The Scientist articles from July 2001

The Scientist archives from July 2001

BIOSPHERE 2 REDUX.(Biosphere 2 Center's new philosophy)
July 9, 2001... Columbia's western campus takes on global warming A paneless window offers a view from an overhead walkway onto the artificial ocean of the Biosphere 2 Center, or B2C. It's a strange and fascinating sight, here under the Santa Catalina...

Biotech Train Heads for Gains.(biotechnology and pharmaceutical stock trends)
July 9, 2001... Life science stocks emerge from `dot-com' derailment The biotechnology business has ridden a roller coaster in the financial markets for the past 18 months. The gyrations have been enough to make even the most stalwart investor swallow...

Turning Trash into Treasure.(biomass ethanol)
July 9, 2001... Can organic waste become the nation's next big power source? In theory, using cellulosic biomass makes a lot of sense. Take what would otherwise be waste or animal feed--agricultural and forestry residues, recycled paper, and other organic...

Studying Differences Between the Sexes May Spur Improvements in Medicine.(Brief Article)
July 9, 2001... It's hard to believe that only a little over two decades ago, the U.S. government issued guidelines recommending that pharmaceutical companies exclude women of childbearing age from participating in clinical trials. Now the National Institutes...

Letters to the Editor.
July 9, 2001... THE SCIENTIST * 3535 MARKET STREET * SUITE 200 * PHILADELPHIA, PA 19104-3385 * FAX: 215-387-7542 * E-MAIL: info@the-scientist.com One Is Not Enough Why is it that after sequencing one genome, many people keep stating we now know "the...

Free Web Access.(scientific papers)(Brief Article)
July 9, 2001... T.J. Walker's Opinion article on free access to journal articles via the internet[1] was thought-provoking and timely. I agree that in an ideal world, journals would provide unfettered access to articles appearing in print for wider impact. I...

The What Syndrome?(Brief Article)
July 9, 2001... The article on "The scholarly presentation" by T. V. Rajan[1] was excellent and entertaining. Rajan's maxim, "they select the wimpiest people to chair sessions," reminded me of a story. As a young and inexperienced scientist in the early...

Fewer Human Cases, But No Reason For Reduced Vigilance.(West Nile virus)
July 9, 2001... Two years do not a trend make, but it does seem that with each passing summer, the number of human West Nile virus cases tends to decline. That said, there is no reason to relax. No one can predict reliably from year to year whether this, or...

Learning More About A Little-Known Disease.(West Nile virus)(Statistical Data Included)
July 9, 2001... As the New York City area faces another year with West Nile virus on the list of summertime ills, the public health climate has changed noticeably from panic to preparedness, armed with data from the past two seasons. One thing learned: as...

Developing the Ideal Breast Cancer Screening Test.
July 9, 2001... IOM panel presses for new policies to spur research and development Thirty-five years after mammography screening demonstrated a 30 percent mortality reduction,[1] researchers are still searching for an ideal breast cancer screening tool....

The Future of Biomass.(Brief Article)
July 9, 2001... Lee Lynd, an associate professor at Dartmouth College's Thayer School of Engineering, has seen the future of energy, and it grows everywhere. "If sufficient land is made available for cellulosic biomass production, ethanol will be the world's...

Watching Plants Grow.(Titan arum)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 9, 2001... The private life of Titan arum put on display by University of Wisconson Mae West once said, "Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly." Slow is certainly the word when it comes to plant sex, but that didn't stop a lot of people from...

Clarification.
July 9, 2001... In the Commentary, "The Myth of Mechanism" (T. V. Rajan, The Scientist, 15[13]:6, June 25, 2001), the author of a monograph on the use of digitalis was incorrectly identified. The correct author is William Withering.

President Picks Scientific Adviser.(Brief Article)
July 9, 2001... President George W. Bush announced his intention to nominate physicist John H. Marburger director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, following concerns from members of the scientific community that the president had diluted the...

New Stem Cell Legislation Introduced.(Brief Article)
July 9, 2001... While scientists, politicians and the public wait to hear whether President George W. Bush will allow the funding of research involving embryonic stem cells (ESCs), two congressmen have introduced legislation representing each side of this...

