Archive by date | October 2013

Initiative gets $1.3 million to verify findings of 50 high-profile cancer papers

One of the major concerns in biomedical research today is that many basic findings cannot be easily replicated by other labs. Might the literature be stuffed with flukes and unrepeatable results, not sufficiently checked out before publication, and rarely repeated by other labs? Such doubts have increased in the past year, especially after scientists at Amgen and Bayer reported that they had been unable to reproduce the vast majority of ‘landmark’ papers describing promising approaches to treat disease.  Read more

US experiment to vote on dark matter

A US experiment is poised to resolve confusion over whether dark matter has already been detected. LUX (the Large Underground Xenon Experiment) at Sanford Underground Laboratory in Lead, South Dakota, announced today that it will release its first results on October 30.  Read more

Research fleet stays partly afloat

Research fleet stays partly afloat

The coastal town of Newport, Oregon, is normally bustling down at the docks. Fishermen take their boats out to harvest the bountiful Pacific Ocean and research vessels zip back and forth beneath the arched Yaquina Bay Bridge. But these days, Newport’s harbor is pretty quiet, says Clare Reimers, an oceanographer at Oregon State University in Corvallis.  Read more

US Supreme Court to hear challenge on greenhouse gas limits

The US Supreme Court agreed today to review the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants — a key piece of  the climate change strategy unveiled by President Barack Obama earlier this year.  Read more

Live updates: US government shutdown

Live updates: US government shutdown

The US government shut down on 1 October after Congress failed to agree on a new budget. Most government scientists have been ordered to stay at home, their offices and labs closed or run by a skeleton staff of ‘essential’ workers. US agencies have stopped processing grants, many government websites and databases are offline, and government-funded research facilities have begun to close.  Read more

Minister halts Italian stem-cell therapy trial

The clinical trial of a controversial stem-cell therapy supported by the Italian government has been stopped before recruiting any patients – to the relief of scientists who have been fighting the trial for months.  Read more