The Scientist articles from April 2003

The Scientist archives from April 2003

The unstuff'd brain. .(Book Review)
April 21, 2003... Though William Shakespeare uses the word `brain' 66 times in his plays, his works hardly read like a neurological review article. Yet, say neurologist Paul Matthews and linguist Jeffrey McQuain, his comprehension of how the brain works is...

Glued to another tube: what scientists watch on TV. (Snapshot).(Brief Article)
April 21, 2003... A Past Snapshot showed that more than 80% of scientists regularly watch television. We surveyed 317 readers to find out what they turned on. Not surprisingly in these difficult times, more than 80% frequently watch news and news programs. A...

Barbara McClintock, on her own. .(Brief Article)
April 21, 2003... Geneticist Barbara McClintock, since her death in 1992, has become a feminist hero. She held steady in the male-dominated world of science, earning her first award in 1947 and culminating her career in 1982 with the Nobel Prize. Her...

Smallpox vaccination and (unnecessary?) caution.(Brief Article)
April 21, 2003... People with eczema and immunosuppressed patients need to forego voluntary smallpox vaccination to avoid adverse effects or even death. Now, another group joins them: those with heart trouble. Recently, three deaths occurred clue to myocardial...

Leland Hartwell. .(Interview)
April 21, 2003... Leland Hartwell, a co-recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize, spent his football-playing, girl-chasing high school years in Los Angeles. His 1949 metallic green Mercury--he went to Mexico to buy its green and white upholstery--was the same type of...

ICSU: International Council for Science. .
April 21, 2003... What is it? Created in 1931 as the International Council of Scientific Unions (but recently rebranded as the International Council for Science), ICSU is a nongovernmental organization whose mission is to give scientists worldwide the...

Dracula's pet worm. .(Brief Article)
April 21, 2003... DRACULA'S PET WORM: At first glance, it looks like a red-hot chili pepper, but in fact, it's a 10. inch bloodworm that normally lives in seabed sediment. Note the copper fangs that jut from its proboscis. Its discoverers at the University of...

So they say. .(Brief Article)
April 21, 2003... "If you think you've seen a biotech revolution, you ain't seen nothing yet," --Chief scientist James Murday, Office of Naval Research, when asked to compare the nanotech to the biotech revolution, at the National Nanotechnology...

May calendar.(Calendar)
April 21, 2003... May SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY 4 5 6 Lightning Louis Pasteur Amer. Assoc. of flash first tests anthrax Immunologists photographed, ...

So, you think you're a scientist? .(Editorial)
April 21, 2003... The recent, vigorous debate occurring in our pages regarding whether it's necessary to accept the theory of evolution (1,2) (also, see Letters on page 21) as a prerequisite to studying the sciences has set me thinking: What exactly is a...

The behaviorome mental map project. .(Column)
April 21, 2003... One of the most interesting questions that confronts a thinking being is whether people can comprehend the ideas and thoughts of one another. I believe that we can, and I also believe that we have the means to embark upon a project that would...

Obligations of English speakers. .(Letters.)
April 21, 2003... It's not just foreign-born researchers whose lack of English proficiency hurts their careers. (1) Many Americans have the same problem. Every year, I read grant applications from young (and sometimes rather senior) American scientists who...

The power of power laws: a multidisciplinary team finds that when it comes to scales, a fourth dimension is applicable to all living things. .(Cover Story)
April 21, 2003... The possibility of mathematical power laws governing the scaling of fundamental biological properties, such as metabolic rate, within a species group has been strongly suspected for almost a century. But since 1997, the laws have been...

Bear bones research. .(Brief Article)
April 21, 2003... Scientists interested in fending off bone degradation have looked to one of the animal kingdom's most naturally gifted bone preservationists: the black bear. Researchers at the Pennsylvania State University recently investigated the ability...

If a neuron fires in the woods ... .(Brief Article)
April 21, 2003... Jack Cowan, a University of Chicago math professor, is taking a new view of neural activity--based on forest fire dynamics. In 1990, late Danish theoretical physicist Per Bak described self-activating systems, a system that perpetuates itself...

