Online Editorials
Befouling the Pristine
(February 21st, 2012) Is an E. coli outbreak impending in the Antarctic? Maybe not (yet) but certain human-associated bacteria shouldn’t even be there...
more...Genes in Space
(February 17th, 2012) There's one question that we always wanted to know but never dared to ask: Do genetics work the same under zero gravity? Spanish and British researchers made some fruit flies levitate to find out.
more...Nobel Prize Critiques: Bruce Beutler
(February 14th, 2012) The 2011 Nobel Prize for Medicine has been dogged by controversy. Both Jules Hoffmann and Bruce Beutler have been accused of unfairly promoting their own contributions to the discoveries. Here, Jeremy Garwood investigates the “case” of Bruce Beutler and rival claims.
more...Funding From Across the Pond
(February 9th, 2012) Lab Times talked to the Austrian Jonathan Rameseder, the French Laura Sasportas and the Russian-born Maria Spiess about their experiences with Howard Hughes Medical Institute programmes.
more...The Scienticks (4): The Messenger
(February 6th, 2012) A strange printout reveals Ardevan's sacred duty. Enjoy reading the fourth episode of our new science thriller The Scienticks by Nanür.
more...Publishers Screwing the Scientist? No More!
(February 2nd, 2012) You do all the work but someone else is cashing in! That's the current system of old-fashioned publishing giants like Elsevier and Springer. But some scientists are now shouting defiance...
more...New Source of Capital?
(January 30th, 2012) What possibilities has the scientific community if the government does not want to cooperate with research development? A Spanish neuroscience graduate student came up with a great idea.
more...
Current Issue
From the Content
Analysis: Borrowed Plumes
The 2011 Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology has been dogged by controversy. The only one of the three recipients not to be accused of unethical behaviour, Ralph Steinman, had the misfortune of dying before he could hear of his award for dendritic cells. Meanwhile, Jules Hoffmann and Bruce Beutler have since been accused of unfairly promoting their own contributions to these discoveries. Here, Jeremy Garwood, investigates the “case” of Hoffman, whereas Beutler is at the centre of an accompanying article at Lab Times online... moreObservations of The Owl -
Evolution Is Not A Fact
Two days ago, in the early hours of the morning, Professor Stork happened to pop in, by surprise. Usually, I quite enjoy somebirdy simply dropping in for a chat or whatever. This occasion, however, instantly proved to be of the more painful kind. Just imagine the situation. After an extraordinarily exhausting and not too successful hunting
night, I was just dozing off to my well-earned sleep. Some last niggling thoughts were persistently swirling through my brain like “Are the mice faster today, or have
I indeed become slower?”... morePublication Analysis 1998-2009: Cancer Research in Europe
Not long ago, a certain Professor Emeritus was asked what exactly had been achieved by the enormous input and effort that had gone into cancer research in the last decades. Of course, the inquirer alluded to the fact that up until that day really satisfactory, not to say successful, cancer treatments were, nevertheless, still far out of reach. The old professor, however, just smiled and replied, “Everything we can do today in biomedical research we can do largely due to cancer research...” moreTips and tricks of the trade: Two Precipitants are Better than One
The guanidinium-thiocyanate-phenolchloroform (GTPC) extraction protocol (also called Trizol-extraction), introduced by Chomczynski and Sacchi in 1987, is applied by many researchers to isolate both nucleic acids and proteins. It is based on the different solubilities of RNA, DNA and protein molecules in water and organic solvents... more