EPA to regulate fracking waste water

EPA to regulate fracking waste water

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on Thursday Oct 20 that it plans to develop standards for disposing of waste water generated by hydraulic fracturing, a method used to extract natural gas from shale rock formations, often referred to as “fracking.” Later that day, the EPA provided expert testimony to a Senate panel that continues to look for ways to best regulate a field that could be an energy boon as well as a safety disaster.

A Canadian rescue for The Scientist?

A Canadian rescue for The Scientist?

The Scientist may not be hanging up its lab coat just yet. Only one week after announcing it was shutting down, the possibility of new ownership has revived hopes that the quarter century-old publication which caters to life scientists will continue on with its editorial team intact.  Read more

The shrinking effects of climate change

The shrinking effects of climate change

Despite the claims of a few grandstanders, it’s clear that our planet’s thermostat is dialing up. Some plants and animals have already responded to this change by modifying their distributions away from the Equator, toward the cooler poles, and by shifting the timing of their breeding or flowering cycles. But beyond their location and behaviours, the physical stature of some organisms is also affected by climate change — which could play havoc with ecosystems and even global food security.

US unprepared for bioterrorism

US unprepared for bioterrorism

Bioterrorism is a significant threat to US citizens — and one which the nation is sorely unprepared to face, according to an assessment released today by the Bipartisan WMD Terrorism Research Center, a non-profit bipartisan research organisation based in Washington, DC.  Read more

Postdoc Leapfrog

Postdoc Leapfrog

For most fledgling scientists, the long path to principal investigator-hood includes years of toiling as a postdoc. But the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced today that ten young biomedical scientists will skip that step in their careers, thanks to its new Early Independence Award programme. “The Early Independence Award enables outstanding investigators to establish their independent research careers as soon as possible,” explained NIH Director Francis Collins in a statement announcing the first award recipients today. The statement pledged that the agency would commit approximately US$19.3 million to support the investigators’ work over five years. An example of  … Read more

Bottle-loving beetles, alarming wasabi powder, and tired tortoises: The 2011 Ig Nobel Prizes

Bottle-loving beetles, alarming wasabi powder, and tired tortoises: The 2011 Ig Nobel Prizes

Funny and fascinating science got top billing at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the evening of 29 Sept. The 21st First Annual Ig Nobel Prizes, continued its tradition of recognizing science that “makes people laugh, and then makes them think.” The biology prize went to a team studying confused and amorous beetles in Australia. Researchers there discovered that the males of the Australian jewel beetle are attracted to shiny brown beer bottles that are sometimes found discarded by the side of the road. The beetles are so tenacious in their desire to copulate with the vessels that they will  … Read more

Ranking AIDS priorities

Ranking AIDS priorities

If the world’s HIV/AIDS advocacy organizations were able to raise $10 billion dollars over the next five years to fight the disease, they should give top priority to funding vaccine research and development. That was the conclusion of a Nobel-laureate-laden panel of economists at a meeting at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, on Sept 28. The panel also prioritized infant male circumcision, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, increasing safety of blood transfusions and expansion of antiretroviral therapy usage over 13 other possibilities. The meeting was hosted by the RethinkHIV project, which is funded by the Copenhagen Consensus Center, a Danish state-funded  … Read more