New Institute for Retired Scientists.(Brief Article)
July 9, 2001... You're never too old to talk science. A newly formed society seeks to help retired scientists continue to collaborate, deliberate, and network even after they've left the laboratory. Called the World Institute of Retired Scientists (WIRS), the...

The Quest for Perfect Timing.(human circadian rhythms)
July 9, 2001... Molecular intricacies of animal model clocks provide insight to humans Researchers have pondered, and investigated, for decades why one person is alert and productive at 6 a.m. while another can t even focus before noon.[1] But now, their...

Lateral Thinking.(gene transfer between species)(Brief Article)
July 9, 2001... Gene transfer between species likeliest in microorganisms This 1999 paper from the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) in Rockville, Md., greatly strengthens the case for the lateral transfer of genes from one species to another as a...

Change of Expression.(protein expression)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 9, 2001... For proteomics predictions, mRNA transcripts won't do At virtually all levels of life sciences, from ecology to molecules, researchers today are intent on putting together the pieces. The aptly named Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) in...

Malaria's Genomic History Explored.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 9, 2001... An international group of researchers recently provided a glimpse of how disease shapes evolution in its work on G6PD (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase) deficiency, an X-linked, hemopathologic trait that confers resistance to malaria...

Remembering Cocaine.(Brief Article)
July 9, 2001... By better understanding the biological effects of drug use, researchers hope to find ways to stymie addiction. A recent study revealing the neurological footprint of just one dose of cocaine suggests one such clue (M.A. Ungless et al., "Single...

Chromatin Mysteries Begin To Unwind.(Brief Article)
July 9, 2001... Researchers are challenging the long-held notion that chromatin regulates transcription by limiting access of transcription factors to DNA. David Gross, biochemistry and molecular biology professor at Louisiana State University Health Sciences...

The Essential Software Toolbox.(Statistical Data Included)
July 9, 2001... Let's face it: Life scientists need computers. They need word processors to write grants and manuscripts; spreadsheets and statistical software to crunch numbers; image manipulation software to put the data into publication-ready formats; and...

How the West(ern) Was Lost.(Pierce Chemical Co.UnBlot[TM] Chemiluminescent In-Gel Detection Kits)(Brief Article)
July 9, 2001... Pierce Chemical Co. of Rockford, Ill., has introduced the UnBlot[TM] Chemiluminescent In-Gel Detection Kits for detection and visualization of specific proteins. Unlike Western blotting, the technology permits detection of protein directly in...

Phosphospecific Ab Promo.
July 9, 2001... From now until November 30, 2001, Promega Corp. of Madison, Wis., is offering 50 percent off the list price of its Anti-ACTIVE[R] MAPK Family Sampler. The sampler contains three members of the MAPK family: ERK(1/2), JNK, and p38. To order,...

Pro(motion)Check.
July 9, 2001... Until July 31, Intergen Co. of Purchase, N.Y., is offering a 20 percent discount on its new ProCheck[TM] Cell Viability Assay and ProCheck Universal Protease Assay. The ProCheck Cell Viability Assay is an XTT-based colorimetric assay designed...

Northern Exposure.(Northern blotting)
July 9, 2001... Premade Northern blots ease gene expression studies Researchers interested in gene expression have at their disposal a whole host of RNA profiling tools, including Northern blotting, microarray analysis, and RNase protection assays (RPA)....

Number Crunching.(Statistical analysis software)
July 9, 2001... Statistical analysis software aids data interpretation "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics," or so said Benjamin Disraeli. Fortunately, the field of statistics has come a long way in the last 150 years. With...

Suppliers of Statistical Analysis Software.
July 9, 2001... Suppliers of Statistical Analysis Software SOFTWARE (CURRENT COMPANY VERSION) PLATFORMS(1) ADDINSOFT XLSTAT ...

Synergy in St. Louis.(business incubators)
July 9, 2001... Business incubators aim to breed biotech startups Backers of a new cluster of business incubators in St. Louis hope to make America's heartland a hotbed of new life sciences companies. Five venture capital funds are now operating in an area...

Foundation Funding and the Stock Market.(Brief Article)
July 9, 2001... Through judicious investing, foundations can sufficiently shield themselves from the U.S. economic downturn--enabling sustained growth even as the economy stagnates, observers say. Although repeal of the estate tax, signed into law June 7, may...

