The Scientist articles from March 2005

The Scientist archives from March 2005

Curiosity won't kill science classes.(Editorial)(Editorial)
March 28, 2005... I'm concerned about the state of science teaching. Over the past few months, three quite separate accounts have made me nervous. The first was an opinion published last month in The Harvard Crimson, the university daily, in which student...

The eBay of science.(Notebook)(InnoCentive)
March 28, 2005... If you're a scientist with some spare time to work on extracurricular projects, there's a company that wants to reward you with as much as $100,000. Here's how it works: An organization that relies on R&D, such as Eli Lilly and...

10 Euros for a German science academy.(Notebook)
March 28, 2005... The way Detlev Ganten, head of Berlin's Charite University Medical Center, tells the story, he was enjoying dinner in early March at the British Embassy in Berlin with a small group of scientists, when the topic of conversation turned to...

A better UK human tissue bill.(Notebook)
March 28, 2005... This time last year, the British research community was fuming over a piece of draft legislation that was, in the general view, a potential disaster for science. The Human Tissue Bill had been drawn up quickly in the wake of public outcry...

Lessons in senescence: the cells stop dividing; the studies keep multiplying.(Research)
March 28, 2005... When aging and damaged cells undergo apoptosis or malignant transformation, their lives reach a dramatic denouement: suicide or cancer. But when they undergo senescence, their destiny seems drab in comparison. They irreversibly exit the cell...

An on/off switch for drug design: tailor-made antidotes for an aptamer-based anticoagulant reveal a new niche for these oligonucleotide drugs.(Research)
March 28, 2005... In theory, aptamers can specifically bind and modulate the activity of any protein for which they're designed. Aptamers fold into three-dimensional structures, based on their oligonucleotide sequences, and like antibodies specifically target...

Next stop, Mars: NASA must prioritize the engineering and biomedical development required for humans to explore space.(Vision)
March 28, 2005... This past year President Bush announced a plan for space exploration that includes preparing for a human mission to Mars. Although the initiative is new, detailed plans for sending people to Mars have existed for decades. In the 1950's,...

A picture of NF-[kappa]B signaling: approaching from different directions, researchers explore actions of the feted transcription factor.(Hot Papers)
March 28, 2005... The transcription factor NF-[kappa]B exists in unstimulated cells as a cytoplasmic homo- or heterodimer bound to inhibitory I[kappa]B protein. NF-[kappa]B has received a great deal of attention since its discovery more than two decades ago,...

S. Cabantous et al., "Protein tagging and detection with engineered self-assembling fragments of green fluorescent protein.".(Interdisciplinary research)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... S. Cabantous et al., "Protein tagging and detection with engineered self-assembling fragments of green fluorescent protein," Nat Biotechnol, 23:102-7, Jan. 5, 2005. A split [green fluorescent] protein-tagging and detection system was...

S. Takyar et al., "mRNA helicase activity of the ribosome.".(Interdisciplinary research)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... S. Takyar et al., "mRNA helicase activity of the ribosome," Cell, 120:49-58, Jan. 14, 2005. Using total ribosome reconstitution, stepwise in vitro translation, and primer extension assays, the authors demonstrate that the helicase...

L.P. Lim et al., "Microarray analysis shows that some microRNAs downregulate large numbers of target mRNAs.".(Interdisciplinary research)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... L.P. Lim et al., "Microarray analysis shows that some microRNAs downregulate large numbers of target mRNAs," Nature, 433:769-73, Feb. 17, 2005. These authors show, by microarray assays, that microRNAs (miRNAs) downregulate large numbers...

Fast track to longevity.(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Researchers have moved a step forward in understanding how calorie restriction is linked to lifespan extension in mammals. Johns Hopkins University cell biologist Pere Puigserver and colleagues report that SIRT1--one of the mammalian homologs...

Evidence for organelle origin.(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Genetic evidence points to an evolutionary link between hydrogenosomes--organelles found in some ciliates, trichomonads, and fungi that generate hydrogen and ATP--and mitochondria, (1) according to Dutch and German researchers led by Johannes...

Gene finding with hidden Markov models: the application of phylogeny to HMMs is improving gene annotation.(Technology)
March 28, 2005... Haemophilus influenzae made history in 1995 when it became the first free-living organism to have its genome completely sequenced. In the decade since, some 180 or so organisms have followed suit. For every one of these genomes, the...

