The Scientist articles from September 2002

The Scientist archives from September 2002

Social thinking: can fMRI explain the symbolic self. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
September 30, 2002... Planning a future, knowing your limitations, following moral rules--these and other uniquely human capacities will be the focus of a research project at California Institute of Technology funded by a million dollar grant from the David and...

Genetic Velcro: researchers define a role for Alu sequences. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
September 30, 2002... The 500,000+ copies of the 300-base DNA repeat sequence Alu that dot the human genome have been mysteries for decades, sometimes even dubbed "junk." But, the elusive sequences may provide a chromosomal Velcro[R] of sorts, serving as...

The eye wire act: researchers investigate Eph receptors, the eye's electricians. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
September 30, 2002... Scientists are a step closer to understanding how the eye transmits images to the brain, according to recent findings about the complicated set of neural connections that result in vision as we know it (R. Hindges et al., "EphB forward...

Life posing as art: the art and science of art and science. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
September 30, 2002... Scientists and art aficionados may disagree about eye-pleasing imagery, but Hunter O'Reilly is bringing the two sides closer. The geneticist and internationally shown artist reinterprets science as art through abstractions, digital art, and...

Stressed mothers: a danger for kids: cortisol levels are nurtured in infancy. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
September 30, 2002... For the first time in humans, researchers have been able to link the impact of maternal stress during infancy with subsequent behavior problems in the first grade. Children whose mothers were depressed during the first year of life had high...

Nature's second nature: NAS says biology curricula should stress the connections. (Frontlines).(National Academy of Sciences)(Brief Article)
September 30, 2002... Math, physics, chemistry, computer science, and engineering should be incorporated into biology courses and lab experiments to the degree that "interdisciplinary thinking and work become second nature," according to a new report from the...

The creative power of naming. (Commentary).(biological classification)
September 30, 2002... The ability to name is surely one of the great intellectual leaps of humankind. This is vividly illustrated in an extract of the uplifting poetry of the Kato Indians, an account of genesis: "Woodpeckers were not they say. Then...

Nescience, not Science, from the Academy. (Opinion).(Column)
September 30, 2002... The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scientists and engineers "dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare," and committed to...

Two weeks in the pit as Indiana Jones: looking for variety in your next vacation? How about excavating ancient mammoths? (News).
September 30, 2002... This past summer, I found myself standing in an air-conditioned pit, trowel in hand, digging for mammoth bones, while tourists watched me work from behind a fence. I was helping Larry Agenbroad, whose Mammoth Site project in Hot Springs, SD,...

Conservation takes the forefront: gorilla researchers have the opportunity to become involved in more than research. (News).
September 30, 2002... Next to chimpanzees, gorillas are the closest living human relatives. Yet, humans have loved, sold, killed, even eaten gorillas. Dian Fossey's popularization of her field work with mountain gorillas in the 1970s "created this global...

The key to translation ... is mentoring a new generation of translational researchers. (News).
September 30, 2002... Funding for translational research flows from government agencies and through foundations and associations. At meetings around the world, the pleas go out for more researchers to join the field. Yet if you ask 10 researchers to define...

COX-2 inhibitors tackle cancer: research targets the earliest stages of cancer, aims at chemoprevention. (News).
September 30, 2002... A drug developer's dream, rationally designed to quell inflammation, COX-2 inhibitors are also prime candidates for preventing cancer or its recurrence. Gary J. Kelloff, chief of the chemoprevention branch at the National Cancer Institute...

Lasker Foundation honors five: intracellular membrane trafficking and hemodialysis receive recognition. (News).
September 30, 2002... Few things are as rewarding as the academic lifestyle, says James E. Darnell Jr., a Rockefeller University researcher whose discoveries span an era of molecular biology. "The only thing I'd rather do is be first baseman for the Yankees, but...

Today's world: research vs. security: investigators find it increasingly difficult to obtain bacterial pathogens for antibioterrorism studies. (News).
September 30, 2002... Nearly three years ago, the federal government gave Nancy Connell the green light to investigate how people respond to infection by Bacillus anthracis, the bacterial agent that causes anthrax. With $3 million (US) from the Department of...