FDA Actions, Economy Affect Biotech Industry.(Food and Drug Administration)(Statistical Data Included)
July 9, 2001... Longer drug approval times and mergers make for a bumpy ride Increased scrutiny by federal drug regulators and continued mergers and acquisitions activity could curb expansion in biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, according to...

HHMI Competition.(Howard Hughes Medical Institute)(Brief Article)
July 9, 2001... For the first time ever, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) wants to support M.D.s who aim to bridge basic science and clinical research. HHMI has opened a national competition to recruit up to 10 investigators who hold M.D.s or M.D.s...

FDA CLONES MISGUIDED REGULATORY POLICY.(Food and Drug Administration)
July 9, 2001... The Food and Drag Administration (FDA) has just launched two salvos in federal agencies' war against biotechnology by attacking various manifestations of the biological process called cloning, in which a mature cell--from the skin, for...

INVENTORY OF LIFE.
July 23, 2001... Scientists seek to catalog all Earth's species The idea sounds audacious: catalog all life on Earth within 25 years, a human generation. The All-Species Inventory hopes to do just that, with private funds and the help of a worldwide network...

Allison Hits Houston Research Community.(Tropical Storm Allison)
July 23, 2001... After the deluge: Dealing with personal, professional losses After Tropical Storm Allison struck Houston last month, researcher Jocelyne Bachevalier wasn't thinking about science when she learned that her 47 monkeys had died at the...

Portals for Prions?
July 23, 2001... Investigators look at potential pathway for prions Prion disorders riddle the mammalian brain with plaque and holes, the precise pattern and resulting symptoms--dementia, extreme fatigue, or loss of balance--depending on whether one is...

Prions in the Gut: Dietary Proteins or Infectious Pathogens?
July 23, 2001... How do orally ingested infectious prions find their way to the brain? An article by Ricki Lewis in this issue of "The Scientist" (See Portals for Prions?" Page 1) describes recent hypotheses about trafficking of prions from gastrointestinal...

POWER, OR "POWER".(Brief Article)
July 23, 2001... Regarding "California Steamin',"[1] California politicians wrote an incoherent power regulation, regulators refused to license new power generators and lines for its transmission. The losses to the citizens, lowly humans, are being treated as...

PEER REVIEW: OPEN, NOT ANONYMOUS.(Brief Article)
July 23, 2001... While Eliezer Geisler[1] most likely appreciates "many weaknesses of the peer review process," his overly optimistic mantra that the "subjective assessment of quality by a group Of selected knowledgeable people in a given scientific field...

Diagnosing Bioterrorism: Applying New Technologies.
July 23, 2001... Advances will help determine whether symptoms are flu-like, or deadly Chills, fever, headache, muscle pain, and appetite loss are classic flu symptoms; they are also markers of the biological warfare agents tularemia, Staphylococcus...

New NIH Bioinformatics Center.(National Institutes of Health)(Brief Article)
July 23, 2001... Recognizing the growing importance of computational and information sciences to biology, the National Institutes of Health is establishing a new Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (CBCB). The new center is designed to support...

Can We Count All Species?(Brief Article)
July 23, 2001... All-Species Inventory founder Kevin Kelly is serious about the goal to catalog all species within 25 years. But opinions vary: "I don't think we will have documented all species on earth in 25 years, but I think it is feasible to have a...

Biotech Firms Confront the Energy Crisis.(Brief Article)
July 23, 2001... Rate increases and blackouts hurt the business environment As California's energy crisis deepens, biotech companies have worries in addition to the ruined experiments and damaged equipment that concern life scientists in academia,(1)...

Arsonists Damage Research Facility.(Brief Article)
July 23, 2001... After scientists lose valuable data to "ecoterrorist" group, legislation is introduced Toby Bradshaw, an associate professor at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle, had been studying traditionally bred...

Company Hopes to Create Allergen-Free Cats.(Brief Article)
July 23, 2001... Move over golden rice, genetically modified cats are in the works. Syracuse, N.Y., residents Jackie and David Avner, among the 10 percent of the population who have cat allergies, are working to create a feline that won't make their eyes water....

USDA Launches Food Safety Web Site.(Brief Article)
July 23, 2001... The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently launched a new Internet Web site devoted to food safety (www.nal.usda.gov/fsrio/). In 1997, Congress mandated the department's Food Safety Research Information Office (FSRIO)--housed in the Library of...

