The Scientist articles from October 2003

The Scientist archives from October 2003

Individuality and medicine.(Editorial)(Editorial)
October 20, 2003... "The existence in every human being of a vast array of attributes which are potentially measurable (whether by present methods or not), and often uncorrelated mathematically, makes quite tenable the hypothesis that practically every human...

Plagiarism in higher education: is there a remedy? Lots of instruction and some careful vigilance could work wonders.(Opinion)
October 20, 2003... The recent incidence of plagiarism at The New York Times set off some empathetic alarm bells throughout the academic community. According to a 2002-03 survey of 3,500 graduate students in US and Canadian universities, 23%-25% of students...

Marking the first Americans' arrival.(Frontlines)
October 20, 2003... Y-chromosome genetic markers show that people first arrived on the North American continent about 14,000 years ago, according to two papers in the American Journal of Human Genetics. (1,2) This is more recent than previously thought;...

From cell screen to the big screen: scientists go to the movies.(Snapshot)(Brief Article)
October 20, 2003... What an eclectic collection: The Pianist, Finding Nemo, Amelie, O Brother, Where Art Thou. These were just some of the titles that 316 readers listed when telling us about their movie-viewing habits. More than half, 59%, watch a movie once or...

Pauling, Meselson, and Socrates.(Foundations)(Brief Article)
October 20, 2003... Matthew Meselson anticipated a lecture that night in 1954 when he heard Linus Pauling's slippety-slap footfall outside the lab. Meselson, then a graduate student in Pauling's lab at Caltech, had neglected his lab duties to organize scientists...

Harvesting car bodies and airplane wings.(Frontlines)
October 20, 2003... These days, farmers grow mainly food. But if the University of Toronto's Mohini Sain is right, in two to five years they'll also be growing material for auto bodies, airplane wings, football helmets, and artificial heart valves. Crops such as...

Alice D. Sullivan.(First Person)
October 20, 2003... Alice D. Sullivan, a retired California Superior Court judge, plays in a sandbox all week long. Twice weekly, she's playing beach volleyball with her buddies in San Diego; Otherwise, she's mediating or arbitrating disputes between companies...

It's all in the translation.(5-Prime)
October 20, 2003... Those who voted in the Best Places survey (see p. 17) live in many different towns. And while they may wear, eat, or do similar things, one would never know it by listening to them... Tightening Bunnyhugs, Snapping Suspenders The men at...

So they say.(Upfront)(Brief Article)
October 20, 2003... "I'll bet I'm the only high school student with one of these." --Craig Wallace, 18, of Salt Lake City, UT, on the nuclear fusion reactor he built from junkyard scraps based on plans from the Internet. From Deseret News. "All the...

Arabidopsis in blue.(Upfront)
October 20, 2003... ARABIDOPSIS IN BLUE: Researchers at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia gave this photo some aesthetic forethought: It shows the dramatic difference in growth when a genre that detects blue light is removed from the Arabidopsis thaliana...

November.(Illustration)(Calendar)
October 20, 2003... NOVEMBER WED- SATUR- SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY NESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY DAY 1 ...

How they measure up: scientific institutions: scientists rank collegiality and resources for their work above pay and job security.
October 20, 2003... The recipe for job satisfaction couldn't be simpler: Give scientists colleagues with whom they can collaborate, and the tools--both physical and financial--they need to do their own work well. These ingredients are valued most by 2,210...

Genetic testing timeline: the histories of the most well-known single-gene disorders started long before anyone ever thought about sequencing the human genome.(Research)
October 20, 2003... Huntington Disease 1840s Medical journals note involuntary movements and mental problems that run in families 1872 At 22-years-old, physician George Huntington publishes a paper describing symptoms and hereditary pattern of...

A genetic checkup: lessons from Huntington disease and cystic fibrosis: predictive medicine, poised for a breakthrough, remains challenged by stigma and lack of treatments.(Research)
October 20, 2003... While genome sequencing may be the new kid on the block--perhaps now with a cracking voice and fuzzy facial hair--predicting phenotypes is the stuff of classical genetics, honed on the rare single-gene disorders, such as Huntington disease...

