December 2010 Archives
December 30, 2010 4:07 PM
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Brazil Cuts a Deal to Join European Astronomers
SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL—Hoping to secure time on some of the world's most powerful telescopes, Brazil will pay more than €250 million over a decade to become a member of...
December 30, 2010 3:02 PM
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On Eve of New Climate Regs, A Primer, Part II: Lawsuits
Yesterday ScienceInsider went through the implications of new federal rules on greenhouse gases for industries which pollute the air with these pollutants. But legal challenges could complicate an already...
December 29, 2010 4:13 PM
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On Eve of New Climate Regs, A Primer on the Federal Greenhouse Gas Regime: Part I
For 2 years industry officials, states, and environmentalists have had 2 January 2011 circled on their calendars. That's the date greenhouse gases officially become regulated pollutants under the Clean...
Scientists Oppose Crime Lab Shutdown
Alec Jeffreys, the inventor of DNA fingerprinting, is among 33 scientists who signed a letter in The Times yesterday (subs. required) protesting the announced closure of the United Kingdom's...
December 27, 2010 5:06 PM
Why Didn't Obama Mention Landmark Science Legislation?
Just before Christmas, President Barack Obama celebrated a string of last-minute legislative accomplishments on tax cuts, gays in the military, the nuclear arms pact, the 9/11 responder bill, and...
December 27, 2010 1:23 PM
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In Congress, Small Business Research Is a Lame Duck Loser
Despite a surprisingly productive lame-duck Congress, Senate Democrats fell short last week on a last-minute attempt to spur U.S. innovation. A bill (S. 4053) to enlarge and broaden two...
December 24, 2010 8:00 AM
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Science in the Obama White House: An Interview With John Holdren, Part 2
Yesterday's installment of our recent conversation with John Holdren, the president's science adviser and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), focused on key elements...
December 24, 2010 4:14 AM
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Italy Funds New Particle Smasher With U.S. Components
Italy has approved funding for a major new particle accelerator that would use components from a now-defunct machine in the United States.
December 23, 2010 11:36 AM
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Science in the Obama White House: An Interview With John Holdren
John Holdren has been discussing the nation's science policy with Barack Obama for nearly 2 years, first as an adviser to his 2008 campaign and then, since last year, as...
December 21, 2010 5:15 PM
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Comprehensive Science Legislation to Become Law
The lame-duck House of Representatives today accepted a stripped-down Senate version of the America COMPETES Act, a bill to strengthen research, education, and innovation at several federal agencies. Now the...
December 20, 2010 5:54 PM
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Medical Scandal Rocks French Regulatory System
PARIS—A medical scandal involving a diabetes drug has raised questions about the rigor of France's regulatory system and has embarrassed politicians from both sides of the political aisle. The...
UPDATED: Details of Tight U.K. Science Budget Emerge
When the new U.K. government in October released its Comprehensive Spending Review, scientists breathed a sigh of relief, and some even celebrated, at the promise that science would maintain its...
December 17, 2010 5:57 PM
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Politics Buried Science in Louisiana Sand Berms, Oil Commission Finds
The idea to guard against this year's BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico by building offshore sand berms was controversial from the start, and scientists voiced many...
December 17, 2010 5:27 PM
White House Releases Long-Awaited Guidance for Scientific Integrity
It was an awfully long wait for a four-page memo. Seventeen months late on meeting the deadline set in a March 2009 order from President Barack Obama, the White...
Senate Passes COMPETES Bill, Now It's Up To the House
Racing against a looming adjournment, the U.S. Senate today passed a reauthorization bill that endorses the steady growth of research and education programs at three key federal research agencies....
December 17, 2010 4:39 PM
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'Come Hell or High Water': How U.S. and U.K. Scientists Got to Map East Antarctica
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA—A presentation at the American Geophysical Union here yesterday offered preliminary findings from a 5-year project to map the subglacial topography of East Antarctic. And while ICECAP...
December 17, 2010 2:09 PM
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Going Green, Top British Climate Lab Sends Only Three Scientists to U.S. Meeting
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA—The U.K. Met Office includes hundreds of the world's most prominent experts in weather, climate, and atmospheric science. But only three of them came across the Atlantic...
December 17, 2010 1:16 PM
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London Superlab Gets Local Approval
LONDON—Plans to build a £500 million medical research institute in the heart of London were approved yesterday by the key local development committee overseeing the location. The U.K. government...
Message to ITER Fusion Project: Keep Calm and Carry On
Managers from the ITER fusion reactor project in France held urgent meetings at the European Commission in Brussels today following Wednesday's collapse of the commission's plan for filling a...
December 16, 2010 5:57 PM
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Harvard Provost Steven Hyman to Step Down
Harvard University Provost Steven Hyman plans to step down in June to return to research and teaching. He will have served in the post for 10 years, which he...
