June 2010 Archives


June 30, 2010 5:36 PM |

Oil Dispersant Study Released by EPA, But Big Questions Remain

The Environmental Protection Agency released data today from its first round of toxicity testing on dispersants that could be used on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico,...
June 30, 2010 3:27 PM |

NOAA, NIST Budgets Hold Up Well in House Subcommittee

House of Representatives spending panel members on the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee would match the president's 17% spending boost for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration...
June 30, 2010 2:40 PM |

Spending Panel: Unclear Direction of Manned NASA Flights Adds to Uncertainty

A House appropriations subcommittee has marked up a NASA budget of $19 billion for FY2011, which equals the amount requested by the Administration. That might sound like a stamp...
June 30, 2010 2:19 PM |

Panel Gives NSF Its Budget Request, With More for Education, in Wacko Budget Year

The chair of a House of Representatives spending panel has kept his promise to boost funding for education at the National Science Foundation next year as part of the...
June 30, 2010 2:16 PM |

More Research Needed to Expand Use of Natural Gas, Says MIT Report

A Massachusetts Institue of Technology report last week that suggested the United States can use its abundant supply of natural gas to move to a low-carbon economy contained a...
June 30, 2010 4:42 AM |

With Papers On Hold, Government Scientists Fuel Debate on Virus for Chronic Fatigue

It was just a snippet of news, reported by an obscure journal in the Netherlands. And yet it lit up the Internet. Twitter was all atwitter, scientists' mailboxes on both...
June 29, 2010 5:56 PM |

Stop the Leak, Get Rich?

X Prize Foundation’s Francis Béland announced at the TEDxOilSpill conference yesterday that the company is creating a multimillion-dollar prize for anyone who can propose a solution for the BP...
June 29, 2010 5:10 PM |

AAAS Criticizes Government Charges Against Italian Scientists

Earlier this month, an Italian prosecutor issued indictments against six scientists and a government official for failing to predict a large earthquake that struck L'Aquila, Italy, in April of...
June 29, 2010 3:25 PM |

Thousands of Sea Turtle Eggs To Be Moved Out of Oil's Way

For the tens of thousands of sea turtle eggs incubating in the sands of the northern Gulf of Mexico—and dangerously near the oil—it's come to this: Officials are planning...
June 29, 2010 3:17 PM |

More Bad News for Diabetes Drug

Criticism of the diabetes therapy Avandia is reaching a fever pitch. The drug has been in the spotlight since 2007, when it was linked to heart attacks. Yesterday, two...
June 29, 2010 2:40 PM |

Stem Cell Decision Could Have Broader Reach

Some biomedical research watchers are feeling blindsided by a federal appeals court decision last week that reversed a lower court's rejection of a lawsuit challenging the Obama Administration's stem...
June 29, 2010 12:10 PM |

Solar Sensor Dropped From First Environmental Satellite in Troubled Program

The Obama Administration has decided to leave a critical sunlight sensor off the first of a series of environmental satellites that have been plagued with technical problems, cost overruns,...
June 28, 2010 4:35 PM

Supreme Court Voids a Patent, Avoids Big Changes to Patent System

Patent experts have been buzzing for months about a big decision on the patentability of business methods expected from the Supreme Court. When it finally came down today, the...
June 28, 2010 4:27 PM |

Obama Targets 2025 for Asteroid Landing, 2030s for Mars

President Barack Obama today released a National Space Policy that affirms the Administration's commitment to commercial space flight. The policy also lays down the mid-2030s as a target date...
June 28, 2010 3:17 PM |

Scientist Turned In by Grad Students for Misconduct Pleads Guilty

Four years after a group of graduate students faced the agonizing experience of turning in their mentor for apparently falsifying scientific data, she has pleaded guilty to a criminal...
June 28, 2010 2:12 PM |

India Joins Mega-Telescope as Astronomy Battle Heats Up

For some time now, the teams behind two rival megaprojects—the $1 billion Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), led by the University of California, and the $700 million 24-meter Giant Magellan...
June 28, 2010 1:55 PM |

Will Floating Seaweed Be Another Oil Casualty?

Florida beachgoers sometimes mistake the ugly brown mats for trash, but sargassum, a floating seaweed, plays an important role in the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem, harboring fish larvae, young...
June 25, 2010 4:50 PM

New Medical Hypotheses Editor Promises Not to Stir Up Controversy

Elsevier yesterday announced that it has appointed biomedical scientist Mehar Manku as editor-in-chief of the journal Medical Hypotheses, whose penchant for publishing provocative papers has divided the science community....
June 25, 2010 3:08 PM |

Analyses of Early Turtle Deaths Do Not Implicate Oil

The tally of dead sea turtles found since the Deepwater Horizon disaster hit 417 today. But just nine of those found so far have had visible signs of oil,...
June 24, 2010 4:33 PM |

U.S. Military Dedicates New Research Hospital for Brain-Injured Soldiers

The Department of Defense cut the ribbon today on a new center for the diagnosis, treatment, and study of traumatic brain injury and post-combat psychological problems, including post-traumatic stress...
June 24, 2010 3:43 PM |

