ScienceInsider: October 2010 Archives

October 29, 2010 5:45 PM |

House Science Chair Enters Debate Over Biodiversity Pact's Bar on Climate Engineering

by Eli Kintisch

The House science committee has just released a report on climate engineering that lays out possible roles for federal agencies and international partners in the new, controversial field. By...

October 29, 2010 5:01 PM |

Another Round of Filings in Stem Cell Court Case

by Jocelyn Kaiser

The paperwork continues to pile up in the lawsuit challenging the legality of the National Institutes of Health's (NIH's) stem cell guidelines, the latest installments being two more briefs...

October 29, 2010 4:56 PM |

In Tight Race, $cience Paying Off for Congressman-Physicist Foster

by Eli Kintisch

No congressional candidate running in next week's election has received more in campaign contributions from civil servants than Representative Bill Foster (D–IL). And most of those dollars have come...

October 29, 2010 3:32 PM |

Negotiators Agree on Biodiversity Pact in Nagoya

by Dennis Normile

Delegates from 179 countries meeting at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan, agreed to "take effective and urgent action to halt the loss of biodiversity" to...

October 28, 2010 5:01 PM |

NIH Scientists See Crackdown on Consulting as Too Restrictive

by Jocelyn Kaiser

Five years ago after a scandal erupted over employees who were consulting for drug companies, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) banned most such relationships by in-house scientists. A...

October 28, 2010 2:38 PM

Nature Stands by Stem Cell Paper

by Jennifer Couzin-Frankel

Following up on an anonymous accusation of faked images in a stem cell paper it published last year, the journal Nature released a statement today saying it has investigated...

October 27, 2010 6:30 PM

Grassley Questions NIH Travel on Sponsors' Dime

by Jocelyn Kaiser

Senator Charles Grassley (R–IA) is asking more questions about ethics policies at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In one of his last actions as ranking member of the...

October 27, 2010 2:13 PM |

Even the Best Farmed Fish Can Cause Problems

by Erik Stokstad

Too much of a good thing can be bad. A new study of marine aquaculture around the world finds that even the most efficient operations—think industrialized salmon farms—can cause...

October 27, 2010 1:27 PM |

U.S. Consortium Gets $17 Million to Study Military Suicides

by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

The United States Army announced today that it has given a new research consortium $17 million to study how to prevent suicides in the military and the general population....

October 26, 2010 6:30 PM

Biodiversity: Without Efforts, Losses Would Have Been Worse

by Elizabeth Pennisi

Eight years ago, the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity agreed to significantly reduce the rate of loss of biodiversity by 2010. That has not happened, but the...

October 26, 2010 5:55 PM

Proposed Biodiversity Pact Bars 'Climate-Related Geoengineering'

by Eli Kintisch

ScienceInsider has obtained draft text from negotiators at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan, in regards to a proposed bar on geoengineering research. If it is...

October 26, 2010 4:58 PM |

Panel Wants U.S. to Chase 'God Particle'—If There's Money

by Adrian Cho

ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND—Keep going. That's the advice today from a federal advisory panel to government officials responsible for running the last U.S. atom smasher. But the panel's caveat—only if you...

October 25, 2010 2:49 PM |

Spurious Accusations Against Stem Cell Researchers

by Jennifer Couzin-Frankel and Gretchen Vogel

Stem cell researchers in Boston and in Stockholm confronted a bizarre and uncomfortable situation last week: accusations of scientific fraud from an anonymous e-mail address, sent not only to...

October 25, 2010 11:14 AM

Biodiversity Negotiations Snagged on Sharing Research Benefits

by Dennis Normile

Researchers around the world will likely have to keep closer tabs on genetic materials collected from the wild and share the proceeds of any commercialization with the countries of...

October 22, 2010 1:26 PM

Equatorial Guinea Adviser: The UNESCO Prize Stays

by Martin Enserink

PARIS—Yesterday, UNESCO's executive board decided to suspend a controversial prize for the life sciences, funded by and named after President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, a tiny, oil-rich...

October 21, 2010 6:12 PM

Does a Proposed Right to Hunt Damage Conservation Science in Arizona?

by Eli Kintisch

Twelve states have language in their constitutions guaranteeing a right to hunt and fish. The Arizona Legislature is proposing to do the same but with a twist that could...

October 21, 2010 5:12 PM |

Cuccinelli Demands Called 'Governmental Intrusion' Into Climate Science

by Eli Kintisch

The University of Virginia has fired a new salvo in a 5-month-old fight with the state's attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, over an investigation of former UVA professor Michael Mann....

October 21, 2010 5:06 PM

White House Science Office Sued Over 'Scientific Integrity' Docs

by Eli Kintisch

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has filed a lawsuit seeking an explanation for why the Obama Administration is 18 months late on delivering its promised guidelines on scientific integrity...

October 21, 2010 1:38 PM |

Penthouse Magazine Founder and Fusion Research Supporter Guccione Dead at 79

by Daniel Clery

Among his many—mostly decidedly unscientific—achievements, Penthouse magazine founder Bob Guccione was probably the world's biggest private investor in fusion technology. Guccione, who died at age 79 in Texas yesterday,...