Glycomics researchers search for the elusive sweet spot: carbohydrate array development continues, but sample variety remains limited.(Technology)
March 28, 2005... Cells are coated with carbohydrates, as are many of the proteins and lipids contained within cells. Scientists increasingly are coating microarrays with carbs, too. More than just frosting, they hope that these carbohydrate arrays can advance...

Squeeze more from your samples: companies flex their multiplex muscles with a variety of assays and technologies.(Technology)
March 28, 2005... In the mid-1990s, toxicologist Raymond Biagini was looking for a faster way to evaluate pest-control workers for exposure to pesticides. The existing process was slow and labor-intensive: Urine samples were hydrolyzed overnight in acid,...

Human Epigenome Project maps MHC locus: researchers to map methylation genome-wide.(Tools & Tech)
March 28, 2005... Methylation at regulatory regions, especially promoters, correlates with transcriptional activity: Sequences near silent genes generally are methylated, whereas those near active regions are not. Scientists traditionally have measured these...

Musclebots: team harnesses muscle cells to make microdevices move.(Tools & Tech)
March 28, 2005... Microrobots and other miniature machines all have the same problem: Where do you plug them in? Even the best fuel cells and microscale batteries can't store much power for long periods. Now UCLA's Carlo Montemagno, a biomedical engineer, has...

A spoonful of Nano helps the medicine go down: FDA approves hybrid protein-nanoparticle anticancer drug.(Tools & Tech)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... A new nanotech-enabled drug recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration promises to make life a little easier for patients with breast cancer. The drug, Abraxane, is the first of a new class of so-called protein-bound particle...

When science switches shores: life science offshoring is increasing; what it means for jobs is still unclear.(BioBusiness)
March 28, 2005... Since the New York City life science technology-consulting firm Intrasphere Technologies opened an office in India, Samuel Goldman, cofounder and chief technology officer, says he works fairly bizarre hours, scheduling 6:00 A.M. meetings on a...

Legislating stem cells: state by state, country by country, lawmakers are struggling to pass--or prevent--new rules on funding for human embryonic stem cell research.(BioBusiness)
March 28, 2005... Kenneth Giacin couldn't be more excited about California's Proposition 71. The landmark initiative to provide $3 billion in funding for stem cell research is not only a potential watershed in the world of science and medicine, but it may also...

Malaria, science, and social responsibility: nonprofit drug-development partnership seeks to cure the ills of developing nations.(BioBusiness)
March 28, 2005... A problem that has seemed intractable for decades may finally be cracking: How to create affordable drug therapies for people who don't offer pharmaceutical companies a commercial market? Jay Keasling, at the University of California,...

Visa rules relaxed.(Update)
March 28, 2005... In a move to enhance US economic competitiveness, the State Department in February extended the period for visa security clearances for non-US citizens working in "sensitive areas," such as chemistry, pharmacology, and engineering. In the...

NIH scientists challenge stock ownership, consulting rules.(Update)(National Institutes of Health)
March 28, 2005... A group that represents senior scientists and others at the National Institutes of Health is proposing less restrictive regulations concerning the ownership of stock in drug and biotech companies, and the ability to consult with universities...

Focus on Berlin: once divided, now whole, Berlin aims to recapture its historic reputation as a global center of the life sciences.(Atlas)
March 28, 2005... If you ask Detlev Ganten whether he would like to see Berlin develop into a global life science center in coming years, he will say "no." And then Ganten, the head of Berlin's Charite University Medical Center, will pause a few moments before...

In search of bugs: on television, everyone's an insect collector. But how does that square with real-life entomology?(Closing Bell)
March 28, 2005... This spring's US television season will feature dueling zoologists, as Ruud "Bugman" Kleinpaste (Buggin' With Ruud, premieres on Animal Planet, June 15) takes on Martin "Spiderman" Nicholas (Nature: Deep Jungle, premieres on PBS, April 17)....

Dealing with pain.
March 28, 2005... Pain is indelibly interwoven into the fabric of human experience. This supplement's cover image, a detail from Agnolo Bronzino's Venus, Cupide and the Time (Allegory of Lust) shows the unmistakable ravages of pain. * We are now halfway...

The essence of pain.
March 28, 2005... Pain is simultaneously a consuming, blinding reality and a complex and slippery object of study. This section aims to capture the essence of pain--what precisely it is, how it is generated and what purpose it serves. Two influential...

A sketch of the subjective: how do you study that which words fail to describe?
March 28, 2005... Although pain is highly subjective, understanding the common underlying pathways that form an outline for pain perception holds clues to better control. The need is great, for despite a growing focus on alleviating pain, an unacceptably large...