There are plenty of genes to work with when treating epilepsy, but real therapeutic results lie in the distant future. (In style, but ... out of reach)(Cover Stories).
September 30, 2002... Treating people who have seizure disorders is a little like playing roulette. Place a bet on a drug from column A and hope for a hit. If that drug doesn't work, try one from column B. This process can drag on for months or years, and for many...

Pharmacogenomics promises savings to pharmaceutical companies, but it tests the industry's current cost structures. (In style, but ... out of reach)(Cover Stories).
September 30, 2002... Pharmacogenomics holds the promise of delivering safer, better designer drugs--and profits--to pharmaceutical manufacturers. But the technology also poses a challenge to the industry's current, highly successful business model that relies on...

The E-nose: scientists compete with nature's prolific sniffers: electronic sensors explain how being sick can stink. (Research).
September 30, 2002... Volatile odorants spewing forth from every living thing reveal a hidden trove of factors like diet, health, and genetic composition. With astonishing acuteness, most animals can read these olfactory messages and model their behaviors...

The bubble bursts: clinical success with X-SCID clears the path for gene therapy expansion. (Hot Papers).
September 30, 2002... Reaching positive milestones in gene therapy has been difficult since a highly publicized death in 1999, (1) but some have succeeded. A major break came this year when researchers in Italy and Israel reported successfully treating two...

Microbiologists make discoveries in the sea, in the neighborhood: one group of researchers cultivates new bacterium, another devises new method to compare genomic sequences from distantly related species. (Faculty of 1000).
September 30, 2002... Microbiology has come a long way since the days of Anton van Leeuwenhoek and his "very little living animalcules, very prettily a-moving." The animalcules were, of course, bacteria, and Leeuwenhoek's 17th century observations were among the...

Making medicine personal: pharmacogenomicists dream of customized drugs, but significant technical challenges remain. (Lab Consumer).
September 30, 2002... "Never share your prescription." That's good advice: People may react differently to drugs, whether because of weight, gender, or metabolic differences. When a physician writes a prescription, one would think that it is custom-made for the...

A peak at HPLC: examining the nuts and bolts of high-performance liquid chromatography. (Lab Consumer).(high-performance liquid chromatography)(includes web site directory of equipment suppliers)
September 30, 2002... In 1906, Mikhail Tswett separated plant pigments on a chalk column. Alluding to the separated colors, he termed his technique chromatography. (1) Nearly a century later, chromatography hasn't changed all that much; it still relies on the...

The OEM game. (In Focus).(original equipment manufacturer marketing for chromatography)(Brief Article)
September 30, 2002... Many producers of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) systems specialize in the manufacture of a small number of components but would like to offer a more comprehensive product line for marketing purposes. A common solution to this...

Weighing up macromolecules: lab-on-a-chip gets the measure of polymers using refractive indices. (Lab Consumer).
September 30, 2002... Determining the molecular mass of polymers, including natural biopolymers such as proteins and nucleic acids, or synthetic plastics, is critical to quality control and to understanding the effects of processing technology on these products....

Microscopy goes virtual--and global: Aperio Technologies lets researchers create virtual slides in just minutes--and share them with colleagues worldwide. (Tools & Technology).
September 30, 2002... Robert Cardiff has thought a lot about virtual microscopy. As chair of the pathology committee for the National Cancer Institute's Mouse Models of Human Cancer Consortium, Cardiff is charged with creating an image archive of both murine and...

Real-time gel documentation: the KODAK Gel Logic 100 Imaging System offers gel imaging and analysis for high-throughput labs. (Lab Consumer).
September 30, 2002... Rochester, NY-based Eastman Kodak recently introduced the newest addition to its family of electrophoresis gel-imaging products. The Gel Logic 100 Imaging System combines a 1.4-megapixel digital CCD (charge-coupled device) camera with IEEE...

Detecting protein phosphorylation: biosource international's phosphoELISA kits measure protein phosphorylation without Western blotting or radioactivity. (Lab Consumer).
September 30, 2002... Protein phosphorylation is a key regulatory signaling event that can activate or deactivate protein function and regulate critical biochemical pathways. Phosphospecific antibodies represent research windows into those pathways. They allow...