Excremental progress.(Managing air pollution.)(Brief Article)
April 21, 2003... With increasing regulatory pressure from European governments to decrease pollution produced on poultry and swine farms, Danisco Animal Nutrition in the United Kingdom and Diversa of San Diego are making it their number one priority to reduce...

Biologically derived hydrogen--future fuel? Researchers turn to Thermotoga neapolitana and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to fill gas tanks and heat homes. .
April 21, 2003... A large glass bioreactor in the corner of Suellen Van Ooteghem's lab at the National Energy Technology Laboratory is filled with what appears to be murky champagne. The pale yellow solution even has tiny bubbles streaming to the top. The...

Angiogenesis research moves past cancer; abnormal blood vessel growth affects many diseases, including psoriasis, Crohn disease, and rheumatoid arthritis. .
April 21, 2003... In the past few years, the media have written numerous, hopeful stories of how scientists are stifling tumors by inhibiting blood vessel growth. But the drugs based on this strategy--Endostatin, Neovastat, and thalidomide, for example--are...

Researchers reveal a new twist in torsion dystonia; possible link between this orphan disease and neurodegenerative disorders considered. .
April 21, 2003... A movement disorder can start as a twinge. A child's leg turns in while walking. Writing becomes difficult, painful. For many, these types of diseases--broadly termed dystonias--progress no further than persistent muscle cramps. Yet in many...

Discovering HIF regulation: two teams take two different paths and find one oxygen-sensing pathway. .
April 21, 2003... In the complicated, occasionally counter-intuitive world of signal transduction pathways, sometimes events turn out to be much simpler than first supposed. Such is the case with an important oxygen-sensing pathway, the essential features of...

Au Revoir, Ponceau S.(Protein expression analysis.)(Brief Article)
April 21, 2003... Western blotting is a standard facet of gene expression analysis: Separate protein extracts electrophoretically, blot the proteins to a nitrocellulose or nylon membrane, and probe for the presence of a particular protein. Traditionally,...

Solving proteins from scratch. .(Brief Article)
April 21, 2003... Struggling to unravel an unknown protein's shape from its gene sequence? A computer visualization program called ProteinShop could keep you from flying blind. The interactive protein manipulation tool, free to scientists at academic and...

From the Office of Oligo Defense.(Brief Article)
April 21, 2003... Oligonucleotides that hybridize with mRNA to modulate function could prove a fruitful area of therapeutics. Traditionally, however, such synthetic oligonucleotides are quickly attacked by nucleases. Carlsbad, Calif.-based Isis Pharmaceuticals...

Metabolomics: small-molecule 'omics: research advances in the bid to map biofluid metabolites on a system-wide scale. .
April 21, 2003... Every cellular component has an `ome.' There is a genome, a protease, a transcriptome, and a glycome to catalog DNA, protein, RNA, and sugars, respectively. Not to be outdone, the low-molecular-weight compounds that carry out much of the...

Quantitative polymerase chain reaction [PCR] update: reviewing the latest trends and applications in quantitative, real-time PCR. .
April 21, 2003... In the nearly two decades since its discovery, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and its derivative techniques have revolutionized molecular biology. The exponential nature of the technique allows one, in theory, to calculate the amount of...

Accelerated protein crystallisation with FID: Fluidigm's first microfluidic product is a free interface diffusion-based crystallization device.(The Topaz[TM] Crystallizer.)
April 21, 2003... Remember science class when you had to grow salt or sugar crystals? Remember how some people would end up with fabulous crystals, while others would end up with--well, not so fabulous crystals, all because the conditions in each glass of...

Zyomyx releases new protein array system; the biochip profiles 30 cytokines. .
April 21, 2003... Hayward, Calif.-based Zyomyx released its Protein Profiling Biochip System and a compatible array for human cytokines in February. Consisting of the Assay 1200[TM] automated workstation, the Scanner 100[TM] biochip reader, data analysis...

