October 2000

Human prenatal development can be viewed as a program of genetic switches that turn on, in a highly regulated manner, at specific places and times. But a body of evidence is emerging that paints a less hardwired picture, one of responses to environmental challenges fostering changes early on that reverberate decades later, in the guise of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. A symposium at the American Society of Human Genetics annual meeting, held in Philadelphia Oct. 3-7, addressed the fetal o

Aerial shot of the HHMI's Maryland headquarters. On a pristine 23-acre campus in Maryland located just a few miles from the National Institutes of Health, a handful of scientists decides how America's richest privately held biomedical research organization should distribute more than $500 million in funding annually. But the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, perhaps America's most prestigious patron of biomedical research, has undergone a changing of the guard at its Chevy Chase headquarters in t

On October 17, the "American Competitiveness in the Twenty-First Century Act of 2000" became law.1 President Bill Clinton signed the bill on the last day he could do so, during his flight back from the Middle East summit.2 The law's most publicized provision directs the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to issue 70 percent more H-1B visas, which permit foreigners to work in the United States. But the law includes a host of more obscure changes that should help life scientists struggli

In the beginning, there were no posters. Now, many scientific meetings have thousands of them. At the 50th meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) in Philadelphia, Oct. 4-7, scientists signed up for 2,147 posters, compared to 287 slide presentations. Douglas Marchuk, associate professor in the department of genetics at Duke University, and this year's head of the ASHG program committee, describes the poster evolution this way: "In l977 and l978 they were all slide sessions. In

Whether sitting down to a relaxing dinner or grabbing fast food, people don't think about the origin of every ingredient in the food they eat. But as biotechnology applications in commercial agriculture increase, controversy over the risks versus the benefits also continues to rise. In mid-September, public citizen groups, including Genetically Engineered Food Alert and the Union of Concerned Scientists, requested a recall of taco shells that allegedly contained genetically engineered corn. Inde

The presidential campaign has focused heavily on topics such as taxes, health care, and the elderly. Yet there are other issues on which the presidential administration will have a significant impact as well. A recent Gallup survey shows that science and technology issues may influence Americans' presidential choice.1 The survey reveals that more than two-thirds of those polled support recent budget proposals to significantly increase federal spending for scientific research and development. Sev

Barbara Mikulski If there is more "bullwhip and buzz saw" than "serenade by starlight" in the persona of U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), it's because she isn't afraid to batter feelings in fighting for what she believes in. Certainly, not everyone likes the outspoken way she cuts through business-as-usual in pursuit of her goals. "Barbara, you just don't have a therapeutic personality," is how one of her teachers once put it, and Mikulski proudly declares that Ronald Reagan, George Bush,

Defining Genetics On Oct. 3, in a prelude to the 50th meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in Philadelphia, several hundred geneticists attended a one-day international conference on the genetics of complex diseases. Organized by the National Disease Research Interchange, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit coordinating organization, the agenda included sessions on the genetics of thyroid disease, type I diabetes, and autism. The first session, "Defining the Genetics of Complex Disease

In his criticism of scientists who find Koch's postulates obsolete,1 Todd Miller overlooks one important point. Recruiting volunteers to apply Koch's postulates to diseases such as Ebola fever and AIDS has been somewhat difficult of late. There was a time when prisoners would do, but we've outgrown that practice. Koch's postulates may or may not be obsolete, but they are not universal. David Carlberg, Ph.D. Professor Department of Biological Sciences California State University Long Beach,

In his commentary on science and the global agenda,1 Bruce Alberts pointed out the distressing disregard for science prevalent in many parts of the world in relation to evolution, genetically altered foods, and AIDS. He emphasized that to counter these anti-scientific attitudes and contribute to solutions for the serious problems associated with rapid growth of the world population, scientific societies "must take a more active role in helping political leaders and the public make informed decis

A consensus grass comparative map shows how grass genomes line up. When the well's dry, we know the worth of water," wrote Benjamin Franklin under his Poor Richard alias. Not much has changed in 250 years as the United States, suffering one of the most devastating droughts in 90 years, painfully learns water's worth. The situation is gravest in the Southwest, which is enduring its fourth year of drought in five years. The U.S. Department of Agriculture continues to add more counties to its list

The Jury is Still Out on Soy In the search for a breast cancer preventive, soy has been considered a promising candidate. But a review of research on soy's phytoestrogen genistein (K.B. Bouker, L. Hilakivi-Clarke, "Genistein: Does it prevent or promote breast cancer," Environmental Health Perspectives, 108:70-8, August 2000) is lukewarm on the compound's preventative capabilities. "There is no strong evidence that genistein would actually prevent breast cancer, but there is no strong evidence

Protein Assay Manufacturers and Products From the decades-old biuret reaction to the use of complicated fluorescent molecules, the search for an easy, reliable, and stable method for the quantitation of total protein in solution has gone on for more than 80 years. Although several famous, innovative, and useful techniques were developed over that time, the search continues. Bob Vigna, marketing manager for industry leader Pierce Chemical Co. of Rockford, Ill., confirms this observation. "The u

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has become an extremely familiar analytical tool in chemistry and biochemistry laboratories. Even researchers with little exposure to the technique recognize that NMR can provide a great deal of information about everything from the acetone content of a poorly prepared undergraduate chemistry lab sample to the structure and dynamics of complex biomolecules. In recent years the analytical potential of NMR has expanded, offering researchers a growing a