ScienceInsider: September 2011 Archives

September 16, 2011 2:09 PM |

Indian Scientists Blast Proposal to Improve Animal Welfare

by Pallava Bagla

Indian scientists are calling for a major rewrite of a proposed animal welfare law that they say could undermine research involving animals. A government draft of the legislation is...

September 16, 2011 1:11 PM |

AAU's Rawlings on What It'll Take to Improve Undergrad STEM Education

by Jeffrey Mervis

This week the Association of American Universities (AAU) announced a 5-year effort to improve undergraduate science, math, and engineering education. It joins an already crowded field of public and...

September 14, 2011 5:28 PM |

Hope, With 'Stringent' Orders, for NASA's Webb Telescope

by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

In July, the U.S. House of Representatives cancelled the over-budget and behind-schedule James Webb Space Telescope, sinking the hearts of NASA officials and U.S. astronomers. Today, the U.S. Senate...

September 14, 2011 4:57 PM |

Senate Panel Cuts NSF Budget by $162 Million

by Jeffrey Mervis

"We've gone beyond frugality and are into austerity. … We didn't want to do this, but that's the way the world is." Those gloomy words, from Senator Barbara Mikuski...

September 14, 2011 2:23 PM |

Heavy Lifting at NASA Yields a Rocket Design, But No Price Tag

by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

Eighteen months after President Barack Obama announced the Administration's new plan for space exploration, NASA has selected a design for an essential component—the new Space Launch System—a powerful, heavy...

September 14, 2011 1:52 PM |

Cheaters Beware: New Doping Tests Ready for London's 2012 Olympics

by Sara Reardon

BRADFORD, UNITED KINGDOM—Athletes planning to dope for the 2012 Olympics in London would be better off staying home, because scientists are lying in wait with a new battery of...

September 14, 2011 9:30 AM |

Don't Call It Viral Marketing: The Story Behind Contagion's Microbial Billboard

by John Travis

The jury is still out on whether the star-studded viral outbreak movie Contagion will be a Hollywood blockbuster, but don't blame Patrick Hickey if it isn't. The Scottish mycologist...

September 13, 2011 7:00 PM |

U.K. Masks Cuts to Science By Redefining 'Science Budget'

by Daniel Clery

Despite promises by the U.K. government last year that its science budget would stay level between 2010 and 2015, a new analysis concludes that the government has masked cuts...

September 13, 2011 3:40 PM |

Chinese University Fires Administrators, Offers Compensation After Lab Accident

by Mara Hvistendahl

On the heels of a damaging laboratory outbreak that sickened 27 students, leaders at China's Northeast Agricultural University last week dismissed two administrators, apologized for insufficient safety practices, and...

September 13, 2011 2:13 PM |

Pharma Exec Trevor Mundel Named President of Gates Foundation Global Health Initiative

by Michael Price

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced today that Trevor Mundel, who currently heads the development team of pharmaceutical giant Novartis International AG, will take over as president of...

September 12, 2011 5:17 PM |

UPDATED: University of Chicago Microbiologist Infected From Possible Lab Accident

by Jocelyn Kaiser

Another laboratory-acquired infection may have occurred in a University of Chicago building where 2 years ago a researcher contracted plague and later died. Late last month, a researcher who...

September 12, 2011 12:24 PM |

Blast at French Nuclear Waste Facility Kills One

by Martin Enserink

An explosion at a French plant that burns and melts nuclear waste has killed one person, injured four others, and ignited worries that low-level radioactivity might leak into the environment....

September 12, 2011 11:14 AM |

French Government Defies E.U. Court on GM Maize

by Barbara Casassus

PARIS—The French government continues to stand its ground against lifting the ban on growing genetically modified corn in France. On Thursday, the European Court of Justice said that France's...

September 9, 2011 3:38 PM |

Flawed Cancer Trial at Duke Sparks Lawsuit

by Jennifer Couzin-Frankel

A dozen plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit against Duke University and administrators, researchers, and physicians there, alleging that they engaged in fraudulent and negligent behavior when they enrolled cancer...

September 9, 2011 3:20 PM |

Senate Budget Bill Holds Energy Department Science Level

by Adrian Cho

Scientists usually howl like wounded puppies at the prospect of a flat budget for an important U.S. science agency. But given the budget-cutting mood of the current Congress, scientists...

September 9, 2011 2:57 PM |

New Patent Law Could Change How Academics Commercialize Discoveries

by David Malakoff

The first major overhaul of the U.S. patent system in nearly 60 years is about to become law. The U.S. Senate last night voted 89-9 to approve the American...