The Sexes: New Insights into the X and Y Chromosomes.
July 23, 2001... The distance between Mars and Venus might be closer than previously thought The cry of "It's, a boy" or "It's a girl" marks the newborn child s first and most basic label of personal identity. But researchers understanding of sex is...

The Rhythms that Bind Women.(menstrual hormones)
July 23, 2001... Researchers from disparate fields find female menstrual hormones influence much more than reproduction Ask a woman if her period affects her body beyond the reproductive system and she'll probably answer with a resounding yes. This...

The Mystery TT Virus--What Is It?(virus linked to hepatitis)(Brief Article)
July 23, 2001... Researchers only know what this Hepatitis-like virus is not In 1997, a group of Japanese scientists discovered a novel virus in a patient hospitalized for an acute illness that was treated as hepatitis. But because the patient's disease was...

Sideline Viewing of the BR Membrane Protein.(bacteriorhodopsin)(Brief Article)
July 23, 2001... Cubic lipid phase crystallization allows high resolution imaging In the mid-1970s, electron microscopy provided the first visualization of the membrane protein bacteriorhodopsin (BR), a photon-driven ion pump found in the salt-marsh...

Cryo-EM Reveals Mechanism of Tetracycline Resistance.(Brief Article)
July 23, 2001... Understanding how bacteria resist antibiotics lies at the crux of staying ahead in the resistance game. A research group at the New York State Health Department's Wadsworth Center in Albany offers a vivid view of how a bacterial protein called...

Green Light, Red Light.(fluorescent proteins)(Brief Article)
July 23, 2001... CLONTECH's Fluorescent Timer enables temporal gene expression studies Screening random mutations of the red fluorescent protein drFP583 from tropical coral, researchers at the National Institutes of Health, Stanford University School of...

A Surgical Strike.(laser microdissection)(Brief Article)
July 23, 2001... SL Microtest's UV CUT laser microdissection system simplifies precision tissue isolation Pathologists and research scientists spend a great deal of time poring over histological samples on microscope slides. In a field containing tens of...

A Golden Opportunity.(bioarray chips)
July 23, 2001... Thermo Hybaid introduces XNA on Gold In the past decade, bioarray chips have revolutionized the way researchers study changes in gene expression and identify novel genes. A number of complete systems (premade library slides, spotters, and...

Choosing the Best Reporter Assay.
July 23, 2001... Scientists have many options for gene expression studies Rarely is the product of a gene readily distinguishable from the myriad mRNA and protein complements that exist in a cell at any point in time. But researchers can skirt this obstacle...

Cell Sorting: An Enriching Experience.
July 23, 2001... Companies offer flow cytometers with cell sorters at speeds for every need Flow cytometers equipped with cell sorters enable the isolation of highly purified cell (or other particle) sub-populations. Unlike bulk separation methods, flow...

A Capital Locale for Life Sciences.(Washington, D.C.)
July 23, 2001... The Washington metropolitan region boasts one of the largest biotech marketplaces in the country Editor's Note: This is the third installment of a 4 part series on regional hot spots for life sciences employment. The final installment...

Scientists Court New Ethics Distinctions.
July 23, 2001... Questions about litigation and human research puzzle ethicists A 42-year-old woman came to the office of Louisville neuropsychologist Martine RoBards in 1999. Once the "star" of her workplace, a railroad mechanic shop, the woman now...

Streaming Science to the Market.(financing inventions)
July 23, 2001... Inventors learn to anticipate funders and users needs before products are put into widespread use Marty Griffin and his colleagues at Accurate Polymers Ltd. near Chicago say they have invented a better bead. Their 1-micron bead, used for...

New Microarray Collaboration.(Brief Article)
July 23, 2001... The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) will run a new national network of genetics researchers who work with microarrays, financed with a $409,000 five-year grant from the National Science Foundation. Seventeen institutions will be...

WHEN SCIENCE GETS IN THE WAY OF PET AGENDAS.(transgenic corn)
July 23, 2001... On June 11, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta issued a report about StarLink corn.[1] Remember StarLink? Marketed by Aventis Seeds, it contained a gene from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt. The Cry9C...