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Summaries of this week's top stories, from Science Magazine
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- [NEWS] INFECTIOUS DISEASE: New Malaria Plan Called Ambitious By Some, Unrealistic by Others
The goals of the Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP), announced last week, are stunningly ambitious: Reduce malaria deaths to near zero by 2015, then progressively eradicate the disease from the planet. But many malaria experts say it's unlikely that GMAP will meet its targets.
Author: Leslie Roberts
- [NEWS] ANTHRAX INVESTIGATION: NAS Study May Fail to Settle Anthrax Case
Members of Congress and bioterrorism experts are voicing concerns that the review of the scientific evidence in the FBI's case against Bruce Ivins, the Army microbiologist implicated in the anthrax letter attacks of 2001, won't counter skepticism that Ivins, working solo, was the perpetrator of the attacks.
Author: Yudhijit Bhattacharjee
- [NEWS] ASTROPARTICLE PHYSICS: Europeans Think Big for Particle Detectors
European physicists who study particles from outer space made a pitch this week for the ambitious and costly experiments they want to build over the next decade.
Author: Daniel Clery
- [NEWS] NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: Adding a Turn to the Roadmap, Zerhouni to Step Down
Without saying much about his next move, Elias Zerhouni announced last week that he is resigning at the end of October after more than 6 years as director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Author: Jocelyn Kaiser
- [NEWS] NOAA: U.S. Oceans Chief Leaves a Mixed Legacy in His 7-Year Wake
Last week, former Navy Vice Adm. Conrad Lautenbacher announced he is stepping down as administrator of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and scientists say the spry technocrat leaves a reorganized and stronger NOAA research program--as well as some big headaches for the next U.S. oceans skipper.
Author: Eli Kintisch
- [NEWS] PLANETARY SCIENCE: Minerals Suggest Water Once Flowed on Mars--But Where?
Scientists on the Phoenix mission to the high arctic of Mars announced this week that the rover had found some long-sought soil minerals that are "indicators of liquid water in the past." The catch is that team members can't say for certain when or where the water was liquid.
Author: Richard A. Kerr
- [NEWS] CRYPTOGRAPHY: Quantum Network Set to Send Uncrackable Secrets
Next week in Vienna, European scientists and engineers will put the bizarre and abstruse laws of quantum mechanics to a practical, everyday use. Researchers will demonstrate a network for transmitting uncrackable encoded messages in quantum-mechanical packets of light.
Author: Adrian Cho
- [NEWS] GLACIOLOGY: Winds, Not Just Global Warming, Eating Away at the Ice Sheets
Two new studies point to random, wind-induced circulation changes in the ocean--not global warming--as the dominant cause of the recent ice losses through the glaciers draining both the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets.
Author: Richard A. Kerr
- [NEWS] RESEARCH FOUNDATIONS: Biochemist Robert Tjian Named President of Hughes Institute
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the largest private funder of biomedical research in the United States, has chosen a new president. He is University of California, Berkeley, biochemist Robert Tjian, a longtime Hughes investigator known as a driven researcher and devoted mentor.
Author: Jocelyn Kaiser
- [NEWS] FELLOWSHIPS: An International Plan to Hatch Scientist-Entrepreneurs
Last week, more than 100 young researchers from 60 countries were special guests at the summer meeting of the World Economic Forum, held near Tianjin, China's third biggest urban area.
Author: Richard Stone
- [NEWS FOCUS] NUTRITION SCIENCE: The Peanut Butter Debate
A new type of ready-to-use food is changing the way severe malnutrition is treated. But questions remain about how far to push its introduction--and science has a hard time providing the answer.
Author: Martin Enserink
- [NEWS FOCUS] NUTRITION SCIENCE: Patents: A Recipe for Problems?
The booming market for so-called ready-to-use therapeutic foods such as Plumpy'nut (see main text) is placing Nutriset, a company in France that together with the French government owns the patent to Plumpy'nut and similar pastes, under scrutiny.
Author: Martin Enserink
- [NEWS FOCUS] PLANETARY SCIENCE: Culture Wars Over How to Find an Ancient Niche for Life on Mars
Researchers seeking the next Mars rover landing site disagree about what makes for the most promising possibility: lots of water-altered minerals or familiar water-shaped terrain.
Author: Richard A. Kerr
- [NEWS FOCUS] EDWARD BUCKLER PROFILE: Romping Through Maize Diversity
A computer whiz turned geneticist borrows tactics from Wal-Mart and cattle breeders to manage what may be the world's largest genetic analysis.
Author: Elizabeth Pennisi
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