High-res benchtop ESI-TOF: Bruker Daltonics' microTOF mass spectrometer offers higher mass accuracy in a smaller package.
April 21, 2003... The life science mass spectrometry industry has experienced a boom recently with a spate of new instruments and technological advances. Billerica, Mass.-based Bruker Daltonics continues this trend with the new microTOF[TM] electrospray...

Survive an unreasonable principal investigator. .(Brief Article)
April 21, 2003... 1. Seek advice early and aggressively from friends, trusted faculty, and through counseling services. 2. Do not rely excessively on your institution to solve your problems, but do make use of its resources, such as a postdoctoral...

Get a gift for getting money.(Training @ National Institutes of Health #410 706-6631.)(Brief Article)
April 21, 2003... WHAT: National Institutes of Health Regional Seminar in Program Funding and Grants Administration WHERE: Baltimore, Md. WHY: To provide education for biomedical and behavioral scientists on obtaining grants ADVANTAGES: NIH...

Commercial cancer collaborations. .
April 21, 2003... The National Cancer Institute (NCI) next month will announce a novel approach for funding basic research at universities by fostering partnerships with industry, nonprofit organizations, and state and local governments. The new Academic...

David Baltimore's redeeming presidency; scientist sculpts change at Caltech.(Interview)
April 21, 2003... David Baltimore has faced-down a congressional committee and parleyed with presidents and kings. But on one morning at the California Institute of Technology, he found himself face-to-face with a busted car, broken file cabinets, and other...

Science in a bigger Europe: with a group of candidate countries signing the European Union Accession Treaty this month, and more to follow, European science is changing. .(www.cordis.lu/fp6)
April 21, 2003... Scientists throughout Europe are busy clicking on a "Find a Partner" link. They are not seeking romance. A typical proposal: "Seeking partners to study the influence of genetic and environmental factors on human morphofunctional status." ...

The struggle for post-Soviet science. .
April 21, 2003... As candidate countries for the European Union, former Soviet states face major obstacles in gaining admission: lack of scientific infrastructure and scientists, and low research funding, to name a few. Even though these states have emerged...

Datawars: grid computing democratizes proteomics; security concerns limit some efforts. .
April 21, 2003... The young field of proteomics has quickly risen to match physics and meteorology in its huge appetite for computational capacity. According to Sylvie Langevin, development group manager of Montreal-based proteomics firm Caprion...

Academics' ties to business muddy disclosure decisions; entrepreneurs and lawmakers are unclear on what constitutes conflict of interest. .
April 21, 2003... In Washington's biotech debates, Irving Weissman, a professor, entrepreneur, and political activist, is among the most influential, visible, and effective advocates for the science community. He's also forthright about any potential conflicts...

Moving from promise to proficiency.(Column)
April 21, 2003... Early Indications: I'd always enjoyed mathematics and statistics at school and then at university. I was interested in applying statistical and mathematical methods to scientific and medical problems and got into the area of statistical...

Networking: as easy as making friends. .
April 21, 2003... It's not what you know, but who you know. When I jumped into freelance science writing full-time more than three years ago, it was who I knew--reporters and editors at The Scientist--that got me off the ground. Getting a job in scientific...

Guide.(Circle #40, 41, 42, 43, 144, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 51. )(Column)
April 21, 2003... COY LABS PCR/UV WORKSTATION The COY CleanSpot is designed to combat the 3 major contaminant pathways. Cotaminated tubes, tips, pipettes. Airborne particles laden with DNA. And Fouled reaction, compnets. Reaction preparation and...

Don't blame it on Sputnik.(Column)
April 21, 2003... Since Sputnik, hardly a year goes by without the federal government, some nonprofit foundation, or a large corporation launching schemes to entice people into research careers. These initiatives, meant to improve the quality of our science...

Thespians and bioterror. (Frontlines).
April 7, 2003... Healthcare workers face a reality problem in the face of bioterror: How do they prepare for possible epidemics, the signs and symptoms of which few have witnessed? The realistic answer: With a little touch of makeup magic. In its patient...

