Trends in quantification in histochemistry and cytochemistry

Conclusion In this limited review, every relevant technique and many personal credits could not be included, but it is apparent that there has been a steady increase in the armamentarium of applicable techniques for quantification, each with its special uses and limitations. As the trend continues, and beyond the more obvious future which will see consolidation and extension of existing experimental approaches with an increasing use of automation and computerization, we can only guess at what new departures and remarkable innovations will emerge to provide leaps forward toward the goal—the goal of combining localization with quantitation of biological substances and activitiesin situ to reveal the chemistry, and from it the function, of the cell, its substructures and products, in the normal and altered living state.No one would disagree with Cournand who said in the concluding remarks of his 1956 Nobel Prize lecture on the pulmonary circulation, Now what of the future? Perhaps the only incontestable prophecy that can be made is that advances in methodology and advances in understanding go hand in hand. What we can also predict is that the quest of our goal will continue to hold fascination and excitement for those lucky enough to be involved in it.     

Women and telomeres

Last year''s Nobel Prizes for Carol Greider and Elizabeth Blackburn should be encouraging for all female scientists with childrenCarol Greider, a molecular biologist at Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD, USA), recalled that when she received a phone call from the Nobel Foundation early in October last year, she was staring down a large pile of laundry. The caller informed her that she had won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Elizabeth Blackburn, her mentor and co-discoverer of the enzyme telomerase, and Jack Szostak. The Prize was not only the ultimate reward for her own achievements, but it also highlighted a research field in biology that, unlike most others, is renowned for attracting a significant number of women.Indeed, the 2009 awards stood out in particular, as five women received Nobel prizes. In addition to the Prize for Greider and Blackburn, Ada E. Yonath received one in chemistry, Elinor Ostrom became the first female Prize-winner in economics, and Herta Müller won for literature (Fig 1).Open in a separate windowFigure 1The 2009 Nobel Laureates assembled for a photo during their visit to the Nobel Foundation on 12 December 2009. Back row, left to right: Nobel Laureates in Chemistry Ada E. Yonath and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine Jack W. Szostak and Carol W. Greider, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry Thomas A. Steitz, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine Elizabeth H. Blackburn, and Nobel Laureate in Physics George E. Smith. Front row, left to right: Nobel Laureate in Physics Willard S. Boyle, Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences Elinor Ostrom, Nobel Laureate in Literature Herta Müller, and Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences Oliver E. Williamson. © The Nobel Foundation 2009. Photo: Orasis.Greider, the daughter of scientists, has overcome many obstacles during her career. She had dyslexia that placed her in remedial classes; “I thought I was stupid,” she told The New York Times (Dreifus, 2009). Yet, by far the biggest challenge she has tackled is being a woman with children in a man''s world. When she attended a press conference at Johns Hopkins to announce the Prize, she brought her children Gwendolyn and Charles with her (Fig 2). “How many men have won the Nobel in the last few years, and they have kids the same age as mine, and their kids aren''t in the picture? That''s a big difference, right? And that makes a statement,” she said.The Prize […] highlighted a research field in biology that, unlike most others, is renowned for attracting a significant number of womenOpen in a separate windowFigure 2Mother, scientist and Nobel Prize-winner: Carol Greider is greeted by her lab and her children. © Johns Hopkins Medicine 2009. Photo: Keith Weller.Marie Curie (1867–1934), the Polish–French physicist and chemist, was the first woman to win the Prize in 1903 for physics, together with her husband Pierre, and again for chemistry in 1911—the only woman to twice achieve such recognition. Curie''s daughter Irène Joliot-Curie (1897–1956), a French chemist, also won the Prize with her husband Frédéric in 1935. Since Curie''s 1911 prize, 347 Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine and Chemistry (the fields in which biologists are recognized) have been awarded, but only 14—just 4%—have gone to women, with 9 of these awarded since 1979. That is a far cry from women holding up half the sky.Yet, despite the dominance of men in biology and the other natural sciences, telomere research has a reputation as a field dominated by women. Daniela Rhodes, a structural biologist and senior scientist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge, UK) recalls