The guide.
September 30, 2002... RECONDITIONED LABORATORY EQUIPMENT Long Island Scientific provides high quality reconditioned Laboratory Equipment at affordable prices. Centrifuges, Gamma and Beta Counters, Spectrophotometers, Microplate Readers, Fluorometers, CE, HPLC...

Life scientists keep Georgia on their minds: the state antes millions toward biotechnology development; the next challenge is retaining newfound talent. (Profession).
September 30, 2002... Anne Whalen, a molecular biologist, had no job when she and her husband relocated to Georgia three years ago from Jackson Hole, Wyo., so he could take a position at an Atlanta-area biotechnology company. She figured it would take her a while...

Green gene advocates await climate change: German GM crop companies stunted by public attitudes. (Profession).(genetically modified crops)
September 30, 2002... German plant biotechnology companies, frustrated by a European moratorium and lacking political and public support in their home country, struggle to sustain their research. Many still hope that genetically modified (GM) plant products will...

Quality time with your mentor: students and mentors should agree on a development pan that clearly delineates career goals and establishes a strategy for additional skill acquisition. (Fine Tuning).
September 30, 2002... Individual development plans provide a formal planning process to help individuals identify long-term career goals and areas where further development is needed. While postdoctoral fellows must acknowledge responsibility for their own...

Biotechs bank for survival: once the safe haven for scientists, biotech companies are hoarding cash and laying off researchers.
September 30, 2002... Like prudent squirrels bracing for a harsh winter, biotech managers are scrambling to conserve money in an effort to keep their companies alive during the current financing downturn. Biotechs have not gone under in droves, despite the funding...

The skills gap: the demand for highly skilled professionals makes many jobs hard to fill. (In the Lab).
September 30, 2002... Advances in gadgetry make a scientist's job easy. Finding the scientists who can wield the new instruments and assays poses a challenge. Companies now demand that scientists be veritable Swiss army knives of capability, posessing lab skills,...

Funds for pharmacogenomics.(Brief Article)
September 30, 2002... In the postgenomics era, many scientists have shifted focus from determining DNA sequence to unraveling gene function. With the possibility of tailoring drugs to individuals, pharmacogenomics holds the promise of turning the prescription of...

Judith Vaitukaitis: in technology's candy store. (Profile).
September 30, 2002... Were it not for the National Institutes of Health's former policy that did not allow NIH researchers to patent their discoveries, "Vaitukaitis" would have been a household name, like Pasteur or Steinway. That's because reproductive...

Math is life: new grants reinforce growing trend of collaborations in math and biology. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
September 16, 2002... Mathematicians and biologists now have a few more reasons to pool resources and expertise. New grants cosponsored by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) are available to scientists...

Getting kicked when you're down: investigators unravel another mystery of how HIV works. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
September 16, 2002... A team of researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, Calif., has found that HIV targets active genes and then selectively inserts itself in a process that may help explain why the virus is able to replicate so rapidly...

Scientists provide tools to detect wine fraud: does that Bordeaux taste more like Chateauneuf du Pape? (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
September 16, 2002... For centuries, wine fraud has left a bad taste in the mouths of winemakers and connoisseurs worldwide. Researchers in the wine genetics lab at the National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA) in Montpelier, France, hope to change that....

Those celebrated counting frogs: for frogs math is sexy. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
September 16, 2002... Frogs can discriminate between similar frog calls based on tee number of pulses per second, a team of researchers from the University of Utah reports, thanks to particular neurons in the midbrain (C.J. Edwards, T.B. Alder, G.J. Rose,...

Digging up the differences: fossil shows aren't just for hobbyists. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
September 16, 2002... An international team of researchers recently reported a rare instance in which a genetic difference between humans and chimpanzees can be dated (H.-H. Chou et al., "Inactivation of CMP-N-acetylneuraminic acid hydroxylase occurred prior to...

Stop and go: seeing the light on a new promoter system. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
September 16, 2002... A new gene promoter system developed by researchers in Peter Quail's laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, uses red light to signal genes to "go" (S. Shimizu-Sato et al., "A light-switchable gene promoter system," Nature...

Rhetoric is nice, but show 'em the money. (Commentary).
September 16, 2002... The UK government is currently espousing a passion for science. Prime Minister Tony Blair said recently: "The strength and creativity of our science base is a key national asset as we move into the 21st century." And the minister for science...

