This month News and facts

Humour	Paul the Postdoc	6
News	Taxonomy’s 2007 top ten / New tool for protein mining / New heads for the ERC and HFSPO /French CNRS split planned / Recently awarded / Faster and cheaper DNA sequencing	6
Opinion	Observations of The Owl (12): Sci-chology	12
Analysis	French veterinarian and bioethicist Jacques Testart talks about better ways for scientists and the public to be involved in political decisions	14
Analysis	Mathematical modelling in biology	20
Humour	Incredible Science (11): Snorers get poor exam results	23
Analysis	Cereal diets and babies’ sex -- a case of poor science and sensationalist headlines	24
Journal Club	Lyon/France Freeze tolerance in lizards	28
Journal Club	Gödöllö/Hungary Plant RNA silencing against virus attacks	30
Journal Club	Dundee/Scotland Black tea polyphenols and diabetes	32
Humour	One fine day in the lab (8): Stock solutions	33
Publication Statistics	Dermatology in Europe	34
Publication Statistics	Don’t be misled by citation figures! (12): The times they are a-changin’	37
Analysis	Career strategies for young European scientists (XII): Funding opportunities in the Netherlands open to anyone	38
Biobiz	News	42
Biobiz	How to become a biobusiness writer? A Lab Times reader’s mysterious e-mail approach to freelance work	44
Biobiz	The Genetics Research Centre (GRC) in Munich offers genotyping services to scientists	45
Biobiz	Interview with Andreas Ruppert, Head of the GRC, on exclusive equipment and boring work	46
Biobiz	GSK, the world’s second largest pharmaceutical company, has found a magic formula	48
Biobiz	Biotech buyout: how feverish Big Pharma is spending billions of euros to find new cash cows	49
Methods	Bench philosophy (13): Open source for open minds. The EMBOSS Suite	50
Methods	Tips and tricks of the trade: Cool glove trick keeps your fingers warm	52
Products	Product Survey, Cloning kits	53
Products	New products	60
Books	Psychrophiles. From Biodiversity to Biotechnology. By Rosa Margesin et al.	61
Books	Molecular Forensics. By Ralph Rapley and David Whitehouse (eds.)	62
Humour	Cartoon: Superdoc (6)	70