The Scientist articles from April 2002

The Scientist archives from April 2002

Maybe you can blame your genes; scientists find locus significantly linked to obesity. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... Researchers are homing in on genetics as a potential cause of obesity, but to date, few obesity-related genes have been discovered, and those tend to be very rare in the population (See "Genes Do Play a Role in Obesity," page 22). But a group...

Research, teaching to wed; NSF will officiate; research experience for teachers program pairs scientists with K-12 teachers. (Frontlines).(National Science Foundation )(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... The National Science Foundation recently announced a new program to encourage involvement by K-12 teachers in agency-sponsored research projects. According to assistant director Mary Clutter, the agency hopes to "help build long-term...

That gadget's not magic: it's science; kids learn science behind technology. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... Rather than worry that kids' yen for high-tech toys hinders their learning, seven European research organizations now use that fascination to teach the fundamentals of science, with an emphasis on fun. The program, "Sci-Tech -- Couldn't be...

The right odor might save a life; belding ground squirrels tell kin through scent. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... When a species of ground squirrels called Belding first meet, they rub cheeks and appear to kiss, but in reality, they are sniffing one another. Odors emitted from facial scent glands contain information that tells the squirrels precisely how...

New technologies for treatment: universities get grants to develop new medical devices. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... Three US institutes got funding for research into new medical and imaging technologies from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). The institute provided Yale University School of Medicine $1.4 million to...

Researching VEGF's ancestral role; do these homologs represent a common ancestor for blood vessels and cells? (Frontlines).(vascular endothelial growth factor receptor )(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... Homologs of human angio-genesis genes found in Drosophila may explain the evolution of circulatory systems. Researchers from Stanford University and Exelixis Inc., South San Francisco, Calif., think they have found the ancestral role of VEGF...

Scientists on science. (Commentary).
April 29, 2002... For some issues of The Scientist, themes emerge from a collection of articles that, when originally assigned to writers, were just about various individual topics. For this issue, many of our stories could have been based on a three-M theme:...

Forget tacos. (Opinion).(environmental associations and biotechnology)
April 29, 2002... I got a letter from the Sierra Club not long after the 2000 election, sandwiched between the usual bills. In an envelope ominously marked "priority," the granddaddy of environmental groups pleaded for "an emergency contribution of $75." Why...

Sequence your own. (Letters).
April 29, 2002... As I read through the March 18 edition of The Scientist, I was saddened by the article on DNA sequencing. (1) While many labs prefer the drop-off method of a core facility, some of us still love to perform manual sequencing. One does not have...

Gum disease. (Letters).
April 29, 2002... Gregory Smutzer's article, "Molecular Demolition," (1) does not mention perhaps the most common disease attributed to the actions of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs): chronic periodontitis, better known as "gum disease." (2) In periodontitis,...

A case for reviews. (Letters).
April 29, 2002... Christian Daughton's essay (1) rightly criticizes scientists for being insufficiently familiar with research literature. I would extend Daughton's views by emphasizing the value of good review publications. Unfortunately, scientists have...

Early warning: U.S. scientists counter bioterrorism with new electronic sentinel systems. (News).
April 29, 2002... Stung by anthrax mailings after suicide skyjackings, the United States is hurrying to erect an electronic line of defense against further bioterrorism. At least five sophisticated biosurveillance systems are under development with federal...

Are science and technology governable? Columbia conference examines outcomes of research and technological advances. (News).
April 29, 2002... A small group of scientists and scholars sat around a coffee table recently, balancing lunches on laps while discussing the prospects of greatly extending human life using new genetics tools and nanotechnologies. The group included a Johns...

Corn goes pop, then kaboom; nature regrets publishing a paper on transgene contamination in Mexico. (News).
April 29, 2002... On April 4, Nature sent ripples through the scientific community and the popular press by admitting it made a mistake. In an unprecedented action, editor Philip Campbell concluded in the journal's online version that "evidence available is...

Kids, crystals, and space research: students help launch experiments bound for the International Space Station. (News).(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... When space shuttle Atlantis last launched from Cape Canaveral this month, hundreds of students and teachers from across the nation had particular reason to be excited. They had helped prepare the nearly 300 protein and viral samples which the...

