News of the Week
News Focus

News of the Week

HIV/AIDS MEETING:
Tough Challenges Ahead on Political and Scientific Fronts

Jon Cohen

BARCELONA, SPAIN--Politics grabbed much of the attention at the XIV International AIDS Conference here last week, which featured demonstrations by angry activists and the participation of more world leaders than had attended the meeting before. But several important research presentations shared the spotlight and helped demolish a long-standing complaint that these gatherings resemble a circus more than a venue to swap cutting-edge data.

[Full Text] [PDF]

HEAVY-ION PHYSICS:
Heavy-Element Fizzle Laid to Falsified Data

Charles Seife

In 1999, physicists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in California startled many of their colleagues with an announcement that they had discovered elements 118 and 116 by smashing lead nuclei and krypton nuclei together. That surprise turned out to be justified: LBNL has concluded that the "discovery" of elements 118 and 116 was based on falsified data.

[Full Text] [PDF]

MIDDLE EAST:
Archaeologists Keep Joint Project Rolling

Michael Balter

ÇATALHÖYÜK, TURKEY--This month, a group of Israeli and Palestinian archaeologists and educators, working together on a U.S.-funded project to protect and promote their shared history, met in south-central Turkey. The visit was prompted in part by the group's desire to learn the latest results from 9500-year-old Ğatalhöyük, which has been under excavation by a British-American team since 1993. But the dig's conference room also provided a neutral place for the group's initial meeting.

[Full Text] [PDF]

SPACE STATION RESEARCH:
Bigger Is Better for Science, Says Report

Andrew Lawler

A blue-ribbon panel has told NASA that the research program planned for the international space station will lack scientific credibility unless the controversial station is expanded beyond the size and scope currently envisioned. The report is a clear rebuke to plans by the Bush Administration to limit the orbiting laboratory's crew and size, and it could prove politically troublesome in NASA's budget negotiations with the White House and Congress.

[Full Text] [PDF]

SOLAR SYSTEM EXPLORATION:
Panel Plots Clear Path for Planetary Program

Andrew Lawler

For the first time, U.S. planetary science has a long-term, comprehensive road map for exploring the solar system. First stops would include the distant Kuiper belt and Pluto, Jupiter's icy moon Europa, and, to the surprise of many researchers, an ancient lunar crater. Now researchers must convince NASA, the White House, and Congress that those trips are worth the money.

[Full Text] [PDF]

FORMER SOVIET UNION:
Armenia Gears Up for Synchrotron

Richard Stone

YEREVAN--In a few years' time a decrepit building on the outskirts of Armenia's capital might be abuzz with activity as the headquarters for a gleaming new research facility: a $48 million, 3-giga-electron-volt synchrotron. Backed by an unlikely alliance of high-energy physicists and a New Jersey homebuilder, it will be one of the biggest single scientific assistance projects ever undertaken in the former Soviet Union if it goes ahead.

[Full Text] [PDF]

NEUROSCIENCE:
Gene's Effect Seen in Brain's Fear Response

Greg Miller

Demonstrating how genes influence behavioral traits has been much more difficult than tracing the lineage of physical characteristics. Now a study on page 400 has shown that people with different versions of a single gene have different patterns of brain activity in response to emotion-laden stimuli. The findings demonstrate that individual genes can contribute to how the brain interprets its environment, researchers say.

[Full Text] [PDF]

FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE:
Report Urges U.K. to Vaccinate Herds

Richard Stone

LONDON--Britain's top scientific body has urged the government to abandon its long-standing practice of relying solely on slaughtering animals to combat future outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease. Instead, in a report released 16 July, a Royal Society panel has concluded that vaccination and improved data collection should result in better control and fewer dead animals.

[Full Text] [PDF]

RESEARCH INTEGRITY:
U.S. Universities Urged to Do a Better Job

Jocelyn Kaiser

This week, an Institute of Medicine panel suggested ways to prevent scientific misconduct, calling on U.S. universities to make ethical conduct a bigger part of the academic culture. The report's recommendations, which are aimed at all university research, will cost money to implement, its authors say, and are likely to be controversial.

[Full Text]
News Focus

HUMAN CLONING:
President's Bioethics Council Delivers

Stephen S. Hall

On 11 July, following months of deliberations, the President's Council on Bioethics delivered its long-awaited recommendations to George W. Bush regarding federal policy on human cloning. The deeply divided panel's conclusions--that the government should ban cloning for reproductive purposes and observe a 4-year moratorium on cloning for biomedical research--sparked immediate controversy, not only about the decision but how the council reached it.

[Full Text] [PDF]

WOMEN'S HEALTH:
The Vanishing Promises of Hormone Replacement

Martin Enserink

Last week, a vast National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute study of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) came to a halt, and more than 16,000 participating women received a letter recommending that they stop taking their pills. The study, part of a huge research program called the Women's Health Initiative, stunned many supporters of HRT and led many women taking the drugs--some 6 million in the United States alone--to call their doctors for advice. But epidemiologists who have studied the issue for years say they're not so surprised.

[Full Text] [PDF]

MARINE SCIENCE:
Researchers Plunge Into Debate Over New Sub

David Malakoff

The aging of its mainstay deep-sea submarine--the 35-year-old Alvin, one of the world's few deep-water piloted submersibles--has U.S. marine scientists talking about a replacement. But how deep should it go, and should humans go along for the ride? Meanwhile, members of Congress, a White House oceans panel, and a National Academy of Sciences group studying ocean exploration are preparing to wade in with their own ideas.

[Full Text] [PDF]

DEVELOPMENT:
Missized Mutants Help Identify Organ Tailors

Gretchen Vogel

Two studies published this week point to genes that might optimize size in parts of the nervous system. On page 365, researchers describe the effects of a ubiquitous protein called b-catenin on the size of the brain's cerebral cortex. And in a paper published online this week by Science, another team explains how a protein called Six6 interacts with key cell-division genes to control the size of the developing retina and pituitary gland.

[Full Text] [PDF]

PROTEIN STRUCTURE:
Stretching the Limits

Joe Alper

Stretchy proteins perform a variety of critical functions for many organisms. Researchers are now finding out how they work and are beginning to apply that knowledge to new products for use in medicine, materials science, and even military projects. Artificial silks have the potential to make lightweight yet strong-as-steel protective clothing, for example, and polymers based on elastin are being developed to serve as arterial grafts or even energy-absorbing soundproofing materials.

[Full Text] [PDF]