Apr 10, 2012

Publish or perish

A U.S. government panel has concluded that findings from two avian flu studies can be published even though there is a risk that the work could be misused by governments or terrorists to create biological weapons. The weight of the panel’s expert opinion is ...

Mar 30, 2012

Surprising choice for World Bank

U.S. President Barack Obama has named Dr. Jim Yong Kim as his nominee to lead the World Bank. In the past, that would have been the end of the process — Washington spoke and the bank complied. It is still probable that Mr. Kim ...

Mar 5, 2012

Blood donations critically below par in China

by Cesar Chelala

Every year, blood transfusions save millions of lives, but still millions of patients needing transfusion do not have access to safe blood because of insufficient donations. Among the countries suffering this problem is China, where insufficient amounts of donated blood continue being a problem ...

Jan 28, 2012

Balancing security and science

Scientists working on ways to detect and prevent the spread of the avian flu virus have suspended their work out of concern that it could either be used for bioterrorism or that it might escape the lab; either development could create a global pandemic ...