In these interviews, scientists talk to ScienceWatch.com and
offer behind-the-scenes insights into their research: reflections on
what led them to their chosen field, the motivation driving their work
in a given direction, and the challenges encountered along on the way.
These authors also offer their views on why their work has wielded
particular influence in the scientific community, as indicated by
Clarivate
citation data, and on how research in their respective fields has
progressed over time and will likely unfold in the future.
Featured interviews for July 2009 are listed below. To
view featured interviews from past months/years, visit the
Featured Interviews Main Menu.
Excerpt from the
interview: "The paper collates
and brings up-to-date much of the
current knowledge relevant to
pharmacology and to clinical
medicine concerning the enzyme heme
oxygenase (HO), which catabolizes
the breakdown of the
oxygen-carrying respiratory pigment
called heme. In this process, heme
is converted to the bile
pigment..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "Advances in
various fields have definitely
allowed researchers to appreciate
the contributions of autophagy. For
example, autophagy is an essential
process depending on the organism
and the stress conditions. In
mammals, autophagy is required to
proceed past the four- to
eight-cell stage during
embryogenesis, which..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "In the
Nature article we report
our discovery of the first unique
marker, Lgr5 (Leucine-rich G
Protein-Coupled Receptor 5) for
these intestinal stem cells. We
describe the generation of a new
mouse model which allows us to
perform in-vivo lineage
tracing from Lgr5+ve cell
populations, providing solid
functional evidence of stem
cell..."
View Article
An assessment of Brazilian research
over the last two decades reveals
that the nation has steadily
increased its output of scientific
papers and its presence in world
science, as gauged by Thomson
Reuters-indexed literature. As one
of the so-called BRIC nations
(along with Russia,
India, and
China), Brazil bears close
watching, as its resources and
potential for growth are expected
to make it a significant player in
the world economy in the decades
ahead.
View
Article
Geoffrey Burnstock
& Vera Ralevic talk about
their
Current
Classic paper in the field
of Pharmacology for
February, 2009: "Receptors for
purines and pyrimidines,"
Pharmacol. Rev. 50[3]:
413-92, 1998, in this podcast.
Also,
Vera Ralevic was previously
interviewed as a featured scientist
in ScienceWatch.com.
Listen:
MP3 ¦
WMA
Excerpt from the
interview: "I've always been
interested in high-energy
astrophysics. Many high-energy
astrophysical phenomena (pulsars,
active galactic nuclei, supernovae,
etc.) emit at radio wavelengths.
High-energy electrons radiate at
these wavelengths as they interact
with magnetic fields. In 1993 the
GRB mystery was more than 20 years
old..."
View Article
Douglas Hanahan,
Professor of Biochemistry at the
University of California, San
Francisco, along with coauthor
Robert A. Weinberg, a founder of
the Whitehead Institute of
Biomedical Research at MIT, are
coauthors of the
Current
Classic selection for
April 2009, "The hallmarks of
cancer," Cell 100 [1],
57-70, 2000, discuss their research
on the mechanisms of cancer.
Listen:
MP3 ¦
WMA
Excerpt from the
interview: "People want to
understand how metals are bound and
tied up in sediments. Sulfide
phases are particularly important.
For the most part these are solid
phases. In this case, if metals
wind up in pyrite, then the
question is, are the metals going
to be remobilized in some oxic
condition, which means conditions
in which..."
View Article
This map of
chemistry is based on
research-front data for the
six-year period ending in February
2009. The map shows the major
fields of chemistry linked together
in a network based on the same
principles as our research-front
maps showing highly cited papers.
Each circle on the map represents a
group, or cluster, of research
fronts on a broad topic within the
main field.
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "Actually, what I'm
probably best known for is the
Diabetes Control and Complications
Trial (DCCT), which was a
multi-center, NIH-funded study in
type 1 diabetic patients. But the
major results from that were
published in 1993, before the
Special Topics analysis. We
eventually published about 150
papers out of that study..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "There is a
currently a great deal of interest
in thin-film photovoltaics. This
interest has been generated by a
number of factors, including
improvements in the technology,
First Solar's profitability in
manufacturing thin-film
photovoltaics, plausible paths to
grid parity put forth by several
companies, and increas..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "The idea that
people do not always solve a
cognitive problem with the
identical cognitive tools has been
assumed in various areas of
psychology. Even children already
have access to different cognitive
strategies that could be applied to
identical problems. This assumption
explains why people sometimes
display different..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "Many
neurodegenerative diseases,
including Huntington's disease, are
caused by intraneuronal
aggregate-prone proteins. These
proteins generally cause disease by
gain-of-function mechanisms,
thereby acting as "toxins."
Previously, we had shown in cell
culture that such aggregate-prone
proteins..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "The SDSS's
great steps forward were obtaining
digital, multicolor images of a
large area of the sky to brightness
levels that were significantly
deeper than any previous survey
with similar sky coverage (for
example, the Palomar Sky Survey),
and high-quality spectra of more
than one million galaxies and
quasars. The CCD camera was
designed to take images using five
different..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "Genetics and
immunology: the population of
Africa has not been exposed to TB
for centuries like some other parts
of the world, thus the people of
Africa may be inherently more
susceptible. Poverty and nutrition:
TB is a disease of poverty and poor
nutrition. The poorest continent on
earth is Africa; therefore it is
not surprising..."
View Article
Excerpt from the
interview: "This paper has
been very well received by the
community, judging by the large
number of citations in the past
decade. In retrospect, this work
could be considered as one of the
milestones in the nanowire research
field. Back in 1999-2000, only very
few research groups had
concentrated efforts on nanowire
research. Since nanowire..."
View Article
(Additional
interviews/commentaries may be
added during July 2009 as late
entries.)