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Genome Instability; News

Debate Surges Over the Origins of Genomic Defects in Cancer

Jean Marx

Cancer cells are chock-full of mutations and chromosomal abnormalities, but there's no agreement among researchers on how incipient cancer cells accumulate so many changes. Increasingly, the debate is focusing on the role of genomic instability: some kind of inherent defect that makes the cancer cell genome more susceptible than that of normal cells to developing the various abnormalities. Some researchers maintain that genomic instability is needed early on to set cells on the path to cancer. Others maintain that genomic instability might contribute to cancer's ability to spread in the body, but that it's not necessary for a cancer to occur.

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News of the Week

EPIDEMIOLOGY:
Despite Safety Concerns, U.K. Hormone Study to Proceed

Martin Enserink

When a huge U.S. study of hormone drugs came to an abrupt standstill 2 weeks ago, women's health experts cast a curious glance across the Atlantic. Would leaders of an even bigger trial funded by the U.K. government and the Medical Research Council halt their study and advise participants to stop taking their pills? Not at all, is the surprising answer.

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NIH BUDGET:
Senate Panel Adds 16% to Complete Doubling

Jocelyn Kaiser

The last leg of the biomedical community's campaign to double the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) over 5 years got a boost last week from a key Senate spending panel. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved $27.2 billion for NIH for the year beginning 1 October, a 16% increase over 2002 and twice the agency's 1998 level.

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GLOBAL CHANGE RESEARCH:
Senate Puts the Heat on Science Nominees

Jeffrey Mervis

A Senate panel turned a routine confirmation hearing last week into a withering, bipartisan assault on the Bush Administration's climate change policy. The targets--nominees for two senior White House science posts, one of whom would coordinate the Administration's research agenda on climate change--were left speechless and politically wounded by the criticism.

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PALEONTOLOGY:
Fossil Bird From China Turns Tail, Spills Guts

Erik Stokstad

In the 25 July issue of Nature, two Chinese paleontologists describe one of the most primitive birds ever discovered, Jeholornis. The bird's peculiar tail underscores the now-common theme of kinship with dinosaurs. So well-preserved is the turkey-sized specimen that even its last meal is plain to be seen.

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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY:
U.S. Asks for Delay in Harvard Theft Case

Andrew Lawler

BOSTON--Government prosecutors surprised a court last week by seeking a 6-month delay in proceedings against two biologists accused of stealing research secrets from Harvard University. Observers say the move, which left the judge flabbergasted, suggests that the government is not yet ready to take its case to trial.

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NUCLEAR FUSION:
Chemistry Casts Doubt on Bubble Reactions

Charles Seife

A controversial claim that scientists had detected signs of fusion in a rapidly collapsing bubble may have further imploded this week. A new experiment that measures the energy budget of a collapsing bubble for the first time indicates that so-called bubble fusion is highly unlikely to occur.

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CLIMATE PREDICTION:
Signs of Success in Forecasting El Niño

Richard A. Kerr

El Niño, the sleeping giant of climate, awakened earlier this month, according to government scientists. But will this El Niño develop into a weak-to-moderate warming this winter, as now predicted, or another barnburner like last time?

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SUPERCONDUCTIVITY:
Stripes Theory Beset by Quantum Waves

Adrian Cho

In a paper published online this week by Science, physicists show how the previously reported "stripes" in one type of superconducting material might be a subtle effect of overlapping quantum waves of electric charge. The new results do not rule out charge stripes in the material, abbreviated BSCCO, but they show that stripes are not needed to explain the undulations earlier researchers spotted on the surface of the material, physicists say.

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News Focus

NEUROSCIENCE:
Versatile Cells Against Intractable Diseases

Constance Holden

If popular accounts are to be believed, stem cells hold cures for a variety of ailments, chief among them neurological disorders such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. But in reality, scientists say, the closest treatments are years away, and some will take decades. Nonetheless, two recent developments--the cultivation of human embryonic stem cells and the discovery of hitherto unsuspected plasticity in the human nervous system--have sparked a plethora of new investigations into the possibility of using stem or stemlike cells to treat these devastating conditions.

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A. P. J. ABDUL KALAM PROFILE:
The Political Ascent of an Indian Missile Man

Pallava Bagla

NEW DELHI--He's an aeronautical engineer, a devout Muslim, and a workaholic who shuns the limelight. But however one describes India's new president, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam hardly fits the mold of his predecessors, career politicians being rewarded for decades of faithful service. Indeed, his scientific colleagues hope that Kalam's election will send a new message to the country's 1 billion citizens: Technology can take you to the top.

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PHYSIOLOGY:
Setting the Human Clock: Technique Challenged

Marcia Barinaga

Four years ago, a study showed that people's sleep-wake cycles can be altered by shining light on the backs of their knees. But many researchers in the field were skeptical. Now circadian clock researchers report on page 571 that they have refuted the earlier study.

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RESEARCH CENTERS:
Science With an Agenda: NSF Expands Centers Program

Jeffrey Mervis

A 15-year-old National Science Foundation program of collaborative academic-based research centers is thriving after a controversial start. In addition to conducting world-class research, the centers are expected to improve education in local schools; strengthen undergraduate and graduate training; improve minority representation in the sciences; and link up with other academic institutions, industry, and the community. It's a tall order, and one for which many academic scientists have scant training. What makes the program tick?

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RESEARCH CENTERS:
Power of the Purse: Down-to-the-Wire Talks Shape a New NSF Center

Jeffrey Mervis

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA--The stakes are high when you're applying for one of the National Science Foundation's coveted multiyear, multimillion-dollar Science and Technology Center awards, and NSF takes a hands-on approach to making sure its money is well spent. So when researchers at the University of Minnesota learned that their plan for a National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics had made the final cut, their work had only just begun.

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RESEARCH CENTERS:
The Geometry Center, 1991-1998. RIP.

Jeffrey Mervis

Observers disagree on what killed the National Science Foundation's first Science and Technology Center, created in 1991 at the University of Minnesota. But its demise provides a cautionary tale. Only one other center in the program's history has been terminated early, and that death was due to technical problems in trying to apply magnetic resonance technology to basic biology.

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