They hibernate; humans trudge on: at the tissue and cellular level, this mammalian sabbatical may translate into trauma care improvements.(Research)
October 20, 2003... As days shorten and the cold encroaches, roughly two dozen mammalian species fatten up and settle down for a long winter's nap. Humans, however, continue to trudge through the frigid darkness, and researchers aren't entirely sure why. Total...

An immunological role in the CARDs: NOD1 and NOD2, first noted for homologies to apoptotic proteins, may still have a few tricks up their sleeves.(Hot Papers)
October 20, 2003... It's rare in this feature to highlight a researcher's work twice in the same year, because it is rare for a researcher to achieve what Gabriel Nunez's team at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, has accomplished. Besides generating at...

Biologists are in good Company.(News)
October 20, 2003... UK-based charity The Company of Biologists has decided to join the experiment by several traditional publishers to offer an 'Open Access option' to their authors. From January 2004, any author whose paper is accepted for publication in...

A journey into DSpace.(Interview)(Interview)
October 20, 2003... Institutional full-text repositories have recently emerged as a promising way of providing increasing access to scholarly research material. DSpace is an institutional digital 'super-archive' system jointly developed by Massachusetts...

Exploring cell shape the high-throughput way.(Research news from BioMed Central journals)(Brief Article)
October 20, 2003... Researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Boston have used a high-throughput screening method for finding out what Drosophila cytoskeletal proteins do. The technique, which makes use of RNA-interference with cells in culture,...

Links between diabetes and cancer?(Research news from BioMed Central journals)(Brief Article)
October 20, 2003... An unexpected link between diabetes and Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, a hereditary disease that increases the risk of suffering from cancer, has been uncovered by researchers at the University of Dundee. The team was looking for a protein that...

Resistance exercise resets the body clock.(Research news from BioMed Central journals)(Brief Article)
October 20, 2003... Resistance exercise may directly reset the body clocks in skeletal muscle, according to research published in Genome Biology. Dr Alex Zambon, the lead author on the study said, "Our findings support the idea that peripheral clocks can...

Who, what & why?(Brief Article)
October 20, 2003... As a short guide to the players and technical terms relevant to Open Access publishing, 'Who, What & Why?' keeps readers informed about the world of Open Access. This week we focus on the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI). ...

New genes: the ears have 'em.(Brief Article)
October 20, 2003... While scouring a new cDNA library, researchers in the Netherlands discovered 80 novel expressed-sequence tags, including 25 preferentially expressed in human fetal cochlea. (1) The researchers from the University Medical Center in Nijmegen...

The worker, the soldier, the candlestick maker.(Brief Article)
October 20, 2003... Every termite is a born worker, but only some transform later in life to the other two castes: soldiers and reproduction facilitators. A Purdue University research team recently unearthed genes that may be responsible for the morphogenesis...

For genomes without borders, biobanks unite.(Brief Article)
October 20, 2003... Four public biobanks are joining Forces. GenomEUtwin, Canada's Cart@gene, the UK Biobank, and the Estonian Genome Project, if pooled, could make the largest, most comprehensive compilation of genome and health information ever, containing...

A better bottle?(Gadget Watch)
October 20, 2003... Glass reagent bottles may be standard fixtures in the lab, but they are not without problems. Their height can make them awkward to use, especially in a hood, and their narrow openings do not easily accommodate micropipettes. USA Scientific's...

Turning to yeast for human antibodies.(Patent Watch)(Brief Article)
October 20, 2003... Though therapeutic antibodies have garnered considerable interest lately--witness Herceptin--their development is bedeviled by bottlenecks, says Li Zhu, president and CEO of Genetastix, San Jose, Calif. The company recently received a patent,...

An open-source alternative to SMD.(Software Watch)(Brief Article)
October 20, 2003... The Stanford Microarray Database (http://genome-www.stanford. edu/microarray) is a hugely popular resource. Containing tools to store, visualize, and process microarray data, as of September 2003, it archived over 39,000 microarray...