Loss in space: researchers work to overcome the problems of weightlessness. (Research).
April 29, 2002... When transatlantic steamers traversed the oceans, one line touted itself with ads saying: "Getting there is half the fun." Not so with space travel: Here, an unhealthy situation exists because the travelers' bones lose mass and weaken. Severe...

Genes do play a role in obesity: for some people, overeating is not the only culprit. (Research).
April 29, 2002... Sedentary people who enjoy high-caloric diets--adults and children alike--are getting dangerously fat. (1) Along with the increased weight comes complications. Take obesity, for example. It is a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes. Once...

The ribosome's 30S subunit comes into focus: the structure answers important questions, including long-standing riddles about protein synthesis. (Hot Papers).
April 29, 2002... In 1999, X-ray crystallographers did what many considered impossible--they crystallized very large, complicated structures. In that year, Venki Rarnakrishnan and colleagues from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular...

Researchers find a eukaryotic mRNA policing system; nonstop decay eliminates mRNAs that lack termination codons. (Faculty of 1000).(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... Genes might grab headlines, and proteins might do the actual work of cells, but without messenger RNA (mRNA) both of them would be powerless, mRNA is the key intermediary in gene expression, translating the DNA's genetic code into the amino...

Phosphoproteins. (Faculty of 10000).(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... S.B. Ficarro et al., "Phosphoproteome analysis by mass spectrometry and its application to Saccharomyces cerevisiae," Nature Biotechnology, 20[3]:301-5, March 2002. "This is a long-awaited paper detailing more than 200 phosphorylation...

SNP genotyping. (Faculty of 1000).(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... J.S. Sinsheimer et al., "SNPs and snails and puppy dogs' tails: Analysis of SNP haplotype data using the gamete competition model," Annals of Human Genetics, 65[Pt 5]:483-90, September 2001. "[Here is] a method to use haplotype data in...

Inhibitor design. (Faculty of 1000).
April 29, 2002... B.A. Grzybowski et al., "Combinatorial computational method gives new picomolar ligands for a known enzyme," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 99[3]:1270-3, Feb. 5, 2002. "As a successful example for de nova design of...

Diabetes research. (Faculty of 1000).(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... S.E. Lamhamedi-Cherradi et al., "Further mapping of the Idd5.1 locus for autoimmune diabetes in NOD mice," Diabetes, 50[12]:2874-8, December 2001. "[These researchers] use novel non-obese diabetic (NOD) congenic strains to refine the map...

Proteomics. (Faculty of 1000).(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... A.J. Enright, C.A. Ouzounis, "Functional associations of proteins in entire genomes by means of exhaustive detection of gene fusions," Genome Biology, 2[9]: research0034.1-7, 2001. "Another excellent example of an in silica experiment...

The chipping news: protein arrays and biochips speed up protein functional analysis and expression profiling. (Lab Consumer).
April 29, 2002... Recent months have seen a surge of activity in the field of protein microarrays. No wonder: Gene expression-profiling is faster and more powerful thanks to improvements in DNA microarray technology. Now researchers want to apply these...

Protein nanoarrays. (In Focus).(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... Protein microarray technology is still in its infancy, yet protein nanoarrays are already on the horizon. A research team led by Chad Mirkin, director, Northwestern University s Institute for Nanotechnology, recently demonstrated the use of...

Glycobiology goes to the ball: new federal funding, new technologies, and a better understanding of carbohydrates' roles in biology have scientists pondering the feasibility of a human glycome project. (Lab Consumer).
April 29, 2002... There's more to life than DNA, RNA, and proteins. Literally. Sugars are also in the mix. And the roles that carbohydrates play in biology are just as important as those of any member of the better-characterized trinity. These macromolecules...

H.T. gene knockouts; scientists create stable cell lines with siRNAs. (Lab Consumer).(Brief Article)
April 29, 2002... Not long ago, scientists conducted loss-of-function experiments in mammals mostly by using anti-sense, dominant negative, or knockout technologies: Bind up the messenger RNA, swamp out the protein, or interrupt the gene, and then examine the...

