Amelia Earhart may have lived more than 70 years ago, but she still holds as much (if not more) appeal when she died as when she was alive. For starters, she was the first female to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, and would have made the longest round-the-world flight had she not crashed somewhere in the Pacific.
Her remains and that of her airplane were never found, although the skeletons of a tall, Caucasian female, some ound in Gardner Island (now Nikumaroro) in 1940. Unfortunately the skeletons were misplaced years later, and Amelia Earhart’s disappearance stayed unsolved through much …read more

It looks like Proctor & Gamble scientists have just discovered the secret to youthful skin: it’s in 1,500 genes.
Using data from the Human Genome Project, P&G scientists identified some 1,500 genes that are responsible for how skin ages. Of those, up to 700 genes control how skin collects and retains moisture.
According to an article in the Daily Mail, there are separate ways that skin ages, and each of these are controlled by their own set of genes:

Collagen (the protein that gives skin its structure and strength) degrades.
Skin loses its ability to keep it hydrated.
Fewer skin cells are produced with time.
Wrinkles …read more

I’m so excited about July’s episodes on NOVA ScienceNOW! The series has a great line-up of genetic and other science segments that can hold anyone’s interest. And it’s perfect if you want your kids to get some brain-juice flowing through the summer.
So beginning June 30 and every Tuesday night at 9pm ET/PT, NOVA at PBS will feature “Super-Science Tuesdays” with new stories from genetics (!!), technology, science and medicine. Check out a couple of these episodes –
June 30 (Tuesday) Episode 1.
Remember the anthrax scare after 9-11 that took months to solve? Well now scientists are using genetic …read more

In this ultra-modern, health-conscious world, one would not have thought this to happen. But the World Health Organization has just declared a swine flu pandemic has begun.
Although the WHO declared the danger as “moderate severity”, the agency stressed that the threat of the H1N1 virus needs to be taken seriously, as “the virus is now unstoppable.”
The A(H1N1) virus is a combination of three viruses – human, swine and avian, and that made it particularly dangerous to humans as there is no immunity, nor vaccine (to date), to this strain.

UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES
As of June11, there are 28,774 people infected by the A(H1N1), …read more

Francis Collins, one of the major players who cracked the genetic code, is in final talks for taking the helm of the National Institutes of Health, reports the Bloomberg News.
As director of the National Human Genome Research Institutes (NHGRI) for 15 years, Collins spearheaded efforts to map the human genetic code. With a lot of help from J. Craig Venter at Celera, the project was completed ahead of schedule in 2003, and opened up a plethora of applications and implications for research into our genetic blueprint.
Collins resigned from the NHGRI position last year, in his own words, …read more

Competition is certainly good for us. One by one, the big league universities in the Boston neighborhood are going OPEN ACCESS.
Open access publishing means that research works can be read (online) and used freely by the public without paying subscription fees to journals and publishers. I know personally how expensive it is to subscribe to just one journal, and the information from abstracts are really so limited that having more open access journals is just good for the science.
Last January, the University of California and publication giant Springer agreed to have articles written …read more

I got this off Senator John McCain’s Twitter (yes, he now tweets). Over the last few days, the Arizona lawmaker has been tweeting his version of “The Top Porkiest Projects” in the Omnibus spending bill.
Here are science/genetics projects that Sen. McCain consider earmarks or pork-barrel:

“$819, 000 for catfish genetics research in Alabama”
“$1,427,250 for genetic improvements of switchgrass – I thought switchgrass genes were pretty good already, guess I was wrong.”
“$1 million for mormon cricket control in Utah – is that the species of cricket or a game played by the brits?”
“$650,000 for beaver management in North Carolina and …read more

“… something borrowed, something blue!”
Nah, no one is getting married from Genetics and Health. But the quote is apt at describing the changes at this site in the next few weeks.
Genetics and Health has been a terrific place to get information on (almost) every topic covered by the fields of genetics, health and medicine. But I am so thrilled about the upbeat direction that the site is headed, because it will reach a wider base of readers, be more reader-friendly and you will love the new look!
Genetics can be intimidating (even I feel that way, believe …read more

Would it surprise you to know that American teenagers are interested in science, technology, engineering and math?
A survey found that an “overwhelming majority – 85 percent to be exact – of teenagers expressed interest in how things work” in the sciences. The 2009 Lemelson-MIT Innovation Index (LMII) also found that 80 percent felt their schools prepared them for careers in the STEM fields.
Unfortunately, that interest does not translate to pursuing higher studies or careers in the sciences. Why? These teenagers don’t know anyone working in the field or have a clue of what the fields are all …read more

Just these past weeks I read about three articles about misconduct of postdoctoral fellows and research scientists.
The first was from a UCLA professor who falsified data on cancer treatment research, and used the data for grants and a publication. In 2005, Mai Nguyen was barred from conducting research for three years, but she has since published 10 articles under her married name, and continues to teach at UCLA.
The second misconduct came from a UCSF postdoctoral fellow who changed her own data files (36 files!) and changed images from another researcher’s experiments. None of Nima Afshar’s results were published anywhere, …read more