Archive by date | December 2011

US biomedical and energy budgets inch toward resolution

For the past month, researchers who depend on US government funding have been living two different realities. Those who receive support through the National Science Foundation or NASA, among other agencies, are now moving forward under a 2012 budget that was hammered out in a spending bill enacted on 18 November.  Read more

Chronic fatigue syndrome scientist finds a temporary home

Judy Mikovits at WPI

Judy Mikovits is taking her work on the road. The embattled chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) researcher will conduct her arm of a US National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) sponsored study on the condition’s link to certain retroviruses at another US government laboratory, the scientist overseeing the study told Nature today. W. Ian Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection & Immunity at Columbia University in New York, says that Mikovits will team up with her former mentor Frank Ruscetti at his laboratory at the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Frederick, Maryland. They are one of three  … Read more

Human variome taking shape with Chinese node

An ambitious project to log all genetic variations that cause human disease lunged forward this week with the launch of the Chinese “node” of the Human Variome Project (HVP) . Scientists and clinicians in China meanwhile are hoping participation will spread genetic counseling and genetic medicine at home.

NSF takes broad look at broader impacts

NSF takes broad look at broader impacts

A National Science Foundation (NSF) task force has finalized its recommendations for tweaking the agency’s two merit review criteria, ‘intellectual merit’ and ‘broader impacts’. And central to that effort was a non-prescriptive, big-tent definition of broader impacts, says task force co-chair John Bruer (pictured), who presented the report on Tuesday to the National Science Board in Washington, DC.  Read more

Stratolaunch embarks on hybrid rocket-plane system

Stratolaunch embarks on hybrid rocket-plane system

Forget Kennedy Space Center. How about launching massive rockets from the underbelly of the largest plane ever built? On Tuesday, Burt Rutan, of aerospace company Scaled Composites, and billionaire Paul Allen, a former Microsoft executive, announced Stratolaunch Systems — a company that aims to put cargo and human payloads in orbit. The founders say the air-launch-to-orbit system will not only cost less, but also will be more flexible and responsive than the traditional launch pad approach, which is often logjammed because of weather and other logistical concerns. “With government funded spaceflight diminishing, there’s a much expanded opportunity for private efforts,” says Allen.  Read more

EU ITER funding proposals set to stir budget row

The European Commission today released proposals on the funding of the ITER nuclear fusion research project from 2014 to 2020 that seem certain to set the stage for a showdown with the European Union’s 27 member states next year, when discussions of future EU budgets enter their negotiating phase.

Evidence grows against mountaintop mining

Evidence grows against mountaintop mining

Evidence continues to mount of the devastating environmental effects of mountaintop mining (MTM) — the controversial practice of stripping the tops off of mountains to mine coal. The latest in a recent flurry of studies looking at activities in the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia shows the cumulative effects of mountaintop mining on downstream water quality. (See Nature’s previous coverage here and here.)  … Read more