April 2010 Archives
April 30, 2010 6:24 PM
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Researchers Checking Field Sites Threatened by Oil Spill
Scientists are mobilizing to study the impacts of the oil spill from BP’s Deepwater Horizon platform that is now reaching the coast of Louisiana. Teams from Louisiana State University...
April 30, 2010 6:17 PM
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How to Encourage Diversity—and Avoid Lawsuits
Broadening participation in science without getting sued is a challenge for U.S. universities trying to recruit and retain underrepresented minority and women students and faculty members. But a new...
April 30, 2010 5:08 PM
Mouse Lab Flirtation With Florida Enters Maine Governor Race
Florida's multi-million-dollar wooing of Maine's Jackson Laboratory, which is considering opening a second institute in the Sunshine State, has become a matter of debate in Maine's gubernatorial election....
April 30, 2010 5:00 PM
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Deepwater Horizon Was Not Pushing the Envelope When It Caught Fire
The technological and ecological disaster unfolding on the Gulf Coast may end up being one for the record books, but the tragic failure to contain the deep-seated pressures 7...
April 30, 2010 4:52 PM
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Drug Company Spreads Research News, Unconventionally
With a high-profile clinical trial recently finished, the drug company Novartis took an unorthodox approach to releasing the results: it divulged them—or at least, a rough summary—in an interview...
April 30, 2010 3:30 PM
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Hollywood Is STEAMed About Science Education
Actor Tim Daly is a big supporter of efforts to improve math and science in U.S. schools. But he hates how advocates have labeled their cause. "The acronym STEM...
April 30, 2010 2:05 PM
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Can Microbes Save the Gulf Beaches? The Challenges Are Myriad
At this point it's unclear how much of an environmental threat oil spreading from the BP spill will cause, but the federal government is mobilizing thousands of workers to...
April 30, 2010 11:14 AM
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New Dustup Over Genome-Scanning Studies
A harsh takedown of a popular type of human genetics study in the pages of Cell has prompted a chatter of commentary online, and at least one researcher plans...
April 29, 2010 4:37 PM
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First U.S. 'Cancer Vaccine' Approved
After years of speculation about the promise of cancer vaccines as a way to use the immune system against tumors, the United States will soon see its first cancer...
April 29, 2010 4:28 PM
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Mystery of the Lionfish: Don't Blame Hurricane Andrew
Scientists are scrambling to fight the voracious lionfish (Pterois volitans) that have invaded the Atlantic Ocean from Florida to Rhode Island to the Caribbean. But questions persist about how...
April 29, 2010 3:38 PM
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Back to Earth Comes Space Balloon, With a Thud
NASA's Nuclear Compton Telescope, a balloon-borne telescope designed to study gamma-ray sources in outer space, plummeted to earth today while being launched from the Australlian Balloon Launch Station in...
April 29, 2010 3:03 PM
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Will Simplifying European Research Funding Create More Red Tape? Officials Consider 'Radical' Moves
Everyone hates bureaucracy, and European researchers are no exception. Thousands have recently signed a petition calling for a simplification of European Union research funding rules and today Máire Geoghegan-Quinn,...
April 29, 2010 2:15 PM
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Two Mysteries Surround Gulf Oil Spill ...
This morning, officials raised their estimate of the amount of oil spilling out from the destroyed Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico from 1000 to 5000 barrels...
April 29, 2010 2:12 PM
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... But Burning Oil is Clear Part of Solution, Say Experts
Yesterday, in an effort to reduce the amount of oil from the Deepwater Horizon blowout on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, crews began igniting parts of the...
April 29, 2010 1:18 PM
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Innovations in STEM Education: A Conversation With PCAST's Jim Gates
As a physicist at the University of Maryland, College Park, S. James Gates Jr. knows that innovation helps advance the scientific frontier. But he says that those who want...
April 28, 2010 5:13 PM
Peace in Our Time
The acrimonious battle between the Royal Institution of Great Britain and its former Director Susan Greenfield has apparently ended. The two parties today released a statement announcing that they...
April 28, 2010 4:59 PM
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Whaling Compromise Rejected
Exchanging verbal blows, Australia and Japan announced this week that neither country will accept last week's proposal by the chair of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) for a compromise...
April 28, 2010 4:55 PM
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Science Panel Cuts Authorization Levels for Three COMPETES Agencies
The House of Representatives Science and Technology Committee today scaled back proposed funding levels for three key science agencies as part of its reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act....
April 28, 2010 2:18 PM
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Popular Stem Cell Line Released From Limbo
The most widely used line of human embryonic stem cells can once again be studied with federal dollars. Yesterday, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) approved four stem cell...
April 27, 2010 5:33 PM
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Senate Climate Bill Saga Jerks Forward as Graham Wields Power
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) today suggested that the stalled climate bill could move before the immigration package, potentially breaking a logjam with key sponsor Senator Lindsey Graham...
