Archive by date | November 2010

Nations unite to fight tiger’s burning plight

Nations unite to fight tiger’s burning plight

The nations that are home to the last wild tigers have pledged to try to double the numbers of the world’s largest cat and to “significantly expand” its habitat by 2022. By the time the next year of the tiger rolls round, the 13 countries hope to have some 7,000 Panthera tigris stalking around inside their borders.

Duke geneticist resigns as investigation continues

Duke geneticist resigns as investigation continues

Troubled Duke geneticist Anil Potti has resigned, according to an email sent by the Director of Duke University’s Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, Hunt Willard, and posted online by the Duke Chronicle today. Willard says that investigations into alleged research misconduct in Potti’s work will continue. “He accepted full responsibility for a series of anomalies in data handling, analysis and management that have come under scrutiny in the past months,” he says. Potti came under fire in July 2010 for allegedly puffing his resume. Duke halted clinical trials based on his research and opened a research misconduct investigation. The  … Read more

Drugs hit teen brains harder

Drugs hit teen brains harder

Some have argued that adolescent brains, flexible and full of growth potential, are more capable of dealing with the damage inflicted by drugs than adult brains. According to researchers gathering at a press conference at Society for Neuroscience this morning (11/15 am), adolescent brains cope with this damage more poorly than adults. Interrupting a critical period of synaptic network building, the drugs seem to have far reaching effect on development and behavior.