RNAi for the masses: Ambion and New England Biolabs offer in vitro transcription-based kits for construction of dsRNAs. (Tools & Technology).
April 29, 2002... RNA interference (RNAi), discussed previously in The Scientist, (1) is a post-transcriptional, targeted gene-silencing technique that uses double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) to degrade messenger RNA (mRNA) containing the same sequence as the dsRNA....

Count on it: Innovatis' forthcoming Cellscreen system counts cells without sampling. (Lab Consumer).
April 29, 2002... Estimating the number of cells in a culture is sometimes inexact, often time consuming, and always pure drudgery. Plus, when the volume of the culture is extremely small, the samples removed for cell counting make later measurements more...

A sharper fluorescent image: Zeiss' new 3D Deconvolution software improves fluorescence microscopy images. (Lab Consumer).
April 29, 2002... Accurate fluorescence microscopic imaging of three-dimensional specimens is often impaired by the signal distortion that occurs as specimen light travels through the optical system to the observing camera. Thornwood, NY-based Carl Zeiss...

Migrating minds: European life scientists traditionally complete their education in the United States and then stay; now the EU pays to get them back. (Cover Story).
April 29, 2002... When Sandra Panchalingam finished her PhD studies at the University of Birmingham, she set her sights on the United States. "I knew that no matter how hard I worked in the United Kingdom, I would probably never get a chance to run my own...

Euros for discoveries? European scientists follow their US counterparts to the market. (Profession).
April 29, 2002... Many US academic researchers patent discoveries even before they publish them, contributing to $1.26 billion (US) in new product licenses in 2001. Now some European institutions want to catch up, but century-old traditions slow their pace. "A...

Blend disciplines for a blue sky career. (Turning Points).
April 29, 2002... After one of my recent talks at a graduate school, an immunology student asked how she could get writing experience and develop samples for a portfolio. Many students who want to write or pursue a business career, for example, wonder whether...

British research funding: one good cut deserves another; despite stellar performances, life science laboratories see their budgets shrink. (Profession).
April 29, 2002... Sometimes even your best isn't enough, as some British life science laboratories are finding out, the hard way. Many are scrambling to change priorities and seek other funding to compensate for cuts by the Higher Education Funding Council for...

Mary-Dell Chilton: plant geneticist, public teacher. (Profile).
April 29, 2002... Mary-Dell Chilton had journeyed from the West Coast to New York City in September 1977 to demonstrate her discovery to one of the most important plant scientists in the world, Armin Braun, a professor at Rockefeller University. Braun...

Because you can't feed science to the dog: Museums in London and Philadelphia try to inspire children with science history lessons on the Web. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... For some children, science is as palatable as brussels sprouts. To elevate the topic in the minds of primary and secondary students, the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia and the Science Museum of London have collaborated to publish an...

Epstein-Barr smoked out of its hole; telomeric turncoats found harboring the virus. (Frontlines).(genetic aspects of Epstein-Barr Virus)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... Researchers at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, Pa., appear to have discovered the protectors of Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV)--a ubiquitous herpes virus that can remain silent in human cells for years but may give rise to cancers such as...

Flocks learn quicker than solo fliers; researchers find that a bird's brain surpasses its popular reputation. (Frontlines).(animal intelligence)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... Birds living in socially complex arrangements seem capable of learning what was once considered the province of primates, says Alan Bond, research professor of biological sciences at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He and his colleagues...

Picking apart four megabases of mess; MHC sequencing project focuses on diabetes, multiple sclerosis. (Frontlines).(Major Histocompatibility Complex)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... Wellcome Trust infused 2.2 million [pounds sterling] into a project that will sequence eight versions of the Major Histocompatibility Complex in hopes of aiding research on autoimmune diseases: in particular some forms of diabetes and...

The dilly-dallying venture dollar; biotech startups still attracting early-stage investment. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... Venture capitalists smiled on life science companies this year, with biotechnology concerns attracting one-fourth of all early-stage investments, according to VentureWire, which released its first-quarter report earlier this month....

Caprion and McGill link up for proteomics project; Pharm group to provide $1 million over five years. (Frontlines).(Caprion Inc)(McGill University )(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... Proteomics research at McGill University got a million-dollar boost from Caprion Inc., the Montreal-based pharmaceutical company. The funding fulfills the university's responsibility to raise from industry 20% of the $3.2 million (Canadian)...

