May 2011 Archives
May 31, 2011 4:57 PM
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Do Cell Phones Cause Cancer? An Explosive 'Maybe'
Whether or not cell phones cause brain cancer is a question that's been debated (but not answered) for years, and today the World Health Organization (WHO) stepped into the...
Nuclear Phaseout Will 'Pay Off' for German Energy Research, Says Panel Chair
Germany's plans to shut down the last of its 17 nuclear power plants by 2022 is a huge chance for the country's researchers, Matthias Kleiner, head of the German...
Bracing Tour of China Leaves E.U. Science Chief Impressed
BEIJING—Visiting China for the first time last week, Europe's top research official, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, admitted that she was bowled over by how quickly the rising power is muscling up...
May 27, 2011 5:53 PM
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New Los Alamos Director Is Weapons Veteran
The new director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, Charles McMillan, is a career weapons scientist and a Massachusetts Institute of Technology-trained physicist. A press release from the New Mexico...
May 27, 2011 5:37 PM
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Panel Wants NIGMS to Stop Funding Glue Grants
An expert panel has urged the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) to scrap an 11-year, $368 million foray into big biology. Only two of the NIH institute's five...
May 27, 2011 8:30 AM
Science Publishes Multiple Critiques of Arsenic Bacterium Paper
A debate that erupted 5 months ago over whether a bacterium incorporates arsenic into its DNA is about to start simmering again. Today online in Science eight research groups...
May 26, 2011 5:22 PM
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Senator's Criticism of Science Foundation Draws Fire
Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) has long railed against wasteful government spending and urged his colleagues to shrink the federal budget. His latest salvo is a 73-page report released today...
May 26, 2011 3:50 PM
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Cucumbers May Be Culprit in Massive E. coli Outbreak in Germany
German researchers suspect cucumbers from Spain are the source of a massive enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) outbreak that has hit the northern parts of the country. According to the...
May 26, 2011 11:59 AM
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Furor Over Proposed Brazilian Forest Law
The passage on Tuesday by Brazil's Chamber of Deputies of an amended forest law favorable to ranchers and loggers has brought an outpouring of concern from environmentalists, with some...
NASA Aims to Grab Asteroid Dirt in 2020
Today NASA announced the next medium-class science mission to explore the solar system. The winner of a three-way competition is a mouthful: Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith...
May 25, 2011 5:25 PM
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Italian Scientists to Stand Trial for Manslaughter in Quake Case
ROME—Enzo Boschi, the president of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), will face trial on charges of manslaughter with six other scientists and technicians for failing to...
Switzerland to Phase Out Nuclear Energy; E.U. Strikes Deal on 'Stress Tests'
In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, the Swiss government announced today that it plans to end its use of nuclear energy in the next 2 or 3 decades....
May 25, 2011 4:13 PM
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NASA Backs Bush-Era Space Capsule
NASA's new spacecraft for exploring space beyond the low Earth orbit is not so new. Late yesterday the agency announced that its proposed Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV), which is...
May 25, 2011 2:13 PM
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Did Kennedy Privately Denigrate the Moon Shot?
The Atlantic reviews transcripts of newly released tapes of President Kennedy in the White House: The space program is one of President John F. Kennedy's great legacies but he...
May 25, 2011 11:18 AM
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German Scientists Finger Rare Serotype in Massive E. coli Outbreak
BERLIN—German scientists are scrambling to find the source of an outbreak of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC), a dangerous intestinal pathogen that has sent hundreds of people to the hospital...
May 25, 2011 11:06 AM
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NSF Hopes Time Could Mean Money for Some Biologists
Researchers under the gun to win a federal grant and facing declining success rates may be tempted to crank out another application. Data from the National Science Foundation (NSF)...
May 25, 2011 9:40 AM
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Mars Spirit Rover, 2004-2011
NASA has ended efforts to re-establish contact with its Spirit rover. Nothing had been heard from it since 22 March 2010, when the feisty rover beamed a last transmission...
May 24, 2011 7:30 PM
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New Name for U.K. Biolab As Report Revives Site Debate
Odds are, people will just call it the Crick. Officials at the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation (UKCMRI), a mammoth biomedical lab facility scheduled to open in...
May 24, 2011 6:21 PM
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After U.S. Pressure, Smallpox Wins Reprieve Again
The smallpox virus, on death row for decades, has been given another stay of execution. The World Health Assembly (WHA), an annual meeting of health ministers in Geneva, decided today...
May 24, 2011 3:32 PM
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Two Candidates Nominated to Lead California Stem Cell Agency
Southern California investor Jonathan Thomas and cardiologist turned entrepreneur Frank Litvack have been nominated to lead the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). Whomever is elected by the board...