The queen bee syndrome. (Opinion).
September 16, 2002... I serve on the senior appointments and promotions committee (SAPC) of a medical school. Over the years, I've realized that male basic scientists, as a group, sail through the SAPC effortlessly. Many of these men work in fields that include...

Primary prevention of cancer. (Letters).
September 16, 2002... Your stories on cancer present well-rounded perspectives on cancer treatment. (1,2) However, for targeting cancer incidence and mortalities, increased attention must be directed toward primary prevention of cancer, rather than most resources...

More than money: top salaries lure scientists, but a creative workplace and the potential for fruitful collaboration count, too. (Cover Story).(Cover Story)
September 16, 2002... With a population of just 143,000, the city of Dundee may not seem the kind of glitzy destination that competes with knowledge centers such as San Francisco and Boston: Golf and mountain climbing qualify as top entertainments, and it takes...

All things unequal, in pay: female life scientists earn from 6% to 24% less than their male peers. (News).
September 16, 2002... Women still earn slightly less than men do in the life sciences, though the difference narrows as both advance in their fields, according to a salary survey conducted by Abbott, Langer & Associates and sponsored by The Scientist and the...

Race and ethnicity matters: a low survey response provides only a snapshot of the whole picture. (News).
September 16, 2002... Richard Tapia often tells disadvantaged children about his own humble upbringing in the barrios of Los Angeles. Then he tells them that he earns six figures as a mathematician. "People are shocked when they find out how. much money I...

No longer at equity: the economic slowdown makes stock options more enticing. (News).
September 16, 2002... Look for big changes in the stock options that lure many scientists out of academia and into the biotechnology industry, life sciences compensation analysts say. The stock market decline has stripped options of their value, just as regulators...

The ethical biotech: fledgling biotechnology companies may lack the ethical structures developed by other, older industries. (News).
September 16, 2002... With ImClone Systems' chief executive Sam Waksal under indictment for insider trading and fraud, the black cloud over corporate business ethics that first rose over Enron now hovers above the biotech industry. While Waksal may be an outlier,...

A question of clotting: years of study yield a contentious theory that lipids are more important to coagulation than membranes. (News).
September 16, 2002... The findings in an August paper by Barry R. Lentz and colleagues are so controversial, it took three years to get them into print. Lentz, director of molecular and cellular biophysics at the University of North Carolina (UNC), purports to...

Can a side of the brain determine sick or sane? Investigators probe effects of left, right stimulation methods. (Research).
September 16, 2002... Several years ago, Alvaro Pascual-Leone, an associate professor of neurology and neuroscience at Harvard Medical School, decided on a seemingly bizarre approach to studying people with medication-resistant depression. He asked his subjects to...

Uprooting the tree of life: a proposed theory has researchers debating life's origins--again. (Research).
September 16, 2002... The cell--the irreducible unit of life on Earth--has an estimated history nigh on 3.5 billion years. Scientists since Charles Darwin have attempted to trace that history to a so-called last common ancestor. Comparative physiology and fossil...

Scientists combine two approaches to thwart the Spread of HIV: using increased antibody responses and high numbers of killer T cells may confer the best level of protection. (Hot Papers).
September 16, 2002... HIV vaccine strategies generally fall into two categories: those aimed at raising antibody responses, and those aimed at inducing high numbers of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), or killer T cells. In the early years of HIV vaccine development...

Researchers further define sources of adult blood stem cells: work suggests that HSCs emerge from the dorsal aorta and undergo a transdifferentiation from endothelial cells. (Faculty of 1000).
September 16, 2002... Although controversial fetal stem cells hog the limelight, hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), which give rise to the entire adult blood system, quietly facilitate high-dose chemotherapy on a regular basis in hospitals worldwide. But HSCs have...

Ribozymes: hearkening back to an RNA world: researchers illuminate the past and brighten the future with advances in diagnostics and therapeutics. (Lab Consumer).
September 16, 2002... Nearly 20 years ago, Tom Cech and Sidney Altman discovered that some naturally occurring RNAs could perform enzymatic reactions, earning these researchers the 1989 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Scientists have now identified several examples of...

