May 2009 Archives

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May 29, 2009 2:44 PM |

Creationist Loses Chairmanship of Texas Education Board

The creationist chair of the Texas Board of Education, which recently adopted science standards questioning evolution, has been booted from his post by the Texas senate. A dentist by profession,...

May 29, 2009 2:03 PM |

Rock-It Scientists

by Jocelyn Kaiser

A Geoffrey Beene ad campaign in the June issue of GQ features 11 biomedical scientists (all men) posing with rock stars such as Seal and Sheryl Crow. Why? It...

May 28, 2009 12:20 PM |

CDC Too Optimistic About Flu Peak?

by Jon Cohen

On 26 May, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that the swine flu outbreak in the country might have crested. But Donald Olson, a New York...

May 27, 2009 1:56 PM |

Stem Cell Rules Draw Torrent of Comments

by Constance Holden

The U.S. National Institutes of Health officials are busy sorting thousands of comments on the agency's proposed stem cell guidelines that poured in up to the deadline of 11 p.m....

May 27, 2009 6:55 AM |

U.K.'s Research Charities Are Struggling

by Claire Thomas

Medical charities in the United Kingdom, which account for one-third of all public funding for medical research in the country, are being battered by the economic crisis, according to a...

May 26, 2009 4:26 PM |

Pandemic Definition Continues to Mystify

by Jon Cohen

As cases of swine flu continue to increase in several countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) maintains that the outbreak does not merit the label "pandemic." And in the United...

May 26, 2009 2:15 PM |

NASA Veterans Nominated to Lead Space Agency

by Andrew Lawler

After a week of playing coy, President Barack Obama finally announced his choice to lead NASA on 23 May. He picked two space flight advocates—former astronaut Charles Bolden and Washington...

May 26, 2009 1:04 PM |

NIH Director Rumor Reaches Fever Pitch

by Jocelyn Kaiser

The biomedical research community was buzzing Friday with a rumor that the White House would nominate geneticist Francis Collins that afternoon to head the National Institutes of Health. That did...

May 22, 2009 10:28 PM |

HHS Takes $1 Billion "Step" Toward Making Swine Flu Vaccine

by Jon Cohen

Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), today announced the decision to spend $1 billion of existing funds on what a press release gingerly...

May 22, 2009 10:18 PM |

WHO Considers Revising Definition of "Pandemic"

by Jon Cohen

Responding to mounting confusion, the World Health Organization (WHO) has sent the definition of a full-scale, phase 6 influenza “pandemic” to the rewrite desk. But no formal revisions have been...

May 22, 2009 6:45 PM

NOAA Moves Forward With Catch Shares

by Erik Stokstad

When Congress reauthorized the nation's main fishing law in 2006, it directed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to end overfishing by 2010. That's a tough goal, but one...

May 22, 2009 6:04 PM |

First Detailed Report of New Virus's Promiscuous Past

by Jon Cohen

The most detailed description yet of the origins of the novel H1N1 virus causing the swine flu outbreak appears today on ScienceExpress. The study, conducted by an international team of...

May 22, 2009 4:26 PM |

Green Chemist Nominated to Lead EPA Research

by Erik Stokstad

In a surprise move, the White House has nominated Paul Anastas to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Office of Research and Development. ORD focuses on science that will...

May 22, 2009 12:51 PM |

Ousted Italian Space Agency Head in Race for E.U. Parliament

by Susan Biggin

Italian space scientist Giovanni Bignami, who in 2008 was forced out as head of the Italian Space Agency (ASI), is running as a Democratic candidate in the European Union parliamentary...

May 22, 2009 6:40 AM |

Return of Singapore's Non-native Prodigal Son (and Daughter)

by Dennis Normile

One criticism of Singapore's multibillion-dollar effort to build a biomedical empire is its reliance on high-profile foreign researchers lured to the city-state on short-term contracts. But at least two top...

May 21, 2009 4:14 PM |

Victoria and California Form Stem Cell Alliance

by Elizabeth Finkel

(Note: This story was revised at 9.30 pm U.S. EDT on 21 May to correct some inaccuracies.)Scientific partnerships between countries don't always have to involve national governments; state governments can...

May 21, 2009 2:54 PM |

The Odds of Winning NIH Stimulus Money

by Jocelyn Kaiser

The feeding frenzy that began when scientists went after $10.4 billion in stimulus money at the National Institutes of Health seems to have given way to more normal grant-seeking behavior....

May 21, 2009 10:46 AM |

White House Not Ready to Nominate NASA Administrator

by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

Last weekend, several media outlets reported that the White House was on the verge of nominating former astronaut Charles Bolden Jr. as the administrator of NASA. The only step along...

May 20, 2009 6:31 PM |

Some Elderly Immune to Swine Flu?

by Jon Cohen

One of the most baffling features of the swine flu outbreak is that, unlike seasonal influenza, severe disease largely does not occur in the elderly. The U.S. Centers for Disease...

May 20, 2009 6:14 PM |

When Will That Flu Vaccine Be Ready?

by Jon Cohen

Despite recent news report to the contrary, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assures ScienceInsider that efforts to make a vaccine against the virus causing the swine...

