SoT 78: The Dark Side of Science

Hosts: Ed Brown, Dr. Shayne Joseph, Penny Dumsday, Dr. Rachael Dunlop.

Topics covered:

• Mid-year budget slashes $499m from research support
  • Swan cuts to save surplus: the experts respond
• GM mouse created to detect landmines
• Jumping DNA rides aboard a virus, which targets a giant virus, which infects an amoeba, which infected a woman’s eye
• To sleep, perchance to forget fears
• Biologist Ruffles Feathers on Facebook
  • Don’t monkey around with Facebook
  • Make the World Better – the text of Pamela Gay’s fantastic talk.
• Why crying babies are so hard to ignore
• Italy scientists sentenced to jail in earthquake trial
  • Why scientists should, sometimes, be on trial

A lab mouse. Has it been genetically engineered to detect land mines? Or does it associate the smell of jasmine with intense fear? Probably neither. Photo: Rama via WikiMedia Commons.

And watch Dr. Pamela Gay give her excellent talk, “Make The World Better”, at The Amazing Meeting this year