September 9, 2011 2:21 PM |

Planned 4G Network Draws Fire From House Science Panel

by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

A multibillion dollar proposal to create a 4G wireless broadband network in the United States could interfere with several scientific services that use the Global Positioning System (GPS), including...

September 9, 2011 1:47 PM |

Roma Establish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Belgrade

by Mico Tatalovic

Europe's largest ethnic minority, the Roma, has established its own academy of arts and sciences. The academy, founded on 1 September in Belgrade, plans to promote, organize, and disseminate...

September 9, 2011 11:34 AM |

Making the Case for Health Impact Assessments

by Daniel Strain

In 2007, developers of a planned senior-housing project in Oakland, California, decided to move the entrance from adjacent to a busy highway to a quiet courtyard. The change would...

September 9, 2011 11:10 AM |

More Allegations Against Company Embroiled in French Drug Scandal

by Barbara Casassus

PARIS—Servier, the pharmaceutical company at the heart of a massive medical scandal in France, suffered several fresh blows to its credibility this week. Yesterday, a newspaper revealed that the...

September 8, 2011 3:58 PM |

New U.S. Panel Examines Career Paths After Grad School

by Jeffrey Mervis

Two U.S. higher education organizations have begun collecting data on what graduate students know about their career options and what type of workers high-tech companies are looking for. It's...

September 8, 2011 11:32 AM |

U.S. Planetary Scientist Admits Attempted Espionage

by Richard A. Kerr

A one-time principal investigator on a NASA mission that is still orbiting the moon has admitted trying to sell classified materials to an FBI employee posing as an Israeli...

September 7, 2011 5:50 PM |

Dutch University Sacks Social Psychologist Over Faked Data

by Martin Enserink

AMSTERDAM—A Dutch social psychologist whose eye-catching studies about human behavior were fodder for columnists and policy makers has lost his job after his university concluded that some of the...

September 7, 2011 4:11 PM

After Some Haggling, Negotiators for U.N. Chronic Disease Summit Reach Tentative Agreement

by Sara Reardon

After a summer of negotiations whose slow pace and political gaming has drawn the ire of numerous health advocacy organizations, representatives of U.N. member states appear to have come...

September 6, 2011 4:20 PM |

Turkish Science Academy Fights Government Changes

by Martin Enserink

The Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA) is battling what it sees as a power grab by the Turkish government. On 27 August, the government issued a decree that would...

September 6, 2011 11:04 AM |

Indian Professors Charged Over Radiation Death

by Pallava Bagla

NEW DELHI—Six senior professors at the University of Delhi face up to 2 years in prison over their roles in India's first fatality from accidental exposure to radiation. On...

September 2, 2011 5:43 PM |

Journal Editor Resigns Over Contrarian Climate Paper

by Richard A. Kerr

The editor-in-chief of the journal Remote Sensing has resigned over the publication of a paper questioning the reliability of climate models. Wolfgang Wagner of Vienna University of Technology concluded...

September 2, 2011 5:04 PM |

White House Delays Any Change to Smog Standard

by Erik Stokstad

The Obama Administration announced today that it will not lower air pollution limits this year for smog-causing ozone -- a move welcomed by industry but decried by public health...

September 1, 2011 5:12 PM |

Claims of Mass Libyan Looting Rejected by Archaeologists

by Andrew Lawler

Archaeologists in contact with colleagues in Libya say that their nation's antiquities appear safe despite the chaos in the country. That news is contrary to reports earlier this week,...

September 1, 2011 3:48 PM |

U.S. Firms Pledge More Engineering Internships

by Beth Azar

PORTLAND, OREGON—A group of U.S. companies has promised to create thousands of internships for engineering students as a way to increase the number of U.S. citizens who earn engineering...

September 1, 2011 3:38 PM |

Iceland Directs Avalanche Funds Into Volcano Risk Studies

by Lucas Laursen

Iceland's natural hazards experts can now use part of a special avalanche risk assessment fund to study the dangers posed by the country's many volcanoes, which seem to be...

September 1, 2011 2:00 PM |

NASA Aims to Protect Apollo Artifacts From Next Lunar Arrivals

by Lucas Laursen

NASA has begun wrestling with how to safeguard the historic and scientific value of more than three dozen sites on the moon. These remnants of America's golden era of...

September 1, 2011 11:54 AM |

Academy Panel Urges Greater Focus on Space Junk

by Andrew Lawler

Traveling along with the space station and hundreds of satellites is a swarm of more than 16,000 bits and pieces of rocket parts traveling at high velocities. Any one...