Online Editorials
Unicellular giants
How does one of the world's largest bacteria,
Epulopiscium, attain its relatively enormous size? Melanie Estrella reports that scientists may have unravelled a possible explanation.
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Who is actually being paid by industry?
Are mobiles a danger for your health? A recent study by Schwarz et al presents evidence that electromagnetic fields from mobiles leads to DNA breakage in human fibroblasts. Biologist Alexander Lerchl however finds serious faults in this study. By Siegfried Bär.
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Thinking better with a little help?
Faster, further, higher - better! With limitless ambitions, athletes are often tempted to give Nature a helping hand in the form of drugs. But some scientists have also succumbed to the temptation, reports Melanie Estrella.
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The Cow-Man Medley
Human-cow hybrid embryos, claimed to be the latest breakthrough in stem cell research, are fuelling further moral, political and scientific debate. reports Melanie Estrella.
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The Lab Times team says "Hi" from Analytica in Munich - 2nd Update
Have a look at our web diary of the Analytica in Munich and meet some of the editors of
Lab Times and
Lab Times online.
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Open Access - an Update
Since 2002, the OA movement has been gaining momentum every day - a reaction to increasing pressure from scientists, governments and funding agencies. A short review of the last year by Karin Hollricher.
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Creationists go Open Access - Questions to match Pre-Ordained Answers.
Fundamentalist Christian support for 'Creation Science' is currently enjoying a mini-boom with the recent opening of Answers in Genesis' 'Creation Museum' in Kentucky (over 250,000 visitors in 2007!) and now "Praise the Lord, a technical publication to go with it", the online, Open Access, Answers Research Journal (ARJ). However, as Jeremy Garwood reports, since this journal already knows the 'answers', perhaps a better alternative title might read: "Find the right questions to fit the answers".
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Creation goes online
"The Encyclopedia of Life" (EOL) is an ambitious project that aims to catalogue all living creatures on the world wide web. Melanie Estrella sneaks a first glimpse at this database of biodiversity and assesses its chances of becoming a virtual blockbuster.
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Issue 02-2008 of LabTimes is open for online viewing.
According to those involved, earthquakes have been hitting French research and higher education over the last couple of years. Jeremy Garwood takes a good look at the ongoing struggle for reforms and presents his analysis in two parts. more
Attentive readers of my column will already know and recall that way back when I was a young, eager lab-owl and still a bit green around the beak, I spent a few postdoc months in Japan (LT 02/2007, p. 14). more
The stem cells which continuously give rise to the renewal of gut tissue have remained elusive for a long time. By identifying a specific marker gene, Hans Clevers and his group have recently tracked them down. more
Do you remember Little Nicky? The Californian kitty, born on October 17th, 2004, is the first commercially produced cat clone, created by the US biotech company Genetic Savings & Clone (which closed at the end of 2006, having never really got off the ground). Little Nicky is still alive and well and could soon have cloned friends in Asia. more