December 2009 Archives
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December 30, 2009 2:42 PM
Roundup 12/30: Outta Here Edition
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil has signed a landmark law to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to mixed reviews from environmentalists.National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins is...
Russia to Explore Mission to Asteroid Despite Low Collision Risk
Russian space chief Anatoly Perminov says that his agency will soon hold an international meeting to consider a mission to asteroid Apophis, which scientists have assigned real though low...
December 29, 2009 2:28 PM
Lethal Fire at India’s Nuclear Research Laboratory
NEW DELHI—Two people have died in a fire in India’s main nuclear research laboratory, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai. No nuclear reactor or radiation was involved,...
December 28, 2009 4:20 PM
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Japan's Science Budget Not as Bad as Feared
Japan's researchers let loose a sigh of relief on 25 December when the new administration's first budget revealed only minor changes in science and technology priorities. Overall spending on...
December 28, 2009 9:49 AM
Light Posting This Week ...
... But Insider will be back before New Year's and then returning to full strength next week. Cheers, Eli...
December 23, 2009 4:41 PM
Roundup 12/23: Taming The Wilds Edition
An announcement from the U.K. government that university funding will suffer new cuts has stirred outraged among students and academic institutions but it appears research funding will be protected. Three...
December 23, 2009 3:28 PM
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Government Report Questions Space Station Research
Just as construction on the facility comes to an end, a new Government Accountability Office report is criticizing NASA's plans for research at the International Space Station: NASA faces...
December 23, 2009 12:19 PM
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Copenhagen a Failure? Blame China, Says One Informed Source
Journalist Mark Lynas was "in the room," as he puts it, as President Barack Obama wrangled with the most powerful leaders in the world in the waning moments of the...
December 23, 2009 10:21 AM
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Harsh Reaction to Chemistry Claims Cast Doubt on Reactome Paper
A newly developed research tool called a reactome array, which has attracted widespread interest from biologists, has come under intense fire from scientists who say the description of the...
December 22, 2009 5:51 PM
Roundup 12/22: Good Day Sunshine Edition
The Department of Energy has set a deadline of 29 March 2010 for proposals for the Fuels from Sunlight Energy Innovation Hub—one of three new $122-million energy hubs funded in...
December 22, 2009 3:56 PM
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Merck's New Vaccine Honcho: Former CDC Chief Gerberding
After stepping down as head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) almost a year ago, Julie Gerberding has a new gig: She will preside over vaccine...
December 22, 2009 11:23 AM
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Don't Shoot Research, Italian Environmental Scientists Protest
With a rooftop protest televised over the Internet and a surreal video depicting masked scientists being gunned down, Italian researchers working for the country’s main environmental research institute are protesting...
December 21, 2009 7:40 PM
Roundup 12/21: Noxious Fumes Edition
As earthquakes, lava flows, and sulfur dioxide emissions increased on Mayon Volcano, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology warned that a major eruption could come within days as it...
December 21, 2009 4:41 PM
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Dealings of Top Climate Scientist in the Spotlight
NEW DELHI—In a news report on 20 December, The Telegraph levels some serious accusations against Rajendra K. Pachauri, chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The British daily...
December 21, 2009 11:44 AM
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Turnaround on Concussions for the National Football League Now Complete
The league has now fully embraced researchers it has long sought to discredit:“It’s quite obvious from the medical research that’s been done that concussions can lead to long-term problems,” the...
December 21, 2009 4:17 AM
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MRI Drug Debate Sparks Libel Suit Against Scientist
In a joint report, The Sunday Times and ProPublica, an American investigative journalism enterprise, yesterday detailed a libel lawsuit against Henrik Thomsen, a Danish clinician who is among those...
December 18, 2009 5:40 PM
Roundup 12/18: Forest for the Trees Edition
A deceased professional hockey player has been found to have had brain damage associated with repeated head trauma, connecting hockey for the first time to health risks linked to boxers...
December 18, 2009 12:33 PM
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Could a Deeper Shade of REDD Close the Carbon Gap?
As negotiations wrap up in Copenhagen, there’s been concern over a leaked U.N. document, published by the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper last night, that shows that nations' maximum offers to...
December 18, 2009 12:16 PM
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Report Slams Deadly Dutch Probiotic Study
Most of the controversy over probiotic therapies, in which live "beneficial" bacteria or other microbes are administered to treat or prevent disease, has centered on their effectiveness, not their...