joining the field in 1993. “When I went to my first meeting, my world changed because I was used to being one of the few female speakers,” she said. “Most of the speakers there were female.” She estimated that 80% of the speakers at meetings at Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory in those early days were women, while the ratio in the audience was more balanced.Since Curie''s 1911 prize, 347 Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine and Chemistry […] have been awarded, but only 14—just 4%—have gone to women…“There''s nothing particularly interesting about telomeres to women,” Rhodes explained. “[The] field covers some people like me who do structural biology, to cell biology, to people interested in cancers […] It could be any other field in biology. I think it''s [a result of] having women start it and [including] other women.” Greider comes to a similar conclusion: “I really see it as a founder effect. It started with Joe Gall [who originally recruited Blackburn to work in his lab].”Gall, a cell biologist, […] welcomed women to his lab at a time when the overall situation for women in science was “reasonably glum”…Gall, a cell biologist, earned a reputation for being gender neutral while working at Yale University in the 1950s and 1960s; he welcomed women to his lab at a time when the overall situation for women in science was “reasonably glum,” as he put it. “It wasn''t that women were not accepted into PhD programs. It''s just that the opportunities for them afterwards were pretty slim,” he explained.“Very early on he was very supportive to a number of women who went on and then had their own labs and […] many of those women [went] out in the world [to] train other women,” Greider commented. “A whole tree that then grows up that in the end there are many more women in that particular field simply because of that historical event.Thomas Cech, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1989 and who worked in Gall''s lab with Blackburn, agreed: “In biochemistry and metabolism, we talk about positive feedback loops. This was a positive feedback loop. Joe Gall''s lab at Yale was an environment that was free of bias against women, and it was scientifically supportive.”Gall, now 81 and working at the Carnegie Institution of Washington (Baltimore, MD, USA), is somewhat dismissive about his positive role. “It never occurred to me that I was doing anything unusual. It literally, really did not. And it''s only been in the last 10 or 20 years that anyone made much of it,” he said. “If you look back, […] my laboratory [was] very close to [half] men and [half] women.”During the 1970s and 1980s; “[w]hen I entered graduate school,” Greider recalled, “it was a time when the number of graduate students [who] were women was about 50%. And it wasn''t unusual at all.” What has changed, though, is the number of women choosing to pursue a scientific career further. According to the US National Science Foundation (Arlington, VA, USA), women received 51.8% of doctorates in the life sciences in 2006, compared with 43.8% in 1996, 34.6% in 1986, 20.7% in 1976 and 11.9% in 1966 (www.nsf.gov/statistics).In fact, Gall suspects that biology tends to attract more women than the other sciences. “I think if you look in biology departments that you would find a higher percentage [of women] than you would in physics and chemistry,” he said. “I think […] it''s hard to dissociate societal effects from specific effects, but probably fewer women are inclined to go into chemistry [or] physics. Certainly, there is no lack of women going into biology.” However, the representation of women falls off at each level, from postdoc to assistant professor and tenured professor. Cech estimated that only about 20% of the biology faculty in the USA are women.“[It] is a leaky pipeline,” Greider explained. “People exit the system. Women exit at a much higher proportion than do men. I don''t see it as a [supply] pipeline issue at all, getting the trainees in, because for 25 years there have been a great number of women trainees.“We all thought that with civil rights and affirmative action you''d open the doors and women would come in and everything would just follow. And it turned out that was not true.”Nancy Hopkins, a molecular biologist and long-time advocate on issues affecting women faculty members at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA, USA), said that the situation in the USA has improved because of civil rights laws and affirmative action. “I was hired—almost every woman of my generation was hired—as a result of affirmative action. Without it, there wouldn''t have been any women on the faculty,” she said, but added that: “We all thought that with civil rights and affirmative action you''d open the doors and women would come in and everything would just follow. And it turned out that was not true.”Indeed, in a speech at an academic conference in 2005, Harvard President Lawrence Summers said that innate differences between males and females might be one reason why fewer women than men succeeded in science and