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Have US critics of agricultural biotechnology chosen to attack the authors of a new study on the safety of genetically modified crops because they lack the arguments with which to counter the study's content?
The German Parliament last week ended 18 months of controversy by agreeing to set up set up an all-parliamentary commission on the ethical and legal aspects of biomedicine.
The Ontario Research and Development Challenge Fund (ORDCF) lastweek announced the approval of Can$74.2 million (US$51 million) for genomics-relatedprojects.
There is no scientific evidence that crops genetically-modified to resist pests pose special health or environmental risks, according to the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences.
Genome researchers are considering using a software package, developed by music enthusiasts to access music stored on personal computers across the world, to decentralised genome annotation efforts.
South Africa’s Medicines Control Council has halted a trial of the new antiretroviral drug coviracil after five South African women died during a clinical trial.
Roy Anderson, one of Britain's leading epidemiologists, has resigned as director of an Oxford-based research centre financed by the Wellcome Trust, following two damning reports on the way that the centre has been managed.
A panel of palaeontologists last week confirmed that a fossil of a toothed bird - originally thought to be an important new species - is a composite of a least two separate specimens.
A prominent Oxford professor has won the first round of a bitter battle over the “stranglehold” that, he claims, a California company is trying to exert over the development of microarray technology.
The prospect of British researchers being permitted to work on human embyronic stem cells came a step nearer last week when such research was endorsed by the UK’s main bioethics panel.
The search for life among the stars stepped up a gear last week with the First Astrobiology Science Conference in California. Henry Bortman and Philip Ball were there to test the atmosphere.
When making proteins, cells opt for high speed at the cost of large amounts of waste. But the waste-recycling process has a happy side effect — it gives the immune system a head start in its battle against viral invaders.
Many systems in nature are chaotic in both space and time, making their behaviour unpredictable. A new model of the convective behaviour of a heated fluid has helped identify the mechanism leading to the chaotic dynamics.
Dehiscent fruits burst open when ripe, so releasing the seeds within. The results of work with the 'model' plant Arabidopsis, involving manipulation of genes that create the machinery for dehiscence, will further knowledge of fruit evolution and may well be of agronomic importance.
A new branch of an intracellular signalling pathway has been identified in mammalian cells. This discovery may explain why defects in this pathway have been implicated in cancer, and how a similar pathway is involved in larval growth arrest in the nematodeCaernorhabditis elegans.
Two studies add further credibility to an emerging picture of electrons in solids known as 'dynamical stripes'. At the same time they challenge the universal validity of the conventional theories of metals and superconductors.
Basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors are proteins involved in regulating gene expression. For this they have to recognize target sequences in DNA. A combinatorial approach not only allows more detailed study of DNA recognition and binding by bHLH proteins, but will also be more broadly applicable.
A high-resolution image of a nearby spiral galaxy shows the relationship between hydrogen gas and star formation. Although having lots of gas around can be enough to generate new stars, this is not always the case.
An unexpected transition from a fluid state to a frozen state can be achieved in a non-equilibrium system by increasing the level of noise (or temperature) of the system. Such transitions may apply to traffic jams created by fluctuations in the traffic flow.
Immune cells known as type 1 and type 2 T-helper cells are important for the immune response to different types of pathogen. Now, T-bet - a transcription factor required for a naive progenitor cell to become a type 1 helper rather than a type 2 helper - has been identified.
Daedalus is inventing a porous paint that will protect houses from humidity. In high humidity 'Pumpaint' will swell, sealing its pores against the ingress of water. In hot or dry weather, it will shrink, its pores will open, and it will let water vapour out easily.
