Archive by date | May 2011

Science raises questions about XMRV study – updated

Science raises questions about XMRV study - updated

XMRV is running out of legs to stand on. The journal Science, which published a controversial 2009 paper linking the retrovirus to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), has published two follow-up papers undermining the association, as well as an “editorial expression of concern” indicating that the association was probably the result of contamination.

The sexual politics of sexual conflict

The sexual politics of sexual conflict

The emerging field of “sexual conflict” covers everything from hermaphrodite snails that digest each other’s sperm to female spiders that cannabilise their mates. So researchers in this area should have a pretty enlightened view of the sexes, right? Not according to a new study of the terminology and models used in sexual conflict research. It concludes that chauvinistic gender stereotypes permeate even here, with females seen as meekly responding to the advances of dominant, aggressive males.

New Jersey nixes participation in US cap-and-trade system

New Jersey nixes participation in US cap-and-trade system

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie yesterday announced his decision to withdraw his state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the only functioning US carbon cap-and-trade system, by year’s end. He argued that the program not only fails to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but creates an unnecessary tax burden on citizens and businesses.  Read more

Planet-hunting pioneer calls for probe to Alpha Centauri

Planet-hunting pioneer calls for probe to Alpha Centauri

The brief for speakers at today’s exoplanet workshop at MIT is “be provocative”, and veteran planet-hunter Geoff Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, certainly satisfied that with an extraordinary ten minute talk this morning that had one NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory official on his feet trying to respond even before the allotted question time. Marcy’s idea of sending a probe to Alpha Centauri came on the back of a series of scathing policy criticisms targeted at NASA and the US National Academy of Sciences.  Read more

Study to examine use of chimpanzees in US research — UPDATED

An Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee that will recommend whether the US government should continue to support chimpanzee research opened its inaugural meeting yesterday in Washington, D.C. and began wrestling with the thorny questions it has been set.  Read more

Attention! New study points to power of controlling neurons

Humans and monkeys can learn to fire neurons in particular regions of the brain at will using a feedback mechanism. They can, for example, control the movement of motor neurons even without making any physical movements. But what effect does that firing have on the cognition or behavior of the monkey (or person) whose brain it is?