mathematics. The economist, who served as Secretary of Treasury under President William Clinton, told The Boston Globe that “[r]esearch in behavioural genetics is showing that things people previously attributed to socialization weren''t [due to socialization after all]” (Bombardieri, 2005).Some attendees of the meeting were angered by Summers''s remarks that women do not have the same ‘innate ability'' as men in some fields. Hopkins said she left the meeting as a protest and in “a state of shock and rage”. “It isn''t a question of political correctness, it''s about making unscientific, unfounded and damaging comments. It''s what discrimination is,” she said, adding that Summers''s views reflect the problems women face in moving up the ladder in academia. “To have the president of Harvard say that the second most important reason for their not being equal was really their intrinsic genetic inferiority is so shocking that no matter how many times I think back to his comments, I''m still shocked. These women were not asking to be considered better or special. They were just asking to have their gender be invisible.”Nonetheless, women are making inroads into academia, despite lingering prejudice and discrimination. One field of biology that counts a relatively high number of successful women among its upper ranks is developmental biology. Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, for example, is Director of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, Germany, and won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1995 for her work on the development of Drosophila embryos. She estimated that about 30% of speakers at conferences in her field are women.…for many women, the recent Nobel Prize for Greider […] and Blackburn […] therefore comes as much needed reassurance that it is possible to combine family life and a career in scienceHowever, she also noted that women have never been the majority in her own lab owing to the social constraints of German society. She explained that in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, family issues pose barriers for many women who want to have children and advance professionally because the pressure for women to not use day care is extremely strong. As such, “[w]omen want to stay home because they want to be an ideal mother, and then at the same time they want to go to work and do an ideal job and somehow this is really very difficult,” she said. “I don''t know a single case where the husband stays at home and takes care of the kids and the household. This doesn''t happen. So women are now in an unequal situation because if they want to do the job, they cannot; they don''t have a chance to find someone to do the work for them. […] The wives need wives.” In response to this situation, Nüsslein-Volhard has established the CNV Foundation to financially support young women scientists with children in Germany, to help pay for assistance with household chores and child care.Rhodes, an Italian native who grew up in Sweden, agreed with Nüsslein-Volhard''s assessment of the situation for many European female scientists with children. “Some European countries are very old-fashioned. If you look at the Protestant countries like Holland, women still do not really go out and have a career. It tends to be the man,” she said. “What I find depressing is [that in] a country like Sweden where I grew up, which is a very liberated country, there has been equality between men and women for a couple of generations, and if you look at the percentage of female professors at the universities, it''s still only 10%.” In fact, studies both from Europe and the USA show that academic science is not a welcoming environment for women with children; less so than for childless women and fathers, who are more likely to succeed in academic research (Ledin et al, 2007; Martinez et al, 2007).For Hopkins, her divorce at the age of 30 made a choice between children or a career unavoidable. Offered a position at MIT, she recalled that she very deliberately chose science. She said that she thought to herself: “Okay, I''m going to take the job, not have children and not even get married again because I couldn''t imagine combining that career with any kind of decent family life.” As such, for many women, the recent Nobel Prize for Greider, who raised two children, and Blackburn (Fig 3), who raised one, therefore comes as much needed reassurance that it is possible to combine family life and a career in science. Hopkins said the appearance of Greider and her children at the press conference sent “the message to young women that they can do it, even though very few women in my generation could do it. The ways in which some women are managing to do it are going to become the role models for the women who follow them.”Open in a separate windowFigure 3Elizabeth Blackburn greets colleagues and the media at a reception held in Genentech Hall at UCSF Mission Bay to celebrate her award of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. © University of California, San Francisco 2009. Photo: Susan Merrell.     

