Bob Palermini got his first taste of Unix some 25 years ago when he became involved in production at a small newspaper that used the system to set type. Although he started out as an editor, Palermini was hooked on IT after that initial experience and taught himself the skills to make the transition to the technology side of the business. “Early on it was trial and error and books,” he says. [ + ]

Melissa Trudinger takes a look at the emerging biotech clusters in Perth and Adelaide. [ + ]

When it comes to clustering, Australian biotech could take a few lessons from the nation's wine industry -- and not just the grapes, David Binning finds. [ + ]

History students and trivia buffs in the distant future time will be grateful for one of history's little coincidences -- the Human Genome Project will be completed this year, 2003, a neat half-century after the elucidation of the structure of DNA. [ + ]

Keeping up with the Joneses has become critical in research, where the race to achieve an important result not only guarantees a high-profile paper, but in the increasingly commercial world can provide an edge over a competing interest. [ + ]

Of the five basic senses, the sense of smell is the least understood. Now, scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have sniffed out potential clues to how olfactory receptors in the nose detect odours

Dr John Sader used established mechanical principles to prove that the popular V-shaped cantilever inadvertently degrades the performance of the instrument and delivers none of its intended benefits

CSIRO chief executive Dr Geoff Garrett will have more riding on the May 13 Federal budget than most Australians. Halfway through his five-year appointment, he will be wanting to show his staff that they can look forward to real growth in public funding in the years ahead. If not, their disgruntlement over his challenging leadership may render the second half of his tenure more challenged than the first. [ + ]

When Eiffel Technologies' CEO Christine Cussen said last December that the company would start this year with $6.2 million in its back pocket, she outlined several ways the funds would be used. One of these -- pursuing drug re-engineering research to extend patent protection -- could prove particularly lucrative given that drugs worth more than $US42 billion will come off patent in the next three years. [ + ]

Although Australia has some great researchers coming out of its universities, attracting and keeping scientists and biostatisticians local can be a problem, Pete Young finds. [ + ]

Working hard for low pay, but Graeme O'Neill reports that the pursuit of a PhD could be the most rewarding time in a scientist's life. [ + ]

Nobel Laureate Prof Peter Doherty is lending his name to a new prize to be awarded at Australia's first Commercialisation Forum and Fair of Ideas, which started in Sydney today and runs to March 28. [ + ]

Phil Batterham is a skilled and meticulous organiser, with an understanding of the value of theatre. When the University of Melbourne geneticist flew to Beijing in 1998 for the 18th International Congress of Genetics, he had already spent two years organising Australia's bid to bring the world's biggest genetics festival to Melbourne in 2003. [ + ]

Undergraduate level biotechnology degree programs are becoming increasingly popular in Australia, offering students the opportunity to combine the essential basic science requirements with exposure to business and other aspects of the industry. [ + ]

According to Bob Horvitz, along with Sydney Brenner and John Sulston one of the winners of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, there are four big-picture problems confronting biologists today. [ + ]