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June 1, 2009 7:58 AM |

Indian Scientists Welcome Triumvirate of Science Leaders

by Pallava Bagla

India’s prime minister Manmohan Singh, elected to a second 5-year term, has named leaders with deep technical expertise to his cabinet. The new science minister is Prithviraj Chavan, 63, a...

May 22, 2009 6:40 AM |

Return of Singapore's Non-native Prodigal Son (and Daughter)

by Dennis Normile

One criticism of Singapore's multibillion-dollar effort to build a biomedical empire is its reliance on high-profile foreign researchers lured to the city-state on short-term contracts. But at least two top...

May 18, 2009 8:58 AM |

H1N1 Rocks Japan, But WHO Says It's Still No Pandemic

by Dennis Normile

The number of confirmed influenza A (H1N1) cases in Japan exploded over the weekend, going from an officially reported four—all in returning vacationers—on 16 May to 129 as of 18...

May 15, 2009 6:10 AM |

Superstumble for Japan's Supercomputer

by Dennis Normile

TOKYO—A Japanese consortium’s plans to build the world's fastest supercomputer suffered a setback on 14 May when two private companies involved announced they are withdrawing to cut costs. The Next-Generation...

May 8, 2009 11:47 AM |

Rave Reviews Win New Term for Ag Institute Head

by Pallava Bagla

Just a decade ago, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) was described as facing a "midlife crisis" (Sub.). Today, there has been a turnaround: finances are...

May 7, 2009 4:23 AM |

Same Hotel, Different Virus

by Dennis Normile

The Metropole Hotel in Hong Kong's Kowloon district became infamous in 2003 when a doctor from mainland China, sick with SARS, infected other guests who carried the virus to Canada,...

May 4, 2009 1:20 PM |

Korean Aims to Succeed Where Hwang Failed (and Faked)

by Dennis Normile

Last week, a bioethics committee advising the South Korean government recommended conditionally approving plans for the first attempt at therapeutic cloning in the country since the work of Woo Suk...

May 1, 2009 7:23 AM |

South Korea May Restart Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research

by Dennis Normile

South Korean media (story, story, story) are reporting that the country's bioethics committee has given the green light for a research group at Cha General Hospital in Seoul to conduct...

April 23, 2009 2:43 PM |

Afghanistan Gets First National Park

by Claire Thomas

Afghanistan has outlined its first national park this week, thanks to help from the U.S. Wildlife Conservation Society. The park, called Band-e-Amir, boasts six deep blue lakes separated by dams...

April 6, 2009 7:30 AM |

Moonwalking, Robot-Style

by Dennis Normile

TOKYO—For those wondering where Japan’s intense interest in humanoid robot research is headed, look to the night sky. On 3 April, a government advisory group suggested sending a bipedal robot...

April 5, 2009 10:01 PM |

Terror Threat for India's Space Scientists

by Pallava Bagla

NEW DELHI—Paramilitary commandos are guarding India’s top space scientist and several others in response to a threat from the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba. According to the Press Trust of India, fresh...

April 3, 2009 11:46 AM |

Deforestation Up Close

by Claire Thomas

In an attempt to improve environmental governance of Sumatra’s once-extensive tropical forests, a publicly accessible Web site showing detailed maps of widespread deforestation on the Indonesian island over the past few...

April 3, 2009 4:52 AM |

No Stimulus for Korean Research?

by Dennis Normile

A South Korean scientist frets in the JoongAng Daily about the country's lack of support for basic research....

March 31, 2009 8:33 AM |

Debate: Do Gobbled Algae Mean Carbon Fix Sunk?

by Eli Kintisch

According to the conventional wisdom in recent news accounts, the failure of a recent German-Indian expedition to grow and sink a massive algae bloom at sea is the death knell...

March 27, 2009 6:04 AM |

A Database for Japanese Science, in Japanese

by Dennis Normile

TOKYO—With the Internet awash in scientific information, does the world need another database of publications and researchers? The Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) thinks so—if it's in Japanese. Its...