Coupling in vitro transcription and translation: manufacturers offer a host of kits to go directly from DNA to protein in just 90 minutes.(Lab Consumer)
October 20, 2003... Cells are, at a fundamental level, protein-production facilities. So naturally, when researchers need to make some particular protein, they should let the cells do the work for them. But living cells are not terribly good at making exogenous...

Sorting out citation management software: with options to fit every budget, scientists can finally retire their index card collections.(Lab Consumer)
October 20, 2003... For most researchers, just keeping up with the scientific literature proves taxing. Actually organizing it in a useful way--to create a bibliography, for example--is even harder. That job can virtually handle itself, however, if a scientist...

Six degrees of cytometry: Amnis' flow-based ImageStream system provides six images per cell.(Tools & Technology)
October 20, 2003... High-throughput cell screening has been, and still is, a cornerstone of fast-paced drug-discovery labs, but nowadays speed is not always enough. Content is key, and a Seattle-based startup company has entered the high-throughput cell imaging...

Keen on kinase kits: invitrogen's kinase-assay platform speeds up inhibitor screening.(Tools & Technology)
October 20, 2003... Protein kinases play a pivotal role in the signal transduction pathways that regulate cellular metabolism, growth, proliferation, differentiation, and death. By catalyzing the transfer of phosphate groups from ATP to specific serine,...

Chunkier chips.(Tools & Technology)
October 20, 2003... A new GeneChip[R] brand CustomExpress array launched by Santa Clara, Calif.-based Affymetrix raises the bar for gene expression arrays with its ability to measure up to 61,000 transcripts, a three-fold increase from the company's previous...

Protein rainbow.(Tools & Technology)
October 20, 2003... Previously available by license only, Palo Alto, Calif.-based BD Biosciences-Clontech is now offering academic and nonprofit researchers access to its collection of novel reef coral fluorescent proteins, which include AmCyan1, ZsGreen1,...

Ethics and the scientist.(Tip Trove)(Brief Article)
October 20, 2003... Because research is a social enterprise and is intended to provide a public benefit, the conduct of research is riddled with competing interests. Resolution of such interests requires that a researcher be aware of the ethical dimensions of...

All that stem cell money and nobody to spend it.(Funding Forum)
October 20, 2003... Whatever happened to the $100 million in US federal grants promised for research on human embryonic stem cell (ESC) lines? (1) In fiscal 2002, the National Institutes of Health awarded only $11 million for research grants that met funding...

Chemical acumen.(Training @)
October 20, 2003... WHAT: Element-Selective Detection for Chromatography and Electrophoresis by ICP-Mass Spectrometry WHERE: Hotel Novotel Centrum. Bruges, Belgium WHY: Short course for specialists in separations who wish to use ICP-(inductively coupled...

FDA caution tempers race for generic biologics: Europe bests the United States in streamlining biotech regulations.(Profession)
October 20, 2003... As the first biotech drugs begin to lose patent protection in the next few years, the US biotechnology industry is beginning to fear it will soon face price-cutting generic competition. Unlike the system for approving traditional, chemically...

Shuttle squeezes science in space program: after the shuttle tragedy, the future of NASA's science program is questioned.(Profession)
October 20, 2003... When the space shuttle Columbia erupted into flames on re-entry, killing its crew of six astronauts, criticism of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration grew to a fever pitch. Attackers came from all sides. Government experts...

Journals 'fess up to authors' financial conflicts.(Science Rules)
October 20, 2003... Major peer-reviewed science journals are toughening rules that require authors to say when they have a financial stake in topics of their articles. The moves from Science and Nature come in response to letters exposing what critics say were a...

When sharing means less for all: new rules on biodiversity prompt frustration with treaty.(Profession)
October 20, 2003... The first legally binding international agreement governing the shipment of genetically modified organisms across borders has reinvigorated critics of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The new agreement, the Cartagena Protocol on...

Data: past due: do you have old unpublished data in your files? Of course you do.(Profession)
October 20, 2003... Open your file drawer all the way, and force your fingers to pry through the folders wedged in the back. Or take down that black binder from a decade ago, labeled with the name of a student you can no longer picture. Perhaps you saved...