The fine art of peptide synthesis: investigators accustomed to cheap, straightforward oligonucleotide synthesis may be in for a shock when they shop for synthetic peptides. (Lab Consumer).
September 16, 2002... Editor's Note: This is the third and final part of our series on tools for core facilities. The first two installments ran in our March 18 and June 10 issues. Synthetic peptides, generally less than 20 amino acids in length, are...

No more dancing in the dark: decade-old technique seen in a new light. (Lab Consumer).
September 16, 2002... Using a technique called two-photon laser-scanning microscopy (TPLSM) researchers can visualize, in three dimensions, the cellular waltzes by which the mammalian immune system develops and reacts to infection. The technique enables two...

2D's new wave: Amersham Biosciences expands its proteomics line with fluorescence two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis. (Tools & Technology).
September 16, 2002... The most widely used proteomic method, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE), has a number of drawbacks, including low reproducibility and difficulties in quantitatively comparing multiple gels. (1) Fluorescence two-dimensional difference...

4D arrays in 1/4 time: MetriGenix reinvents the biochip. (Lab Consumer).
September 16, 2002... Using patented Flow-thru Chip[TM] (FTC) technology in a one-square-centimeter biochip, Gaithersburg, Md.-based MetriGenix automates microarray processing from spotting to analysis of final data, but does so in about one-quarter of the time of...

Invitrogen's lentiviral power: new kits overcome the limits of traditional viral transfection systems. (Lab Consumer).
September 16, 2002... Viral vectors offer an efficient way to transduce a variety of mammalian cell types, but most can deliver genes only to proliferating cells. Lentiviral vectors, on the other hand, can deliver nucleic acids to both dividing and nondividing...

The guide.
September 16, 2002... RECONDITIONED LABORATORY EQUIPMENT Long Island Scientific provides high quality reconditioned Laboratory Equipment at affordable prices. Centrifuges, Gamma and Beta Counters, Spectrophotometers, Microplate Readers, Fluorometers, CE, HPLC...

The protean job market: amid plenty, getting a life science job is a challenge for all but the most technically adept. (Profession).
September 16, 2002... Life scientists looking for work can take heart in the fertile job market despite worldwide economic doldrums: Jobs exist in plenty and should remain abundant for some time. Nevertheless, some market trends make it trickier now to snag a...

Toward a silver-tongued scientist: employers seek researchers with management and communication skills. (Profession).
September 16, 2002... During his career in the pharmaceutical industry, Jim Richman often recruited scientists. Job openings always attracted a bounty of talented people. But finding applicants with the complete package of scientific excellence and social savvy...

The skill challenge. (Fine Tuning).
September 16, 2002... Who's hot and who's not? The job market runs hot and cold depending on location, experience, and education. In hot biotechnology markets where the demand is strong, such as Rockville, Md., San Diego, and Boston, salaries remain stable. In the...

Seven tips for job-search survival: train your body and mind on the hunt. (Profession).
September 16, 2002... Job Hunting? Start with a workout. Run, work out, and sweat. A high-stress job search keeps emotions racing between panic and despair. Exercise keeps emotions level and energy high for what is likely to be a marathon event, says Cynthia...

To get work you gotta network: schmoozing rules for the uninitiated. (Profession).
September 16, 2002... Network or not work: That's the message from career recruiters and experts who help scientists get well-paying jobs. "Networking is an art, not a science," says Stephen Rosen, a New York City-based career consultant who specializes in...

Shake those job-hunting blues: even CEOs recall when they made mistakes in job interviews. (In The Lab).
September 16, 2002... When he landed in Chicago after dark for an interview with a large pharmaceutical company, Robert "Duffy" Dufresne received the sobering news that his luggage had been lost. In anticipation of such a mishap, Dufresne had packed a gray suit in...

Mike West: cloning for human therapeutics. (Profile).
September 16, 2002... In these days of rampant science phobia, a researcher associated with human cloning risks being linked to the few renegade scientists claiming to already have done the deed. Mike West's quest as president and CEO of Advanced Cell Technology...

Opportunities in Allison's wake: hurricane shows its silver lining. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Since Hurricane Allison struck last June, researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, have been rebuilding and improving their facilities. "We said, `Let's not just build back what we had, let's aim to do it...