Redefining the search for the magic bullet: rather than a single pain treatment, effective relief may require an arsenal.
March 28, 2005... Pain research has been enriched by remarkable discoveries during the past three decades leading to an unprecedented understanding of underlying mechanisms. But in spite of these discoveries, little has been translated into effective pain...

Belief and narrative: an understanding of pain, bereft of its cultural dimensions, is woefully incomplete.
March 28, 2005... Culture shapes human pain. Lesions, neurons, neurotransmitters, and genes may provide a starting point for an exploration of pain's roots in animal models, but among humans, it is our culture as well as our biology that invariably shapes...

Attuning to a life in pain: how a chronic syndrome altered a life and shaped a mission.(Interview)
March 28, 2005... One Tuesday morning in March 1990, 19-year-old Shannon Leidig, a freshman music therapy major at Virginia's Shenandoah College and Conservatory of Music, woke up with a burning, throbbing pain in her right hand. The skin felt waxy and was...

The basics of a pain pathway.(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... Rene Descartes gave a colorful description of the mechanism of pain in the 17th Century: "Particles" of fire set in motion a spot on the skin of the foot, and by means of a "delicate thread" they open a "pore" at the other end, much like...

Signals from the frontlines: researchers grapple with the intricacy of pain perception at the peripheral level.
March 28, 2005... Pain is one of the more complex sensory perceptions. Sensory neurons in the eye or the ear need detect only a single type of stimulus, such as light or sound. But pain-sensing neurons must detect more diverse stimuli, including heat, cold,...

Gateways to pathological pain: signal transduction and the immune system.
March 28, 2005... Peripheral nerves serve as pain's first messengers, firing action potentials as far as three feet to the spinal cord, where they alert the next nerve en route to the brain. Tissue damage and inflammation can lower nociceptor thresholds and...

The interpreter: brain imaging works to capture the many natures of the pain experience.
March 28, 2005... Just before the holidays, Kenneth Casey's young granddaughter accidentally slammed the tip of her finger in a car door. Not surprisingly, she reacted quite strongly. Casey, a long-time pain researcher at the University of Michigan, had a look...

The quest for pain relief: how much have we improved on the past?
March 28, 2005... Has a more thorough understanding of pain biology presaged an avalanche of new treatment modalities? Not yet. The most highly prescribed treatments for pain trace their origins to progress made long before any conception of pain's primary...

A delicate balance: opiates are more common, but more controversial than ever.
March 28, 2005... Ever since the United States government passed laws governing the prescription of opioid drugs early in the 20th century, doctors and regulators have been engaged in a balancing act, trying to use the drugs to treat pain appropriately while...

Cox-2 studies stymied: the fallout from Vioxx's withdrawal has left some researchers asking where to go from here.
March 28, 2005... When Merck pulled its blockbuster painkiller, Vioxx, from the market on Sept. 30, 2004, after a large clinical trial provided evidence that the drug increased the risk of heart attack and stroke, the move cast doubts on the safety of similar...

The Cox-3 identity crisis: researchers struggle to place a cyclooxygenase splice variant in context.
March 28, 2005... Acetaminophen poses a pain-relief puzzle. Despite sharing some properties with conventional nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin, it doesn't inhibit cyclooxygenase (Cox)-1 or-2. Three years ago, researchers postulated that...

Institutional gains on pain: McGill University builds on its legacy.
March 28, 2005... Pain Day at McGill University thankfully doesn't live up to its name. About 75 pain researchers, from McGill's Centre for Research on Pain and the surrounding area came together in January for the ninth annual Pain Day, a chance for...

The straight dope on gene doping.(Editorial)(Editorial)
March 14, 2005... "Another time in Ireland, a policeman stopped an ambulance at a roundabout to let our team couch (bus) pass. Someone could have been dying in the back of that ambulance and this guy stopped it to let us through!" --Tony Cascarino (1) ...

Erratum.(Letters)(Correction Notice)
March 14, 2005... In the Feb. 14, 2005, Notebook item "Communicating through movies" (1913]:12), Mark Brake's title was incorrectly listed. His title is professor of astrobiology and science communication at Glamorgan University. The Scientist regrets the...

US scientists dominate as journal gatekeepers: should we do anything about the skewed decision-making power of a few?(Opinion)
March 14, 2005... The editors in chief, deputy editors, managing editors, and editorial advisory boards who control scientific publication--collectively known as gatekeepers (1)--exert a special influence on the orchestration of international research...

