News of the Week
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News of the Week

2003 BUDGET:
Science Agencies Get Most of What They Want, Finally

David Malakoff

After a nearly 5-month delay, the U.S. Congress last week finished work on the 2003 federal budget. The $397 billion package includes major increases for the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and NASA (see p. 1161). But President George W. Bush's 2004 budget request would dramatically slow growth for those and several other science agencies.

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SPACE RESEARCH:
Amid Troubles, Station Science Gains a Center

Andrew Lawler

Despite the uncertainties caused by the loss of the space shuttle Columbia, Congress has given NASA a green light to create a private institute for managing science aboard the international space station. Scientists and NASA managers are hailing last week's move as an important step in strengthening the research credibility of the massive project.

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NEUROSCIENCE:
Snooty Exchanges Are Key to Mouse Society

Greg Miller

On page 1196, neuroscientists report a major step toward understanding how pheromone cues are processed in the brain. By recording the electric chatter of neurons in the accessory olfactory bulb (AOB) of mice as they sniff another mouse, the researchers have discovered neurons that vary their activity in response to the sex and genetic strain of the sniffee. This suggests that the AOB extracts important social information from pheromonal cues.

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PALEONTOLOGY:
Primitive Jawed Fishes Had Teeth of Their Own Design

Erik Stokstad

On page 1235, researchers present evidence that teeth evolved independently in a group of extinct jawed fishes called the placoderms, not just once, in the common ancestor of jawed vertebrates, as has been assumed. The finding doesn't reveal how teeth came about, but if they evolved more than once, scientists may need to shake up a significant portion of the vertebrate family tree.

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MICROBIAL FORENSICS:
Report Spells Out How to Fight Biocrimes

Martin Enserink and Dan Ferber

DENVER, COLORADO--Catching bioterrorists will require changes from the crime scene to the courtroom, according to a new report that concludes that the United States is not sufficiently prepared to combat biocrimes. It may also require scientists to band together in a new discipline.

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EVOLUTION:
How Global Change Shaped the Squirrel Family

Elizabeth Pennisi

After studying how squirrel species are related, a pair of evolutionary biologists constructed an evolutionary tree or phylogeny and dated major events. They found that key branches of the tree sprouted in parallel with geologic and climate changes, they report online this week in Science (www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/1079705).

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SCIENTIFIC WORKFORCE:
MIT Broadens Minority-Only Programs

Jeffrey Mervis

This month, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced that, under pressure from the government, it will now accept white students into a summer program for minority high school students and a similar effort to help incoming minority freshmen. The Cambridge school's retreat comes at the same time that it is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold race as a factor in admissions, in pending cases involving the University of Michigan.

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News Focus

NEXT LINEAR COLLIDER:
Collision Course With Reality

Adrian Cho

Particle physicists around the world have given themselves a year to settle on a design for a $6 billion particle smasher. But can they disentangle the technology from the politics? Related stories discuss the science behind the next linear collider and a possible way to make it accessible to researchers around the world.

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NEXT LINEAR COLLIDER:
Why Physicists Long for the Straight and Narrow

Charles Seife

Europe's Large Hadron Collider, a superpowerful proton smasher, should be powerful enough to find a new generation of particles, but not to get to know them well. That's why particle physicists also want a vast linear collider to smash together electrons and antielectrons. The linear collider will reveal the nature of the new beasts in the particle zoo.

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NEXT LINEAR COLLIDER:
One Collider, Many Countries: How to Share the Wealth?

Daniel Clery

The technology to control a huge and complex instrument such as the next linear collider from virtually anywhere in the world already exists. Scattering control rooms around the globe might give everybody a piece of the particle-smashing action--if normally competing groups of physicists can manage to collaborate.

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BIOTERRORISM:
Security Rules Leave Labs Wanting More Guidance

David Malakoff

The U.S. government's effort to regulate bioterror research appears to be off to a rocky start. Key elements of the sweeping new security rules are vague, confusing, and possibly counterproductive, say scientists and university administrators in comments filed by last week's deadline. Research leaders are also frustrated that the government has yet to explain how it will conduct mandatory background checks, due to begin next month.

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WEST NILE VIRUS:
Researchers Scramble to Track Virus's Impact on Wildlife

David Malakoff

EDGEWATER, MARYLAND--With mosquito season approaching, about 100 researchers gathered here earlier this month to develop a blueprint for studying the West Nile virus's impact on wildlife. They got an update on the virus's impacts so far, and they identified dozens of questions that must be answered before scientists can predict where the virus might strike next and how best to stop it.

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AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE MEETING:
Gravity Waves Elude First Scrutiny

Charles Seife

DENVER, COLORADO--More than 4000 scientists and 1000 members of the press gathered here 13 to 18 February to discuss a broad array of research and policy. On Monday, scientists presented the first results from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. There will be more coverage in next week's issue and on ScienceNOW (www.sciencenow.org).

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AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE MEETING:
Subterranean Coal Fires Spark Disaster

Kathryn Brown

DENVER, COLORADO--More than 4000 scientists and 1000 members of the press gathered here 13 to 18 February to discuss a broad array of research and policy. Researchers detailed the global coal fire problem, as well as efforts to study and fight the blazes. There will be more coverage in next week's issue and on ScienceNOW (www.sciencenow.org).

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