ScienceInsider: March 2011 Archives

March 11, 2011 5:56 PM |

Committee Sharply Critiques WHO's Pandemic Response

by Jon Cohen

Eight months after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the swine flu pandemic officially over, an independent expert group has given the global health agency a decidedly mixed evaluation...

March 11, 2011 5:04 PM |

Bill Moving to Halt EPA Carbon Regs

by Eli Kintisch

Yesterday, a subcommittee of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee passed a bill, H.R. 910, that would bar the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating greenhouse gases....

March 11, 2011 3:49 PM |

Japan Earthquake Makes Waves Across the U.S.

by Sara Reardon

Scientists were shaken out of bed this morning to respond to the devastating earthquake that struck Japan. Their next priority was to analyze as many monitoring systems as possible to form a picture of how the quake occurred and its potential effects on the rest of the planet.

March 11, 2011 12:22 PM |

U.K. Review Launched for 'Three-Parent' IVF Technique

by John Travis

The United Kingdom's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) isn't going out quietly. Although the U.K's new coalition government plans to disband the agency later this year, HFEA today...

March 11, 2011 11:36 AM |

Live Chat: Counting the Dead in Afghanistan With John Bohannon (Transcript)

by John Bohannon

A military data set of civilian casualties, provided exclusively to Science, indicates that the war in Afghanistan has become more lethal to the Afghan population, largely because of indiscriminate insurgent...

March 11, 2011 9:51 AM

Japan's Earthquake Off the (Seismic Risk) Map

by Dennis Normile

TOKYO—The most surprising thing about the magnitude-8.9 earthquake that hit Japan today is that it was a surprise. Despite what may be the world's most intensive effort to map...

March 10, 2011 6:22 PM |

Melting Accelerating, Satellites Report, But Data Flow May Cease

by Eli Kintisch

Data published yesterday by scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, and colleagues revealed that Earth's ice sheets are melting at a rate that could mean...

March 10, 2011 3:56 PM |

British Museum Returns Human Remains to Aborigines

by Ann Gibbons

The Natural History Museum (NHM) in London announced today that it will return a significant collection of decorated heads, a mummy, and other 19th century human remains to their...

March 10, 2011 3:45 PM

Afghan War Has Become More Lethal to Civilians

by Eli Kintisch

John Bohannon's freely available story in this week's Science contains new data on civilian casualties in Afghanistan that were provided exclusively to the magazine: A few independent organizations, including...

March 10, 2011 1:31 PM

Smithsonian Shipwreck Exhibit Draws Fire From Archaeologists

by Heather Pringle

Archaeologists are criticizing the ethics of a planned Smithsonian Institution exhibit, Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds, slated to open in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in 2012. The...

March 9, 2011 1:44 PM |

Exclusive: Climatologist Says He Deleted E-mails, But Not at Mann's Behest

by Eli Kintisch

Investigative files released yesterday to a climate science blog by an unnamed U.S. lawmaker suggest a new twist in the ongoing University of East Anglia climate e-mails saga. Other...

March 9, 2011 11:04 AM |

Scandal-Dogged Synchrotron Back on Track

by Elizabeth Finkel

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA--After months of turmoil, the troubled Australian synchrotron is pulling together under new leadership and churning out good science. That's the verdict of the facility's international scientific advisory...

March 8, 2011 6:22 PM |

Climate Science on Sidelines as EPA Bill Proceeds

by Eli Kintisch

A panel of the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee held an odd hearing today, which was liveblogged by ScienceInsider. The topic was climate science, but the reason...

March 8, 2011 5:46 PM |

Seth Berkley's Move From IAVI to GAVI

by Jon Cohen

Seth Berkley is trading an "I" for a "G." In August, Berkley, who founded and heads the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), will take over the GAVI Alliance, another...

March 8, 2011 5:38 PM |

NASA Satellite Crash Complicates Gloomy Climate Budget Picture

by Eli Kintisch

Last week's failed mission to place the $424 million Glory satellite into orbit doesn't just stymie scientists' efforts to maintain a 33-year record of the sun's brightness and discern...

March 8, 2011 12:35 PM |

Cost-Cutting Recommended for Planetary Science, With More Cutting to Come

by Richard A. Kerr

HOUSTON, TEXAS--A committee of the National Research Council is insisting that the cost of two of the largest planetary missions it is recommending for NASA in the coming decade...

March 8, 2011 9:55 AM |

House Climate Science Hearing: Liveblog With Gavin Schmidt, NASA (Transcript)

by Eli Kintisch

A hearing in the House Energy and Commerce Committee (live feed here) will explore the science behind the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's effort to regulate greenhouse gases. NASA's Gavin...

