– The recent spotlight cast on the potential dangers of radiation therapy has created waves. This week the American Society for Radiation Oncology issued a six-point plan to avoid harmful medical errors, including a recommendation to create a centralized database to collect reports of errors involving linear accelerators and CT scanners. (.html">NYTimes)

— Arden Bement, director of the US National Science Foundation (NSF), announced yesterday that he would be stepping down from his post in June. The change comes at a time when the Obama Administration is trying to make good on a 2006 promise by Bush to double the NSF’s budget. (ScienceInsider)

— The US government’s new Text4baby program puts new meaning to the term ‘nanny state’. The program, announced yesterday, will send three prenatal health reminders a week via mobile phone to pregnant women who sign up by texting ‘baby’ or ‘bebe’ in Spanish to 511411. (GHIT)

— The US Department of Defense has said that its military hospitals and clinics around the world will be required to stock Plan B, the controversial emergency contraceptive also known as the ‘morning after pill. The country’s Food and Drug Administration approved over-the-counter sales of Plan B in 2006. (WaPo)

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