I haven't contributed a single thing to the platypus genome project, but since my desk sits one floor above where people and robots broke the platypus DNA into chunks, cloned those chunks into bacteria, sequenced the pieces of DNA, and used massive amounts of computing power to assemble the stretches of sequence into a complete genomic whole, I'm going to consider myself somewhat of an authority on the subject and tell you what's wrong with other people's ideas about the platypus.

The genome sequence of the platypus was published Thursday in Nature, and from the press headlines, you could be excused for thinking that genomics has in fact confirmed that the platypus is a freak of nature: part bird, part reptile, and part mammal. The animal certainly looks like it - the platypus has the webbed feet and bill of a duck, and venomous spines and rubbery eggs that remind us of reptiles, but it has fur and feeds its young with milk, so it must be a mammal. The confusing press headlines might even lead you to believe that we sequenced the platypus genome just to figure out what this thing is, when the truth is, as we'll see below, that the genome sequence has essentially confirmed what evolutionary biologists have already deduced about the position of the platypus on the tree of life.

Is the platypus part bird, part reptile part mammal, an amalgam of very different groups of animals? Is it a primitive mammal that resembles the early ancestors of all mammals? Can we figure out just what this creature is by gazing at its genome?

President Bush has a bill on his desk, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), which will prohibit discrimination on the basis of genetic information with respect to health insurance and employment. He is expected to sign the bill, but is science – and the people – ready?

LONDON, May 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Unite, Scotland's largest trade union has condemned management at Freescale Semiconductors after they announced a buyer could not be found to continue production at the East Kilbride plant.

Up to 900 skilled jobs now look under severe threat at the plant which produces embedded chips to provide intelligence for products ranging from car engines to mobile phones. It is also further bad news for the local economy following the recent announcement by JVC that they will move manufacturing operations to Poland at the cost of another 900 skilled posts.

EVANSTON, Illinois, May 9 /PRNewswire/ --

- Shelterbox among the first international relief groups to reach stricken Myanmar

As major relief agencies waited for access to cyclone ravaged Myanmar, among the first charities actually to reach the affected area was Shelterbox, a grassroots disaster relief organization supported by Rotary clubs around the world.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, May 9 /PRNewswire/ --

- Sheikh Mohammed Pledges Grant of Emergency Aid through Dubai Cares

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the U.A.E. and Ruler of Dubai, announced the emergency provision of 200 temporary structures to be used as schools and shelter to support the victims of Cyclone Nargis. Myanmar has accepted Dubai's donation. The official death toll currently stands at 22,000, with figures expected to reach the 100,000-mark.

Following the announcement, officials from Dubai Cares loaded 200 large tents into an aircraft to be delivered immediately to Myanmar and made operational as temporary schools and shelter within 48 hours.

There has been considerable interest in the publication of the platypus genome, which is good. Unfortunately, much of the reporting has been distorted, which is bad. However, rather than picking on the press, I want to focus on an example from the scientific literature where a misconception about evolutionary relationships seems to creep in and generate confusion. Consider the following line, from a soon to be published paper about platypus sex chromosomes (Veyrunes et al. 2008).

As the most basal mammal group, the egg-laying monotremes are ideal for determining how the therian XY system evolved.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 9 /PRNewswire/ --

GPS Industries, Inc. (GPSI) (OTC Bulletin Board: GPSN), the only provider of Wi-Fi powered, advertising enhanced GPS systems for golf facilities, resorts and residential communities, announces that it has increased the borrowing capacity under its Loan Agreement with Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 9 /PRNewswire/ --

GPS Industries, Inc. (GPSI) (OTC Bulletin Board: GPSN), the only provider of Wi-Fi powered, advertising enhanced GPS systems for golf facilities, resorts and residential communities, announces that it has signed a Master Supply Agreement ("MSA") for sales in China with GPSi Asia, our exclusive Asian distributor.

As a result of continued emergence of the China market, GPSI and GPSi Asia have agreed to terms whereby GPSi Asia will purchase 15 or more systems or up to 1,750 Inforemer HD Mobile Display Units ("MDU"). In accordance with the MSA, GPSi Asia has advanced an initial deposit to GPSI to initiate production of the first 5 systems and to obtain preferred pricing.

LONDON, May 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Eisai Limited, the licence holder of Aricept(R) (donepezil hydrochloride) and Pfizer Limited, its co-promotion partner, announced today that the Court of Appeal has released its decision on the consequential issues arising from Court of Appeal's recent ruling that the process by which the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) decided to restrict anti-dementia medicines for newly diagnosed patients with mild Alzheimer's disease was procedurally unfair. The decision today will now be reflected in a Court order.

The Court has decided that

Stem cells, the body's wonder tool, are extremely versatile. They can develop in 220 different ways, transforming themselves into a correspondingly diverse range of specialized body cells.

Biologists and medical scientists plan to make use of this differentiation ability to selectively harvest cardiac, skin or nerve cells for the treatment of different diseases. However, the stem cell culture techniques practiced today are not very efficient. What proportion of a mass of stem cells is transformed into which body cells? And in what conditions?

“We need devices that keep doing the same thing and thus deliver statistically reliable data,” says Professor Günter Fuhr, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT in St. Ingbert.