Faking it in Frankfurt.(Notebook)
March 14, 2005... When Frankfurt University said last month that anthropologist Reiner Protsch von Zieten had engaged in repeated scientific fraud for much of the past 30 years, the question naturally arose of how on earth he'd gotten away with it for so long....

A 44-year-old grant.(Notebook)(for David Kritchevsky)(Biography)
March 14, 2005... Step into David Kritchevsky's irregularly shaped basement office at the University of Pennsylvania's Wistar Institute, and you'll immediately be able to tell that he's been there for a while. Two walls are covered with shelves containing...

Postdocs, please go away.(Notebook)(overseas postdoctoral education)
March 14, 2005... Back in 1973, when Julia Goodfellow finished her PhD at Britain's Open University, like many of her peers, she jumped on a plane to California to take up the de rigueur three-year overseas postdoc. After her stateside sojourn in the...

Looking at variation in numbers: nipping at SNPs' heels, copy-number polymorphisms gain ground.(Research)
March 14, 2005... The massive efforts to systematically find and catalog single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) bear witness to the conviction that small genomic changes may provide clues to the origins of such things as heart problems, obesity, and...

Artificial intelligence marches forward: as physiology and neuroscience increasingly inform robotics, maybe robots can return the favor.(Research)
March 14, 2005... Rodney Brooks has what seems like modest career goals: to achieve the manual dexterity of a 6-year-old and the object-recognition skills of a toddler. But for the moment, his field of robotics remains in its infancy. "Over the past 20 years...

Biotechnology reenergized: the goals and promise of Genomes to Life program have energy and environmental applications.(Vision)
March 14, 2005... The completion of the Human Genome Project (HGP) symbolizes the entry of biology into the "big science" arena. What constitutes big science may be in the eye of the beholder, but the term generally means using high technology on a large scale...

A Parkinson disease gene discovered, an oncogene remembered: DJ-1 spurs a rethink on neurodegenerative mechanisms.(Hot Papers)
March 14, 2005... The discovery of several genes linked to Parkinson disease (PD) in recent years has spawned extensive research efforts to elucidate the underlying mechanism of this prevalent neurological disorder. This issue's Hot Paper focuses on the...

To be young again.(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Old cells may regain a youthful phenotype when exposed to a young cell environment, say researchers from Stanford University and VA Palo Alto Health Care System in California. Their results indicate that aged satellite cells have an intrinsic...

Timing xenotransplantation.(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Israeli researchers report that embryonic pig tissues used for liver, pancreas, and lung transplants need to come from very specific windows of time in embryonic development. (1) The findings offer new insights into organogenesis and might...

Synaptic transmission tenets challenged.(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Two distinct pools of synaptic vesicles appear to be involved in the spontaneous release of neurotransmitters and in neurotransmission triggered by a stimulus, according to Ege T. Kavalali and colleagues from University of Texas Southwestern...

The nine lives of lab equipment: refurbished and used equipment dealers provide top function and operation for less.(Technology)
March 14, 2005... Last month Ron Smock, owner of Drug Detection Services, a forensic and criminalistic testing facility in Albuquerque, NM, posted this auction on eBay: Thermoquest GCQ GC/MS/MS in great condition. New controller box and turbo....

Keeping tabs on cultured cells: mycoplasma detection kits keep your cultures--and your data--above reproach.(Technology)
March 14, 2005... Mycoplasmas have been called the crabgrass of cell cultures. (1) Hard to detect, and even harder to eliminate, these simple intracellular bacteria frequently contaminate cell culture lines, wreaking havoc on cell function and metabolism...

Whither the ideal RNA amplification kit? Off-the-shelf kits save time, but many find them lacking.(Technology)
March 14, 2005... Audrey Player is searching for the ideal RNA amplification protocol. In her microarray facility at the National Cancer Institute's Advanced Technology Center, she plans to genetically profile various subtypes of tumor cells obtained by...

The proteome in pictures: a huge atlas will map out positions of human proteins in the body.(Tools & Tech)
March 14, 2005... In the largest project of its kind, Swedish scientists are studying normal and cancerous tissues to discover not only the location and abundance of all human proteins, but also how these are affected by disease states. "We want to make a...

Bac(ulovirus) in a flash: NextGen Sciences offers kits for one-step baculovirus protein expression.(Tools & Tech)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... NextGen Sciences of Cambridge, UK, (www.nextgensciences.com) has released a baculovirus expression system that reduces the timeline of recombinant virus production by up to 10 days, according to company literature. Key to the technology is a...

