Sources:

Science's Role in Shake-Up of DOE Lab

The Department of Energy is replacing the contractor who ran the Brookhaven National Laboratory for 50 years, charging that it inappropriately favored science over safety.

Sources:

Brookhaven National Laboratory
Public Affairs Office
Building 134
P.O. Box 5000
Upton, NY 11973-5000

Department of Energy Office of Oversight
Office of Environment, Safety and Health
20030 Century Boulevard, Suite 102A
EH72
ES&H Info Center
Germantown, MD 20874
Telephone: 1-800-473-4375
E-mail: esh-infocenter@hq.doe.gov

Federico Pena
Department of Energy
1000 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, DC 20585

Yeast make berry sweet sugar substitute

Researchers have genetically engineered yeast to produce a protein-based sugar substitute, making manufacture of this berry-derived sweetener practical.

Sources:

Keiji Kondo
Central Laboratories for Key Technology
Kirin Brewery Co., Ltd.
1-13-5 Fukuura
Kanazawa-ku
Yokohama-shi
Kanagawa 236
Japan
E-mail: kondok@kirin.co.jp
Website: http://www.toppan.co.jp/kirin/english/r_d/r_d.html

Monell Chemical Senses Center
3500 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3308
Website: http://pobox.upenn.edu/~gomez/monell.html

Drug combo routs HIV from blood and tissue

A three-drug regimen banishes HIV from the lymphoid tissues of adults, where it tends to lurk, and aggressive treatment also appears promising for infants.

Sources:

Winston Cavert
Department of Microbiology
University of Minnesota Medical School
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Katherine Luzuriaga
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Room 318
Biotech 2
373 Plantation Street
Worcester, MA 01605

William T. Shearer
Texas Children's Hospital
6621 Fannin Street
Houston, TX 77030

Chemical drivers for tiny Brownian motors

Changes in electric charge during chemical reactions can bias Brownian motion and drive particles and large molecules in a chosen direction.

Sources:

R. Dean Astumian
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
University of Chicago
MC6035
Chicago, IL 60637
E-mail: dastumia@surgery.bsd.uchicago.edu

Marcelo O. Magnasco
Rockefeller University
1230 York Avenue
New York, NY 10021

Mammal birth signal cues tadpole to morph

The same brain hormone mediates the metamorphosis of a tadpole to toad and the delivery of a baby.

Sources:

Robert J. Denver
Department of Biology
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1048

Peter W. Nathanielsz
Laboratory for Pregnancy and Newborn Research
College of Veterinary Medicine
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14850

Language disorder tied to sound perception

Children exhibiting severe problems in using and understanding speech may have an impairment in their perception of the sounds that make up spoken expressions.

Sources:

Myrna L. Gopnik
McGill University
1001 Sherbrooke Street
Montreal, Quebec H3A 1G5
Canada

Michael M. Merzenich
Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience
Box 0732
University of California
San Francisco, CA 94143-0732

Paula A. Tallal
Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience
Rutgers University
197 University Avenue
Newark, NJ 07102

Beverly A. Wright
Audiology and Hearing Sciences Program
Northwestern University
2299 North Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208-3550

Greenland ice melts from the bottom up

Satellite radar images of northern Greenland reveal that the glaciers are melting from beneath.

Sources:

Eric Rignot
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
California Institute of Technology
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109-8099

H. Jay Zwally
NASA Goddard SFC
MC 971
Greenbelt, MD 20771

Cosmic axis begets cosmic controversy

A flurry of papers criticizes the controversial new finding that the universe may have a special direction.

Sources:

Borge Nodland
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Rochester
Rochester, NY 14627

John F.C. Wardle
Physics Department
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA 02254

Research Notes:

Biology

Calamari choreography

Radio transmitters attached to squid reveal new details about their mating behavior.

Sources:

Roger T. Hanlon
Marine Biological Laboratory
Woods Hole, MA 02543

Enology genealogy

DNA analysis reveals which grape cultivars are the ancestors of the popular cabernet sauvignon.

Sources:

Carole Meredith
Department of Viticulture and Enology
University of California
Davis, CA 95616

Earth Science

Warmth in north pushes spring forward

Earth's northern latitudes are growing greener these days, according to satellite measurements.

Sources:

Ranga Myneni
Geography Department
Boston University
Commonwealth Avenue
Boston, MA 02215

Springtime trouble for Arctic ozone

Chemical pollutants and unusually cool temperatures in the upper atmosphere combined to take a large bite out of the ozone layer above the Arctic early this spring.

Sources:

Pawan K. Bhartia
NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center
MS 916
Greenbelt, MD 20771

Articles:

Eye-Opening Gene

How many times did eyes arise?

The discovery that a gene controlling eye development is shared by flies, squid, mice, and people challenges the notion that eyes evolved independently dozens of times.

Sources:

Walter Gehring
Department of Cell Biology
Biozentrum, University of Basel
Klingelbergstrasse 70
CH-4056 BASEL
Switzerland

Graeme Mardon
Website: http://ginger.bcm.tmc.edu:8088/department/people/mardon/mardon.html

Cystic Fibrosis Controversy

A new theory hints that gene therapy in the womb can cure the disease

Challenging the conventional wisdom that cystic fribrosis results from the ongoing loss of a protein in lung cells, one research group has found that mice with the cystic fibrosis gene can be cured by briefly providing the protein to fetuses.

Sources:

Janet E. Larson
Oschner Medical Foundation
Laboratory of Medical Genetics
New Orleans, LA 70121

Rough Times in Russia

Post-Soviet science faces a new crisis

After suffering through a difficult year in 1996, Russian science appears poised on a full-scale collapse.

Sources:

Tatyana Arsenjeva
Ulitza Pcheenskaya d. 213
Polonskoya Galenye
Ld. 3444022
Rostov-on-Don
Russia

Harley D. Balzer
Washington Peace Center
2111 Florida Avenue
Washington, DC 20008

Irina Dezhina
Institute for the Economy in Transition
c/o STS Program
Massacusetts Institute of Technology
17 MRL Drive
E51-163
Cambridge, MA 02139
E-mail: Irdezh@mit.edu

Jerry Dineen
7611 Gleason Road
Edina, MN 55439

Loren Graham
Institute in Science, Technology, and Society
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307

Gerson Sheer
CDRF
1800 N. Kent Street
Suite 1106
Arlington, VA 22209

Gregory Van Der Vink
IRIS Consortium
1616 N. Fort Myer Drive
Suite 1050
Arlington, VA 22209

Albert Westwood
Sandia National Laboratories
1413 Pinnacle View, N.E.
Albuquerque, NM 87112

Dorothy S. Zinberg
Center for Science and International Affairs
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138