December 18, 2009 9:38 AM
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Obama's Speech in Copenhagen: Right at China
President Barack Obama's speech in Copenhagen included some unexpected additions in which he subtly pushed China to change its position on "transparency" of emissions cuts, as the United States...
December 17, 2009 7:32 PM
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Exclusive: Obama Backs New Launcher and Bigger NASA Budget
President Barack Obama will ask Congress next year to fund a new heavy-lift launcher to take humans to the moon, asteroids, and the moons of Mars, ScienceInsider has learned....
December 17, 2009 5:12 PM
Roundup 12/17: Food for Thought Edition
The European Institute of Innovation and Technology today announced the three topics for its first virtual research networks called Knowledge and Innovation Communities. The so-called KICs, each of which will...
December 17, 2009 3:32 PM
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As Forest Deal Nears, New Index Maps Profit Potential in Trees
One of the major developments likely to come out of the Copenhagen climate talks tomorrow is a global agreement to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation of forests (REDD)....
December 17, 2009 12:12 PM
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Status of the Copenhagen Talks, in a Nutshell
From international law expert Dan Bodansky, writing from the conference: ... it appears increasingly likely that the conference outcome will be a short political declaration largely devoid of substance, and...
December 16, 2009 5:25 PM
Roundup 12/16: Can't Touch This Edition
Senator John Kerry in Copenhagen: "The naysayers predicting defeat are wrong. ...With a successful deal here in Copenhagen, next year, the United States Congress, House, and Senate, will pass comprehensive...
British Science Funding Cuts Strike Nuclear Physics, Astronomy, and More
Large parts of the U.K. physics community were left dissatisfied today by a major new funding plan announced by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the funder responsible...
December 16, 2009 1:32 PM
What Can Obama Truly Deliver? Depends on "The Climate in the Senate"--A ScienceInsider Web Feature
When President Barack Obama addresses delegates in Copenhagen on Friday, will his promises about U.S. emissions cuts be credible? Bolstered by climate legislation passed by a narrow margin in...
December 16, 2009 1:31 PM
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Could the Senate Ever Ratify an International Climate Treaty? Sixty-Seven Votes, Not Sixty, Might Be the Real Challenge
The test of garnering a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority in the U.S. Senate for climate legislation has certainly led to plenty of teeth-gnashing. But despite all the coverage of the...
December 16, 2009 1:30 PM
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What He'll Bring in the Spring: The President's Climate Pledges and the U.S. Senate
Soon after Barack Obama was elected president, congressional climate change advocates set their sights on passing a cap-and-trade bill in time for him to bring a firm U.S.commitment on...
December 16, 2009 10:52 AM
An Interview With Bart Gordon
Representative Bart Gordon (D–TN) enjoys being called the fastest man in Congress, in recognition of his performance each spring in a 5K race that features politicians and Washington, D.C.–based...
December 15, 2009 5:33 PM
Roundup 12/15: Can't Keep a Good Man Down Edition
A survey of 2008 research for neglected diseases finds that India, which submitted no data the previous year, now ranks 5th in spending. While total R&D on diseases such as...
December 15, 2009 5:08 PM
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Irish Supreme Court Rules Lab Embryos Not Protected
Irish scientists who want to work with human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) got a boost from Ireland's Supreme Court today, which ruled that human embryos outside the womb are...
December 15, 2009 5:05 PM
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Obama's Oceans Policy Emphasizes Science
The White House has unveiled its overall approach for improving ocean planning. In a report released 14 December, the Ocean Policy Task Force sketched out how nine new regional...
December 15, 2009 3:20 PM
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Global Innovation and the Recession: A New Analysis
Spending on innovation among the richest nations took a nosedive early last year and began a slow recovery in 2009—shown in sharp relief by data in a report issued...
December 14, 2009 6:08 PM
Roundup 12/14: Green Eyeshade Edition
As they struggle with declining revenues and a shift to digital technology, newspapers are shedding bureaus and talented staff. Today The New York Times confirmed that a respected science and...
December 14, 2009 11:10 AM
House Science Panel Chair Is Retiring
The chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee announced today that he won't seek re-election next year. Representative Bart Gordon (D–TN), who joined the committee as a freshman in...
