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Like the mythological heroine Cassandra, Robert Webster seemed destined to remain a prophet who was never to be believed. His vision has since been validated but, fortunately for the world, his predictions of disaster—an influenza pandemic—have not yet reached the proportions of Greek tragedy.
As the line between academia and industry blurs, conflict-of-interest issues have gone from black and white to all the shades in between. Tinker Ready scans the spectrum for clarity.
Even when the chips are stacked against him, microarray pioneer Patrick Brown remains an incurable optimist. After defeating dogma in biochemistry and genetics, Brown is taking on the world of publishing—and he still hasn't run out of breath.