Feature

Sep

2010

Shaping Your Postdocs

The Scientist (print), September 2010.

In 1990, fresh out of his first postdoc, David Woodland walked into his very own lab at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. All he wanted was to dive into the viral immunology that he had spent years thinking about, but found that a lot of his time was consumed by the other tasks that come with being a principal investigator (PI).

“It was difficult,” he says. “No one had given me guidance in writing grants, or [told me] that I would principally be in a management position.” Twenty years later, he uses his experience to help guide the postdocs at the Trudeau Institute, where he is the director. Read More >

Aug

2010

Cleared for (Vertical) Takeoff

Science Notes 2010, August 25, 2010.

A high-pitched whirr shatters the serenity of the damp Monterey morning. “We’re all going deaf!” Garth Hobson shouts over the incessant whine, after removing an earplug, grimacing, and leaning away from the screeching machinery. His windbreaker protects him from the sprinkling winter rain as he stands outside of the testing bay. He’s in the middle of a golf course, the unlikely home of the Naval Postgraduate School’s Turbopropulsion Laboratory.

Hobson, associate director of the lab, is developing one of the first completely new aircraft propulsion systems since the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk: the cross-flow fan. He believes this technology, which dates back to an 1892 patent, could one day compete with helicopters. He isn’t the only one; a company called Propulsive Wing in Elbridge, New York, is also developing aerial vehicles using a similar design. Read More >

Jul

2010

Q&A: Do we need a stem cell bank?

The Scientist, July 26, 2010.

Among stem cell policy changes instituted since U.S. President Barack Obama took office, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) made a controversial move to not renew funding of a key stem cell bank established at the WiCell Institute in Wisconsin. Many scientists worry that without a national center to distribute human embryonic stem cell lines to researchers, the availability, cost and quality of cell lines will suffer as a result. But not all feel this way.

The Scientist spoke with Evan Snyder, a stem cell biologist from the Burnham Institute for Regenerative Medicine in San Diego, who says he doesn’t believe the community needs a nationally-funded bank.

Snyder, whose research focuses on the basic biology of stem cells and their potential applications, believes that in these tough financial times, researchers should do their academic duty and provide their stem cell lines to others at little or no cost, other than that of supplies and shipping. Read More >