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Contributors Susan Gasser was slow to find her calling in science; her first real focus in university was classical philosophy. "It was really reading things like Darwin that were very conceptual that made me interested in science," she says. She earned her Ph.D. working on mitochondrial protein trafficking with Gottfried Schatz at the University of Basel, which led to a postdoc studying chromosomes. "The organization of chromatin in the nucleus is

Mail Activating Debate Re: "Now Showing: RNA Activation,"1 I am surprised that the RNAi community is resistant to new mechanisms of RNA such as RNA activation, as it wasn't that long ago that scientists were not believing in RNA interference. Most discoveries in science have been found by mistake and not by hypothesis testing in a lab. With all the "revelations" that have been found in genetics over the last 15 years, this is just another facet of

Last chance to respond to the 2009 Best Places to Work in Academia survey today -- survey closes July 3

Contributors Michele Pagano wasn't even out of high school when he began his research career, growing bacteria or observing paramecia before the first bell rang. In an effort to appease his father, Pagano then headed to medical school and earned his MD in 1989, but he couldn't kick the research bug he caught back in that high school laboratory. So he received an additional specialty degree (a sort of Italian equivalen

Mail Sleeping on it It seems that central to the hypothesis of Chiara Cirelli and Giulio Tononi (specifically, that we need sleep to prune synapses)1 that all synapses grow during the day, whether they're stimulated by specific activities or not. I didn't see anything in the article that specifically supports the idea that all synapses increase in

li { font-family: "Trebuchet MS", arial, helvetica; font-size: 10.5pt; } Survey Methodology Survey Form: A web-based survey was posted on The Scientist web site from January 6 to March 6, 2009. Results were collected and collated automatically. Invitations: E-mail invitations were sent to readers of The Scientist and registrants on The Scientist web site who identified themselves as working in commercial or industrial companies. Responses: 2911 useable and qualifie

table { font-size: 11px; } Best Places to Work Industry 2009 Questions Factors Categories My company fully funds my research. Research Environment My company's research mission is logical and practical, and I understand my role in it. Research Environment My supervisor helps me understand the reasons behind company research plans. Research Environment Open collaboration with other company scientists h

Best Places to Work 2009: Industry PDF Related Articles Best Places to Work : Industry 2009 Cross-Pollination Running (RNA) Interference Sitting pretty in tough times Back on Top Survey Methodology Ranking Tables Top 30 Institutions Top Small Companies Top Large Companies BPTW Industry Charts In our June issue, read about the companies that ranked at the top of our Best Places to Work in Industry survey. Click here to download the 200

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Contributors GlaxoSmithKline's chief strategist of research and development Yvonne Greenstreet decided to become a doctor at age seven, after watching a physician make the rounds in her native Ghana. She moved to the "cold, somewhat drearier stiff upper lip environment" of England for boarding school and completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology, but soon became frustrated with the UK health care system. After earning an MBA in France, she moved to Glax

Mail Worst Places to Work? Re: Best Places to Work: Postdocs,1 maybe it would be good to have an article pointing out the reasons some institutes did not rate highly in the survey. I don't think the institutions should be named but being able to compare the good with the bad would be a good tool for students and postdocs, to get an idea of what to watch out for when applying for jobs. Claire Seymour Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

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North Carolina-based freelance writer Kelly Rae Chi became fascinated by the controversial idea that synapses weaken overnight, resetting the brain and improving learning the next day. But the effort to synthesize all the ideas in the field—the result of which is presented in "Disappearing before Dawn"—disrupted her sleep. "At some point in the process of writing this I was screaming in

I like iGEM Re: "Brick by brick"1, the iGEM competition is a fantastic idea, and I often hear comments from other scientists saying that they wish there were similar student competitions in other fields of science. The Slovenian team has been singled out not for its achievements but for the alleged hype associated with its project, which I think is not really a fair assessment. The g

Best Places to Work Postdocs 2009 Questions Factors Categories My principal investigator takes time to discuss the science behind the experiments and other work that I do. Quality of Training and Mentoring I have learned much from my principal investigator about how to succeed as a scientist. Quality of Training and Mentoring My colleagues help me to learn to use equipment and to perform techniques that are new to me. Q