December 14, 2009 10:55 AM
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AP on Hacked E-mails: "Science Not Faked, But Not Pretty"
Negotiators in Copenhagen are very near to finalizing a remarkable deal that will see the vast majority of tropical nations attempt to reduce deforestation by 25% over the next...
December 14, 2009 10:51 AM
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Working 9 to 5: Australian Scientists Strike Again
Dissatisfied after a showdown last week, scientists at the Australian Synchrotron have returned to working on a 9-to-5 schedule rather than round the clock, a partial strike that could...
December 11, 2009 7:05 PM
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Forests Deal Lurching Forward in Copenhagen
In a new development roughly 45 countries with tropical rainforests are proposing to cut their deforestation by a quarter in 5 years as part of a deal to be finalized...
December 11, 2009 6:12 PM
Roundup 12/11: Making a Better Tomorrow Edition
We don’t need to wait for the technologies of tomorrow to save energy today, says the National Research Council: If everyone switched to devices, either existing or imminent, that are...
December 11, 2009 2:06 PM
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Disquiet Follows Irish Science Budget Cut and Policy Shift
Ireland’s funding allocation for science, technology, and innovation (STI) is to be cut by 4.4% in 2010. And in a major change of policy, a single stream of funding—under...
December 11, 2009 12:32 PM
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Amazing Sky Spiral Generated by Out-of-Control Missile
Pictures of it look like something out of a sci-fi comic book—enormous white ripples with a lasery blue beam shooting out of the center. However, the Daily Mail in the...
December 11, 2009 11:33 AM
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Harvard to Halt Construction on $1 Billion Life-Sciences Complex
Harvard University has announced it will temporarily halt construction on a $1 billion life-sciences complex in Allston, a few miles away from the main Cambridge campus. Crews are currently working...
December 10, 2009 10:45 PM
Help Us Improve ScienceInsider
We launched this blog last year with the goal of providing fast-breaking science policy news and analysis to an international audience of readers. Having reached our first anniversary, we're reviewing...
December 10, 2009 5:10 PM
Roundup 12/10: Catch as Catch Can Edition
Stanford University historian Robert Proctor—an expert witness against tobacco companies who is fighting to keep his unpublished book manuscript, The Golden Holocaust, out of the hands of R.J. Reynolds—has been...
December 10, 2009 2:11 PM
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The "Danish Text," Tuvalu, and the Leverage of Poor Nations in Copenhagen
The disappearing Tuvalu made waves yesterday in Copenhagen. Officials from the Polynesian island nation forced a delay in negotiations to press world leaders to adopt a goal more aggressive...
December 10, 2009 12:21 PM
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Most of Australian Synchrotron Advisory Board Resigns
Yesterday a showdown at the Australian Synchrotron failed to resolve tensions between the warring factions. Synchrotron staff members and the facility's international scientific advisory committee (SAC) demanded an explanation for...
U.K. Gets Own Space Agency At Last
U.K. Science Minister Paul Drayson announced today that Britain would, finally, create its own space agency. No news yet on the body's name or spending power, but it has...
December 10, 2009 10:56 AM
Chair Named for New International Ag Research Board
Carlos Pérez del Castillo, a career civil servant from Uruguay, was named chair of the new board of the Consortium Board of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)...
December 9, 2009 7:15 PM
Roundup 12/9: Hot Stuff on the Menu Edition
Australia is trying a peer-to-patent system in which the public reviews patent applications online, similar to a system in place in the United States. Legendary California energy efficiency scientist Art...
December 9, 2009 5:56 PM
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To Promote Scientific Creativity, Cut the Strings, Economists Say
Biomedical research leaders often complain that the U.S. system of funding research on specific projects stifles risk-taking and creativity. A better model, they say, would be to give researchers...
Italy Science Agency Helps Publish Creationism Book
It may not hold Italy’s interest like presidential sex scandals, but the country’s premier science funding agency, the National Research Council (CNR), is generating its own unwelcome headlines after...
December 9, 2009 4:41 PM
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After Struggle With Roche, Panel Casts Doubt on Tamiflu
Does oseltamivir, better known as Tamiflu, prevent complications from influenza, such as pneumonia and influenza? We're no longer sure, the Cochrane Collaboration, an international group that produces reviews of...
