Heads of journals and institutes may come and go, but you’ll never take away my stretchy ‘I heart boobies’ bracelet.

— It’s official: Nobel prize-winning molecular biologist and former director of the US National Institutes of Health Harold Varmus is returning to the agency’s Bethesda, Maryland campus to head up the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Long rumored to be in the running for the directorship, Varmus was tapped by President Barack Obama yesterday to replace current NCI Director John Niederhuber, a Bush appointee. Varmus, a co-recipient of a Nobel Prize, currently serves as president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. (NY Times)

— The editor-in-chief of the Elsevier’s controversial journal Medical Hypotheses was fired last week by the publisher for refusing to implement a traditional peer-review system. Most of the journal’s 19-member editorial advisory board plans to resign in protest, ScienceInsider reports.

— Pfizer pledged more than $20 million yesterday to help researchers at Washington University find new uses for the heaps of chemical compounds that are currently collecting dust on the pharma giant’s shelves. Scientists at the St. Louis, Missouri university will be able to access more than 500 drugs from the New York–based company’s pipeline through an online portal. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

— School officials don’t heart the bracelets that pupils are wearing in support of breast cancer awareness, it seems. Some schools in California and Washington state reportedly banned the stretchy bracelets or asked students to turn them inside out for fear that the slogan — I ♥ boobies! — would incite lewd behavior. In response, the Keep a Breast Foundation, which sells the $3.99 bracelets, released a statement saying: “We fully understand the I Love Boobies campaign is not for everyone; however, we also feel that ‘boobies’ is not a four-letter word.” (AP)

Image: NIH Catalyst