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<jats:p>Alarmed by evidence that terrorists may exploit biological weapons, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)—best known as the originator of the Internet—is moving into biology with some serious money. It is looking for innovative proposals.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Leaders of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's new biology program say they made biological countermeasures a high priority after the Aum Shinrikyo religious group attacked passengers on Tokyo's subway trains with nerve gas in 1995 and after it was revealed that Iraq's military built an extensive bioweapons stockpile in the late 1980s.</jats:p>

<jats:p> <jats:bold>PARIS</jats:bold> —A dispute sparked when construction work threatened an archaeological site in the southern French city of Rodez has become a rallying cause for French archaeologists. Last month, many researchers staged a week-long strike which culminated last week in a demonstration that brought more than 1000 people onto the streets of Paris. Their goal: to persuade the government to pass new laws to protect vulnerable historic sites. </jats:p>

<jats:p> <jats:bold>LONDON</jats:bold> —The chill wind of competition now blowing through Britain's higher education system is proving too frosty for some of the smaller university departments of physics and chemistry. Declining enrollment in science courses and a new formula announced last month for distributing infrastructure funds over the next 4 years have led three universities to shut down some undergraduate physics and chemistry courses, while whole departments may be closed at two other institutions. </jats:p>

<jats:p>In the early 1960s, the discovery that some batches of polio vaccine administered in the 1950s were contaminated with a virus that causes tumors in experimental animals stirred worries that it might do so in humans. That concern was laid to rest by studies showing no increased cancer incidence in people likely to have received the vaccine. Now, several groups have discovered DNA from the virus, known as simian virus 40 (SV40), in certain relatively rare tumors. New epidemiological studies again show no elevated risk of cancer in people who may have received contaminated vaccine, but questions remain because evidence suggests that SV40 does infect humans and may have existed in the human population even before the polio vaccine.</jats:p>

<jats:p>Federal and state officials signed a land-management agreement last week to protect a host of species, including the infamous northern spotted owl, in Washington state's forests. The plan has drawn a lot of criticism, however, and not just from disgruntled loggers. Some biologists question the plan's ecological underpinnings</jats:p>

<jats:p>The case for increased federal spending on research is making headway in Congress and was the focus of a new package of reports issued last week by the presidents of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.* But it's hogwash to British biochemist Terence Kealey, whose new book argues that “governments should not fund science.”</jats:p> <jats:p> * For more information, see the academy's <jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://www2.nas.edu/21st/" xlink:type="simple">Web site.</jats:ext-link> </jats:p>

<jats:p>Energy Secretary nominee Federico Peña appears headed for both confirmation in the job and at least a brief honeymoon with Congress. The clearest sign of that is a decision by Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) to delay his plan to reorganize and downsize the Department of Energy until Peña has had a chance to reform the troubled agency.</jats:p>

<jats:p>The fat-busting hormone leptin no longer looks to be the quick route to a svelte figure that early reports suggested. But while leptin itself may not pan out as an obesity treatment, in the past year, researchers have learned much more about how and where the hormone works in the body and how it interacts with other molecules—information that may help them design drugs that can trim body fat.</jats:p>

<jats:p>During the 2 years since its discovery, the protein hormone leptin has paraded through headlines because of its possible role in keeping fat levels in check. But that may not be its main function. New works suggests that leptin, working through glands around the body, including the adrenals, the thyroid, and even the ovaries and testes, may have more to do with helping the body deal with the stresses of starvation.</jats:p>