10: Pretend an electron got stuck in your ear, and describe the sound to others.
9: Give a cup of liquid nitrogen to a partner and ask them how it tastes.
8: Consistently write 3 atoms of potassium as KKK.
7: Mutter repeatedly "not again...".
6: During a lull cry out, "My eyes"!
5: Deny the existence of chemicals. 
4. Begin pronouncing everything your immigrant lab instructor says exactly the way he/she says it.
3. Casually walk to the front of the room and urinate in a beaker.
2. Pop a paper bag at the crucial moment when the professor is about to pour the sulfuric acid
1. Show up with a 55-gallon drum of fertilizer and express an interest in federal buildings.

According to a news release, HHMI is adding $25 million to its spending for Med Into Grad, which it hopes to distribute to another 25 institutions. HHMI sets general objectives for the institutions, but, as noted in Vastag's article, universities have considerable leeway in configuring the education they deliver to participating students.

HHMI asks for institutions to register their intent to compete for the grants by 6 January 2009. Full proposals are due on 27April 2009.

Without accounting for inflation, the report will say, U.S. R&D expenditures will rise about 1.72% to $383.5 billion. After inflation, this is expected to amount to a 1.6% decline in real spending. It would be the first drop in overall U.S. research spending in a decade.

The U.S. share of global research spending is also expected to fall, from 34% this year to 33.6% in 2009. Global research spending, after inflation, is expected to be flat, a 3.2% increase offset by a 3.2% inflation rate.

• Meals and snacks (and the pub!) are subsidized to encourage researchers to leave their labs and eat with each other and with visitors.  In the cafeteria, most tables seat 6-8 people to encourage conversation.
• Housing for scientists is located on campus.   Apparently, there is so much demand for the on-campus housing that on campus housing is limited to a year so that others can have a turn.
• Labs are limited to 7 individuals, but collaboration is encouraged among groups.
• There is an incredible amount of glass in the building.  Some of it lets you see out to the surrounding farmland and the nearby pond; the rest olets you see into the labs, creating a sort of fishbowl effect.  The labs themselves are large, open spaces with several groups sharing one (very large) room.
• In order to encourage creativity, lab heads are not given tenure.  After 6 years, and every 5 years thereafter, they are subject to a review.  Researchers who are not renewed are given HHMI funding to take to another institution.

Sound like a place you'd be interested in working?  Or do you prefer to work in a more traditional research environment?  If it sounds appealing, Janelia Farms still has many open positions ranging from lab techs to to postdocs PIs. 

Yeshiva University in New York, home to the Albert Einstein School of Medicine, has apparently taken a significant hit. The Albert Einstein school is a major research facility, as well as a medical training institution. Sources at Yeshiva told the JTA news service that the school has lost at least $100 million from its endowment because of Madoff investments. Madoff served as treasurer of Yeshiva's board of trustees.

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, in Haifa, Israel, invested in Madoff's securities, according to the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, which estimates its losses at about NIS 25 million ($6.5 million).

Victims of Madoff's apparent fraud include foundations headed by household names such as Nobel laureate Elie Weisel, Senator Frank Lautenberg, and film director Steven Spielberg, as well as many smaller family foundations and institutions that serve Jewish communities in North America, Europe, and Israel. Madoff managed most of the investment income of Spielberg's Wunderkinder Foundation, which donated some $3.3 million for medical research to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Charities with larger exposure to Madoff's schemes were less fortunate. The Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation of Salem, Mass., which supports exchanges of teachers and students between Israel and the United States, invested all of its $8 million in Madoff's fund and has shut down.

The Madoff scandal has further shaken an already nervous environment for philanthropies. John Ruskay, executive vice president and CEO of the UJA-Federation of New York told JTA, "Already in the context of a very challenging economic environment this will present another significant difficulty. We don’t know yet the extent of the wreckage."

• Date: 14 December 2008
• Time: 6:15-8:15 pm
• Location: American Society for Cell Biology, San Francisco, CA; Moscone Center Room 101
• You must be registered for the ASCB meeting to attend the session.

Britain needs "scientists and engineers with the right skills to find answers to these [21^st century] challenges, build a strong economy, and keep us globally competitive," U.K. Minister of Science Paul Drayson said at a press conference announcing the program. "EPSRC’s doctoral training centers will provide a new wave of engineers and scientists to do the job."

The centers, which will be located at 22 universities across Britain, will include formal taught coursework designed to develop a broad set of skills combined with research in a multidisciplinary environment. Seventeen of the new clusters will be industrial training centers where students will also acquire business and entrepreneurial skills. 

The project is funded with £250 million from the EPSRC training and education budget. The centers will receive funding for 5 years, with a review after the first 3 years. Each center will take in around 10 students a year starting in 2009.

-Sara Coelho