Functional genomics annotation: it's logical! Symbolic logic helps unravel complex protein networks.(Tools & Tech)
March 14, 2005... Researchers are now using symbolic logic as a proteomics tool. Todd Yeates and colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles, used logic analysis of phylogenetic profiles to identify functional correlations between proteins. (1)...

From SARS to avian flu: vaccines on the scene: an uncertain market slowed SARS vaccine research; are the same forces at work with H5N1?(BioBusiness)
March 14, 2005... When SARS struck more than 8,000 people and killed nearly 800 in the spring of 2003, the world clamored to know when a vaccine against the deadly virus would come to the rescue. Vaccine manufacturers and health institutes in Asia, the United...

Taking stock: the debate continues on whether new rules for stock options are good or bad for US biotechs.(BioBusiness)
March 14, 2005... When Human Genome Sciences in Rockville, Md., recruits top scientists, the biotechnology company usually offers them a stake in its future success in the form of stock options. "We very aggressively use stock options to attract talent to our...

The Chiron case: good manufacturing practice gone bad: how did the flu vaccine debacle happen, and what's being done to prevent it from happening elsewhere?(BioBusiness)
March 14, 2005... When British regulators suspended the license of Chiron's manufacturing plant in Liverpool, England, in October 2004, the move caught the US Food and Drug Administration by surprise and triggered an international vaccine crisis. The FDA had...

Barriers on the road to new antibiotics: regulatory obstacles and lack of investment are in the way of innovation.(Vision)
March 14, 2005... Antibiotics have been around since the introduction of penicillin in the 1940s, but the fight against bacterial infections is far from over. The emergence of resistant strains or "superbugs" has made bacterial infections increasingly...

Asia taking the stem cell lead.(Update)
March 14, 2005... Researchers in China, South Korea, and Singapore are testing the lead taken by Western countries in the field of stem cell research, according to members of a UK government mission. In September 2004, the UK Department of Trade and...

US firm and antivivisectionists in cat fight.(Update)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... Genetic Savings and Clone, a leading pet-cloning company in Sausalito, Calif., announced the sale of its second cloned cat in February and dropped its price for the service from $50,000 to $32,000. At the same time, California Assembly Member...

Court weighs in on embryos.(Update)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... An Illinois judge cleared the way for a couple to sue a Chicago fertility clinic for wrongful death after clinic workers accidentally disposed of a healthy embryo. The case raises concerns about its implications for in vitro fertilization and...

Scanner densitometry software.(Guide)
March 14, 2005... UN-SCAN-IT gel software turns any scanner into an accurate and inexpensive densitometer... and allows you to automatically determine band densities, relative concentrations, band locations, molecular weight values, etc. for nearly all types...

Pefachrome[R] peptide substrates.(Guide)
March 14, 2005... The Pefachrome[R] Series of chromogenic and fluorogenic peptide substrates from Pentapharm are highly selective for enzymes involved in Hemostasis. Included are substrates for t-PA, Thrombin, Plasmin, and Factor Xa. Substrates are available...

Interested in reducing your cost of DNA sequencing tenfold?(Guide)
March 14, 2005... Say Hello to Finch on Sun For only $13,995 or about 10x LESS than it would cost to develop a similar software system in-house, why not consider Geospiza Finch (R) Suite for taking your labs sequencing and genotyping data management and...

Laboratory equipment.(Guide)
March 14, 2005... Thousands of unique tools are featured in WPI's 2005 catalog, including Lab-Trax[TM] data acquisition hardware and Data-Trax[TM] software, Aladdin[TM] programmable syringe pumps, PUL-2 programmable two-stage micropipette puller, and hundreds...

Real time PCR simplified!(Guide)
March 14, 2005... Beacon Designer designs optimal SYBR Green primers, TaqMan[R] probes, FRET probes or molecular beacons for real time QPCR assays. Highly specific primers are designed by avoiding cross homologies found by automatically interpreting BLAST...

Pre-owned lab equipment.(Guide)
March 14, 2005... * Savings of up to 80% off manuf. list * Remanufactured with warranty * Turn unwanted equipment into cash * Get more for your budget whether buying or selling, or if you just want a quote PEGASUS SCIENTIFIC, INC (800)...

Pranks and pumps: for Chris Miller, finding channels--or pumps, as it sometimes turns out--is more fun than winning a Nobel Prize.(Reverse Transcript)(Interview)
March 14, 2005... "We have your dog," read the cut-and-paste ransom note taped to Chris Miller's office door one day in the late 1990s. A biophysicist and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., Miller regularly...