Bio and Medicine
In recent years, the government has made moves to support making the results of taxpayer-funded research available to taxpayers for free. A new bill in Congress attempts to pull the plug.
There has not been much information forthcoming with regard to the CDC study concerning the investigation taking place. CDC has said that there "might" be information by the end of the year. Holding my breath....?
As I wrote recently, Stephen Quake has been writing about conflicts of interest in research over at The Wild Side blog. He proposes solving these problems with peer review. I like the article, and he has many thoughtful things to say on the topic, but I don't really understand this proposal.
Zinc is an essential element for a healthy body. Zinc is involved in numerous aspects of cellular metabolism (National Institute of Health). According to Food and Nutrition Board, zinc is also essential in for proper taste and smell. The recommended daily allowance for adult males is 11mg and 8mg for female adults. Adults are above the age 19 y.o.
microRNAs are a recently discovered class of small RNA molecules which have huge regulatory potential. There have been a large number of papers coming out recently showing evidence suggesting their widespread roles in basic biological processes ranging from host-pathogen interaction to oncogenesis.
The problem of conflicts of interest in science is not going to go away.
What's in the Stimulus Package for science?