March 24, 2009 9:20 AM |

Singh Makes Science Election Issue in Reelection Bid

by Pallava Bagla

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of the ruling Congress Party today made science an important element in his party’s election manifesto for the upcoming polls for the Indian Parliament that...

March 23, 2009 6:10 PM |

No Red Lights for Indo-U.S. Nuclear Deal

by Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

A nuclear deal signed between the United States and India last fall is on track to be implemented despite a leadership change in the United States and a possible change...

February 25, 2009 6:54 AM |

Why School Rankings Don't Matter—and What Does

by Dennis Normile

TOKYO—Junichi Hamada is still a month away from taking office as the next president of the University of Tokyo, and it's clear he's already weary of one question. After Hamada...

February 23, 2009 8:35 AM |

Indian Science Minister: We're Not Worthy

by Pallava Bagla

NEW DELHI--In a rare confession of inadequacy, India's science minister, Kapil Sibal, told Parliament last week that India competes poorly with developed nations in science. He blamed India's "comparatively low"...

February 19, 2009 6:16 AM |

New Group Plans a Solar Japan

by Dennis Normile

TOKYO—Japan "has not shown leadership" on environmental issues, former investment banker Yasuyo Yamazaki said here yesterday at the inaugural press conference of the Sun-Based Economy Association. Yamazaki, who heads the...

February 18, 2009 6:39 AM |

Health Officials Try to Calm China Flu Fears

by Richard Stone

BEIJING—International health officials today sought to reassure antsy staff of foreign embassies here that the recent spate of fatalities in China from the H5N1 strain of avian influenza is no...

February 9, 2009 2:38 PM |

Japanese Cancer Scientists Plan Asia-Pacific Research Network

by Dennis Normile

TOKYO—International health organizations have long recognized the devastating impact of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis on developing countries. Now researchers are also sounding an alarm about the...

February 6, 2009 8:51 AM |

India's Nuclear Ostracism Is Over

by Pallava Bagla

NEW DELHI—India's long nuclear winter has come to end. On Wednesday, the government’s nuclear power utility inked a deal to buy at least two power reactors from France—India’s first major...

January 21, 2009 12:42 PM |

Iraqi Minister Fires Museum Chief

by Andrew Lawler

Should the Iraqi government reopen its long-shuttered archaeology museum in Baghdad? An Iraqi minister says yes, and the head of the country's archaeology board says no. So on 11...

January 19, 2009 7:50 AM |

Edgy New Science Magazine Debuts in China

by Richard Stone

BEIJING—Chinese scientists have long hungered for a news forum they could call their own: a magazine that would probe beyond the headlines of the latest findings and explore issues...

January 9, 2009 5:22 AM |

Field Researchers in China Beware

by Richard Stone

BEIJING—Last September, two British students on a geophysics expedition in western China ran afoul of local authorities, who confiscated their GPS equipment and fined each student roughly $1450. The incident,...

December 29, 2008 12:31 PM |

U.S. Science Academy Official Detained in Tehran

by Richard Stone

A member of a U.S. scientific delegation headed by the President of the Institute of Medicine was interrogated for 9 hours earlier this month in his Tehran hotel. The...

December 23, 2008 11:17 AM |

South Korea Aims to Boost Status as Science and Technology Powerhouse

by Richard Stone

SEOUL—South Korea is better plugged into the Internet than any other nation, and its economy is dominated by megacompanies like Samsung whose inexpensive consumer electronics are now sitting under millions...

December 2, 2008 1:40 PM |

An Academy Connection to China's Tainted Milk?

by Hao Xin

The recent tainted baby formula scandal in China has focused public attention on the high-tech adulteration of milk with the industrial chemical melamine (Science, 28 November, p. 310). The compound,...

November 21, 2008 11:47 AM |

A Lively Environment for a Party

by Richard Stone

XIAMEN, CHINA—The drinks were flowing freely and firecrackers were popping off as Chinese and U.K. scientists celebrated the opening of a new Sino-U.K. center on environmental science and technology. The...