Quake hits pandas

at the interface between biology, biochemistry and physics raised concerns that the slicing up of the organisation into disciplines might discourage such interdisciplinary work and make it harder to obtain funding for it. SLR cofounder and spokesman Alain Trautmann, head of the department of cellular biology at the Institut Cochin at Paris, expressed doubts that the plans will really amount to the promised improvements in transparency and efficiency. Instead, he fears the reforms will boost government control over research agendas. In particular, he predicts that the government aims to " restrict research activities to those which have foreseeable applications ". Trautmann commented: " for the people currently in power, the only valuable kind of biology is the one which leads to progress in the health sector. It is no coincidence that the government speaks only of biomedical research, never of biology. This vision is both shortsighted and stupid. " Moreover, Trautmann expressed fears that the division of CNRS and INSERM into smaller research councils might just be the prelude for privatisation of some of these erstwhile national institutes. He also criticised that the reduction of CNRS to a funding agency would create a pointless parallelism between the CNRS and the recently founded grant agency ARN. Many researchers appear to share his concerns, because on May 27 the largest demonstrations of academics since the 2004 revolt were held in Paris and university cities including Marseille, Montpellier, Bordeaux, and Toulouse. More than 5,000 demonstrated in the capital alone, in spite of persistent rain. The title 'Academic Pride' illustrates how victimised and marginalised many scientists in France feel. However, the memory of the 2004 revolt is still vibrant, and with it the hope that academics can force politicians to respect their opinions. While the vast extent of the human tragedy caused by the Chinese earthquake unravelled last month, conservationists were also quick to note that the epicentre lay in the heart of giant panda habitat and close to the renowned sanctuary at Wolong. Early messages received from the region following the earthquake suggested that all was intact at this panda sanctuary: on May 13, it was reported, staff at the sanctuary used a satellite phone to contact the state forestry administration to report that the pandas were safe. More than 60 pandas at another breeding centre in Chengdu are safe, along with another eight at a reserve in Ya'an, west of Chengdu, the …