clipped from grants.nih.gov

Be Prepared

1. An animal program of impeccable integrity;
2. A security program based on risk assessment;
3. An integrated communication plan with descriptions of research projects in lay terminology, spokespersons, and a telephone tree
4. An internal and external community outreach program that includes legislators and funding agencies.

The ARENA/OLAW Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee Guidebook (PDF – 3.2 MB; see section B.6.a) describes the 4 key elements of institutional preparedness:

clipped from fresnobeehive.com

Egg bill pushed by unusual alliance

AB 1437, supported by the Humane Society of the United States, would prohibit the sale in California of out-of-state eggs produced by farms that don’t adhere to the California standard, which under Prop. 2 requires that certain farm animals have room to move freely.

The bill passed the Assembly Agriculture Committee recently on a unanimous vote, including “ayes” from Assembly members Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto, and Connie Conway, R-Tulare.

clipped from www.babelsdawn.com

Alfred Russel Wallace was the co-discoverer of natural selection. His paper provides a framework for thinking about how culture and environment constrain varieties to stay true to type and also how changes enable varieties to stray indefinitely from the original type.

It is now well established that language
cannot follow just any old rules. Linguists a few decades back thought there
was no limit to the variety of language, but research has since identified a
number of formal constraints that mark boundaries. Language can work within
those borders, but not cross them. The trouble with those borders is
understanding what these constraints mean psychologically and neurologically.
There must be some reason beyond the formal rules for why these constraints
existed. We hardly know how to think about these matters, let alone explain
them. A letter in the most recent issue of Nature reminds me, however,
that clues are coming in from, of all places, songbirds.

clipped from www.nytimes.com

Carole C. Noon, Who Founded Save the Chimps, Dies at 59

Dr. Carole C. Noon, a primatologist whose passion — and compassion — for her subjects led to her founding of Save the Chimps, the organization that provides the world’s largest sanctuary for captive chimpanzees, died Saturday in Fort Pierce, Fla. She was 59 and lived on the sanctuary grounds in Fort Pierce.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, said her sister Lee Asbeck.

clipped from view.newsletters.nas.edu

“This represents the largest commitment to scientific
research and innovation in American history.”
-President Obama addressing members of the National Academy of Sciences, 4/27/09

“I am here today to set this goal: we will devote more than three percent of our GDP to research and development. We will not just meet, but we will exceed the level achieved at the height of the Space Race, through policies that invest in basic and applied research, create new incentives for private innovation, promote breakthroughs in energy and medicine, and improve education in math and science.”

clipped from www.philly.com

A life on the front lines against deadly viruses

Frederick Murphy remembers the day in 1967 that live viruses arrived at his veterinary research lab from Marburg, West Germany. Seven people were already dead from an unknown monkey disease that had jumped to humans, causing them to bleed uncontrollably.

He was not afraid. As part of a small government team in Atlanta, it was his job to investigate such outbreaks.

“It was pure adventure,” Murphy said, to be out on the front lines identifying deadly microbes – first Marburg, later Ebola – that were entirely new to humans.

Today, Murphy will be in Philadelphia to receive the $100,000 Penn Vet World Leadership Award, the biggest cash prize for veterinary research. His animal studies years ago laid the groundwork for understanding many of the latest emerging human diseases.

clipped from latimesblogs.latimes.com

Animal research rallies peaceful; pro-research demonstration much larger

Competing rallies at UCLA today over the controversial issue of animal research are peaceful so far, with supporters of the research appearing to outnumber opponents by more than 10 to 1.

About 400 people, including UCLA faculty, staff and students, have joined a pro-research rally on the northwest corner of Westwood Boulevard and Le Conte Avenue, just south of the campus. The demonstrators are carrying signs with such slogans as “Animal research saves lives” and “Campus terrorism is not OK.”