May 20, 2009 3:34 PM |

More Budget Pain for the University of California

by Greg Miller

Yesterday, California voters soundly defeated five ballot measures intended to help right the state's wobbly finances. The vote is a rebuke to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and state legislators, who in...

May 20, 2009 2:58 PM |

NIH's New Drug Pipeline for Neglected Diseases

by Jocelyn Kaiser

The National Institutes of Health, a bastion of basic research, is making a foray into developing drugs. NIH leaders today announced a $120 million, 5-year plan to set up a...

May 20, 2009 11:26 AM |

Keeping Government Clean

by Jeffrey Mervis

Nineteen professional societies and labor organizations launched a national campaign today to protect the white-collar work force against political interference. The coalition, called Professionals for the Public Interest, held a...

May 19, 2009 4:22 PM |

A Graphic Look at Mexico's Outbreak

by Jon Cohen

Mexico’s Ministry of Health regularly posts informative, detailed graphs of its outbreak that have received little prime-time exposure. Even if you don’t read Spanish, you can glean loads of tidbits...

May 19, 2009 4:04 PM |

Is a Pandemic a Pandemic?

by Jon Cohen

Effect Measure, a spirited and popular blog written by anonymous public health scientists/practitioners, has an entertaining riff about the confusion over whether to call the swine flu outbreak a pandemic....

May 19, 2009 1:57 PM |

Swine Flu Vaccine May Take Longer

by Jon Cohen

Add 2 months to the timetable for producing a vaccine against the virus causing the swine flu outbreak, says an advisory group to the World Health Organization (WHO). It may...

May 19, 2009 12:15 PM |

Austria Reverses Course, Stays in CERN

by Daniel Clery

Austria will remain a member of CERN. Yesterday, Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann overruled his science minister, Johannes Hahn, and said that Austria would not pull out of the European particle...

May 19, 2009 6:08 AM |

Royal Geographical Society Votes to Boldly Go … Nowhere

by John Travis

Today's Independent, among others, has a nice account of a contentious academic debate among the United Kingdom's geographers, which has culminated in a vote by Royal Geographical Society members to...

May 18, 2009 3:13 PM |

Scale for Flu Warnings Overly Simplistic, Countries Tell WHO

by Jon Cohen

The phasing system for pandemic influenza needs fixing, representatives of several countries told Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), at the World Health Assembly meeting in...

May 18, 2009 3:10 PM |

Former Astronaut Could Be Next NASA Administrator

by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

Former astronaut Charles Bolden is expected to be named the next administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as early as today, according to press reports over the weekend....

May 18, 2009 8:58 AM |

H1N1 Rocks Japan, But WHO Says It's Still No Pandemic

by Dennis Normile

The number of confirmed influenza A (H1N1) cases in Japan exploded over the weekend, going from an officially reported four—all in returning vacationers—on 16 May to 129 as of 18...

May 16, 2009 3:57 PM |

Swine Flu's Rate of Spread, Revisited

by Jon Cohen

A team of European researchers has analyzed the outbreak of the novel H1N1 virus in Mexico and calculates twice as much spread per infected person as an earlier report in...

May 15, 2009 6:33 PM |

World’s Most Overhyped Science Headline, Part 2

by Ann Gibbons

It’s hard to keep a hot fossil under wraps. A public relations firm issued a breathless press release yesterday about “A REVOLUTIONARY SCIENTIFIC FIND THAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING,” to be...

May 15, 2009 6:10 PM |

A New, New H1N1 in Mexico?

by Jon Cohen

This odd exchange took place at today’s press conference with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). David Brown, The Washington Post: There’s a report that there is...

May 15, 2009 5:44 PM |

Will Paul Farmer Join Team Obama?

by Jennifer Couzin-Frankel

Paul Farmer, a Harvard physician and co-founder of the international health organization Partners In Health, is reportedly mulling an offer from the Obama Administration to play a leading role in...

May 15, 2009 2:59 PM |

Girding for Pandemic, Europeans Order Swine Flu Vaccine

by Jon Cohen

Four European countries have ordered a vaccine tailor-made for the new H1N1 influenza strain by GlaxoSmithKline. In a press release issued today, the company said it has yet to receive...

May 15, 2009 10:27 AM |

Obama Taps New York City's Health Chief to Lead CDC

by Robert Koenig

President Barack Obama today named New York City’s health commissioner, Thomas R. Frieden, as the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—a post that has been...

May 15, 2009 6:10 AM |

Superstumble for Japan's Supercomputer

by Dennis Normile

TOKYO—A Japanese consortium’s plans to build the world's fastest supercomputer suffered a setback on 14 May when two private companies involved announced they are withdrawing to cut costs. The Next-Generation...

May 14, 2009 5:49 PM

Regs Could Jeopardize Pathogen Shipments

by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is planning to institute new security requirements for the shipping of pathogens. The move could make some courier companies stop accepting shipments of pathogen...

May 14, 2009 5:07 PM |

Texan Alleges Mexican Pig Farm May Be Liable for Pregnant Wife’s Death From Swine Flu

by Jon Cohen

The husband of a pregnant woman in Texas who died from swine flu last week has made the opening legal moves in what could become a $1 billion civil suit...