The world is not running out of oil, according to Montana State University microbiologist Prof Bill Costerton -- it's just too difficult to get the vast amounts of oil that remain in the ground after oilfields expire. [ + ]

Microbial geneticist Prof Bonnie Bassler of Princeton University is a sort of bacterial linguist -- she studies how bacteria, the simplest living organisms, communicate. [ + ]

A total of 1252 new projects are to receive Australian Research Council (ARC) funding, totalling $289.5 million over the next three years, it was announced today. [ + ]

A house of the future, built from a range of energy-saving materials developed using nanotechnology is the aim of a new partnership between the CSIRO and The University of Technology Sydney (UTS).

An all-Australian group of researchers embracing some of the country's leading stem cell workers has won an a $4.2 million grant from the US National Institutes of Health to spearhead research into kidney disease. [ + ]

Microbiology is in ferment, says Dr Jan Tennent, and the next decade is likely to see major gains in the perennial war between humans and their microbial nemeses -- viruses, bacteria and parasites. [ + ]

It was, as he admitted himself, an unusual topic with which to kick off a cell biology meeting. But Prof Lewis Wolpert's plenary lecture, 'The Biology of Belief', which he gave at the ComBio 2002 meeting in Sydney this morning, straddled clinical research, anthropology, ancient history and technology -- setting the tone for the breadth of research that was to come at the conference. [ + ]

A month after its installation, a major computerised modelling system, based on the Linux operating system, is delivering substantial cost and time savings for biotech venture Cytopia. [ + ]

More than 1000 delegates have rolled up for this year's ComBio conference at Sydney's Darling Harbour, according to organisers. [ + ]

Deakin University scientists are enlisting the services of some unlikely research partners to help find the causes of leukaemia. The humble zebrafish, with its rapid breeding cycle and transparent skin, could hold the key to the genetic causes of the disease.

Singapore-based company ES Cell International is changing the marketing strategies for its human embryonic stem cell lines because of researchers' reluctance to part with intellectual property. [ + ]

Xenotransplantation of ovarian tissue from endangered species may allow zoologists and conservationists to propagate endangered animals, according to a paper published today in the journal Science. [ + ]

New Zealand's Genesis Research and Development Corporation has persuaded long-serving director Dr Douglas Williams to join the company as head of its new strategic development unit, as part of its plan to make hay while it waits for the sun to rise again on the biotech industry. [ + ]

It seems that globalisation works for genes too. Over the past half century, a global guild of the geneticist's favourite fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, has been using science's global networks to smuggle a souped-up, multi-purpose survival kit to its six-legged subscribers. [ + ]

The stage has been for a final Senate debate on a Bill permitting research on embryonic human stem cells following the legislation's passage by a three-to-one margin in the House of Representatives. [ + ]