May 24, 2011 12:06 PM
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New 'Clean Energy Standard' Plan From Former White House Wonk
A white paper released by the Brookings Institution last week charts a new policy to cut U.S. greenhouse emissions. Joseph Aldy, an economist and former special assistant to President...
Chinese Journalists Barred From Shuttle Launch
Chinese journalists were denied access to this week's space shuttle launch in what is believed to be the first application of a congressional ban on interactions between NASA and...
May 20, 2011 2:30 PM
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Arts and Sciences Academy Tackles Social Science and Green Power
Why are some efforts to get people to conserve energy more successful than others? A 3-day workshop in Washington, D.C., this week on "Social Science and the Alternative Energy...
New Consortium to Run Arecibo Observatory
After 4 decades under the direction of Cornell University, the fabled Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico will have a new manager. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has decided to...
May 20, 2011 12:28 PM
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Slideshow: Where on Mars Should NASA Send 'Curiosity' Probe?
Scientists who next year will be searching for signs of ancient life on Mars using NASA’s Curiosity rover (a.k.a. Mars Science Laboratory) are huddling today near the Jet Propulsion Laboratory...
European Scientists Launch Design of New Gravitational Wave Telescope
Following a €3-million design study funded by the European Union, physicists today unveiled their plans for a gravitational wave telescope designed to open a new window on the universe....
Chu Calls NSF's Decision to Abandon DUSEL 'Disappointing'
Energy Secretary Steven Chu says that he's "very disappointed" with the National Science Foundation (NSF) for pulling out of a planned $875-million underground science lab in South Dakota. In...
Report: No Changes for U.K. Nuclear Plants Post-Fukushima
There is no need for the United Kingdom to curtail the operation of its nuclear power power stations in the wake of the situation at Japan's Fukushima-1 facility, nor...
May 17, 2011 4:10 PM
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Scientists Press Government on Airport Scanner Safety
In the latest salvo in an exchange that has lasted more than a year, scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and Arizona State University are continuing...
Utility: Fukushima Cores More Damaged Than Thought
TOKYO—Over the last several days, evidence has emerged indicating that the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was far more dire than previously recognized. The main evidence...
May 15, 2011 6:50 PM
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U.S. Panel Suggests Moving Used Nuclear Fuel to Interim Sites
Draft recommendations from a White House commission on spent nuclear fuel released Friday include a call for one or more new aboveground interim storage sites in the United States. But...
May 13, 2011 5:53 PM
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International Climate Panel Announces Reforms on Conflicts, Errors
Members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), meeting this week in Abu Dhabi for their annual confab, have added new procedures for dealing with errors, conflicts of interest,...
May 13, 2011 4:43 PM
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Texas's Cancer Fund Lures Leading Stem Cell Researcher
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, stem cell researcher Sean Morrison, an outspoken proponent of allowing research on human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) in the state, has been wooed to Texas...
May 13, 2011 12:37 PM
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U.S. Broadens Job Prospects for Foreign Grads in Science Fields
Foreign students studying at U.S. universities have traditionally had a year after graduation in which to find a job, allowing them to live and work in the United States. Three...
U.K. Parliament Panel Slams Physics, Astronomy Cuts
British parliamentarians have expressed concerns about the impact last year’s government funding cuts will have on the future of astronomy and particle physics in the country. When combined with some...
May 12, 2011 6:55 PM
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Director of Ecological Think Tank to Depart
The head of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) is leaving after 16 months on the job. Edward McCauley will return to the University of Calgary in...
May 12, 2011 5:03 PM
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Is There a Special Formula for Successful STEM Schools?
With all the attention to poor U.S. student achievement in math and science, the questions that Congress put to the National Science Foundation (NSF) 18 months ago tackles the problem...
May 12, 2011 3:55 PM
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HIV Treatment Dramatically Prevents Heterosexual Transmission
A multicountry study has found that HIV-infected people who start antiretroviral (ARV) treatment at earlier stages of the disease lowered their risk of transmitting the virus to their sexual partners...
May 12, 2011 1:59 PM
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A New Push to Cure AIDS: 3 p.m. EDT Chat With Fauci
Today’s ScienceLive chat will include Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and scientists Steven Deeks and David Margolis. From our description: Beginning in...
Japan’s U-Turn on Nuclear Power: Reaction
Yesterday, Japan’s prime minister, Naoto Kan, announced that the government was scrapping a planned expansion of nuclear power, which currently provides about a third of Japanese electricity. Instead, the...
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