December 9, 2009 4:11 PM
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National Institutes of Health to Get 2.3% Boost in 2010
Biomedical lobbyists say they are satisfied with a $692 million increase for the National Institutes of Health in 2010 approved yesterday by a combined House of Representatives and Senate...
December 9, 2009 2:19 PM
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Congress Gives NSF a 6.7% Raise--and Sends Obama a Warning
Congress is poised to give the National Science Foundation a 6.7% increase in 2010, boosting its budget to $6.926 billion. It's also told President Barack Obama to do better next...
December 9, 2009 1:28 PM
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NASA to Get Administration's Spending Request for 2010
NASA has received the full $18.7 billion requested by the White House, including $4.5 billion for science. But House of Representatives and Senate conferees, releasing a report yesterday on 2010...
December 9, 2009 1:20 PM
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NIST to Get 4.5% Increase
House of Representatives and Senate conferees have agreed to give the National Institute of Standards and Technology $856 million for 2010, a 4.5% increase over last year's budget. The total,...
Sarkozy to French Universities: "We're Going to Invest Massively"
PARIS—French universities and their scientists were holding their breath. Three weeks ago, a panel chaired by two former prime ministers recommended that research and higher education become the main...
December 8, 2009 6:08 PM
Roundup 12/8: Hairy Situations Edition
Politico reports that an omnibus appropriations package being crafted in Congress will give the National Institutes of Health a $692 million raise in 2010. That 2.3% bump would split the...
December 8, 2009 5:50 PM
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Developing Countries React in Outrage to "Danish Text"
The Guardian reported this morning on leaked negotiating text. According to a "confidential analysis of the text by developing countries also seen by The Guardian," the text would: • Force...
December 8, 2009 5:42 PM
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Will Fast-Tracking Green Tech Patent Applications Help Transform the Economy?
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office plans to speed up reviews of applications from would-be inventors of various "green" technologies. Announcing the new pilot program yesterday at a press conference,...
December 8, 2009 5:41 PM
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WMO Warming Data Cited In Copenhagen As Assault on Science Continues
COPENHAGEN—New data released today at the U.N.’s Copenhagen summit helped blunt claims from climate skeptics that global warming has slowed or reversed in recent years. The figures released by...
December 8, 2009 4:27 PM
If You're a Young Energy Scientist, Vampiric ARPA-E Wants Your Blood
If you're young. The U.S. Department of Energy announced a fellows program for its ARPA-E blue sky research program today, director Dr. Arun Majumdar announced today speaking to the...
Australian Synchrotron Update: Fired Director Speaks Out (Update added)
Either today or tomorrow, depending on your time-zone, there's a showdown at the Australian Synchrotron from which Director Robert Lamb was recently fired. On Friday 4 December, Lamb broke...
December 7, 2009 6:14 PM
Roundup 12/7: Blowing in the Wind Edition
The U.K. Parliament's Science and Technology Committee has asked the vice-chancellor of the University of East Anglia to explain its side of ClimateGate and detail how the university is responding...
December 7, 2009 5:51 PM
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Copenhagen Opens: Obama Fires What Bullets He Has on Climate Actions
As the pomp and circumstance subsides as the first day of the Copenhagen confab comes to a close, the Obama Administration is in full promotion mode on U.S. work...
December 7, 2009 5:14 PM
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Grad Student Charged With Murdering Cultural Anthropologist
Another bloody campus murder occurred last Friday. This time it was at Binghamton University in New York state, where anthropologist Richard T. Antoun, who specialized in Muslim cultures, allegedly...
December 7, 2009 4:52 PM
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India Launches Climate Research Network
NEW DELHI—India has announced the creation of a new program for climate studies, the Indian Network of Climate Change Assessment (INCCA). Speaking in parliament on 3 December, India’s environment...
December 7, 2009 3:47 PM
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Threat of Animal Rights Violence Influenced Decision to Cancel Anthrax Project
Last week a commotion erupted over a canceled anthrax project at Oklahoma State University (OSU), Stillwater. The National Institutes of Health had agreed to fund the study, which involved...
December 7, 2009 1:16 PM
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London Superlab Gets a Plan and a Design
LONDON—At a press briefing today, researchers, government and biomedical charity officials, and architects unveiled design drawings and a scientific vision for a mammoth lab facility here that one participant says will be...
