Archive by date | July 2012

NIAID director urges continuation of H5N1 research moratorium

NIAID director urges continuation of H5N1 research moratorium

At a meeting of influenza researchers in Times Square New York Tuesday, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) recommended that researchers continue to honour a self-imposed moratorium on certain experiments with highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1, saying that researchers needed to better justify the benefits of the research to the public.  Read more

Q&A: US children’s study revisits strategy

Leaders of the US National Children's Study, now more than 10 years in the making, have struggled to define a sampling strategy for the 100,000 children they aim to recruit.

The US National Children’s Study (NCS) came into being in 2000 as an ambitious effort to track influences on the health of 100,000 American children from in the womb to age 21. Now the nature of that effort has been significantly redrawn, in a revised recruiting plan issued on 24 July by study leaders at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), responding to Congressional complaints.  Read more

Digital pills make their way to market

Digital pills make their way to market

Digestible microchips embedded in drugs may soon tell doctors whether a patient is taking their medications as prescribed. These sensors are the first ingestible devices approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). To some, they signify the beginning of an era in digital medicine.  Read more

Amid criticism, Berkeley Earth extends record, upholds findings

Amid criticism, Berkeley Earth extends record, upholds findings

The researchers behind the curious Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature study have released their latest results, concluding that the globe has warmed around 2.5 degrees Celsius over the past 250 years (see graph at right; PDF available here). Discussing the unpublished work with typical flair in an op-ed for the New York Times, physicist and self-proclaimed skeptic-turned-believer Richard Muller said “essentially all” of the increase is due to humans.  Read more

National security trumps indigenous rights on development projects in Brazil

A regulation passed earlier this month by the Brazilian government is stirring anger among indigenous people and environmentalists, as it allows dams, roads, and military bases to be built in indigenous territories without their prior consent if the projects are considered to be relevant to “national security”.  Read more

Criminal charges dropped against University of California over lab death

The first ever criminal prosecution over an accident in a US academic laboratory was partially concluded on 27 July – but also took a bizarre twist. In a keenly-anticipated agreement, the Los Angeles district attorney dropped charges against the governing body of the University of California (the UC Regents). In turn, they accepted responsibility for laboratory conditions at the time of the death of 23-year-old Sheharbano (“Sheri”) Sangji at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), three and a half years ago.  Read more