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Overlooking the Eyjafjallajökull glacierand the ongoing volcano eruption fromHvolsvöllur on April 18th, 2010Image: Wikimedia commons, BoawormAsh axes scientific conferencesIt's not just flights that are disrupted -- the linkurl:5th European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) conference,;https://www.epsoweb.org/event/conference/finland-2010 scheduled for April 18 through 22 above the Arctic Circle, near Muonio in Lapland, has been postponed until 2011 due to the lingering volcanic ash cloud

Written byJef Akst

| 2 min read

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Overlooking the Eyjafjallajökull glacier
and the ongoing volcano eruption from
Hvolsvöllur on April 18th, 2010
Image: Wikimedia commons, Boaworm

Ash axes scientific conferences
It's not just flights that are disrupted -- the linkurl:5th European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO) conference,;https://www.epsoweb.org/event/conference/finland-2010 scheduled for April 18 through 22 above the Arctic Circle, near Muonio in Lapland, has been postponed until 2011 due to the lingering volcanic ash cloud following the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland last week. Another conference, linkurl:Cognitive Neuroscience;https://www.medcoast.org/aktiviteter/conferencecognitiveneurosciencefrommoleculetopatient2123april2010hankonorway.5.6ccae249126f6a0ed2b800016439.html hosted by MedCoast Scandinavia, scheduled for Wednesday through Friday of this week in Norway, is currently slated to proceed as scheduled, but there have been some changes in the program due to some lecturers not able to make the trip, according to Lisbeth Johnsen, contact person for Norwegian and international participants. AIDS denialist suspected of misconduct
University of California, Berkeley, professor and high-profile AIDS denialist Peter Duesberg is the subject of a misconduct investigation launched by the university, he linkurl:told ScienceInsider.;https://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/04/exclusive-aids-scientist-investi.html The charges appear to stem from a controversial paper published last summer in Elsevier's only non-peer-reviewed journal, Medical Hypotheses, which challenged the belief that HIV causes the life-threatening disease. The paper raised a stink among AIDS researchers, and prompted the publisher to institute a traditional peer-review system. NCI's cancer trials need upgrade
The National Cancer Institute's linkurl:Clinical Trials Cooperative Group Program,;https://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/NCI/clinical-trials-cooperative-group which coordinates trials of new cancer treatments, is in need of some major changes, according to linkurl:a report;https://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12879 released last week by the Institute of Medicine. The recommendations: NCI should share of all data generated from the trials with the scientific community and either increase the budget or reduce the total number of trials undertaken, among others. An linkurl:independent survey;https://www.asco.org/ASCOv2/Press+Center/Latest+News+Releases/ASCO+Survey+Finds+NCI+Cooperative+Groups+Limiting+Clinical+Trial+Participation by the American Society of Clinical Oncology found that one-third of NCI's current cooperative members will limit their participation in these trials, turning to industry-sponsored studies instead, due to the low reimbursement rates -- currently at $2,000 per study participant, according to a linkurl:Wall Street Journal blog.;https://blogs.wsj.com/health/2010/04/15/cancer-trials-cooperative-at-breaking-point-says-report/

Image: Wikimedia commons

Unexpected microbial diversity
Recent sampling of the oceans' microscopic life estimate that at least 20 million different kinds of marine microbes exist, but that the total may be much higher -- perhaps one hundred times more diverse than expected. "The findings have dramatically expanded our understanding of microbial life in the oceans," microbiologist Norman Pace at the University of Colorado in Boulder linkurl:told Nature News.;https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100418/full/news.2010.190.html Silk boosts brain recording
New silk-based electronics that stick to the surface of the brain and record neuronal activity may reach new areas due to their ultrathin and dissolvable design, according to linkurl:a study;https://www.nature.com/nmat/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nmat2745.html published yesterday (April 18) in Nature Materials. "This development heralds a new class of implantable devices, not just for the brain, but for many other tissues," neurologist Brian Litt of the University of Pennsylvania linkurl:told Wired Science.;https://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/04/silk-brain-computer-interface/#more-20622 Coma better than Rosetta Stone?
A 13-year-old Croatian girl woke up from a 24-hour coma last week speaking fluent German, which she had only just started studying in school. She was unable to speak Croatian, her native language. Hospital director Dujomir Marasovic linkurl:told The Telegraph;https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/croatia/7583971/Croatian-teenager-wakes-from-coma-speaking-fluent-German.html that they "have some theories" for the unusual occurrence, but could not go into more detail due to privacy issues.
**__Related stories:__***linkurl:Radical journal's fate at risk;https://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57121/
[27th January 2010]*linkurl:Of cells and wires;https://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/55313/
[January 2009]*linkurl:Bacterial census of Texas air reveals microbial diversity;https://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/38145/
[19th December 2006]*linkurl:Revelations from the Unconscious;https://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/15705/
[12th September 2005]

Meet the Author

Jef Akst

Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.

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