Fast-breaking Hot Papers. (Commentary).
April 15, 2002... In the April 1 issue, (1) I discussed new gratis features that are now accessible from the Institute for Scientific Information: highly cited authors at www. isihighlycited.com and the editorial sections of Essential Science Indicators at...

Proteomics: an infinite problem with infinite potential. (Opinion).(protein research)
April 15, 2002... Proteomics is an exciting discipline in its infancy that means different things to different people. It is also a field limited by the technologies currently available to its practitioners. Important questions arise: How can we usefully...

Alzheimer vaccine. (Letters).
April 15, 2002... The idea of vaccinating Alzheimer Disease (AD) patients against A[beta] has been backwards from the start. (1) AD is probably already an immune response against A[beta], hence the vaccine would worsen AD, not cure it. Evidence that this is...

Search for infectious agents. (Letters).
April 15, 2002... I and my group heartily agree with Edward L. McNeil (1) about the need to search for infectious agents in idiopathic diseases, although there is often the problem of cause and effect: Detection of an infectious agent in the diseased tissue...

Software zeroes in on ovarian cancer: a proteomic fingerprint with unprecedented diagnostic accuracy becomes a new kind of disease biomarker. (News).(Ben A. Hitt research)(Statistical Data Included)
April 15, 2002... Ben A. Hitt is living proof that you can leave biomedical research without saying goodbye forever. More than 20 years since turning out the lights in the lab for what he thought was the last time, Hitt is not only back, he's in demand. Now...

Once promising proteomics market sags: investors no longer keen on proteomics databases and software products now hunger for drug discoveries. (News).(Statistical Data Included)
April 15, 2002... The once white-hot investment climate for proteomics has cooled, sending companies scrambling to recast themselves. Biotech analysts and investors say interest in proteomics companies peaked about a year ago with a rash of them competing in...

Toward a global proteome: HUPO makes public/private collaboration its priority. (News).(The Human Proteome Organization)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... If mapping the entire human proteome isn't challenge enough, consider this: The Human Proteome Organization, created this past year, aims to coordinate the efforts of the many public and private groups moving into the proteomic field. (1)...

Toxicologists label GM foods safe; draft report is subject to membership approval. (News).(genetically modified )(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... A study group appointed by the 5,200-member Society of Toxicology, based in Reston, Va., recently issued a draft position paper affirming the safety of foods made from genetically modified (GM) crops. If approved by the society's full...

Birth of a giant arum. (Follow-Up).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... Amorphophallus titanum--the botanical mouthful is the Latin name for Titan arum, a Sumatran cousin of the common philodendron. Unlike the diminutive houseplant, Titan lives up to its label by producing giant leaves more than 20 feet long and...

Update on Astrobiology: scientists gather at CONTACT conference to discuss `biology elsewhere'. (News).
April 15, 2002... Just three weeks before E.T. flew back into movie theaters to celebrate his 20th anniversary, a group of interdisciplinary scientists, science fiction authors, teachers, and others interested in the real quest for extraterrestrial life...

The continuing Saga of invasive species: new study documents damage, recommends action. (News).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... The Ames, Iowa-based Council for Agricultural Science and Technology recently issued a report on the dangers posed by invasive pests to agriculture, public health, and natural ecosystems. A six-member task force co-chaired by Don Huber of...

Probing protein interactions: researchers have found them by the thousands, but what do these interactions mean? (Cover Story).(Statistical Data Included)
April 15, 2002... The challenge of proteomics is personified in the Greek god, Proteus. The keeper of all knowledge, past, present and future, Proteus would not give up any information easily; even while held down, he would struggle and assume different forms...

Collecting clues to the mammalian clock; proteins, kinase are involved in clock regulation. (Hot Papers).
April 15, 2002... Two papers published nearly back-to-back in 2000 pushed the study of mammalian chronobiology light years ahead. The first paper, from the lab of Joseph S. Takahashi, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, and the Walter and Mary E....

Dissecting the nucleolus: researchers are finding new functions, including regulatory sequestering of cell cycle proteins. (Faculty of 1000).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... Using cutting-edge technology and creative adaptations of older techniques, two groups recently uncovered new dynamics and complexity in the nucleolus--a nuclear organelle that organizes around the genes that encode ribosomal RNA during each...