A team cleaning.(Postdoc Talk)
October 20, 2003... This week I cleaned out a former colleague's lab bench to make room for someone new. Once I got started, the other people in the lab joined in. We cleared out solutions that were no longer sterile, called hazardous waste pickup to come get a...

Multiple pathlength sample cell.(Guide)
October 20, 2003... UltraPath is a unique high-performance spectrophotometer offering user-selectable optical path lengths of 2, 10, 50 and 200 cm. Designed for detection of low absorbing species in aqueous solutions, UltraPath allows precise spectroscopic...

Primers for high throughput expression cloning.(Guide)
October 20, 2003... Xpression Primer is a web savvy Windows and Mac program with a sophisticated algorithm for designing thousands of optimal tagged or untagged primers at lightning speed. It dramatically improves the success of assays for high throughput...

ECIS[TM]: an in-vitro invasion assay.(Guide)
October 20, 2003... Electric Cell-substrate Impedance Sensing is a powerful new method to study the invasive activities of the metastatic cells in tissue culture. * The approach provides real time, quantitative measurements of extravasion of endothelial...

Enter new worlds.(Guide)
October 20, 2003... UltraMicroPump II (UMP2) is a microprocessor-controlled microsyringe pump designed for drug delivery, micro-injection and perfusion applications. UMP2 uses micro-syringes from 0.5 [micro]l to 1 ml (5.5mm-9mm OD) and dispenses as little as 0.6...

Now you can observe molecular interaction in real time ... and not spend a fortune.(Guide)
October 20, 2003... Real-time, label-free detection of molecular interaction is now available from an affordable, dynamic, surface refractometer, the Leica SR 7000, which detects changes in refractive index at a surface. Using an optical phenomenon, "Surface...

All the luer valves and fittings you've been looking for!(Guide)
October 20, 2003... Luer Valve Assortment Kit (WPI Part #14011) provides the means to start, stop, add, divide and control a flow of liquid or gas. Included in the kit are over 200 assorted parts such as one-way and three-way stopcocks, manifolds, Y-connectors,...

Quad-Z 215 now available with disposable tips.(Guide)
October 20, 2003... The addition of disposable tips to Gilson's Quad-Z 215 Liquid Handler offers an important tool for molecular biology applications, including DNA probes, PCR preparation, automated sample prep, and electrophoresis. The disposable tips option...

High-throughput solution for vacuum SPE.(Guide)
October 20, 2003... The Vacuum Rack is a new accessory for Gilson's Quad-Z 215 with fixed probes. This flexible rack provides a high-throughput solution for vacuum SPE applications using 96-well SPE plates. The Vacuum Rack expands Gilson's already wide range of...

Gilson--new innovations for over 50 years.(Guide)
October 20, 2003... Gilson is a leading manufacturer of high-quality, dependable liquid chromatography instruments, as well as manual and automated liquid handlers for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Product lines include a full range of HPLC...

Gilson Pipetting Aid.(Guide)
October 20, 2003... The Gilson Pipetting Aid is a device that fits to glass (or plastic) measuring pipettes. Glass pipettes are often used to transfer dangerous liquids or hazardous samples. The Gilson Pipetting Aid is specially designed to pipette safely with...

Pipetman[R] Ultra--get more from your pipetting system.(Guide)
October 20, 2003... Pipetman[R] Ultra is a fully adjustable, air-displacement pipette with a patented electronic display. A number of new features have been added: more comfort and less fatigue, less force and a natural movement when pipetting and ejecting tips,...

Microman[R]--the positive solution to Pipetman[R].(Guide)
October 20, 2003... Microman[R] positive-displacement pipettes are the perfect companion to the Pipetman[R] pipette. Microman uses capillary piston technology and has no air-to-liquid interface, which eliminates carryover from the previous sample. Microman is...

Microarray analysis online.(Guide)
October 20, 2003... Try GeneSifter.Net, the convenient new Web-based system first profiled February 10th in The Scientist. "So far, the GeneSifter program is EXCELLENT! I just did 2 hours of analysis that took me 2 months to do with another program." ...

