June 2011 Archives

« Previous
|
1
|
2

Previous Month Next Month

June 17, 2011 2:28 PM |

Arabian Oryx Comes Back From the Brink

by Virginia Morell

Almost 40 years ago, the last wild Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx), a large, cream-colored antelope with striking black horns, met its end in the deserts of Oman—shot by a...

June 17, 2011 11:00 AM |

U.K. Abandons Study of Nationality Testing Using DNA and Isotopes

by John Travis

The U.K. Border Agency (UKBA) has completely abandoned its widely scorned investigation into DNA and isotope testing of human tissues as a means to verify the nationality claims of...

June 16, 2011 5:24 PM |

House Panel Tells Energy Department to Cull Underperforming Research Grants

by Adrian Cho

First, the silver lining for scientists: When the spending panel for the House of Representatives sliced $6 billion from the $30.7 billion budget requested for 2012 by the Department...

June 16, 2011 12:38 PM |

Fight Erupts Over New Bosniak Academy of Sciences

by Mico Tatalovic

A new academy of science started by Muslim religious leaders in Bosnia and Serbia has stirred debate across the Balkans. Serbian academics say the academy is a political move...

June 16, 2011 6:00 AM |

Biomedical Institute Adds 15 Plant Biologists to Its Roster

by Elizabeth Pennisi

Philip Benfey didn't start out as a plant biologist; neither did Jeff Dangl, nor Elliot Meyerowitz, who worked on fruit flies until he decided to develop a plant as...

June 15, 2011 3:14 PM |

The Dirty 11: Panel Names Pathogens That Pose Biggest Security Risk for Research

by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

A United States federal panel of scientists and security experts has identified 11 microorganisms that it wants designated as Tier 1 select agents, a new category of biological agents...

June 15, 2011 2:55 PM |

Report Seeks Boost for Surgical Research

by Jennifer Couzin-Frankel

Scientists almost always think they need more money for research, so a report today from England's Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) isn't a big surprise in that regard. It...

June 14, 2011 5:45 PM |

Chimp Committee Shakeup Follows Humane Society Complaints

by Jon Cohen

The chair of a committee set up to help the U.S. National Institutes of Health decide whether to continue biomedical and behavioral research with chimpanzees has stepped down. The...

June 14, 2011 3:56 PM |

Europe Downscales Monster Telescope to Save Money

by Govert Schilling

The world's biggest telescope is getting smaller—but more affordable. The designers of the future European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) have decided to shrink the telescope's primary mirror from a...

June 13, 2011 5:15 PM |

Italy Says No to Reintroduction of Nuclear Energy

by Laura Margottini

"We probably have to say goodbye to nuclear energy." That's how Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi summarized the results of the country's referendum on nuclear power even before the...

June 10, 2011 5:29 PM |

Threats Sent to Australian Climate Scientists Fuel a Debate

by Elizabeth Finkel

The news that Australian climate scientists were relocated into secure offices after receiving death threats and abusive e-mails became a political issue in parliament this week. The flap began...

June 10, 2011 3:50 PM |

Restaurant Photos Help Nail Sprouts in German Outbreak

by Kai Kupferschmidt

BERLIN—Snapping pictures of your restaurant meal may be an odd habit—but what if it helps save lives? Today, German officials announced that they are now certain that organic sprouts*...

June 10, 2011 3:06 PM |

Key Vote Looms on European Science Funding

by John Travis

Europeans, cast your vote now. And no write-ins. Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, the European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, had promised a name change for the massive, multiyear science and...

June 10, 2011 2:41 PM |

Research on Induced Pluripotent and Embryonic Stem Cells 'Inextricably Intertwined'

by Jocelyn Kaiser

A new literature analysis confirms what stem cell scientists have been saying for some time: Studies of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are touted as an ethical alternative...

June 9, 2011 4:10 PM |

House Panel Slams Obama's Decision to Shut Yucca Mountain

by Eli Kintisch

Republicans on the House of Representatives Science, Space, and Technology Committee allege that the Obama Administration has engaged in "a systematic and active effort … to obfuscate, delay, and...