March 7, 2011 6:14 PM

Bugs From Space? Forget It

by Richard A. Kerr

Researchers see no merit in NASA scientist's claim of microfossils in a meteorite

March 7, 2011 11:50 AM |

More Details on Pending Senate Spending Bill

by Insider Staff Report

Over the weekend, the Senate released more details about its proposal to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year that was reported on Friday. Although there is...

March 7, 2011 10:52 AM |

Dismissed Virologist Gets Job Back

by Dennis Normile

A Japanese virologist fired from his university post for data fabrication will be reinstated. Naoki Mori was canned by the University of the Ryukyus in Nishihara, Japan, last August after...

March 4, 2011 5:03 PM |

Former MIT Researcher Convicted of Fraud

by Jocelyn Kaiser

The ordeal isn't over for biologist Luk van Parijs, who was fired by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2005 after admitting to fabricating research data. Yesterday, Van Parijs,...

March 4, 2011 4:50 PM |

Senate Panel Proposes Smaller Cuts to Science Agencies Than House

by Jeffrey Mervis

Senate Democrats unveiled a plan today to trim federal spending for the rest of the fiscal year that takes smaller bites out of the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of...

March 4, 2011 3:09 PM |

Bolden Defends NASA's Earth Science Missions

by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

Should NASA have anything to with studying Earth? NASA Administrator Charles Bolden found himself having to explain that to lawmakers yesterday at a hearing by the House of Representatives on...

March 4, 2011 3:09 PM |

All-Too-Familiar Rocket Failure Dooms NASA Climate Mission

by Richard A. Kerr

A rocket's failure early this morning to carry the Earth-observing satellite Glory into orbit shocked engineers, who saw the same sort of disaster doom another climate satellite in 2009. The...

March 4, 2011 1:14 PM |

Egypt's Hawass Dismayed by Continued Looting, May Quit

by Andrew Lawler

Today, Zahi Hawass threatened to resign from his post as Egypt's minister of antiquities amid growing reports of looting at the country's myriad ancient sites. Some archaeologists fear his departure...

March 4, 2011 11:02 AM |

Brazil Seeks Advice on R&D Strategy

by Antonio Regalado

U.S. researchers will play a large role in a new panel established by Brazil's government to study the future of science in the country, where a major R&D budget cut...

March 3, 2011 5:59 PM |

Major Reports Under Way at Energy Department

by Eli Kintisch

Yesterday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu told the Senate Budget Committee that his agency has begun work on its portion of a national energy policy that may be assembled by the...

March 3, 2011 1:36 PM

Group Seeks Global Protocol to Identify Big Data Sets

by Dennis Normile

SINGAPORE—Efforts are about to get under way to create an identification system that would make data sets easier for researchers to locate and use. Meeting here this week, scientists discussed...

March 2, 2011 5:26 PM |

In Times of Crisis, U.K. Government Should Listen to Its Scientists, Says Report

by Jennifer Carpenter

LONDON—The British Government is too hesitant to ask the advice of its own scientific advisers and other scientists while preparing to deal with national emergencies. And the British public may...

March 2, 2011 3:14 PM

One Scientist's Dramatic Exodus From Libya

by Ann Gibbons

Noel Boaz had just finished writing a grant proposal to reform the medical school curriculum at the Libyan International Medical University (LIMU) where he teaches when all hell broke...

March 2, 2011 12:29 PM |

Two-Week Spending Extension Averts Shutdown

by Jeffrey Mervis

Congress has averted a government shutdown on 4 March by approving a temporary spending bill today that funds federal agencies for another 2 weeks. The extension of the so-called continuing...

March 2, 2011 11:23 AM |

Italian Biotech Project Draws Fire From Researchers

by Laura Margottini

An initiative launched by a nonprofit foundation in Italy that promotes innovation in agricultural genomics has recently sparked a storm of controversy among Italian and European biotechnologists. The scientists believe...

March 1, 2011 5:51 PM |

U.S. Bioethics Panel to Review Clinical Trials Around the World

by Jocelyn Kaiser

Prompted by concerns about an unethical U.S.-sponsored study in the 1940s, bioethics advisers to President Barack Obama formed an international panel today that will examine whether current rules adequately...

March 1, 2011 5:39 PM |

Clean Energy Research Summit Has a Shortage of Green …

by Eli Kintisch

… and the dearth of funding for the rest of 2011 threatens to cripple the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy's massive program. But it's been rare for any session at...

March 1, 2011 4:43 PM |

New President for Chinese Science Academy

by Hao Xin

Science has learned that the Chinese State Council yesterday appointed chemist Bai Chunli the next president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Bai has been heir‑apparent since he...