Married to science and some even like it. (Snapshot).
April 7, 2003... A scientist I work with 8% A scientist I do not work with 28% Not a scientist 64% Of the 308 surveyed readers of The Scientist who are married or in long-term relationships, 36% have scientists as...

DNA base pairs, & Erwin Chargaff. (Foundations).
April 7, 2003... Erwin Chargaff's groundbreaking research, which showed that DNA base pairs had a complementary relationship, laid the foundation for James Watson's and Francis Crick's DNA model. When word spread that Watson and Crick had solved the...

The lab is alive, with the sound of music. (Frontlines).
April 7, 2003... The music may be base-ic, but a team from Ramon y Cajal Hospital (RCH) in Madrid have found the song inside us all. They took each nucleotide from the genome of Candida albicans, plus a few other organisms, and arbitrarily designated a tone...

Stephen Wolfram. (First Person).
April 7, 2003... Stephen Wolfram--wunderkind, untamed scientist--possesses a that is uncluttered by daydreams and everyday intrusions. Super Bowl? What's that?" he once asked a colleague.) His brain turns over questions about the complexities of science,...

X-ray-ted: a crystal-clear lexicon. (5-Prime).
April 7, 2003... Crystal structures may clarify molecular organization, but the papers describing them are often so chock-full of jargon that they're largely unintelligible to those outside the crystallography field. Here are five prime definitions to get...

Licking the genome. (Science Seen).
April 7, 2003... LICKING THE GENOME: On Feb. 3, 2003, the Royal Mail introduced a series of stamps celebrating the 50th anniversary of the discovery of DNA's structure. The top left stamp applauds the de-coding of the human genome. The others celebrate...

Research integrity. (Datapoints).
April 7, 2003... The US Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Research Integrity oversees investigations of research misconduct related to US Public Health Service applications and awards. ...

The Jon Yewdell selection. (My Top 5).
April 7, 2003... 1. In the now distant year of 1970, the physical nature of the plasma membrane (or any membrane for that matter) was uncertain. Frye and Edidin used Sendai virus to fuse human and mouse cell, then stained the cells with fluorochrome-labeled...

So they say. (Upfront).
April 7, 2003... "Remember, this was probably the most prolific man in history. He had a lot of children." --Oxford geneticist Chris Tyler-Smith discussing the logistical workings of his theory, which traces 8% of Central Asian men as direct patrilineal...

Played like a fiddle on bioterrorism. (Editorial).(Editorial)
April 7, 2003... During Pontiac's Rebellion, a pan-Native American uprising in the Great Lakes and Ohio River Valley in 1763, biological weapons were used. Two blankets from Fort Pitt's smallpox ward were purposely given to Delaware Indians who were trying to...

Tuxedo Park to Greenwich--the Loomis legacy. (Opinion).
April 7, 2003... I met tycoon and amateur scientist Alfred Lee Loomis in 1954 as a post-doctoral researcher working with his son Farnie. After a cordial introduction, Alfred peered over my shoulder, watching me plot growth rates of freshwater hydra. "Growth...

Evolution and recommendations. (Letters).
April 7, 2003... [Barry A. Palevitz] concludes that it is better not to burden society with graduates who, "despite their college education and our best efforts, will pass along personalbiases instead of an accurate, objective reading of biology." (1) To him,...

Postdoc plantation, redux. (Letters).
April 7, 2003... While the call to [postdoc] rebellion has a certain flare to it, (1) I feel compelled to point out that many postdocs are barking up the wrong tree by assailing their mentors. The root cause of the postdoctoral predicament lies in the...

Nursery or the lab. (Letters).
April 7, 2003... Congratulations for your Postdoc Talk, "On Choosing Children." (1) I think many women have felt that kind of "discrimination" as well; if you choose to get pregnant, [there is discrimination] from your colleagues, or if you decide not to be...

English as a first language. (Letters).
April 7, 2003... Sam Jaffe's article, "No Pardon for Poor English in Science" (1) should have stressed the reason that poor English in scientific papers is so counterproductive. Whether English is the scientists' second or even first language, they frequently...

