How bedbugs came back, with a vengeance

How bedbugs came back, with a vengeance

Bedbugs suck — blood mostly, but they are also a costly problem, says Rajeev Vaidyanathan of SRI International in Menlo Park, California, who led a series of talks on the creepy parasites at the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Philadelphia today.  Read more

A new map of “the other” malaria

A new map of "the other" malaria

The malarial parasite, Plasmodium vivax, is something of a forgotten step sister to the more prevalent, more deadly Plasmodium falciparum. Global and local programmes looking to eradicate malaria may need to pay it more attention say several health experts presenting at this year’s annual meeting for the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Philadelphia taking place this week.  Read more

Researcher confesses to stealing lab notebooks

Researcher confesses to stealing lab notebooks

In two sworn affidavits dated 16 and 21 November, researcher Max Pfost admitted to stealing laboratory notebooks from his employer the Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI) in Reno, Nevada, and giving them to Judy Mikovits, the institute’s former research director. He states that he retrieved “between 12-20 notebooks” from a locked desk in Mikovits’s former office on the morning of 30 September. This was one day after Mikovits was fired from her post for insubordination. He says he stored them in his mother’s garage in a “multicoloured Happy Birthday” bag.

Researcher arrested over missing lab notebooks

Researcher arrested over missing lab notebooks

On Friday 18 November, Mikovits, a chronic fatigue syndrome researcher, was arrested and jailed by Ventura County police in relation to a lawsuit brought by her former employer, the Whittemore Peterson Institute (WPI) in Reno, Nevada claiming that she had absconded with lab notebooks and proprietary information. She is being held without bail and may face extradition to Nevada.

As lawyers and patient advocates line up to debate who is right and who is wrong in this bitter dispute, there is still the question of what will become of a US$1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) that is held by WPI with Mikovits as the principle investigator.

The Scientist shutters after 25 years

The Scientist shutters after 25 years

The Scientist has folded. Staffers were brought into an all-hands-on-deck meeting at its offices in New York Thursday morning. There, publisher Jane Hunter and director Andrew Crompton announced that due to economic troubles, there would be no November issue, and no additions to the website save for an announcement of the magazine’s closure some time next week.

The magazine leaves behind a legacy of ambitious, highly-technical life science writing, innovative approaches to publishing and a litany of talented editors, writers and business people, many of whom cut their teeth at the hardscrabble publication.