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Biologists and others trying to make sense of the scientific literature have a hard enough time keeping up with new discoveries. Inadequate attention to nomenclature is only making the task worse.
The European Molecular Biology Organization, upset over US plans to proceed unilaterally with plans for free website for life science papers, is to provide 500,000 Euros towards the creation of a European counterpart.
India has launched a major programme to create digital databases of its 'traditional knowledge' in a bid to prevent such knowledge from being patented in other countries, particularly the United States and Japan.
Research that has pioneered the understanding of electricity in biology was this week rewarded three biologists, shared the Albert Lasker award for basic medical research for their work on ion channel proteins
Leading European space scientists have called on international space agencies to coordinate their plans more closely to ensure that similar missions complement rather than duplicate each other.
Concerns over the possible failure of the launch of an X-ray satellite on Europe's new Ariane 5 rocket have led the European Space Agency to consider taking out its first ever insurance on a scientific payload.
Japan's education ministry has approved the government's plan to turn national universities into semi-autonomous 'agencies', provided they are allowed to continue to give due priority to education and research.
Last week's earthquake in Taiwan is expected to bring substantial damage to the nation's high-tech industry. But officials at the country's main science park say that the damage is likely to be short lived.
Concern is growing at that the creation of a new agency to run nuclear weapons research in the US Department of Energy's research laboratories will undermine the $3 billion worth of scientific research they undertake each year.
Claude Allègre, France's science minister, has publicly outlined his reasons for for scrapping plans to build a French synchrotron and join up with British plans to build a similar machine.
The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) is setting up a repository for full-length human cDNAs, providing a source of genetic sequences and clones for any researcher who requires them.
Canadian biologists and environmental groups are upset at moves to give representatives from private corporations direct involvement in the process by which species are added to the endangered list.
A US geographer under investigation for possible scientific misconduct is suing the authors of an article claiming that his rock-dating methods were fundamentally flawed.
All myosin motors move in the same direction — or so it was thought. The discovery of one form that acts in reverse sheds new light on the mechanics of these molecular motors.
How hot is the Earth's core? The question can be tackled in various ways. Now we have a new, ab initio , approach, one that involves application of developments in computational physics to devise a 'virtual thermometer'. It produces estimates consistent with those derived by other techniques, and may be broadly applicable in materials science.
The production of red blood cells is a finely balanced process: too many and blood circulation is impaired; too few and the tissues don't get enough oxygen. Control of this process has now been pinned down to the opposite effects of two signalling pathways -- one involving cell-death receptors, and the other involving the peptide hormone erythropoietin -- on a transcription factor called GATA-1.
Oxidation catalysts are important to the pharmaceutical, petrochemical and agricultural industries, but are not always environmentally benign. Progress towards making greener catalysts and improving their selectivity has met with some success, but their lack of stability can be a problem.
aemoglobin is well known for its function is delivering oxygen from lungs or gills to tissues. But the startling results of a study into the haemoglobin from a parasitic nematode called Ascaris show that haemoglobin can also eliminate oxygen. Ascaris lives in an anaerobic environment where oxygen is toxic, so its haemoglobin, which has an especially high affinity for oxygen, acts as a nitric-oxide activated deoxygenase.
Infrared observations of nearby stars reveal that disks of dust around certain stars disappear 300-400 million years after they formed. This is similar to what is believed to have happened to the disk of dust in our Solar System following the formation of planets.
The soil amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum is among the most versatile of model organisms. At a meeting last month, scientists who use Dictyostelium to study a wide variety of biological processes came together to discuss the latest results.
The air-conditioning of buildings consumes vast amounts of power. Why not use wind for the purpose, not to power a generator but directly? The design concerned involves buildings with subtle shapes to direct air flow, and banks of internal heat pipes for 'regenerative cooling'.
