Keeping up with bioterrorism fears

Keeping up with bioterrorism fears

The threat of bioterrorism has had a recent airing in the UK with radio adverts calling for volunteers to test a new anthrax vaccine. But even if the threat is relatively minor in comparison to real and possible natural disasters such as AIDS or influenza, its presence in political and public debate implies that the scientific community has to deal with it in some way. In November 2003, the Wel...

Keeping up with Change

Keeping up with calcium

Our understanding of how calcium functions as a second messenger continues to increase at an incredible pace. This symposium covered most, if not all, aspects of the many roles of calcium in the regulation of cellular processes and ranged from calcium imaging through to the structure and function of calcium-binding proteins. Emphasis was placed on elucidating the involvement of these proteins i...

Keeping Up With the Clock

Estimates of obesity prevalence based on the 2013 to 2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey average almost 40%, corresponding to a 7% increase from the 1999 to 2000 cycle. Similar alarming trajectories are reported worldwide, along with increasing concerns for related health risks. The traditional concept that obesity results from a mere imbalance between energy intake and energy...

Keeping up with career trends

The publication in September of a report from the US National Research Council, Trends in the Early Careers of Life Scientists, posed a question in my mind, as I’m sure it did in the minds of the many graduate students and postdocs already contemplating their futures as scientists with fearful anxiety. What is the value of a PhD in biological science if you can’t be a biologist? The report (ava...