New Haven, CT, USA. A study says the only thing that made a fictional author seem more or less worthy of being identified as an expert was the fit between the scientific viewpoints researchers attributed to that author and the cultural predispositions of test subjects who evaluated the author's credibility. That is, individuals with competing cultural values disagree about what most scientists believe, a persistent barrier against the proliferation of scientific advances.

Suppose a close friend who is trying to figure out the facts about climate change asks whether you think a scientist who has written a book on the topic is a knowledgeable and trustworthy expert.

You see from the dust jacket that the author received a Ph.D. in a pertinent field from a major university, is on the faculty at another one, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Would you advise your friend that the scientist seems like an "expert"? If you are like most people, the answer is likely to be: it depends.

Bethesda, Md, USA. Biology is increasingly dependent on mathematics, while the latter discipline has drawn from the former for real world models to support new computational pathways. In fact, the emerging field of bioinformatics is a prime example of such sophisticated collaboration.

There are lessons to be drawn from prior experience on how to incorporate the benefits of collaboration into formal education. The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) now has published a special edition of their journal CBE—Life Sciences Education (CBE-LSE), which focuses on connections between and integration of the biological and mathematical sciences.

Boston, MA, USA. Catherine E. Snow says that with a little guidance, educators can help students learn to read and understand the complex language of science texts. In a new article that appears in the journal Science, she makes the case that students need to be taught academic language in order to learn science and other subjects.

In addition to having its own specialized vocabulary, academic language is more concise, using complex grammatical structures to express complicated ideas in as few words as possible. This is especially true when it comes to scientific writing.

Students who prefer reading Web content over books have fewer opportunities to learn this language on their own. Snow points out that even middle and high school students who read fluently in English class and on the Web may find that they cannot understand their science texts. Moreover, their science teachers may be ill prepared to guide them in reading the academic language in which science information is presented.

Buffalo, NY, USA. Scientists have developed a biophotonic imaging approach capable of monitoring in real-time the transformations that cellular macromolecules undergo during programmed cell death (apoptosis).

Between 50-70 billion cells die each day in an average human adult (approx. 20-30 billion cells for an average child between 8-14). Apoptosis transforms cellular structures in an orderly without harm. Essential to normal development, healthy immune system function, and disease prevention, the process confers many other advantages, such as the differentiation of appendages in a developing human embryo.

However, the limitations of conventional microscopy methods have kept much about this structural reorganization a mystery. The work, led by researchers at SUNY University at Buffalo (UB), could help realize the potential of customized molecular medicine, in which therapies can be precisely targeted to cellular changes exhibited by individual patients. The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Cambridge, UK. Over thirty-two years ago, the world's first baby was born after in vitro fertilisation (IVF).

However, the work that led to the birth of Louise Brown on 25 July 1978 had to be privately funded after the UK's Medical Research Council (MRC) decided in 1971 against providing the Cambridge physiologist Robert Edwards and the Oldham gynaecologist Patrick Steptoe with long-term financial support.

A paper published in the journal Human Reproduction reveals (for the first time) the reasoning behind the MRC's much-criticised decision.

The authors of the research, led by Martin Johnson, Professor of Reproductive Sciences at the University of Cambridge, write: "The failure of Edwards' and Steptoe's application for long-term support was not simply due to widespread establishment hostility to IVF. It failed, we argue for more complex reasons".