Fly brains.
April 15, 2002... K. Rein et al., "The Drosophila standard brain," Current Biology, 12[3]:227-31, Feb. 5, 2002. "The authors present an approach to create a 3D image of the fly brain. This is a very useful resource tool that will make it possible to...

X-Ray crystallography.
April 15, 2002... F.J. Lopez-Jaramillo et al., "Crystallization and cryocrystallography inside X-ray capillaries," Journal of Applied Crystallography, 34:365-370, 2001. "Isolated crystals are grown in a gelled agarose-protein solution inside X-ray...

DNA methylation.
April 15, 2002... F. Santos et al., "Dynamic reprogramming of DNA methylation in the early mouse embryo," Developmental Biology, 241[1]:172-82, Jan. 1, 2002. "This paper provides many valuable observations of the dynamics of methylation and chromatin...

SNP genotyping.
April 15, 2002... S. Sauer et al., "Facile method for automated genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphisms by mass spectrometry," Nucleic Acids Research, 30[5]:22, March 1, 2002. "The development of automated, accurate and cheap methods for typing...

"RNomics".
April 15, 2002... T.H. Tang et al., "RNomics in Archaea reveals a further link between splicing of archaeal introns and rRNA processing," Nucleic Acids Research, 30[4]:921-30, Feb. 15, 2002. "RNomics attempts to identify all small non-mRNA species and...

Prospecting for gold in genome gulch: modern-day bioprospectors combine association, functional, and gene expression data to stake their claims in the rich veins of human DNA. (Lab Consumer).
April 15, 2002... The human genome is much like the American West of the 1850s: Everyone wants a piece of the pie. Similar to gold prospectors of 150 years ago, biotech and pharmaceutical companies, and even universities, are frantically searching for the...

Cheminformatics: redefining the crucible; standing at the crossroads of chemistry and computer technology, chemical information management tools aid basic researchers and drug developers alike. (Lab Consumer).
April 15, 2002... A key facet of any drug discovery effort is the library-screening step in which researchers test millions of chemical compounds for a desired property. Scientists must try to determine what the resulting leads have in common, chemically...

Pushing proteomics: large-scale commercial and academic efforts map proteins to the genome, and to subcellular locales. (Lab Consumer).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... Genomics is slowly but surely moving off center stage, replaced by proteomics. Though proteomics is a young field that hasn't fully found its stride, two new developments provide glimpses of the future. At the end of February, attendees...

A new approach to gene expression analysis: Lynx's MPSS technology offers an alternative to microarrays. (Tools and Technology).(Lynx Therapeutics Inc.)(Massively Parallel Signature Sequencing)(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... Most of the attention on gene expression analysis and discovery tools has centered on microarray technology, but alternative methods, including SAGE (serial analysis of gene expression) (1) and direct cDNA sequencing, do exist. Another such...

The Guide.
April 15, 2002... GLASS BOTTOM DISHES INTRODUCTORY PRICES WPI's new series of optical quality glass bottom dishes (with lids) provide exceptional imaging clarity. Available in two sizes (35mm and 55mm diameters) with a choice of five different glass...

German biotechs tap new talent; the burgeoning German biotechnology sector courts scientists. (Profession).
April 15, 2002... As Germany takes over the European lead in generating biotechnology companies, the demand for life scientists and researchers mushrooms. These startup enterprises, each employing 30 to 40 people on average, grew 150% in 1999, from 93 to 279....

Plying proteomics skills for premium jobs; no longer the darling of Wall Street, proteomics still generates opportunities. (Profession).
April 15, 2002... A 2001 surge in proteomics investment has generated record revenues, seeding a burgeoning job market and a flowering of training courses and research resources. Proteomics revenues grew 41.9% from $963 million to $1.37 billion (US), in 2001,...

An opening for life in European patents. (Turning Points).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... Most scientists know about the Harvard "Oncomouse," and you can even buy one (subject to the appropriate government licenses) under the Oncomouse[R] trademark (www.taconic.com). In the early 1990s this transgenic creature, engineered to be...

