From this week’s news:

The AP had a story about the increasing number of accidents and lost shipments in America’s high-security biolabs that work with pathogens like anthrax and the bird flu virus…something that I’m sure will fuel the arguments of people opposed to the BSL-4 lab now under construction at BU. Examples of accidents included needle sticks and bites from infected lab animals; none of the cases were deadly and none were dangerous to the general public.

The New York Times Magazine ran a profile about Olin College, a five year-old engineering school in Needham, founded and funded by the F.W. Olin Foundation. Chairs, centers and institutes are often funded by philanthropists, but it’s not often that they create an entire school from scratch. Tuition is free (but not room and board) and it’s taking a different approach to training engineers; it emphasizes creativity, hands-on learning, entrepreneurship and provides training in the humanities. It has no academic departments or tenure.

Researchers from Harvard reported in Nature this week that they used capsaicin, the ingredient that makes chilis hot, together with an anesthetic to take away pain sensation in rats without producing the usual paralysis and numbness that result from conventional anesthetics. (From Nature news)