Selman A. Waksman,Winner of the 1952 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

The history of the discovery and development of streptomycin is reviewed here from the personal standpoint of a member of Dr. Selman Waksman''s antibiotic screening research team. The team approach of eight individuals illustrates how the gradual enhancement of the screening methodology was developed. I illustrate three study periods with key aspects in the development of streptomycin which led to a Nobel Prize being granted to Professor Waksman. One item not previously emphasized is the employment of a submerged culture technique for large-scale production of streptomycin, thus enabling rapid animal testing and human clinical trials with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Another is that purified streptomycin was shown by Dr. Waksman to be distinctly different from the substances called natural products, which are no longer patentable in the United States; therefore, streptomycin was found to be patentable. A third item not previously emphasized is his emphasis on the screening of actinomycetes, including the newly named Streptomyces genus. All of these factors contributed to the success of streptomycin in the treatment of tuberculosis. In combination, their successes led to Dr. Waksman''s department becoming a new pharmacological research area, specializing in drug discovery. These unique accomplishments all burnish the prior rationales used by the Karolinska Institute in granting Dr. Waksman alone the 1952 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.     

Structure-Function Relationships in Ribonuclease S: the Work of Frederic M. Richards

The Preparation of Subtilisin-modified Ribonuclease and the Separation of the Peptide and Protein Components(Richards, F. M., and Vithayathil, P. (1959) J. Biol. Chem. 234, 1459–1465)The Three-dimensional Structure of Ribonuclease-S. Interpretation of an Electron Density Map at a Nominal Resolution of 2 Å(Wyckoff, H. W., Tsernoglou, D., Hanson, A. W., Knox, J. R., Lee, B., and Richards, F. M. (1970) J. Biol. Chem. 245, 305–328)Frederic Middlebrook Richards (1925–2009) was born in New York City. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and, after a brief stint in the military, received his B.S. in 1948. Richards then enrolled in graduate school at Harvard Medical School, where he worked with Barbara Low and received his Ph.D. in 1952. After graduating he remained at Harvard for another year as a research fellow with Edwin Joseph Cohn, who was featured in a previous Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC) Classic (1). Richards then moved to the Carlsberg Laboratory in Denmark where, with Kaj Linderstrøm-Lang and others, he began working on ribonuclease.Open in a separate windowFrederic M. RichardsAfter a short stint as a postdoctoral fellow at Cambridge University, Richards joined the faculty of the Department of Biochemistry at Yale University in 1955 as an assistant professor. He rose rapidly through the ranks, becoming professor in 1963. That year, Richards was also appointed chairman of the Department of Molecular Biology and Biophysics at Yale, which entailed a move from the Medical School to the Yale College campus. Following a sabbatical at Oxford University in 1967–1968, for which Richards and his wife Sally sailed their own boat with a small crew across the Atlantic Ocean, Yale merged the Medical School Department of Biochemistry and the Yale College Department of Molecular Biology and Biophysics to form a new university-wide Department of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry (MB&B) with Richards as its founding chair (1969–1973). Richards remained at Yale for his entire research career, eventually becoming Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry.Much of Richard''s early research centered on bovine pancreatic ribonuclease (RNase). During his time at the Carlsberg laboratory, he showed that cleavage of RNase by the protease subtilisin produces a modified RNase (RNase S) that is still active (2). After starting his own lab at Yale, Richards was able to separate RNase S into a 20-residue S-peptide and a 102-residue S-protein, both of which lacked enzymatic activity. However, when the peptide and protein were recombined, the activity was recovered. Richards published an initial paper on this finding in 1958 (3). He followed this up with a more extensive article in the JBC, which is reprinted here as the first JBC Classic. In this paper, Richards and co-workers purified and characterized RNase S, separated it into S-peptide and S-protein, showed that almost all enzymatic activity is recovered when the two components are recombined, and also reported that the only observed change in covalent structure during the conversion of RNase A to RNase S is the hydrolysis of the peptide bond between residues 20 and 21.The demonstration that two separate, inactive fragments of the enzyme RNase A could be reconstituted to form an active enzyme provided the first experimental evidence that the ability of a protein to form a three-dimensional structure is an intrinsic property of its amino acid sequence. This work also foreshadowed the extensive RNase A refolding studies performed by Nobel laureate Christian Anfinsen, as discussed in a previous JBC Classic (4).In the 1960s Richards teamed up with Harold Wyckoff to solve the three-dimensional structure of RNase S. Initially, in 1967, they produced a 3.5 Å electron density map (5), which they used to determine the approximate conformation of the peptide chain. Three years later, they collected data to 2 Å, as reported in the second JBC Classic reprinted here. Using these data, Richards, Wyckoff, and colleagues produced an electron density map, which they used to determine the complete three-dimensional structure of RNase S. This structure tied with three others for the third protein structure ever solved to atomic resolution. Richards also showed that RNase S was enzymatically active in crystal form, putting to rest the widely held view at that time that protein crystal structures were irrelevant to the conformation and behavior of enzymes in solution.Richards received many honors and awards for his scientific achievements, including the Pfizer-Paul Lewis Award in Enzyme Chemistry (1965), election as Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1968), election to the National Academy of Sciences (1971), the Kai Linderstrøm-Lang Prize in Protein Chemistry (1978), the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Merck Award (1988), the Stein and Moore Award of the Protein Society (1988), and the State of Connecticut Medal of Science (1995). He was also president of ASBMB (1979) and the Biophysical Society (1972–1973).     

Pioneering Alberta cardiac surgeons walked into uncharted territory 40 years ago

When Dr. John Callaghan performed Canada''s first successful open-heart surgery in Edmonton in 1956, the operation took 10 hours and the heart-lung pump he used looked like it had come from the shelves at Canadian Tire. Today the operation takes a couple of hours and the heart-lung pumps used cost $150,000. This article discusses Calaghan''s pioneering work, which was recently honoured by University Hospital in Edmonton.     

An Evaluation of Habitat Rehabilitation on Coastal Dune Forests in Northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

The rehabilitation program conducted by Richards Bay Minerals (RBM) of areas exposed to opencast surface mining of sand dunes north of Richards Bay (28°43'S, 32°12'E) on the coast of northern KwaZulu-Natal Province commenced 16 years before this study and has resulted in the development of a series of known-aged stands of vegetation. By assuming that these spatially separated stands develop along a similar pathway over time, instantaneous sampling should reveal successional or other changes usually associated with aging and should provide an opportunity to evaluate the success of rehabilitation. We compare relative densities of pioneer and secondary species, species richness, and a similarity index of the herbaceous layer, tree, beetle, millipede, bird, and small-mammal communities of rehabilitating areas of known age with those of 30-year-old unmined forests and unmined forests of unknown age adjacent to the rehabilitating area. Species richness for all but the mammalian taxa increased with increasing age of rehabilitating stands. For all taxa but the mammals and herbaceous layer, the unmined stands harbored more species than the mined rehabilitating stands. The relative densities of pioneer species of all the taxa decreased with an increase in the age of rehabilitating stands, whereas those of the secondary species increased with an increase in habitat age. Similarity between unmined stands and rehabilitating stands of different ages increased with increasing regeneration age of rehabilitating stands, suggesting that rehabilitating communities, in terms of species composition and relative densities, are developing towards the status of unmined communities. Rehabilitation based on RBM's management program of limited interference is occurring and may result in the reestablishment of a coastal dune forest ecosystem. But rehabilitation resulting from succession depends on the availability of species sources from which colonization can take place. In the Richards Bay mining operation the present mining path is laid out so that such refuges are present.     

Clinical applications of assays for thyrotropin-receptor antibodies in Graves' disease.

Graves'' disease is characterized by hyperthyroidism, diffuse goitre, infiltrative ophthalmopathy and, rarely, pretibial myxedema. In 1956 a substance capable of prolonged thyroid stimulation was discovered in the serum of some patients with Graves'' disease and termed long-acting thyroid stimulator (LATS). It was shown to be an antibody that could interact with the receptor for thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). The term LATS is usually reserved for the activity measured in a laborious in-vivo bioassay in mice. Today the activity of TSH-receptor antibodies (TSH-R Ab) can be measured by in-vitro bioassays or by radioreceptor assays. These assays are now becoming commercially available. TSH-R Ab assays may be useful in predicting the response to therapy for Graves'' disease, investigating euthyroid ophthalmopathy and predicting the likelihood of neonatal hyperthyroidism.     

“Enmity Rather Than a Competition”

The sorts of great minds capable of major scientific breakthroughs often come with oversized and confrontational personalities. Both Ivan Pavlov and Vladimir Bekhterev had such personalities. What started as reasoned contention between two talented scholars grew into a heated rivalry that boiled over into science and public life as outright enmity. Using memoirs of their contemporaries, this article examines Pavlov's and Bekhterev's personal and scientific relationships against the backdrop of Russian science of their day. Pavlov's possible role in the decision not to grant the 1912 Nobel Prize for science is also described.     

Richards方程的数学属性及其在兽类生长过程中的应用

通过对Richards方程数学属性的分析表明 ,该方程具有变动的拐点值 ,因而在描绘兽类多种多样的生长过程时具有良好的可塑性。依据其方程参数n取值的不同 ,Richards方程包含了Spillman ,Logistic,Gompertz以及Bertalanffy方程。为了评估Richards方程对兽类生长过程的拟合优度 ,作者引用 1 0组哺乳动物兽类生长数据 ,将它与一些经典的生长模型如Spillman ,Logistic,Gompertz以及Bertalanffy方程共同进行了拟合比较。结果表明 ,Richards方程具有良好的拟合优度 ,适于描绘多种多样的兽类生长模式。     

Helfer-Beziehungen bei Trottellummen

Observations on murres on Vedöy (63° 30′ 12° E) from 1956 to 1975 and systematic investigations in order to analyze helping relationships in 62 breeding pairs and 30 chicks during 196 h of observation gave the following results: The attempt of each breeding pair to protect its only egg or chick results in helping neighbours with the defense against approaching birds of prey. The occurrence of brooding helpers is excluded as, from the different looking eggs, each brooder is only able to retrieve its own. After the loss of an own egg or chick adults may take strange chicks under their wing. To be fed these go back to their own parents. Helping behavior in murres is non-altruistic, and favors the selection of the individual but not the selection of the tribe.     

G proteins and regulation of adenylyl cyclase

The function and structures of G proteins and their role in the regulation of adenylyl cyclase is reviewed.The Nobel lecture given on December 8, 1994 by Dr Alfred Gilman and published inLes Prix Nobel 1994, printed by Norstedts Tryckeri, Stockholm, Sweden, republished here with the permission of the Nobel Foundation, the copyright holder.     

Richards's equation and nonlinear mixed models applied to avian growth: why use them?

Postnatal growth is an important life‐history trait that varies widely across avian species, and several equations with a sigmoidal shape have been used to model it. Classical three‐parameter models have an inflection point fixed at a percentage of the upper asymptote which could be an unrealistic assumption generating biased fits. The Richards model emerged as an interesting alternative because it includes an extra parameter that determines the location of the inflection point which can move freely along the growth curve. Recently, nonlinear mixed models (NLMM) have been used in modeling avian growth because these models can deal with a lack of independence among data as typically occurs with multiple measurements on the same individual or on groups of related individuals. Here, we evaluated the usefulness of von Bertalanffy, Gompertz, logistic, U₄ and Richards's equations modeling chick growth in the imperial shag Phalacrocorax atriceps. We modelled growth in commonly used morphological traits, including body mass, bill length, head length and tarsus length, and compared the performance of models by using NLMM. Estimated adult size, age at maximum growth and maximum growth rates markedly differed across models. Overall, the most consistent performance in estimated adult size was obtained by the Richards model that showed deviations from mean adult size within 5%. Based on AICc values, the Richards equation was the best model for all traits analyzed. For tarsus length, both Richards and U₄ models provided indistinguishable fits because the relative inflection value estimated from the Richards model was very close to that assumed by the U₄ model. Our results highlight the bias incurred by three‐parameter models when the assumed inflection placement deviates from that derived from data. Thus, the application of the Richards equation using the NLMM framework represents a flexible and powerful tool for the analysis of avian growth.     

Learning to interpret data

Abstract

The ability to interpret data depends heavily on the higher skills listed in Bloom's (1956) taxonomy—comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. It is suggested that students should be given an opportunity to acquire these skills in practice sessions in which they discuss their own attempts to interpret given data.     

The aging of biomedical research in the United States

In the past 30 years, the average age of biomedical researchers has steadily increased. The average age of an investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) rose from 39 to 51 between 1980 and 2008. The aging of the biomedical workforce was even more apparent when looking at first-time NIH grantees. The average age of a new investigator was 42 in 2008, compared to 36 in 1980. To determine if the rising barriers at NIH for entry in biomedical research might impact innovative ideas and research, we analyzed the research and publications of Nobel Prize winners from 1980 to 2010 to assess the age at which their pioneering research occurred. We established that in the 30-year period, 96 scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine or chemistry for work related to biomedicine, and that their groundbreaking research was conducted at an average age of 41-one year younger than the average age of a new investigator at NIH. Furthermore, 78% of the Nobel Prize winners conducted their research before the age of 51, the average age of an NIH principal investigator. This suggested that limited access to NIH might inhibit research potential and novel projects, and could impact biomedicine and the next generation scientists in the United States.     

Just the Place is Different: Comparisons of Place and Settlement Practices of some Hong Kong Migrants in Sydney

Interviews with HK migrants in Sydney yield a diverse array of perceptions about their sense of space and position. These 'spatial stories' (following de Certeau) can be read as different ways of inhabiting the everyday, as narratives which may cut across the 'proper' spatial order. All the senses are brought into play in accounts of densities and absences in people's everyday world. Banal discourses about 'here' and 'there' provide migrant subjects with a means to evaluate their social and spatial trajectories by comparing the 'feel' of very different places and scales. I also point to the limits of such strategies, and the kind of memories which lie outside of discursive exchanges.     

The evolutionary problem of genetic disease

Overpopulation and Family Planning: Report of the Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Planned Parenthood, October 24–29, 1955. Tokyo, Japan. Editor, Dr. L. N. Jackson. English and Japanese editions published by the International Planned Parenthood Federation, 69 Eccleston Square, London, S. W. I., England. Price: Sterling £1.1s.; Indian Rs. 7/‐; U.S. $3.00.

The Hazards to Man of Nuclear and Allied Radiations: Medical Research Council, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, 1956, 128 pp., price 5s. 6d.

Mental Disorders in Later Life (Second Edition) : Oscar J. Kaplan (ed.), Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 1956, 508 pp., $7.50.

Zwillingstuberkulose III —Nachuntersuchung nach 20 Jahren an der Serie tuberkuloser Zwillinge: Helmut Mitsch‐rich, Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, 1956, 78 pp.

Land of the Moon‐Children—The Primitive San Blas Culture in Flux: Clyde E. Keeler (Georgia State College for Women, Milledgeville, Ga.) University of Georgia Press, 1956, 207 pp., $4.50.

Warbasse History—A Study in the Sociology of Heredity: James Peter Warbasse, Kendall Press, Falmouth, Mass., 1954, 226 pp. $8.00.     

Merlinius paniculoides n. sp. from Italy (Tylenchina: Belonolaimidae)

Merlinius paniculoides n. sp. is described from a bisexual Italian population found in northern Italy. This species has a coarsely annulated cuticle with approximately 30 longitudinal striae in addition to the six lateral field incisures; consequently the cuticle appears tessellate. The female tail is subcylindrical with a bluntly, rounded, non-annulated terminus. Merlinius paniculoides shares the tessellate cuticular ornamentation and the offset labial region with M. lenorus (Brown, 1956) Siddiqi, 1970 and M. tartuensis (Krall, 1959) Siddiqi, 1970. It differs from M. lenorus by the higher c and lower c'' ratios (c = 16-19 vs. 12-15 and c'' = 2.2-2,8 vs. 3.7) and greater number of longitudinal striae (28-32 vs. 24). It differs from M. tartuensis by a fewer number of annuti from stylet knob base to lip constriction (8-9 vs. 21), shorter stylet (19-21 vs. 24 μm), presence of males, and higher c'' value (c'' = 2.2-2.8 vs. 1.9).