BY KYLE M. BROWN 

During a March 25 hearing of the House Science and Technology Committee’s energy and environment subcommittee, members of Congress debated the role of basic science research at the Department of Energy. As the committee considered initial sections of the 2010 America COMPETES Act, several members were concerned that changes to the DOE would jeopardize the basic science mission of the Office of Science.

BY CARRIE D. WOLINETZ AND JENNIFER A. HOBIN 

The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology recently has been engaged in a number of activities relevant to graduate and postdoctoral trainees and the next generation of scientists.

Thanks for the article you wrote on climate change in ASBMB Today (February 2010). I’ve been watching both the scientific press (C&E News, Nature, etc.) and the popular press on this issue, not to mention blogs and the like. Your article was useful and thoughtful— unlike some of the stuff coming from the “science” press.

Your article in the March 2010 issue of ASBMB Today matches my thoughts and experiences.

For our global science issue, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology asked three of its international members -- Ivan Dikic, Armando J. Parodi and Christopher J. Chetsanga -- to answer questions about themselves and about science in their countries. We will be featuring more of these spotlights in upcoming issues and online.  

By GREGORY A. PETSKO 

Last month, I wrote about what I consider to be one of the most serious problems facing the life sciences in the age of genomics: the increasing polarization between those who do what they call “basic research” and those who do what is termed “translational research.” I argued that we have created this problem ourselves by accepting this divisive terminology and using it in everyday discourse. And, I asserted that we should abandon, forever, what I believe is an artificial and inaccurate distinction.

BY PETER FARNHAM 

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Public Affairs Advisory Committee’s spring meeting was held from April 11 to 14, in Washington, D.C. Attendees spent a day doing committee business and then two days doing advocacy on the Hill and information gathering at the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

BY KLAUS M. HAHN 

Gary Bokoch passed away last January, after a long struggle with kidney and cardiovascular illness. It is a testament to his strength of character and selflessness that he kept his illness largely a secret for years while soldiering on, until he passed away at age 55.

BY PETER FARNHAM 

President Obama signed the new healthcare law in March, and a little-noticed provision is in the new law due to an amendment inserted in the bill last summer during Senate debate. The author was Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., and the new National Institutes of Health program is called the “Cures Acceleration Network” or CAN.