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USA Today Examines 'Incendiary Debate' Over Abortion Rights
Nearly 40 years after the Supreme Court"s decision in Roe v. Wade, the "incendiary debate over abortion rights endures" and continues to manifest itself in a number of ways, USA Today reports. According to a recent USA Today/Gallup Poll, 78% of U.S. residents want abortion to be legal under at least some circumstances, with 21% saying it should be legal under any circumstance. According to the poll, 18% of respondents said that they want abortion always to be illegal. The poll also found that 46% of U.S. residents self-identify as "pro-choice," while 47% self-identify as "pro-life."Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said, "The enduring divide represents the reality that there are fundamental religious differences on the issue of abortion that do not exist on, say, campaign finance or even on health care." Americans United for Life President Charmaine Yoest said that abortion-rights opponents are mobilizing to urge congressional lawmakers to exclude abortion coverage and funding from any federal health reform legislation.During the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, the judge said that she does not believe previous court rulings on abortion rights have ended the national controversy surrounding the issue. According to USA Today, Sotomayor, who has never ruled on the issue, declined to reveal her personal position on abortion rights. Several antiabortion-rights advocates also protested during Sotomayor"s hearings (Biskupic, USA Today, 7/24).In addition, the Center for Reproductive Rights this week released a report that found physicians and employees of health care clinics providing abortion services in six states -- Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Texas -- face an increasing level of harassment and death threats. The report was based on a four-month investigation (AP/Houston Chronicle, 7/23). The report was tied to the murder of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller (USA Today, 7/24). Operation Save America Director the Rev. Flip Benham, whose group is mentioned in the report, said the center is trying to limit the free-speech rights of abortion-rights opponents (AP/Houston Chronicle, 7/23).

Antivirals Might Be Wasted On The Elderly, Researchers Warn
A model of influenza transmission and treatment suggests that, if the current swine flu pandemic behaves like the 1918 flu, antiviral treatment should be reserved for the young. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Infectious Diseases found that, in this situation, providing the elderly with antiviral drugs would not significantly reduce mortality, and may lead to an increase in resistance.
News of the day
Rate Of Breast Cancer In Italy Significantly Higher Than Previously Reported
A new analysis of the incidence of breast cancer in Italy per 100,000 women between the ages of 0 to 84 from 2000 to 2005 shows a 72 percent spike above official estimates issued by the Ministry of Health, with the sharpest uptick of +28.6 percent found in the youngest group studied (ages 25 to 44).
Endocrinology

Molecular Life Sciences New Online Publication

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press has launched a new monthly publication, Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology, that provides comprehensive, systematically structured surveys of research in exciting areas of molecular and cellular biology, genetics, developmental biology, neuroscience, cancer biology, and molecular pathology. For decades, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory has complemented its groundbreaking research with publication of a variety of highly prestigious titles written and edited by leading scientists. These include the journals Genes & Development and Genome Research, the "bible" of research methods Molecular Cloning, online teaching res, and numerous other laboratory manuals, monographs, handbooks, journals, and textbooks. Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology (http://www.cshperspectives.org; ISSN 1943-0264) is the latest, and perhaps most ambitious, addition to this stable. Its depth of coverage is unmatched, spanning the entire spectrum of the molecular life sciences and therefore providing an essential re for all areas of bioscience research. According to the journal"s Executive Editor, Richard Sever, who has worked on traditional review journals including the Current Opinion and Trends titles, Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology has a new and unique approach. "There are many review articles published each year, but they"re usually on one particular aspect of one particular field," he says. "Perspectives is different. We cover subjects by asking experts to consider how best to structure a comprehensive survey of their field, and then commission articles from all the key figures in that field. And we cover everything in bioscience from Alzheimer"s to plant biology." The Perspectives articles are all commissioned as "collections" by a board of eminent academic editors and gradually accumulate online at the journal"s website each month as they are accepted and published. The debut issue features articles commissioned by Elaine Fuchs, Michael Karin, W. James Nelson, and Peter Lawrence and includes contributions from Nobel laureate David Baltimore, molecular motor expert Nobutaka Hirokawa, and developmental biologist Jim Smith. These set the stage for subject collections on symmetry breaking, morphogen gradients, cell junctions, and the immune signaling molecule NF-kB. Next in the pipeline are articles on the origin of life, the p53-family of tumor suppressors, the nucleus, and immune tolerance. The new publication is produced online in partnership with Stanford University Library"s HighWire Press, taking advantage of their new H20 platform. The state-of-the-art website includes HTML and PDF views, high-resolution artwork, and video material, along with a host of novel features such as author updates, commenting options, and Twitter-powered news feeds. The journal will be free for the remainder of 2009, and discounted early-subscriber pricing is now available for 2010. Stephanie Novara Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory


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