Those who worry that the United States isn't producing enough Ph.D.s in science and engineering can take heart from the National Science Foundation's latest Survey of Earned Doctorates, which has just come out. It shows that U.S. institutions granted a record high 31,801 science and engineering doctorates in 2007, a 6.5% increase over 2006.

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has landed another big name in his probe of financial conflicts of interest in science. Today the New York Times reports on Grassley's investigation of psychiatrist Frederick Goodwin, a former director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) who hosts the radio show The Infinite Mind.

XIAMEN, CHINA—The drinks were flowing freely and firecrackers were popping off as Chinese and U.K. scientists celebrated the opening of a new Sino-U.K. center on environmental science and technology. The endeavor is a joint effort of the Institute of Urban Environment in Xiamen and the University of Aberdeen in the U.K., to speed technology transfer to China and spur the development of homegrown environmental technologies.

Big vote among House democrats yesterday that saw Henry Waxman (D-CA) defeat John Dingell (D-MI) for the chairmanship of the powerful Energy and Commerce panel, the committee through which climate change legislation will pass. See our ScienceNow story for analysis...

The most prominent scientist in President-elect Barack Obama's transition team says that the group reviewing the White House science shop is under tight pressure to make suggestions for who should be the science adviser to the new president.

France's leading state-run research university—the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie—has been on the prowl along the U.S. East Coast this week, looking to test its new liberty. Under a law that takes effect in January, UPMC will be one of 20 "autonomous" state schools that for the first time will control their own budgets, hire their own faculty, and—in theory—run their own labs.

Five years ago, the U.S. Congress sent a shudder through the biomedical research community when lawmakers came close to pulling funding for four National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants on sexual behavior. The controversy widened when a conservative group circulated a list of about 200 grants on sex- and AIDS-related topics and NIH scrambled to defend the research.

The United Kingdom is the big winner—and women are the major losers—in the first round of grants for "advanced scientists" awarded by the European Research Council (ERC). The final results, released earlier this month, show that U.K. institutions will host 21% of the 275 grants, worth up to €3.5 million each and reserved for well-established scientists.

Expect no letup in the investigation of U.S. biomedical researchers who violate conflict-of-interest regulations. So says Senator Chuck Grassley (R–IA), who’s been hammering scientists who receive pay from drug companies but fail to comply with U.S. rules requiring them to report such outside income.

In the U.K. today, The Guardian's front page blares "NHS medical research plan threatens patient privacy." The story centers on a proposal to allow researchers to mine National Health Service (NHS) records to identify people with specific medical conditions who might consider a clinical trial. That's disturbing to the chair of an NHS watchdog group, says the paper: