WASHINGTON, June 2 /PRNewswire/ --

- Criticize Attacks on Biofuels

Ahead of a United Nations conference on food security and climate change, unfair blame has been leveled against the world biofuels industry as playing a major role in the food crisis we are experiencing today. Addressing this manufactured hysteria, the leaders of the biofuels industries in the United States, Canada and Europe today sent a letter to UN Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Dr. Jacques Diouf and those world leaders attending the summit urging them not to single out biofuels and ignore those factors that have played a much more significant role in driving up the price of food worldwide.

Much of the coverage of autism in the media focuses on the arguments of advocates, scientists, and government officials over the relationship between vaccines and autism. But out of the spotlight, a bigger story is brewing: the hunt for autism genes, a technically difficult hunt which is pressing forward using all of the tools modern genetics has to offer. If you are like me, news stories about autism have left you with only a vague impression of the current scientific state of understanding, the impression that researchers strongly deny any link between autism and vaccines, but have little else to say about what the real cause of autism might be.

If that is your impression, you'll perhaps be surprised to learn that roughly 20% of autism cases in the US are linked to known genetic changes, a minor fraction of autism cases to be sure, but much higher than I would have guessed. That autism has a genetic basis is a well-established finding, and while this by no means rules out environmental factors, genetics is at the core of the recent progress scientists have made in understanding autism. The genetics of autism, however, is not simple - no surprise, since autism involves our most complex organ, the brain, in one of its most complex functions, social interaction. Untangling the genetic and environmental factors that underlie autism will be tough, but in the process we will learn more about how many different genes work together in a child to control the developing brain.

As I wrote a few days ago, if we agree that the nature of science is along the lines I have described, next we need to ask why it is so. Platt, in his classic 1964 article on strong inference, briefly mentions a number of answers, which he dismisses without discussion, but that I think are actually a large part of the reason "hard" and "soft" sciences appear to be so different. These alternative hypotheses for why a given science may behave “softly” include, as Platt puts it, “the tractability of the subject, or the quality of education of the men [sic] drawn into it, or the size of research contracts.” In other words, particle physics, say, may be more successful than ecology because it is easier (more tractable), or because ecologists tend to be dumber than physicists, or because physicists get a lot more money for their research than ecologists do.

An article published in the Journal of Forensic Science details the fruits of a collaboration between the University of Leicester and the Northamptonshire Police, which led to a “major breakthrough” in crime detection, perhaps allowing “hundreds of cold cases being reopened,” according to a press release. The University’s Forensic Research Center has been working with Northamptonshire Police's scientific support unit to develop new ways of taking fingerprints from a crime scene. The collaboration between the boffins and bobbies – boffin being British slang for someone engaged in technical or scientific research, apparently, and bobby being slang for police – was formally launched May 14. (For those without an intimate knowledge of U.K. geography, Northamptonshire Police headquarters is located in Northampton, about 70 miles NW of London. The University of Leicester is another 40 miles or so northwest of Northampton.) The newly developed method enables scientists to visualize fingerprints even after the print itself has been removed, the press release said.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, June 2 /PRNewswire/ --

- Genmab Announces Appointment of David Eatwell as New Chief Financial Officer

- Summary: Genmab Announces the Appointment of David A. Eatwell as Chief Financial Officer.

Genmab A/S (OMX: GEN) today announced that David A. Eatwell has been appointed Chief Financial Officer of the company. Mr. Eatwell will be responsible for overseeing the financial and accounting activities of the company.

VENTURA, California, June 2 /PRNewswire/ --

Turbodyne Technologies, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: TRBD, TUD-Frankfurt) announced today that it is launching its Fleet Services unit in an effort to offset the consumption of diesel fuel and emissions for operators of fleets of diesel vehicles in the US and Europe. The biggest challenge for operators of diesel fleets with fewer than 500 vehicles is coping with skyrocketing diesel fuel costs and compliance with ever increasing emissions standards. This problem is greatly magnified in Europe with the price of diesel in some cities reaching as high as euro 1.57 per litre (approximately US$9.25 per gallon) and as the European community phases in stricter emissions standards over the next 3 years.

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, June 2 /PRNewswire/ --

The Advanced Wound Management Division of Smith & Nephew (LSE: SN; NYSE: SNN) announced today that its negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) products will be available in nine of the ten designated metropolitan areas included in the first phase of the competitive bidding program administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in the U.S. The program, which is scheduled to take effect in July 2008, was established, in part, to ensure that Medicare patients have access to quality homecare products and services and that these and their providers meet Medicare's new financial and quality standards.

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, June 2 /PRNewswire/ --

- First Results to be Announced

Marine scientists from around the world will be homing in on Halifax next week when they converge on Dalhousie University for the First Annual Ocean Tracking Network Conference June 4 to June 6. The conference is the official launch of the Ocean Tracking Network and appropriately coincides with World Ocean Day on June 6. The conference will feature opening remarks by former Oceanographer of the US Navy, Rear Admiral (retired) Richard West, and a trade show beginning on Thursday, June 5. A media conference announcing progress to date and any activity from the receivers will be held on Friday, June 6. Media interviews for key researchers can be arranged via phone or e-mail from June 4-6.

NEW YORK, June 2 /PRNewswire/ --

- Telepresence Meetings Will Connect Businesses in NYC and London

Teliris (http://www.teliris.com), the leading telepresence provider, announced today it will offer free telepresence meetings between New York and London to business travelers affected by the recent closing of Silverjet airlines, which operated flights between airports in London, New York and Dubai.

Teliris, which pioneered the first telepresence system-a virtual meeting technology that allows colleagues to meet naturally across any distance-has been providing the only available true immersive telepresence solution to global corporations like Lazard, Merck and QUALCOMM among others since 1999.

SAN DIEGO, June 2 /PRNewswire/ --

- GSK exercises option for AM803, a FLAP inhibitor which recently completed phase I studies

Amira Pharmaceuticals today announced that under the terms of a worldwide exclusive agreement entered into in Feb 2008, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will exercise its right to a second FLAP compound, AM803. Under the original agreement, GSK has rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize FLAP (5-Lipoxygenase Activating Protein) inhibitors for the treatment of respiratory and cardiovascular disease. The decision to develop AM803 follows the successful completion of a phase I study by Amira, which demonstrated its potential as a once-daily FLAP inhibitor.