Writer Wendell Berry Takes Aim at the Modern Research University

Wendell Berry, 75, is a literary luminary in Kentucky, where his poems, essays, and fiction explore his home state's disappearing agrarian heritage. Perhaps most notable was his 1977 paean...
June 24, 2010 11:58 AM

U.K. to Sequence 10,000 Genomes in 3 Years to Shed Light on Diseases

Today at the Science Museum in London, as part of a ceremony for the 10th anniversary of the completion of the first draft of the human genome, the Wellcome...
June 23, 2010 6:23 PM |

Feds Halt Some Louisiana Dredging, Saying It Puts Islands at Risk

U.S. officials and the state of Louisiana continue to battle over whether the state's attempt to build sand berms that will protect wetlands from oil could damage sensitive barrier...
June 23, 2010 5:16 PM |

International Deal to Tighten Whaling Quotas Collapses; Moratorium Holds

A controversial proposal to end the 24-year-old ban on commercial whaling was shelved today at the International Whaling Commission's (IWC's) annual meeting in Agadir, Morocco. The 88 member governments...
June 23, 2010 2:21 PM |

Gulf Cruise Raises Questions on Methane, But Much Data Still to Analyze

Preliminary results from a research cruise measuring methane in deep water near the gushing BP well point to large concentrations of the gas, but what that means for the...
June 23, 2010 11:25 AM

Scientific Integrity Is Already in Force Despite Tardy Report, Says Holdren

Presidential science adviser John Holdren is nearly a year late on delivering a plan for ensuring scientific integrity across the executive branch of the U.S. government. But Holdren says...
June 22, 2010 6:01 PM |

In Race to Build New Particle Smasher, Japan Gets $100 Million Head Start Over Italy

Things are heating up in a race to build a new type of particle smasher known as a "super B factory." The Japanese government will invest $100 million to...
June 22, 2010 5:12 PM |

Can Sonar Detect Undersea Oil Plumes?

Among the biggest questions about the Deepwater Horizon spill is how much oil remains underwater and where it is going. Figuring it out has been frustratingly slow with existing...
June 22, 2010 2:50 PM |

Stopping Stem Cell Snake Oil

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA—Clinics that peddle unproven stem-cell treatments are on warning from the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR). The society has been speaking out for several years...
June 22, 2010 2:25 PM |

As Climate Scientists Battle the Press, One Receives Rare Apology From Paper

Researchers often grouse about the press—but it's rare for scientists to successfully challenge the accuracy of a media report and win public apologies. But scientists have recently won battles...
June 22, 2010 11:18 AM |

Will Hayabusa's Success Lead to a Space Encore?

TOKYO—The heart-warming story of the Hayabusa spacecraft, which overcame failed engines, degraded solar panels, fuel leaks, and faulty communications to touch down on asteroid Itokawa and return to Earth,...
June 22, 2010 6:00 AM |

Hunt for Disease Genes Expands to Africa

The search for common disease genes that has consumed gene hunters the past few years has largely bypassed Africa. But two major biomedical research funders hope to change that...
June 21, 2010 6:22 PM |

Blood Banks Urged to Discourage Chronic Fatigue Patients From Giving Blood

Blood banks should ask patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) not to donate blood or blood products because they may pass on a virus suspected of causing the elusive...
June 21, 2010 6:09 PM |

U.S. Supreme Court Overturns Ban on GM Alfalfa

A high-profile legal battle over genetically modified crops ended today with the U.S. Supreme Court tossing out a lower court's ban of GM alfalfa. Planting may resume even before...
June 21, 2010 5:28 PM |

Scientists 'Convinced' of Climate Consensus More Prominent Than Opponents, Says Paper

A new analysis of 1372 climate scientists who have participated in major climate science reviews or have signed statements in support or opposition to their main conclusions confirms what...
June 21, 2010 3:04 PM |

U.S. Biotech Companies Begin Scramble for $1 Billion Federal Program

A $1 billion tax-credit program to revive the languishing U.S. biotech industry opens for applications today. For many companies, the Therapeutic Discovery Project Program will actually mean a cash...
June 21, 2010 2:07 PM |

Berkeley Drops Probe of Duesberg After Finding 'Insufficient Evidence'

The paper that cost the editor of Medical Hypotheses his job will have no further consequences for its main author, molecular virologist Peter Duesberg of the University of California...
June 18, 2010 1:08 PM |

Is Clampdown on Industry-Funded Medical Education Muffling Research?

A major medical society is up in arms about a new speaker-accreditation policy that it says is blocking industry scientists from presenting their research. The matter came up at...
June 18, 2010 8:27 AM |

ITER Still Seeking Approval—and Money

The governing council of the ITER fusion reactor project has again passed up the chance to give final approval to the €16 billion project's baseline, the detailed document describing...
June 18, 2010 7:58 AM |

Stem Cell Pioneer Shinya Yamanaka Bags Yet Another Prize

TOKYO—The hot streak of stem cell researcher Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan and the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in San Francisco, California, continues. The Inamori Foundation...