Elemental Discoveries Issue 75

In Issue 75:

Does the MMR vaccine cause autism? In this guest editorial from Michael Marshall we take a step closer to finding out what is behind the alleged link between multiple vaccines and disease.

Distribution, that's the name of the game - Distributed computing has already entered the popular psyche through the likes of the SETI@home experiment and various protein folding and drug interaction projects, such as IBM's recently announced venture which utilise the CPU idle time of hundreds of thousands of desktop computers around the world. The CombeChem team, have used such a distributed computing network, a Grid, within the University of Southampton to run simulations and to allow the team to compile a large database of molecules.

Contractual Obligation - An increasing trend towards the casual employment of scientists has placed many higher education researchers on shaky ground. They face funding difficulties, a lack of respect, and financial troubles. Whether initiatives in the United Kingdom will have a positive effect on these researchers is debatable.

A hands-on approach to forensics - The examination of handwritten documents is an essential part of the forensic investigation of many crimes, and evidence based on handwriting identification can be a key factor in solving crimes including fraud, identity theft, graffiti and even murder.

Deep-sea exploration - How do scientists cope under pressure? In the depths of the ocean? In a place where the only natural light is the product of bioluminescence, where high-pressure sales has an altogether different meaning?

The growing problem of biopiracy - Attempts to patent and commercialise the fruits, figuratively speaking, of the developing world, those natural pesticides, revitalising potions and grubby microbes, have been causing a major headache for those who take their ethical dilemmas seriously writes David Bradley.

Chemical Science News from the UK science base and beyond
Inorganic Chemistry science news articles physical chemistry science news articles pharmaceutical and biotechnology science news articles