David P. Bartel - Featured Scientist Interview

Excerpt from the interview: "...there have been all kinds of data showing that in animals each microRNA—at least, each highly conserved microRNA—is targeting hundreds of messenger RNAs. In 2005, for instance, we showed that for each microRNA or microRNA family—there are about 80 or 90 of these families in mammals—there..."
View Article

Sara Burt - Featured Podcast Interview

Sara Burt discusses her current work on the antibacterial properties of essential oils obtained from plants. Burt has a corresponding Fast Moving Front Comment from May 2008 regarding this research. She is a Current Classics scientist (Agr. Sci.) from Feb. 2008.
Podcast Menu. Listen to Podcast: MP3 ¦ WMA

Mark J. Daly - Featured Science Watch® Newsletter Interview

Computational biologist Mark J. Daly of Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute, Boston, discusses his work, particularly on a catalogue of genetic variation known as HapMap, a resource which has assisted in elucidating the genetic underpinnings of type 2 diabetes and other diseases."
View Article

Pascale Ehrenfreund - Special Topic of Astrochemistry

Excerpt from the interview: "In the next decade, we will have a European space mission, Rosetta, that will land on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (in 2014). This will allow us, for the first time, to study the composition of a cometary nucleus in situ. This space mission promises exciting results about the..."
View Article

FEBS Journal - Featured Journal Interview

Excerpt from the interview: "We have been successful in appointing distinguished scientists from across the world to the Editorial Board and Advisory Board, and they increasingly reflect the spread of the molecular approach to biology into the life sciences, including medicine..."
View Article

Rudolf Krska - Special Topic of Mycotoxins

Excerpt from the interview: "The toxins in which I specialize are produced by several species of the genus Fusarium. They include trichothecene mycotoxins such as deoxynivalenol and zearalenone. They are also very stable and can survive cooking. The trichothecenes are not acutely toxic but they can weaken the immune system..."
View Article

Karl F. MacDorman & Hiroshi Ishiguro - Fast Breaking Paper

Excerpt from the interview: "It makes the strongest case yet for android science. Android science posits a synergistic relation between developing very humanlike robots and understanding human interaction and the processes behind it. Android science provides synthetic and analytical methods to understand mechanisms underlying interaction..."
View Article

Michael C. McAlpine & James R. Heath - Fast Breaking Paper

Excerpt from the interview: "We believe that this paper is of general interest to the broad materials community because it assimilates the areas of semiconductor nanowires, chemical sensors, electronic noses, and high-performance electronics on plastic substrates..."
View Article

Günter Oberdörster, Eva Oberdörster, and Jan Oberdörster - Emerging Research Fronts

Excerpt from the interview: "This paper is a comprehensive—and we think balanced—review of the then fledging and now maturing discipline of nanotoxicology, which we defined as "the science of engineered nanostructures and nanodevices that..."
View Article

Sir John Pendry - Featured Podcast Interview

Professor Sir John Pendry, Chair in Theoretical Solid State Physics at The Imperial College, London, discusses his work with magnetism from conductors and enhanced nonlinear phenomena. Pendry has a corresponding Emerging Research Front Comment from October 2007 regarding this research. He is a Current Classics scientist (Eng.) from Feb. & Apr. 2008.
Listen: MP3| WMA

Jacques Rossouw - Featured Paper Interview

Excerpt from the interview: "The publication of these findings gained widespread attention in the media and in scientific circles. This resulted in a marked shift in attitudes towards this hormone therapy, with prescriptions dropping by some two-thirds in the months following publication (and remaining at those or lower levels since then). The Food and Drug Administration..."
View Article

Top 20 Institutions in Social Sciences, general - Featured Institutional Profile

ScienceWatch.com presents a listing of the top 20 institutions which, as of the first bimonthly update of Essential Science Indicators attracted the highest total citations to their papers published in Thomson Reuters -indexed Social Sciences journals. They are the top 20 out of a pool of 563 institutions comprising the top 1% ranked by total citation count in this field.
View Article

Wout Boerjan, John Ralph, & Marie Baucher - Emerging Research Fronts

Excerpt from the interview: "Biofuels are high on the political agenda worldwide. Rocketing oil prices and concerns about global warming have made plants valuable alternative raw materials for making liquid biofuels. Biofuels such as bioethanol, biomethanol, and dimethylfuran are derived from the fermentation of simple sugars..."
View Article

(Additional interviews/commentaries will be added during June 2008)