Europe's ITER Budget Deal Falls Through, Threatening Fusion Project
A plan to cover a budget shortfall for the ITER fusion reactor project in France appears to have fallen apart just 2 weeks before the end-of-year budget deadline. The...
December 16, 2010 3:42 PM
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DOE Issues Plan to Ensure Access to Critical Materials
Ensuring the availability of rare earths and other strategic materials to the industries that need them would require giving the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) powers that it does...
December 16, 2010 1:38 PM
Princeton Scientist Tells Earth Researchers: Speak Out
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA—Geoscientists want everyone, including policymakers, to understand their work and its possible ramifications for society. But on Wednesday, an overflow crowd of 400 at the American Geophysical...
December 16, 2010 12:15 PM
All-Star 'Memorial Celebration' for Climate Scientist Brings Powerpoints, Guitars, and Wine
PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA—In March, climatologist Steven Schneider, drowsy from chemotherapy, was getting ready to go to bed. When he checked his e-mail, though, he found hundreds of messages from...
December 16, 2010 12:06 PM
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South Korean Court Reduces Hwang's Sentence
Disgraced South Korean scientist Woo Suk Hwang had his conviction upheld yesterday by an appeals court in South Korea, which knocked 6 months off Hwang’s suspended sentence. The court’s...
December 16, 2010 11:39 AM
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Klein Reelected as Chair of California Stem Cell Institute
The board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has reelected its founding chair Robert Klein for a second term. Yesterday, Klein reiterated to the board his previous...
December 16, 2010 12:00 AM
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UPDATED: Synthetic Biology Doesn't Require New Rules, Biothics Panel Says
President Barack Obama's bioethics commission today released its final report on the risks and benefits of the young field of synthetic biology. Its conclusion: no new regulations are needed,...
December 15, 2010 5:37 PM
WHO Gets a Rough Checkup
A former World Health Organization (WHO) official has declared that his former employer is in critical condition and warns that unless its antiquated habits change, it will die. Jack...
December 15, 2010 3:09 PM
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Malaria Report Shows Success Is Possible—and Fragile
Beefed-up investments in malaria control are having a major impact, according to the new World Malaria Report, released yesterday by the World Health Organization (WHO). But the report also...
December 15, 2010 11:54 AM
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Senate Spending Bill Would Boost NSF, NIH Budgets
In some good fiscal news yesterday for the U.S. science community, a Senate spending panel has crafted a 2011 federal budget that would give several science agencies increases that...
December 14, 2010 6:54 PM
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Brain Exam May Have Swayed Jury in Sentencing Convicted Murderer
Testimony on the brain activity of a convicted murderer may have saved him from the death penalty. Earlier this month, a jury in Miami rejected the death penalty and...
December 14, 2010 3:42 PM
White House's Scientific Integrity Guidelines Coming Soon
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA—Top Obama Administration officials said yesterday here at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) that long-awaited federal guidelines on scientific integrity are coming out this...
December 14, 2010 1:05 PM
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Former NIH Chief Zerhouni to Lead Research at Sanofi-Aventis
Former National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Elias Zerhouni finally has a full-time job: head of research and development for Sanofi-Aventis, the French pharmaceutical giant. Zerhouni is a radiologist...
December 14, 2010 12:59 PM
New Law Gives Venezuelan Government Control Over Most Research Spending
A new science law in Venezuela says that research will now be done for the people and in part by the people, and no longer to benefit those "in...
December 13, 2010 6:01 PM
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NASA Solar Sail Vanishes in Space
NASA's solar-powered sail craft NanoSail-D is missing, and scientists don't know whether it's adrift in space or was never ejected in the first place. The nanosatellite, roughly the size...
December 13, 2010 3:45 PM
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NASA Picks New Chief Scientist
Glaciologist Waleed Abdalati was named today as NASA's chief scientist, a position that has been vacant since 2005. Abdalati will advise NASA director Charles Bolden and advocate for NASA...
December 10, 2010 4:16 PM
Brazil's Science Ministry Goes From Physicist to Politician
The head of the Brazilian Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) says, "We have always wondered if it is better to have a [science] minister with real political...
December 10, 2010 3:56 PM
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New FBI Material Delays Academy Report on Anthrax Attacks
The FBI has belatedly provided an expert panel with new information that will delay a long-awaited report on the scientific merits of the government's investigation into the deadly 2001...
December 10, 2010 1:01 PM
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China's Great Firewall Blocks Nobel Site
Chinese scientists may have to learn to scale the "Great Firewall" if they want to visit the official Web site of the Nobel Prize. Within China, typing the site's...
December 10, 2010 12:45 PM
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Science Criticized in Cancún for Timing of Paper on Cloud Feedback
A climate skeptic has suggested that Science tried to influence the climate change talks ending today in Cancún, Mexico, by publishing a paper that supports the idea that clouds...
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