Online Editorials
SNPs for Nothing, Risks for Free
(July 1st, 2009) News from the personal genome front: TruGenetics offers their SNPs for free to the first 10,000 customers. Don't believe it? It's true! Other personal genome companies are also offering new and cheaper services, reports Karin Hollricher. more...
Wine's Metabolic Geography
(July 1st, 2009) A group of wine-loving European researchers with a very large mass spectrometer have succeeded in tracing the geographical origins of the oak barrels used to age a rather good Burgundy red. After genomics (see Lab Times 3-2009: 26-31), wine apparently has also entered the world of metabolomics, reports Jeremy Garwood. more...
Lies about Lie Detectors
(May 20th, 2009) The growing market for "scientifically valid" means of detecting when you're telling a lie has become lucrative. But how valid is the science behind the detection of spoken lies? Two Swedish scientists have denounced the pseudo-science behind the gadgetry and are currently facing a legal battle for their honesty, reports Jeremy Garwood. more...
Fraud Case Rocks Field of Post-operative Pain Management
A US anaesthesiology researcher, Scott Reuben, has been accused of falsifying data in numerous publications over the past twelve years. Unfortunately these discredited publications have had a worldwide influence on therapeutic guidelines for postoperative pain management, reveals Bettina Dupont. more...
Cloning to resurrect
(March 13rd 2009) For the first time, an extinct animal has been cloned from frozen tissue by scientists in Spain. Although this cloned wild mountain goat died shortly after birth, Bettina Dupont asks: Are we on the way to some kind of Jurassic Park? more...
Sarkozy's scientific faux-pas
(March 19th 2009) France's universities and researchers have been on national strike ever since President Nicolas Sarkozy heavily attacked scientists and researchers in a speech two months ago. Jeremy Garwood reports. more...
What's up, Doc?
(March 1st 2009) How do PhD students get their title? How do they work and what do they think? These are some of the questions being posed by the European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers. Every graduate is invited to reveal more about his/her intimate working conditions in an online survey, reports Melanie Estrella. more...
Current Issue
Issue 03-2009 of LabTimes is open for online viewing.From the Content
Gourmet Genomics 1: 'Aromics' of Wine and Cheese
Whats the molecular basis that makes gourmet food worth paying for? A question, now ripe for analysis, courtesy of the advances in high throughput genomics. The first part in this issue summarises the efforts on cheese and wine. The second part in the next issue will focus on a delicacy so expensive that many people have never even tried it: truffles. moreObservations of The Owl -
Goodbye, Genes!
What did my sharp eyes discover last night when I silently slipped into my favourite library? A three page Nature news feature entitled "Of owls, larks and alarm clocks". Wow, I thought, obviously, we owls were finally going to receive the attention we really deserve in your human life sciences (although I remained sceptical about the larks). Of course, I immediately began reading - but my excitement rapidly turned to sharp disappointment as I commenced the second sentence. "'Larks' are people who naturally wake up early in the morning, and are the opposite of 'owls', who wake up and go to sleep late." morePublication Analysis 1996-2007: Parasitology
In terms of citations, the United Kingdom dominates European parasitology research much more clearly than any other biomedical discipline. Twice as many citations as second-ranking France and 23 UK researchers among the 30 mostcited authors are only two factors documenting this success. moreTips and tricks of the trade: Bradford Assay goes Hellenic
Challenging common belief is one of the main driving forces in research. One such example is given by Christous Georgiou and his colleagues at the University of Patras, Greece, who wondered whether the previously proposed mechanisms of the Bradford assay makes any sense.Blue is the archetypical Greek colour. Just think of the bright blue Greek sky, the spectacular blue of the Greek sea, the blue painted shutters in the typical Greek villages and, not to forget, the blue stripes in the Greek flag. more