New Science/AAAS Webinar
Characterizing cell morphology using imaging flow cytometry
Wednesday, September 2, 2015, at 12 noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. UK (BST), 6 p.m. Central Europe (CEST)
In this webinar, we will explore how characterizing cell morphology can be applied to understanding and diagnosing diseases, such as blood disorders. One technology, imaging flow cytometry, combines the visual analysis capabilities of microscopy with flow cytometry to provide a powerful tool for such applications.
Register TODAY: webinar.sciencemag.org
Produced by the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office and sponsored by EMD Millipore.
|
|
 |
Science
Weekly News
|
|
|
|
|
|
| A roundup of the week’s top stories in Science:
|
|
| Special Section |
|
Special Issue News
Forest Health
Gabriel Popkin
Special Issue News
Forest Health
Tim Appenzeller
Special Issue News
Forest Health
Elizabeth Pennisi
|
|
| In Brief |
|
In science news around the world, an animal advocacy group uses crowdsourcing and public records requests to hunt for violations of National Institutes of Health animal research rules; a Global Food Security report warns that climate change will increase weather-related crop disasters; patient advocates and scientists join forces to call for more research into myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome; and climatologists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are forecasting a “Godzilla El Niño” for the winter of 2015 to 2016. Also, scientists link gut microbes to a debilitating eye disease. And new evidence supports the existence of the “exercise” hormone irisin in humans.
|
|
| In Depth |
|
Energy Development
Michael Balter
Between about 850 C.E. and 1250 C.E., Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico’s San Juan Basin was at the center of a vast and sophisticated Pueblo culture. Today, the park is at the center of an oil and gas boom that archaeologists, environmentalists, and Native American activists say threatens a broader landscape filled with hundreds of Chacoan sites. Earlier this month, Chaco experts presented a plan to slow down the granting of drilling leases close to the park. They are also preparing a white paper arguing that the widest possible region around Chaco Canyon should be protected from drilling. Meanwhile, environmental and Native American groups have gone to court to block 239 pending drilling permits in the Chaco area.
Polar Science
Tania Rabesandratana
The Belgian government and the International Polar Foundation (IPF) are battling for control of Belgium’s €21 research station in Antarctica, the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica. IPF, which built the station and has managed it since its 2009 inauguration, has been accused of misusing public funds. The government says it will run the station from now on, with the help of the Belgian army. But IPF is fighting back; the foundation says it remains in charge. The fight is creating uncertainty for scientists who are preparing for the 2015 to 2016 Antarctic research season.
Animal Welfare
David Grimm
No researchers have applied for required federal permits to conduct invasive research on chimpanzees living in the United States. That suggests that all U.S. biomedical research on chimps has stopped—or is about to stop—and it’s unclear whether the work will ever start again. Research on chimpanzees has been waning since 2013, when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it would phase out most government-funded chimp research and retire the majority of its research chimps to sanctuaries. The most recent blow came in June, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stated that all chimpanzees in the United States—including the more than 700 chimps used in research—would be classified as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Any labs that wished to continue invasive work on these animals would need to apply for an ESA permit, and the agency would grant permits only for work that enhances the survival of the species and benefits chimpanzees in the wild. By 17 August, however, not a single lab had applied for an ESA permit. And because the agency needs 90 days or more to review permit requests, no labs will have one by the time the rule goes into effect on 14 September. That means any ongoing projects must stop on that date. “This is the beginning of the end of invasive chimpanzee research,” says Stephen Ross, director of the Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Illinois, who pushed for the FWS rule. Less clear, however, is whether researchers conducting behavioral studies or other non-invasive research involving chimpanzees will need to obtain a permit.
Energy
Eli Kintisch
This week, Royal Dutch Shell received the federal go-ahead to begin full-scale exploratory drilling in the Chukchi Sea off Northwest Alaska. Since 2010, the company has given more than $15 million to an environmental research program that is jointly managed by the firm’s scientists, outside researchers, and representatives of the native Alaskan Inupiat villages that face the most acute potential environmental impacts from drilling. These studies have focused on ice movements, currents, and the behavior of whales and other animals. Participating scientists have lauded the work as important, but others want environmental research to be conducted by unbiased bodies instead of funded by industry.
Behind the Numbers
Jeffrey Mervis
This column is the second in a new series that takes a fresh look at some of the numbers that shape policies affecting the scientific community. The first column reexamined a metric devised by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, called the Biomedical Research and Development Price Index, to track the cost of what’s needed to carry out biomedical research. This column tackles the issue of government red tape, specifically, what portion of a grant is devoted to “nonresearch” activities. A closer look at the faculty surveys generating the data suggests there are flaws in the conventional wisdom that scientists are weighted down with a heavy administrative “burden” that interferes with their ability to carry out cutting-edge research.
|
|
| Feature |
|
Jennifer Couzin-Frankel
Since 2005, when internist Pieter Cohen of the Cambridge Health Alliance in Massachusetts found that his patients were being sickened by a Brazilian weight loss supplement containing antidepressants and thyroid hormones, he has become something of a mix of Indiana Jones and Sherlock Holmes of the supplement world. With chemist colleagues in the United States, Brazil, and Europe, he hunts for drugs illegally buried in supplements. Then he goes public. Ultimately, he hopes to inspire new regulations. So far, Cohen and his collaborators have identified three hidden stimulant drugs in supplements. The discoveries also highlight a broader problem, Cohen and others contend: a dysfunctional system for policing dietary supplements.
|
|
|
|
|
New Science/AAAS Webinar
Characterizing cell morphology using imaging flow cytometry
Wednesday, September 2, 2015, at 12 noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. UK (BST), 6 p.m. Central Europe (CEST)
In this webinar, we will explore how characterizing cell morphology can be applied to understanding and diagnosing diseases, such as blood disorders. One technology, imaging flow cytometry, combines the visual analysis capabilities of microscopy with flow cytometry to provide a powerful tool for such applications.
Register TODAY: webinar.sciencemag.org
Produced by the Science/AAAS Custom Publishing Office and sponsored by EMD Millipore.
|
|
|
|
Science and the future 