October 20, 2010 5:09 PM |

Research Avoids U.K. Budget Bloodbath

by Daniel Clery

Was it the heavyweight reports produced by the likes of the Royal Society and the Research Councils UK that fund much of British science? Was it the roughly 2000...

October 20, 2010 4:00 PM |

Happy Hagfish Day!

by Lauren Schenkman

Halloween is more than a week away, but if you're looking for a great reason to celebrate, today is Hagfish Day. The hagfish (Myxinidae) vaguely resembles an eel but...

October 20, 2010 9:32 AM |

Just a Flesh Wound? U.K. Science Budget Spared Deep Cuts

by Daniel Clery , John Travis

Today, many U.K. scientists will likely see the glass as half-full. The U.K. government's long-awaited Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) was released today, and it calls for a flat science...

October 19, 2010 3:24 PM

UNESCO Set to Postpone Controversial Science Prize 'Until Never'

by Martin Enserink

The year-long battle about a UNESCO prize for the life sciences named after Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, president and long-time dictator of Equatorial Guinea, seems set to end in...

October 18, 2010 2:08 PM |

Obama Hosts Science Fair Winners at White House

by Jeffrey Mervis

President Barack Obama kicked off a national science and engineering festival with a White House event today that honored dozens of students for their achievements in science competitions around...

October 18, 2010 1:53 PM |

Britain Tidal Power Plan Put on Hold in Statement on Energy Policy

by Rachel Berkowitz

Chris Huhne, the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, delivered a major energy policy statement today that endorsed nuclear power, without promising any money for...

October 18, 2010 1:43 PM

Million-Dollar Prize for Couple Who Traced Roots of Youth Violence

by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

A husband-and-wife team of neuropsychologists whose work has shed light on the interplay between genes and the environment in determining proclivity toward violence have been awarded the $1 million...

October 15, 2010 5:10 PM

IPCC Meeting Ends, and Pachauri Survives

by Eli Kintisch

The annual meeting of the nations that make up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) ended yesterday in Busan, South Korea, and a few details have trickled out....

October 15, 2010 4:41 PM

National Medal Winners Announced

by Eli Kintisch

From the White House, this year's winners of the nation's highest honor in science and technology, announced today:...

October 15, 2010 3:07 PM |

More Legal Jousting in Stem Cell Case

by Jocelyn Kaiser

The two sides in the ongoing court battle over stem cell research filed another batch of legal documents yesterday in response to court-ordered deadlines. Neither side added much to...

October 15, 2010 11:49 AM

Sharpen Your Pencils, Science Writers

by Eli Kintisch

Charlie Petit on the newly announced PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, which will offer a $10,000 prize starting next year: This is a vow to learn how to...

October 15, 2010 11:05 AM |

In China, No Meeting of the Minds on GM Crops

by Li Jiao

WUHAN, CHINA—If anyone is under the impression that the Chinese public is ready to embrace genetically modified (GM) crops, they are mistaken. At a hastily arranged session at a...

October 14, 2010 5:48 PM |

Republicans Charge 'Impropriety' in Halting Yucca Mountain Safety Review

by Eliot Marshall

President Barack Obama has made it clear since he took office that he wants to cancel plans to operate a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. But its...

October 14, 2010 5:40 PM |

Convention Considers Ban on Global Sun-Blocking Schemes

by Eli Kintisch

Next week's meeting of the 193-nation Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan, will tackle such controversial issues as funding for the Global Environment Facility, hard-to-reach biodiversity targets,...

October 14, 2010 5:00 PM |

Cancer Chief Varmus Draws Up a List of Unsolved Mysteries

by Jocelyn Kaiser

Harold Varmus has made a start on one of his first priorities as chief of the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI): coming up with a set of key unanswered...

October 14, 2010 12:04 PM |

Stem Cell Paper Retracted

by Jennifer Couzin-Frankel

Three stem cell scientists have retracted a paper they published early this year in Nature. Details are sketchy, but in the retraction, released today, they say that a "re-examination"...

October 13, 2010 2:50 PM |

Report: Major Boost in Agricultural Productivity Needed

by Erik Stokstad

With global population expected to reach 9.2 billion by 2050, food production will need to double worldwide. Meeting this challenge without causing more environmental damage—cutting down rain forest, for...

October 12, 2010 5:27 PM |

NSF Graduate Fellowships Now Recognize STEM Education as Valid Research Field

by Jeffrey Mervis

In 2000, the National Science Foundation began funding graduate students who also wanted to help out elementary and secondary school teachers in the classroom. A novel idea at the...

October 12, 2010 2:32 PM |

Closely Watched Vaccine Injury Claim Reaches Supreme Court

by Jennifer Couzin-Frankel

The U.S. Supreme Court today hears a pivotal case on how families who say their children were injured by vaccines should be compensated. The current system was established by...

October 12, 2010 2:14 PM |

Doctor Sentenced in Beijing for Attack on Critics

by Hao Xin

After a quick trial, a local court in Beijing convicted urologist Xiao Chuang-Guo on 10 October of assaulting two well-known advocates of academic integrity in China. Xiao, head of...

October 12, 2010 12:10 PM |

On Climate Change, the Party of No

by Eli Kintisch

National Journal examines the state of scientific literacy on climate among Republican candidates for senate and finds dismal results: This year, when Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., spent months negotiating...

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