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Image: Wikimedia commons, NASAScience to spaceSpace shuttle Discovery lifted off on schedule this morning (April 5) at 6:21 A.M., bringing a new micro-laboratory and other equipment and experiments to the International Space Station about 220 miles above Earth. The micro-laboratory, a joint venture between the Houston-based firm NanoRacks and a Kentucky-based non-profit space research collaboration called Kentucky Space, is the "first-of-its-kind" -- a "standardized, economical and lightweight t

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Image: Wikimedia commons,
NASA

Science to space
Space shuttle Discovery lifted off on schedule this morning (April 5) at 6:21 A.M., bringing a new micro-laboratory and other equipment and experiments to the International Space Station about 220 miles above Earth. The micro-laboratory, a joint venture between the Houston-based firm NanoRacks and a Kentucky-based non-profit space research collaboration called Kentucky Space, is the "first-of-its-kind" -- a "standardized, economical and lightweight technology" capable of performing multiple, independent experiments on microgravity, linkurl:Topnews reported.;http://topnews.net.nz/content/23091-space-shuttle-discovery-hauling-new-standardized-micro-lab-iss Radical journal editor to be fired?
Elsevier will fire editor-in-chief Bruce Charlton from its only non-peer-reviewed journal next month if he refuses to implement the demanded changes, including a traditional peer-review system, linkurl:ScienceInsider reported.;http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/04/may-deadline-set-for-controversi.html The changes for the journal linkurl:have been brewing;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57121/ ever since the publication of two AIDS denialists papers last summer. "My feeling is that this behaviour by Elsevier ought to be of concern to all academic editors and journals, since it is a direct attack on editorial independence," Charlton said in an email to The Scientist. Women salaries lag in academia
Women in life science research still make less money than their male counterparts, even those at the higher levels of their academic and professional careers, according to a study published in the linkurl:April issue of Academic Medicine,;http://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Fulltext/2010/04000/Activities,_Productivity,_and_Compensation_of_Men.23.aspx and women faculty members tend to take on different roles at their institutions. Take 5 minutes today to linkurl:fill out The Scientist's salary survey,;http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/H7XZ2MF and help us compare the field by gender, specialization, degree, and more. UK money to recruit world's best
The British government is providing a £ 2.5 million scholarship fund to attract the top research students to study in the UK. The fund was created to meet the needs of British industry, linkurl:The Times Higher Education reported.;http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=411043&c=1 The money includes 100 postgraduate researcher scholarships, worth up to £ 25,000 each. Animal-rights activists on the prowl?
Animal-rights activists argued in a Wisconsin court last Thursday (April 1) for the prosecution of researchers after three sheep research subjects died of decompression sickness during US Navy-financed experiments about submariners -- just one example of how animal-rights groups are "aggressively stepping up legal tactics," linkurl:The Wall Street Journal reported.;http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303395904575158143472660892.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5 FAS gets new board head
Harold Palmer Smith Jr. was elected as the new chairman of the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) Board, linkurl:the agency announced Friday (April 2).;http://www.fas.org/press/news/2010/board_chair.html Smith, who specializes in technology, foreign policy, and defense, is a "distinguished visiting scholar" with the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley (UCB).
**__Related stories:__***linkurl:Take our 2010 Salary Survey;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57218/
[15th March 2010]*linkurl:Journal editor facing axe;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57204/
[8th March 2010]*linkurl:Radical journal's fate at risk;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57121/
[27th January 2010]*linkurl:Animal rights activists jailed;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55347/
[21st January 2009]*linkurl:Biotech in space?;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54609/
[28th April 2008]
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Meet the Author

  • Jef Akst

    Jef Akst was managing editor of The Scientist, where she started as an intern in 2009 after receiving a master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses.
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