Soar with this Eagle[TM].(Guide)
October 20, 2003... These new adjustable pipetters have the same feel as more expensive instruments, yet a set of any six is only $665 with stand. Volume ranges are 0.2-2 [micro]l, 0.5-10 [micro]l, 2-20 [micro]l, 20-100 [micro]l, 50-200 [micro]l, 100-1000...

Quantitative Cell Migration Assays.(Guide)
October 20, 2003... CHEMICON's 96-well Cell Migration Assays are easy and efficient systems for the analysis of cell migration. The assays provide rapid quantification of cell migration with out the cumbersome steps of cell scraping, cell counting, and cell...

Low cost effective protease inhibitors.(Guide)
October 20, 2003... Pefabloc[R] SC (AEBSF) and Aprotinin are safe, effective serine protease inhibitors and offer numerous advantages over other inhibitors such as PMSF and DFR Pefabloc SC and Aprotinin are non-toxic, readily water soluble, stable in solution,...

A new fluorescent Sirtuin1 activity assay!(Guide)
October 20, 2003... Sirtuin1 (SIRT1) is an important lysine deacetylase that regulates the acetylation of p53 and cell survival in response to stress. The Fluor de Lys[TM] SIRT1 fluorescent activity assay (cat. #AK-555) is the best option for performing activity...

New stackable shakers save space!(Guide)
October 20, 2003... When it comes to convenience, performance and dependability, nothing else stacks up to the Innova[R] 44 incubated/refrigerated shaker. Featuring: slide-out platforms and glide-up doors for easy access to all flasks; a programmable controller;...

If the NFL can do it, so can scientists: using fractionalization to determine the proper amount of credit for a published article is only right.(Closing Bell)
October 20, 2003... In America's National Football League, a player gets full credit only for a so-called sack when he alone brings down the quarterback. In the world of US patents, a patent holder rakes in all the royalties if he or she is the sole name on the...

Precious right, necessary responsibilities.(Editorial)(Editorial)
October 6, 2003... "The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man. Every citizen may, accordingly, speak, write, and print with freedom, but shall be responsible for such abuses of this freedom as shall be defined...

The conscience clause: keeping the independent scientist extant.(Opinion)
October 6, 2003... The few scientists who have had the courage to oppose their employers' silence regarding the harmful effects of products related, for instance, to food, public health, or the environment, have generally seen their lives destroyed. Defamation...

Erratum.(Correction Notice)
October 6, 2003... The October calendar that appeared in the Sept. 22 issue incorrectly started on Thursday; October began on a Wednesday. We regret any confusion.

A discriminating, yet artificial palate.(Frontlines)(Brief Article)
October 6, 2003... Researchers are developing artificial tongues that eventually could detect aromas of cassis and smoky oak in a glass of cabernet. The device uses ultrathin films of conducting polymers as sensing units, which mimic the human taste buds for...

The international lab: the globetrotters among us.(Snapshot)(Brief Article)
October 6, 2003... The 420 print and web readers who responded to our survey about national origins were born in 67 different countries and currently reside in 45 countries. A remarkable 36% of respondents presently work in a place other than their native...

Dance of the yeast genome: Ira Herskowitz, 1946-2003.(Foundations)(Brief Article)
October 6, 2003... The science of yeast genetics was still in its infancy some 30 years ago, and one of its thorniest problems wouldn't go away: How do diploid yeast cells transform themselves into haploid cells, so that they can mate and reproduce through...

The herpetological 'hand'.(Frontlines)(Brief Article)
October 6, 2003... Snakes cannot properly wear gloves, but cottonmouths do exhibit some form of "handedness," says Eric Roth, a zoologist at the University of Oklahoma. In a recent study Roth demonstrated that the adult female snakes show a tendency to coil...

Mildred Cohn.(First Person)(Interview)(Biography)
October 6, 2003... Biochemist Mildred Cohn, 90, is one of the few women whose portrait hangs in the halls of the University of Pennsylvania's anatomy and chemistry building. Retired from research but not from science per se--"I still like to talk science and I...

