The Agricultural Biotechnology International Conference (ABIC) is being held in Melbourne this year, bringing with it such names as Alan Colman, Jennifer Thomson and Robert Wall. With Australia's economy still so reliant on the land, Graeme O'Neill takes a look at what our neighbours across the pond can teach us about harnessing the power of biotechnology in agriculture. [ + ]

The need to save money and improve performance at the same time is providing added impetus to the development of laboratory and analysis solutions

Open sharing of information is a basic principle of the scientific process, but it is well known that secrecy has become a fact of life in academic science

When sexual species reproduce asexually, they accumulate bad mutations at an increased rate, report two Indiana University evolutionary biologists. The researchers used the model species Daphnia pulex, or water flea, for their studies

Not that rigorous? Anathema though this thought may be to most pharmaceutical quality managers, it is nonetheless quite apparent to companies such as ours, which make products critical to maintaining quality in pharmaceutical and other applications

Typical alkyl-bonded reversed phase columns (C18 and C8) do not always offer the necessary selectivity needed to separate complex mixtures. In many cases, high pH mobile phases and ion-pairing reagents may be required to obtain critical separations

The protein composition of a seed contains a wealth of information about its identity. This information can have great commercial benefit, but this is only fully realised if the information is provided within a short time

The expiry of the Polymerase Chain Reaction Patent should foster the development of a range of innovative tests and kits and lead to a reduction in the costs of PCR reagents and instrumentation

The first merger of 2006 has created new opportunities in the hot field of theranostics. Ruth Beran talks with its architects about the merged company and its future plans. [ + ]

To no one's surprise, CSL has become the dominant force in the Australian biotechnology sector. Graeme O'Neill learns from CSL's chief scientist, Andrew Cuthbertson, about the solid research that will drive the company in the next few years. [ + ]

A Stanford University research team has designed the first microscope sensitive enough to track the real-time motion of a single protein down to the level of its individual atoms

The unprecedented anti-doping campaign for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne is aimed at making these Games the cleanest ever with thousands of tests being carried out on athletes in Australia and overseas

Sydney-based Narhex has begun recruiting for an early-stage trial of an HIV drug. Helen Schuller spoke with the company's MD, John Mills, about HIV drug development, working in China, and good management. [ + ]

A Kidney Stone Library & Analysis Kit has been developed to assist in the identification and characterisation of kidney stones by spectral analysis

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in California have developed an enhancement to a dielectrophoresis system that they say could revolutionise the way biological sample preparation is conducted