Of all the 'Greatest Scientific Breakthroughs' of 2007 heralded in the pages of various newspapers and magazines this past month, perhaps the most unsung one is the entrance of next-generation DNA sequencing onto the stage of serious research. Prior to this year, the latest sequencing technologies were limited in their usefulness and accessibility due to their cost and a steep technical learning curve. That's now changing, and a group of recent research papers gives us a hint of just how powerful this new technology is going to be. Not only will next-generation sequencing be the biggest change in genomics since the advent of microarray technology, but it may also prove to be the first genome-scale technology to become part of every-day medical practice.

Recently there has been some discussion in the blogosphere about student-advisor relationships in science.

Four years of observations from the European Space Agency’s Integral (INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory) satellite may have cleared up one of the most vexing mysteries in our Milky Way: the origin of a giant cloud of antimatter surrounding the galactic center.

As reported by an international team in the January 10 issue of Nature, Integral found that the cloud extends farther on the western side of the galactic center than it does on the eastern side.

When people in a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study were told that anorexia nervosa had a biological or genetics-based cause they were less likely to put any personal accountability on anorexics than when they were told it was personal or cultural.

That makes sense. A disease that is egalitarian and exculpatory like a genetics or biological mutation is different than a syndrome. We can't blame kids with Autism for having Autism, though we do teach them to moderate their behavior - and that's a key point.

Anorexia nervosa is characterized by an obsessive desire to be thin and results in self-starvation and related medical complications.

The last fish you ate probably came from the Bering Sea. At present, the Bering Sea provides roughly half the fish caught in U.S. waters each year and nearly a third caught worldwide.

While the basic dynamics of a 'greenhouse ocean' are not well understood, marine ecologists writing in Marine Ecology Progress Series expressed concern that, if their predictions are true, a warming ocean would lead to a much different ecology there.

“All the fish that ends up in McDonald’s, fish sandwiches — that’s all Bering Sea fish,” said USC marine ecologist Dave Hutchins.

NAIROBI, January 11 /PRNewswire/ -- cbm through its staff and Regional Office in Nairobi is providing emergency assistance to the humanitarian crisis in Kenya.

It is estimated that around 500,000 people have lost their homes, due to the widespread violence following the disputed election.

Prof. Allen Foster, cbm's President announced, "There is an urgent need of food, shelter and health services, and cbm will provide immediate financial assistance through our partners to help people in the region."

PHILADELPHIA and LONDON, January 11 /PRNewswire/ --

- Unique Identifier Ensures An Accurate Record Of A Researcher's Output And Attribution and Builds a World-class Author Community

Thomson Scientific, part of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC) and leading provider of information solutions to the worldwide research and business communities, today announced the launch of ResearcherID.com. This unique Web environment enables researchers to create stable personal identifiers to present their works and manage public presentation of their personal metrics.

NEW YORK, January 11 /PRNewswire/ --

"I am pleased to announce that Haas TCM Inc. and its subsidiaries, Kemfast Aerospace Group, Ltd. and Kemfast, Ltd (collectively Kemfast) and its MC Technologies division have combined with an affiliate of The Jordan Company, L.P. to form Haas TCM Group Inc. ICMS Holdings, Inc. (d/b/a Avchem, Inc.), an existing portfolio company of Jordan, will be integrated with Haas TCM Group Inc. The focus of these businesses is to provide chemical management services on a global basis to a wide range of industries including aerospace, automotive, electronics, health care and other markets, as well to government agencies such as the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency," stated Dean M. Willard, Chairman of the Board of Haas TCM Group Inc.

An international research team has discovered that a magnetic field can interact with the electrons in a superconductor in ways never before observed.

Andrea D. Bianchi, the lead researcher from the Université de Montréal, explains in the January 11 edition of Science magazine what he discovered in an exceptional compound of metals – a combination of cobalt, indium and a rare earth – that loses its resistance when cooled to just a couple of degrees above absolute zero.

“When subjected to intense magnetic fields, these materials produce a completely new type of magnetic tornado that grows stronger with increasing fields rather than weakening,” said Prof. Bianchi. “The beauty of this compound is how we can experiment without breaking it.”

New ways to make sure people are adequately informed about the risks and benefits of taking part in a clinical trial can be field-tested for effectiveness as vigorously as new medical treatments themselves, a study led by a Johns Hopkins bioethicist suggests.

Informed consent, a mainstay of ethical clinical trials, is the process by which potential research subjects are asked to decide whether to participate in research.