Natural solutions to pollution: researchers are considering trees, microbes, and the oceans as mega cleaning tools. (Solutions To Pollution).
April 7, 2003... Humankind has passed a remarkable environmental milestone: People now consume more of Earth's natural resources than the planet can replace. (1) In light of this, pollution abatement technologies, coupled with development of renewable energy...

Synthetic molecule turns off asthma-invoking protein. (Research).
April 7, 2003... Asthma's trademark is a complex inflammatory response in the lungs that produces swelling and mucus, therefore making it difficult to breathe. One of the main components of this disease is an oxidant/antioxidant imbalance that can trigger...

Interdisciplinary research. (Research).
April 7, 2003... These papers were selected from multiple disciplines from the Faculty of 1000, a Web-based literary awareness tool (www.facultyofiooo.com). T.I. Lee et al., "Transcriptional regulatory networks in Saccharomyces cereuisiae," Science,...

Get the lead out--it kills the mitochondria. (Research).
April 7, 2003... Neurotoxicologist DonaldFox and colleagues, who study the effects of prenatal lead exposure in children, have developed a murine model to help explain how neurons gets damaged and to explain how postnatal exposure affects children (L. He et...

Asthma, genetics, and the environment: investigators want to decipher how genes and environmental triggers communicate. (Research).
April 7, 2003... Asthma is a classic example of gene-environment interaction. A host of environmental triggers, from cigarette smoke to cockroaches, can set it off. A dozen or so genes for various molecules, including cytokines, have been implicated in asthma...

Striving for perfect balance: disruption between bone-building and bone-destroying cells causes osteoporosis and other disorders. (Research).
April 7, 2003... Late last year, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first osteoporosis treatment that stimulates bone formation, instead of slowing bone breakdown as other drugs do. Teriparatide decreased vertebral fractures by 90% while increasing...

Mending a broken heart: animal studies helped lay the groundwork for stem cell therapy. (Hot Papers).
April 7, 2003... In February, a three-inch nail punctured the heart of 16-year-old Dmitri Bonnville. The resulting swelling caused a heart attack, and though the boy lived, doctors feared that surviving tissue in the organ would not last. Cardiologists at...

Good vibrations. (Gadget Watch).
April 7, 2003... Who hasn't experienced this frustration: When measuring out a minute quantity of a precious reagent in the microgram balance, your hand slips, and whoops! You've just dumped--and possibly lost--way more powder than you need. The Quaver[R]...

Speedy sequencing. (Patent Watch).
April 7, 2003... As the classical Sanger sequencing method takes from one to three days to read a few hundred bases, several groups have tried to improve upon the technique. One fluorescence-based alternative sequences a single nucleic acid molecule tethered...

Annotation illustration. (Software Watch).(bioinformatics: sequence feature visualization tool)
April 7, 2003... Visual examination of sequence database records can be a drag. Finding a single region isn't particularly difficult, but identifying multiple regions of interest--say intron and exon boundaries--is. "A picture is worth a thousand words," says...

Shhh: silencing genes with RNA interference: banking on RNAi's promise, academic and private researchers flock to the field. (Lab Consumer).
April 7, 2003... RNA interference, or RNAi, is all the rage these days. According to the Web of Science database (ISI, Philadelphia), the number of articles on the topic jumped from nine in 1998 to 229 in 2002. Why all the fuss? Because RNAi, or more broadly,...

NMR hits the big time: high-field magnets and other advancements propel NMR into the structural genomics mainstream. (Lab Consumer).(nuclear magnetic resonance)
April 7, 2003... When it comes to structural biology, bigger really is better. Most biological processes are performed by enormous multicomponent complexes, such as the ribosome. To solve the structures of these monsters, biologists traditionally have used...

Nano-quakes: Advalytix's programmable biochips shake up the lab-on-a-chip market. (Tools & Technology).
April 7, 2003... Many microfluidics-based lab-on-a-chip devices use external pumps and micromachined parts to move liquids through tiny channels. (1) Brunnthal, Germany-based Advalytix, however, takes a different approach: Its programmable microfluidic...

