .categories { padding:5px; font: bold 11px arial, helvetica, trebuchet, sans-serif; line-height:16px; colo

Related Articles Better Work Through the Network How the sites stack up 1. Tidy Up Your Web Image Before establishing a polished Web networking presence, comb the Internet for what Tim DeMello, founder and CEO of networking site Ziggs.com, calls "content crumbs." According to a 2006 survey by ExecuNet, a job search and recruiting network, almost 35% of executive recruiters have dropped a job candidate based on information they uncovered online. If you have a MySpace or si

Sure, the images Kit Pogliano takes of bacterial proteins are breathtaking, but the science is even more so.

Back-to-back studies pose double-strand breaks as initiating tumorigenesis.

Credit: © Andy Walker / Photo Researchers, Inc." /> Credit: © Andy Walker / Photo Researchers, Inc. The paper: J. Johnson et al., "Oocyte generation in adult mammalian ovaries by putative germ cells in bone marrow and peripheral blood," Cell, 122:303-15, 2005. (Cited in 81 papers) The finding: Jonathan Tilly, director of the Vincent center for reproductive biology at Massachusetts Gene

Credit: © Nissim Benvenisty" /> Credit: © Nissim Benvenisty The paper: M.J. Martin et al., "Human embryonic stem cells express an immunogenic nonhuman sialic acid," Nat Med, 11:228-32, 2005. (Cited in 111 papers) The finding: Ajit Varki and colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, showed that human embryonic stem cells incorporate a nonhuman immunogenic sialic acid from nonhuman growth serum in typical cell culture.

Credit: © National Cancer Institute / Photo Researchers, Inc." /> Credit: © National Cancer Institute / Photo Researchers, Inc. The paper: M.J. Kiel et al., "SLAM family receptors distinguish hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells and reveal endothelial niches for stem cells," Cell, 121:1109-21, 2005. (Cited in 118 papers) The finding: Mark Kiel at the University of Michigan and colleagues compared gene expression profiles from

Backcrossing knockout alleles into inbred mouse strains is common procedure, but unintended consequences can occur. Leonard C. Schalkwyk of the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College London and collaborators at the University of Tartu in Estonia backcrossed cholecystokynin 2 knockouts with C57BL/6 mice and demonstrated a "congenic footprint," a remaining fragment of the flanking stem cell-derived chromosome that causes differences in gene expression.1 "What you have here is

A dog's tail reveals unambiguous messages about its mood. Now, a study on tail wagging may lend credence to the contested theory that nonhuman vertebrates have asymmetric brain function. Angelo Quaranta and colleagues from the University of Bari and the University of Trieste in Italy trained video cameras on the posteriors of 30 dogs while exposing them to four separate visual stimuli: the dog's owner, an unfamiliar person, a dominant unfamiliar dog, and a cat. Familiar and nonth

G. Cumming et al., "Error bars in experimental biology," J Cell Biol, 177: 7-11, April 9, 2007. Different kinds of error bars can mean very different things. The authors suggest eight simple rules to assist with effective use and interpretation of error bars. This paper is a must read for every scientist who thinks that triplicate plates from a single experiment counts as n=3! Andy Gro

Credit: © 2007 Greg Kessler Photography" /> Credit: © 2007 Greg Kessler Photography The lone distraction in Liam Paninski's austere New York City office is an acoustic guitar lying strings up on his desk. A computer idles beside the instrument, and empty bookshelves line the room that the soft-spoken Columbia University professor of theoretical neuroscience jokingly calls his "lab." Paninski's decor parallels his approach to neuroscience. The statistical

How to choose the right approach

William Cork's passion for startups brought him from Baxter to Nanosphere, where he's now CTO.

How Web-based professional networking can further your career.

On May 27, 1961, Heinrich Matthaei, a postdoc working with NIH scientist Marshal Nirenberg, placed synthetic polyuracil RNA into 20 test tubes to see what it would produce. Each tube contained cytoplasmic extract from Escherichia coli and a specific radiolabeled amino acid. Ribosomes from the tube containing labeled phenylalanine came back 'hot,' and the world was a step closer to understanding the genetic code.CLICK HERE for a larger version of this image