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,

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

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

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

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

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

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