Better mass spec results off-line: Advion BioSciences' NanoMate 100 speeds up ESI-based mass spectrometry. (Tools & Technology).
April 7, 2003... Electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrometry (MS), in which peptides are ionized as they elute from a liquid chromatography (LC) column, typically requires high flow rates, which reduces sensitivity and consumes large quantities of sample....

Getting a grip on gene silencing: Active Motif introduces more specific, less toxic gripNA technology. (Tools & Technology).
April 7, 2003... One challenge in working with a family of homologous genes is finding a reagent that can silence one gene without acting on its brethren. This is a question of specificity, and Active Motif of Carlsbad, Calif., claims its gripNA[TM] probes...

Looking to study bioterrorism? (Tip Trove).
April 7, 2003... * The earlier you know that your focus will be on the policy of bioterrorism or the science of it, the better. * Networking is key in this field. Many policy-focused schools allow access and exposure to the people who are studying...

Biotechs on wheels. (Policy Place).
April 7, 2003... Maryland area biotechs are fueling up and trucking out in hopes that a big rig will hitch teenagers to science. MdBio-Lab is an 18-wheel trailer with a well-equipped lab where teachers and researchers can demonstrate the delights of...

Swimming in science in San Diego. (Training @).(studies in glycobiology in biotechnology: fundamentals for carbohydrate method development)
April 7, 2003... WHAT: Glycobiology in Biotechnology: Fundamentals for Carbohydrate Method Development WHERE: San Diego, Calif. WHY: Glycoproteins are now being used as therapeutic agents for life-threatening diseases ADVANTAGES: Trains...

Bioterrorism research: new money, new anxieties: scientists fret over unprecedented increases in funding for antimicrobials and vaccines. (Profession).
April 7, 2003... US scientists have reason to feel both heady and scared. The federal government recently released unprecedented billions of dollars to fund bioterrorism research. Yet, the merits of this sudden shift in focus are being debated, and some worry...

The reckoning of restrictions and research: the US government balances new immigration rules with the need for open doors in science. (Profession).
April 7, 2003... New US visa restrictions, prompted by fears of renewed terrorist attacks, present a dilemma to people in science: How does the government guarantee the public safety and yet sustain the free exchange of research and researchers? Many...

Break down US barriers. (Fine Tuning).
April 7, 2003... The future for foreign scientists and scholars is uncertain. Tightened security has lee thousands of immigrants in confusion, and now the White House has reorganized the Immigration and Naturalization Service to create three new agencies: the...

Structuring a new career: new funds and new interests create opportunities in structural biology. (Profession).
April 7, 2003... In structural biology, one head may be actually better than two, because the self-sufficient scientist holds an advantage over a group, according to David Speicher, a professor at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia. "When you obtain crystal...

Learning to share in New York City: New York academic institutions pool funds and talent for structural biology center. (Profession).
April 7, 2003... Ann E. McDermott, a Columbia University chemist, encountered a career crisis a little more than four years ago. Her cramped campus couldn't facilitate the kind of technology she needed to remain at the top of her field. Nuclear magnetic...

Unlock the box. (Postdoc Talk).(the author discusses being stereotyped because of her Arabic name)
April 7, 2003... I stood beside my poster during the Scandinavian Society for Immunology meeting in Goteborg, Sweden in 1995, waiting for questions from the crowd. A few people showed great interest while others found it an utter piece of nonsense. It was my...

Guide.
April 7, 2003... PERSONAL INCUBATOR/CHILLER/FREEZER NOW IN PROGRAMMABLE VERSION Chill, freeze, or heat samples from -10[degrees]C to 100[degrees]C even at ambient on a compact, versatile, portable electronic chilling/heating plate. Units have a 30-day...

Was she, or wasn't she? (Closing Bell).(discussion of research scientist Rosalind Franklin's role in the discovery of the structure of DNA)
April 7, 2003... Feminists have made much of the case of Rosalind Franklin, whose X-ray data were essential to Watson and Crick's discovery of the structure of DNA. Her role in the discovery, made 50 years ago this month, has become so politicized that the...