December 30, 2009 2:42 PM
by
Science News Staff
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...
December 30, 2009 12:21 PM
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by
Eli Kintisch
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
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Pallava Bagla
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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by
Dennis Normile
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
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Eli Kintisch
... 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
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Science News Staff
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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by
Eli Kintisch
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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Eli Kintisch
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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by
John Travis
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
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Science News Staff
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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by
Jennifer Couzin-Frankel
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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by
Laura Margottini
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
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Science News Staff
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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by
Pallava Bagla
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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by
Science News Staff
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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by
John Travis
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
by
Science News Staff
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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by
John Pickrel
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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by
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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by
Eli Kintisch
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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by
Andrew Lawler
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
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Science News Staff
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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by
John Pickrel
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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by
Eli Kintisch
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
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Science News Staff
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...
December 16, 2009 5:01 PM
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by
Daniel Clery
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
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Eli Kintisch
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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Eli Kintisch
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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by
Eli Kintisch
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
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Jeffrey Mervis
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
by
Science News Staff
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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by
Gretchen Vogel
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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by
Erik Stokstad
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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by
Eliot Marshall
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
by
Science News Staff
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
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Jeffrey Mervis
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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by
Eli Kintisch
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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by
Elizabeth Finkel
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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by
John
Pickrell
and
Eli
Kintisch
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
by
Science News Staff
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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by
Sean Duke
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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Sam Kean
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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by
Sam Kean
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
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Jue Wang
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
by
Science News Staff
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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by
Eli Kintisch
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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by
Elizabeth Finkel
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...
December 10, 2009 12:00 PM
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Daniel Clery
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
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Dennis Normile
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
by
Science News Staff
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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by
Jocelyn Kaiser
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...
December 9, 2009 5:05 PM
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Laura Margottini
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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Martin Enserink
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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Jocelyn Kaiser
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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Jeffrey Mervis
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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Andrew Lawler
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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Eli Kintisch
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,...
December 9, 2009 4:51 AM
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by
Martin Enserink
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
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Science News Staff
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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by
John
Pickrell
and
Eli
Kintisch
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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Jeffrey Mervis
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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by
John Pickrel
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
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Eli Kintisch
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...
December 8, 2009 2:39 PM
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by
Elizabeth Finkel
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
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Science News Staff
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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by
Eli Kintisch
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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by
Constance Holden
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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by
Pallava Bagla
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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by
Greg Miller
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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John Travis
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
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Jeffrey Mervis
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
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Science News Staff
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
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Eli Kintisch
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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by
Yudhijit Bhattacharjee
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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Jeffrey Mervis
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
by
Science News Staff
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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by
Yudhijit Bhattacharjee
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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by
Eliot Marshall
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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by
Elizabeth Finkel
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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Dennis Normile
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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by
John Travis
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
by
Science News Staff
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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by
Greg Miller
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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by
Constance Holden
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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by
Eli Kintisch
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
by
Science News Staff
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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by
Science News Staff
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...
December 1, 2009 5:02 AM
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by
Dennis Normile
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,...