Italy and Russia Fuse to Build New Reactor
Russia and Italy announced on Monday that they will collaborate to build a new tokamak fusion reactor called Ignitor. Following talks between Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his...
April 27, 2010 11:24 AM
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Chile Wins Battle to Host Mega-Telescope
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) officially announced yesterday that its next mammoth optical telescope, the 42-meter-wide European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), will be built on Cerro Armazones, a mountain...
April 26, 2010 5:32 PM
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Military Officials Have a Hard Time Using Climate Data, New Report Says
A new report suggests that "multiple barriers" are impeding the flow of information between climate scientists and U.S. national security officials who need the work to inform their decisions....
April 26, 2010 3:51 PM
In Second Recent Tragedy Yale Medicine Postdoc Slain
From Yale Daily News: Vajinder Toor, a postdoctoral clinical fellow at the School of Medicine, was shot and killed at his home in Branford, Conn., this morning, multiple news...
April 23, 2010 5:25 PM
Roundup 4/23: Breaking Form Edition
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy today released a new, cross-agency, progress-reporting format to help federally funded scientists file updates on their research. OSTP Director John...
April 23, 2010 5:14 PM
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UPDATED: A Skeptic Questions Cancer Genome Projects
Fueled by hundreds of millions of grant dollars, biomedical researchers have begun sequencing the genomes of thousands of tumor samples in the past few years, linking up scores of...
April 23, 2010 3:55 PM
Space-Bound Antimatter Detector Gets Last-Minute Overhaul
The long, strange tale of one of the more ambitious particle physics experiments ever conceived just got a bit stranger. Just 3 months before it was scheduled to lift...
April 23, 2010 2:27 PM
USDA Turns From Wunderkind to Polymath for Chief Scientist
It will be a tough act to follow. In January, chief scientist Rajiv Shah left the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to lead the U.S. Agency for International Development....
April 23, 2010 12:47 PM
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Thirty-Five-Million Dollar Boost for 'Barcode of Life'
The International Barcode of Life Project (iBOL), got a major boost from Canadian agencies today with $35 million in new funding for a 26-nation effort to collect specimens, sequence...
April 23, 2010 11:20 AM
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New Royal Society Head Is Geneticist, Nobel Prize Winner, and Above All Nurse
Nobel prize-winning biologist Paul Nurse is stepping down as president of Rockefeller University in New York City to become president of the Royal Society in London, the U.K.'s equivalent...
April 22, 2010 6:39 PM
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Ex-USAMRIID Scientist Defends Bruce Ivins Using Back-of-the-Envelope Math
A microbiologist who once worked with suspected anthrax mailer Bruce Ivins mounted a spirited defense of his colleague today after giving a presentation to a National Academies panel that’s reviewing...
April 22, 2010 5:15 PM
Roundup 4/22: Acid Test Edition
The NRC report on ocean acidification released today finds that, barring substantial curbs on carbon dioxide emissions, the ongoing decline in ocean pH will continue, with as-yet-unknown ecosystem changes...
April 22, 2010 4:28 PM
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Much Ado About Salt
Salt isn't usually a big source of controversy, but suggestions that the government modify the nation's palate by restricting the saltiness of foods is creating a bit of a...
April 22, 2010 3:38 PM
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Europe's Humongous Study of Cell Phone Risks
Scientists in Britain today asked 2.4 million cell phone users to participate in the world's largest study of the health effects of mobile phone use. The researchers hope that...
April 22, 2010 3:01 PM
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NASA’s Bolden Battered by Senate Spending Panel
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden today told a Senate spending panel that space science could suffer if the U.S. Congress forces NASA to stick with the Constellation program, which the...
April 22, 2010 1:37 PM
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Mexico Gets a Space Agency
Mexico's congress this week voted by a huge majority to create a new national space agency which could someday launch rockets from the Yucatan peninsula. The Agencia Espacial Mexicana...
April 21, 2010 5:39 PM
Roundup 4/21: Soured Edition
Boston University has chosen to accept the $1 million, no strings attached, offered by the NFL last year to support brain research. Tomorrow’s hearing on ocean acidification will include...
April 21, 2010 4:08 PM
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Panel Tweaks NIST as Part of COMPETES Physical Science Bill
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) moved a step closer to the first reauthorization of its programs in 15 years when a key science panel in the...
April 20, 2010 11:45 AM
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Invasive Lionfish Attacks Reefs and Fish as Scientists Scramble
Indo-Pacific lionfish, an invasive carnivore equipped with venomous spines, are spreading—and eating their way—through the fishes of the Caribbean Sea. In an effort to stop, or at least slow...
April 19, 2010 5:57 PM
Roundup 4/19: Charged-Up Edition
On Thursday the Senate commerce committee will tackle ocean acidification. Small scale production of biofuels can be done in a carbon-friendly fashion, says the European Commission in a new...
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