Anthrax test overlooked? Immunoassay can detect 4,000 spores in 15 minutes. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Make way for the world's best anthrax assay. So declares Bill Radvak, president and CEO of Response Biomedical, British Columbia, Canada. He's miffed at a White House recommendation made in July against field use of rapid tests for anthrax...

Miracle mice stay slim without dieting: enzyme affects fat burning and storage. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Mice with the SCD-1 gene knocked out gain no weight, a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin (UW), Madison, and Rockefeller University reports (J.M Ntambi et al., "Loss of stearoyl CoA desaturase-1 function protects mice...

Diverse answers may be among jumping genes: insertions may damage surrounding DNA in the process. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... The rearrangement of genes over time on the human genome has allowed evolution to occur. Scientists knew this, but now, the details are emerging. Two groups of researchers, one at Johns Hopkins University, the other at the University of...

Changing the Ras prescription: mouse-human differences may mean changes for drug development. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Ras-associated cancers in mice and humans are triggered by altogether different means, report researchers from Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC. The findings could have important implications for drug discovery and cancer research....

An apple for the postdoc: council recommends sending postdocs into public schools. (Frontlines).(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... New PhDs could find themselves teaching in public schools instead of universities under a fellowship program proposed by the National Research Council. The program would offer new science and engineering PhDs an opportunity to work with...

Questions on stem cells. (Commentary).(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Self-renewal and the capacity to differentiate into a multitude of mature cell types have made stem cells the hottest ticket in biomedicine. But there are questions aplenty, scientific and otherwise. 1. Do we need more stem cell lines?...

Contamination of the Arctic. (Opinion).
September 2, 2002... It has come as a surprise that many chemicals of anthropogenic origin such as pesticides are detectable at significant concentrations throughout the Arctic ecosystem, despite the fact that they have never been used there. Apparently these...

A leprosy research model. (Letters).
September 2, 2002... William R. Levis expressed the concept that leprosy is a slow-motion example of the human immune responses controlled by T-helper cells, and he proposed that the disease may be a model for investigating infectious diseases. (1) Based on the...

More doctors available. (Letters).
September 2, 2002... Although William Levis did some fine work throughout his career, (1) after 30 years he must retire as a member of the Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service. There are two full-time physicians at the Baton Rouge, La., headquarters of...

More citation vigilance. (Letters).
September 2, 2002... We find the recent dialogue regarding citation vigilance and the disregard syndrome (1) both stimulating and invaluable, and could not agree with you more. In fact, we found the topic so compelling, we have written an education/research case...

Pollutants without borders: scientists attempt worldwide tracking and impact assessment of chemicals of commerce. (News)(Cover Story).
September 2, 2002... During the last 50 years, millions of pounds of chemicals have dispersed into the environment in a multitude of forms: industrial wastes, abandoned chemical weapons, fertilizers, pesticides, cleaners, furniture treatments, and the list goes...

Classifying breast cancer models: bioinformatics sorts gene expression data for mouse mammary tumor models into oncogenic signatures. (News).
September 2, 2002... The exciting use of cDNA microarrays to reveal molecular subclasses of human tumors has spread to the study of animal models that mimic human tumors. With unsuspected subclasses of human lymphomas, melanomas, colon carcinomas, and breast...

Microarray myths and truths. (In Focus).(Brief Article)
September 2, 2002... Myths * That the greatest challenge is managing the mass of microarray data; * That pattern recognition or data mining are the most appropriate paradigms for the analysis of microarray data; * That cluster analysis is the...

Plastic in my french fries? Scientists probe acrylamide in food. (News).
September 2, 2002... Every research scientist knows that discovery often depends as much on happenstance--serendipity--as it does on methodical searching. If a group of researchers from Stockholm didn't know it earlier, they certainly learned the lesson over the...

Science and politics in the United Kingdom: coming months will determine how much research spending will really increase. (News).
September 2, 2002... Science and politics in the United Kingdom have enjoyed a summer of love, but now the holidays draw to a close. Universities, policymakers, and politicians prepare to return to the fray, and the detailed decision making due during the coming...

Human pluripotent cells pass safety test: embryonic germ cells show gene imprinting. (Research).
September 2, 2002... Because the science is hard and the politics mean, progress in understanding human pluripotent cells has been slow. Biologists first trumpeted their discoveries of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and human embryonic germ cells (hEGCs) in...