December 7, 2009 12:28 PM
ARPA-E Puts Another $100 Million on the Table
The Department of Energy's new research agency is offering $100 million for the best ideas in the fields of electrofuels, carbon-capture technologies, and high-density battery storage. This is the...
December 4, 2009 5:43 PM
Roundup 12/4: Tipping the Scales
NOAA Fisheries today finalized a 5-month ban on Red Snapper in the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and South Atlantic, effective 2 January. The ban is intended to reduce overfishing while...
December 4, 2009 5:02 PM
He Ups the Ante: Obama to Visit Copenhagen at End Not Beginning of Climate Meeting
In a last-minute move, the White House has announced that President Barack Obama will be making two trips to Scandinavia in December, instead of just one. Originally, Obama had...
December 4, 2009 12:20 PM
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Researcher at Army Lab Infected With Rabbit Fever
A researcher at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Frederick, Maryland, has contracted rabbit fever—also known as tularemia, USAMRIID officials announced today. The...
December 4, 2009 11:27 AM
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2011 Budgets Look Tight for NSF and DOE Science
Early word on President Barack Obama's plans for two important science agencies in 2011 is that White House budget officials are sticking to their guns—and that's bad news for...
December 3, 2009 5:27 PM
Roundup 12/3: Starting to Crest Edition
Wave and ocean power got a hearing at a subcommittee of the House of Representatives Science and Technology Committee today.India has announced it will cut its carbon emissions intensity of...
December 3, 2009 3:54 PM
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Anthropologists Slam Using Social Scientists in Mideast Wars
Since 2007, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has deployed teams of anthropologists and other social scientists in Iraq and Afghanistan. The goal is to make better military decisions...
December 3, 2009 1:41 PM
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Expert Agreement With New Mammography Guidelines Clouded by Politics
A House of Representatives hearing that was supposed to look at the science behind a controversial policy on mammography yesterday erupted in a donnybrook. Conservative members of the Energy...
December 3, 2009 11:57 AM
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Striking Synchrotron Scientists Still Unhappy Down Under
This week, at the Australian Synchrotron (AS) in Melbourne, long simmering tensions between staff researchers and the facility’s business-oriented governing board erupted into an open battle. On Monday, scientists...
December 3, 2009 10:18 AM
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Conservationists in South Korea Rejoice and Weep
It has been a good news-bad news autumn for Korean conservationists. The good news: Yesterday, the government of the Republic of Korea (the South) officially came out in favor...
December 3, 2009 5:50 AM
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U.K.'s DNA, Isotope Nationality Testing Continues
In a written answer to a question from a member of the U.K. House of Commons, which was released by Parliament on 1 December, Phil Woolas, minister of state...
December 2, 2009 6:09 PM
Roundup 12/2: Waste Not, Want Not Edition
Australia's Senate today defeated a proposed greenhouse gas control regime proposed by the prime minister. Meet Charles Ferguson, the new president of the Federation of American Scientists. The Senate Environment...
December 2, 2009 5:05 PM
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Why Did Oklahoma State Cancel Anthrax Research Project?
Three years ago, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, cut the ribbon on a brand new biosafety level 3 laboratory, a move the university hoped would position it to bring in...
December 2, 2009 2:51 PM
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Obama Begins Embryonic Stem Cell Research Support With $21 Million
National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins announced today that the first 13 human embryonic stem (ES) cell lines have been approved for funding under the expanded policy outlined...
December 2, 2009 1:00 PM
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Holdren, Lubchenco On Defensive About ClimateGate at Hearing
Two key Obama Administration scientists were grilled this morning about Climategate at a hearing of the House of Representatives Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming this morning....
December 1, 2009 5:15 PM
Roundup 12/1: Liquid Gold Edition
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has put off a controversial decision on whether to allow a greater percentage of ethanol to be mixed into U.S. fuels.Scientists Mike Hulme and Jerome...
December 1, 2009 4:29 PM
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Climate Emailer Phil Jones Has Stepped Down
The embattled head of University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit has resigned pending the ongoing investigation:Professor Jones said: "What is most important is that CRU continues its world leading...
Sparring Intensifies Over Japan's Science Budget
TOKYO—The struggle for public and political support between Japan's scientific community and a budget-cutting task force is escalating. Last week, the Government Revitalization Unit concluded its scheduled 9-day-long hearings,...
There are 88 entries in this section.
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