Tissue engineering trends.(5-Prime)
October 6, 2003... What is tissue engineering? It's the use of engineering and life sciences principles and methods to obtain a basic understanding of structure-function relationships in novel and pathological mammalian tissues and using biological substitutes...

What question would you pose to a dead scientist?(Off The Cuff)
October 6, 2003... To Marie Curie: Was the discovery of radiation significant enough to warrant your death by radiation toxicity? --Susanne Courtney, Courtney Rainey Group, Toronto To Elie Metchnikof: Is it harder today to be an acknowledged and famous...

Drug potential.(Science Seen)(Brief Article)
October 6, 2003... DRUG POTENTIAL: Researchers study marijuana primarily to find a drug That blocks its effects and a source for potential pharmacological Compounds. This section micrograph of a Cannabis sativa leaf shows the Pustules of tetrahydrocannibinol...

Sizing up nature's denizens: from insects to Blue whales, various constraints dictate an organism's size.
October 6, 2003... From the massive Blue whale to the tiniest plant viroids, size extremes have long fascinated mankind. This is not a trivial pursuit, for size can yield important insights into the physical constraints that govern an organism's evolution, as...

The secret lives of proteins.(Research)(Brief Article)
October 6, 2003... Recent research suggests that many structural and enzymatic proteins serve double or even triple duty (see story opposite page). Three multifunctional proteins identified in higher animals are shown below. GEPHYRIN Proposed...

Enzymatic alter-egos unmasked: multifunctional "moonlighting" proteins may befuddle medical science and bioinformatics efforts.(Research)
October 6, 2003... Some proteins lead double or even quadruple lives. In 1994 researchers discovered the gene responsible for Wiskott Aldrich syndrome, an X-linked genetic disorder in which affected patients generally succumb to infections or cancer. Because of...

Microbial co-op in evolution: getting by with a little help from their friends.(Research)
October 6, 2003... Most microbiologists consider used flasks, laden with splotches of colonizing bacteria, simply more dishes to wash. Paul Rainey sees more. For Rainey, ecologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and the...

Systems biology has its backers and attackers: revolution or buzzword du jour, pundits ponder a pervasive term.(Research)
October 6, 2003... Though coined 40 years ago, (1) a lot of people still ask, "What's that?" when the term systems biology comes up. "It is used in so many different contexts, nobody is really clear what you mean by it," says John Yates III, a professor at the...

Putting the buzz in navigation: scientists apply bee and dragonfly research to robotics, aviation, and the military.(Research)
October 6, 2003... A bee arrives at a flowering bush, rapidly explores it and assesses which flowers to visit. For an insect with a tiny brain and a lifespan measured in weeks, it's an impressive display of navigational skill, learning, and selective...

The hunger hormone unharnessed: ghrelin as a source of drugs for combating eating disorders remains in doubt.(Hot Papers)
October 6, 2003... Obesity is big. A public with a seemingly insatiable appetite for weight-loss products spends more than $35 billion (US) annually on diet products or programs in North America, according to the US Federal Trade Commission. And, basic research...

Support for Open Access from Russian scholarly society.(News)
October 6, 2003... The Russian Society of BioPsychiatry (RSBP) has issued a statement in support of Open Access. The society called on international organizations and colleagues worldwide to join forces to support implementation of Open Access initiatives. The...

Howard Hughes Medical Institute will cover article charges.(News)(Brief Article)
October 6, 2003... The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has informed its investigators that it will reimburse the costs of publishing in Open Access journals. A memo sent out in September to all HHMI investigators, described Open Access publications...

The society lady.(Interview)(Interview)
October 6, 2003... It is often argued that Open Access publishing models are a threat to learned societies and will prevent them from performing their good work for their members and the scientific community. Elizabeth Marincola, of the American Society for...

Discovering new regulators of the immune system.(Research news from BioMed Central journals)(Brief Article)
October 6, 2003... Through attempting to find regulators of the immune system. Charlene Liao and colleagues have created a successful method for identifying new components of signaling pathways. Their genome-wide screen, published in Journal of Biology, found...