Under intense pressure to save money, the University of California (UC) announced last month that all faculty and staff members who receive even a fraction of their salaries from state funds will be furloughed. But researchers won't be furloughed on teaching days, according to a letter sent by UC's interim provost to faculty on 21 August.
The novel H1N1 virus is behaving unpredictably, U.S. health officials said at a press briefing 21 August. The virus has spread to turkeys in Chile and slowed its spread in the Southern Hemisphere. Meanwhile, drug companies are having difficulty growing the virus, which means that vaccine will be in short supply this fall.
Research involving human embryonic stem cells will become easier in Japan as a result of new ethical review requirements that took effect 21 August.
The Public Library of Science has launched an "experimental" site for posting raw preprints of papers on hot topics. PLoS Currents (Beta) debuted last week with a set of papers on influenza.
National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins has recruited a former aide to be his chief of staff. Kathy Hudson now runs the Genetics & Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. She hopes to liaise with FDA on overseeing genetic tests.
Top whale researchers are arguing that the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration should reexamine a major regulation designed to reduce collisions between ships and highly endangered North Atlantic right whales. NOAA says it is evaluating the regulation's efficacy.
More than two dozen pathologists have left the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C., to form a new company that will offer the same pathology consultation services as does the 150-year-old institute. AFIP is expected to close by 2011.
For more science policy news, visit blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider.
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