June 9, 2011 3:23 PM |

Germany's Withdrawal of Funding Threatens Plan to Save Ecuador Forest

by Eric Marx

The Ecuadorian government's plan to keep oil in the ground in Yasuni National Park in exchange for compensation from world governments has taken a severe blow in recent days....

June 8, 2011 5:17 PM |

HHS Gives Congress More Info on NIH Translational Center

by Jocelyn Kaiser

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this week gave Congress more budget details for a proposed National Institutes of Health (NIH) reorganization that would create a center...

June 8, 2011 4:11 PM |

New Vaccine Research Effort Launched as Advocate Steps Down

by Jon Cohen

The vaccine world's revolving door took a fast spin today as the head of the Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise announced his retirement and a new foundation for vaccine research...

June 7, 2011 11:56 AM |

Million Dollar Prizes to Go to Astrophysicists, Immunologists, and Geometricians

by Dennis Normile

Pinpointing the origins of gamma-ray bursts, determining the workings of innate immunity, and extending the use of differential equations to applications in relativity are achievements paying off in Shaw...

June 6, 2011 7:00 PM |

U.K. Cystic Fibrosis Researchers Short of Cash for Gene Therapy Trial

by Jocelyn Kaiser

Yesterday the U.K. press was full of the news that a gene therapy trial to treat cystic fibrosis is on hold after the sponsor ran out of money. Although...

June 6, 2011 5:54 PM |

Will Universities Suffer From Stanford's Patent Defeat?

by Eliot Marshall

The U.S. Supreme Court today ended a long patent battle over rights to a widely used HIV test, awarding a victory to Roche Molecular Systems Inc. (which developed and...

June 6, 2011 5:46 PM |

Sprouts So Far Innocent of E. coli Outbreak; Bacterium Strikes Brain Oddly

by Kai Kupferschmidt

The source of a deadly outbreak of Escherichia coli bacteria in Germany remains elusive as German officials today announced that the first tests of samples from a sprouts farm...

June 3, 2011 3:12 PM |

UNAIDS Report Toasts Successes, Roasts Failures

by Jon Cohen

Bad news first: The estimate of the number of people living with HIV has slightly increased from 33. 3 million to just over 34 million, says a new report...

June 3, 2011 3:03 PM |

House Trims Homeland Security Science Spending

by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

Next year's budget for science and technology at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would be drastically downsized under a spending bill passed yesterday by the House of...

June 3, 2011 11:35 AM |

Social Sciences Face Uphill Battle Proving Their Worth to Congress

by Jeffrey Mervis

Anyone attending yesterday's congressional hearing on funding the social, behavioral, and economic (SBE) sciences at the National Science Foundation is likely to have come away thinking that NSF had...

June 2, 2011 5:50 PM |

DNA Sequence Yields Clues to Germany's 'Super Toxic' E. coli Outbreak

by Martin Enserink

Just from the high number of deaths and severe cases, scientists and public health experts battling Germany's massive E. coli outbreak knew they were up against something unusual. Now,...

June 2, 2011 5:18 PM |

Updated: Marine Scientists Begin Cruise Off Fukushima

by Sara Reardon

Three months after the tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daiichi plant began leaking unprecedented amounts of radioactive isotopes, an interdisciplinary group of scientists will begin measuring the radioactivity in the ocean east...

June 2, 2011 3:35 PM |

Journal Retracts Disputed Network Analysis Paper on Climate

by Eli Kintisch

On 15 May, USA Today reported that a controversial 2008 study in the journal Computational Statistics and Data Analysis (CSDA) was going to be retracted because parts of the...

June 2, 2011 2:29 PM |

Brazil Gives Green Light to 'Monster Dam'

by Antonio Regalado

Brazil's environment agency gave final approval this week for the construction of the Belo Monte Dam, an immense hydroelectric station that has become a cause celebre in Hollywood. The...