Chinese national Sengyang Zhou was arrested in Hawaii last week on charges of importing and linkurl:selling counterfeit drugs online,;http://www.2daydietshopping.com/ reminiscent of the story of another recently nabbed pharma faker, Kevin Xu, whose downfall is detailed in linkurl:a recent feature;http://www.the-scientist.com/2010/2/1/36/1/ in The Scientist.
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Tom Varco |
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Several prominent scientists, including three Nobel Laureates, have written a letter defending the actions of the recently fired research dean of the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, Karl Tryggvason, linkurl:Nature News reported.;http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100325/full/news.2010.144.html Tryggvason was linkurl:dismissed earlier this month;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57198/ (March 2) for exerting "undue influence" over the allocation of about $22 million in research funds to top Karolinska professors. But in linkurl:their letter,;http://www.nature.com/nature/newspdf/letter-of-support.pdf dated just four days after the dean was let go, the grant evaluation committee denied that Tryggvason influenced their granting decisions and said that they "sincerely regret" his dismissal. Concern over biologist winning Templeton
Evolutionary geneticist and former Dominican priest Francisco J. Ayala of the University of California at Irvine received the 2010 Templeton Prize for work that affirms "life's spiritual dimension," linkurl:The Chronicle of Higher Education reported.;http://chronicle.com/article/Geneticist-at-U-of-California/64831/ Ayala "has devoted more than 30 years to asserting that both science and faith are damaged when either invades the proper domain of the other," the John Templeton Foundation linkurl:said in a statement.;http://www.templetonprize.org/currentwinner.html In response, some scientists have voiced concerns over the grouping together of science and religion, and the decision of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to host the award announcement last Thursday. "The Templeton Foundation is working in good faith. They're in favour of science but want to see a reconciliation with religion. That's not evil and crackpotty, but it's incorrect. It's a mistake," Sean Carroll from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena linkurl:told a Nature blog.;http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2010/03/nas_under_fire_as_templeton_pr.html Evolutionary biologist and author Richard Dawkins agreed, saying that the NAS "has brought ignominy on itself" by hosting the award announcement. linkurl:See our April issue;http://www.the-scientist.com/2010/4/1/29/1/ for surprising new data on how scientists feel about religion and spirituality. More funding for ERC, please
Universities UK, a higher education action group, published a paper last week that argues for more funding to be channeled to the European Research Council (ERC), including support for PhD students, linkurl:according to the Times Higher Education.;http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=410952&c=1 The paper, which praises the ERC's use of excellence as the sole criterion for funding, comes as about 8,000 researchers are fighting to linkurl:cut Europe's bureaucratic red tape,;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57197/ demanding that the "administrative burden and the financial regulation" of European research funding be simplified.
**__Related stories:__***linkurl:But For the Grace of Genes ;http://www.the-scientist.com/2010/4/1/29/1/
[April 2010]*linkurl:Dean axed for ethics slip;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57198/
[2nd March 2010]*linkurl:News in a nutshell;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/57197/
[1st March 2010]*linkurl:The Counterfeiter;http://www.the-scientist.com/2010/2/1/36/1/
[February 2010]