Funding opportunities in the life sciences. (Profession).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES IN THE LIFE SCIENCES ORGANIZATION SUBJECT DEADLINE American Foundation New investigator 5/15/2002 for Pharmaceutical program for Education ...

Colin Blakemore: neuroscientist and science communicator. (Profile).(Brief Article)
April 15, 2002... Colin Blakemore's boundless energy--physical and intellectual--is quite fitting in a man who has run 18 marathons. His preference to be addressed as Colin (no honorifics please!) is in keeping with his quiet and unassuming manner, which is...

A delicious receptor: a report furthers the understanding of taste. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Deemed the delicious taste, umami is found naturally in foods such as aged cheeses, steak, seafood, and mushrooms, and as an additive, the sodium salt monosodium glutamate. The substance that subtly makes food taste better is one of the 20...

Eliminating animal tests in drug design? Malaria parasite helps detect DNA damage. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Radiation and toxins can snip DNA into pieces called micronuclei, found in immature red blood cells (reticulocytes). But the fact that reticulocytes are short-lived, rare, and rapidly plucked From the circulation by the spleen, has limited...

The money-making academy: new discoveries, new companies, new revenues. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... Commercialization of academic research jumped in value by more than 46% in 2000, generating more than $1.26 billion in adjusted gross licensing fees for US and Canadian universities, research institutes, and hospitals. A survey of 190...

Dollars over discoveries? Expensive genes are not a question of fashion but of public health. (Frontlines).(high cost of patents limits genetic research)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... US Europe patents could boost the cost of genetic screening for consumers and researchers, according to a report from the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. Clinical trials rely on testing volume, and many laboratories...

Sex, flies, and seminal proteins: the more a female Drosophila mates, the less life she has left. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... It appears that female Drosophila may be having killer sex each time they mate. Seminal proteins have been found to shorten the lifespan of female fruit flies, according to a research review by Mariana Wolfner, professor of developmental...

Women, and the scent of a man: can custom-made colognes be far behind? (Frontlines).(pheromones, genetics and mate selection in women)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... For the first time, University of Chicago researchers have shown that humans, in this case women, can distinguish differences in odor down to a single gene (S. Jacob et al., "Paternally inherited HLA alleles are associated with women's...

Highly cited authors. (Commentary).(history of scientific communication)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2002... The Scientist's new format represents a turning point in the long evolution of my involvement in the field of scientific communication. Although a major part of my work has been devoted to improving scientific information retrieval and...

The father of us all. (Opinion).(scientific contributions of Max Perutz)
April 1, 2002... Contrary to the implication in some obituaries, Max Perutz, who died on Feb. 6, 2002 in Cambridge, England, just a few months before his 88th birthday, did not determine the first three-dimensional structure of a protein molecule. John...

On Earth and travel to Mars, 1. (Letters).
April 1, 2002... Regarding the letter "Concentrate on Earth," (1) I have this to say: There's really no need to cut people apart to find out what's inside them either. After all, they're dead already. There's nothing you can do for them. And what are you...

On Earth and travel to Mars, 2. (Letters).
April 1, 2002... There is a high probability that there is life "out there." If a planet or a star is a living thing, then there's plenty of it. But, would we like to meet creatures not unlike ourselves? I don't think so. We can't even live peaceably and...

Evolution as an event. (Letters).
April 1, 2002... Neil Greenspan's opinion (1) makes many good points. However, his use of the word evolution as an umbrella term will make trouble for me and other members of NCSE (National Center for Science Education) trying to deal with a lay public...

A case too soon for genetic testing? Hereditary hemochromatosis researchers say biochemical testing may be better for now. (News).
April 1, 2002... The raison d'etre behind genetic screening is that genotype predicts phenotype--hence, disease risks. But it isn't always so. The likelihood of a specific mutation in the BRCA1 gene causing breast cancer, for example, depends on one's ethnic...

Dollars for your thoughts: basic research ideas, not data, draw NFCR's funding. (News).(National Foundation for Cancer Research)
April 1, 2002... The story of how the late lawyer and entrepreneur Franklin C. Salisbury Jr. joined forces with the late Nobel laureate Albert Szent-Gyorgyi is legendary within the National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR) that they cofounded in 1973....