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NYT/CBS News Poll Examines Public Opinion On Sotomayor, Shows Support For Abortion Rights
Three weeks after President Obama named Judge Sonia Sotomayor as his nominee to the Supreme Court, 53% of U.S. adults say they do not know enough about her to determine whether they would support her confirmation, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll released Wednesday, the New York Times reports. The question was one of many in the national telephone poll of 895 adults, which explored a broad range of issues related to Obama"s first five months as president. According to the poll, 48% of participants said that Sotomayor"s opinions on issues like abortion and affirmative action are important information that should be known ahead of her confirmation hearing, which is scheduled to begin July 13. The poll found that 74% of participants believe it is very or somewhat important for the Supreme Court to reflect the nation"s diversity. The Times reports that although Sotomayor"s nomination and the recent murder of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller have "injected a fresh dynamic into the national abortion debate," the new poll shows that there has been little change in public opinion on abortion rights in the past 20 years. Thirty-six percent of participants said that abortion should be generally available, 41% said it should be available but with increased restrictions and 21% said it should be prohibited. Among Democratic voters, 71% said that Roe v. Wade should not be overturned, while Republican voters were "closely divided," the Times reports. The poll was conducted from June 12 to June 16 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points (Zeleny/Sussman, New York Times, 6/18).

Making Waves: LSU's WAVCIS Increases Modeling Capabilities
LSU"s WAVCIS, or Wave-Current-Surge Information System for Coastal Louisiana, has a few new tricks up its sleeve in preparation for the 2009 hurricane season.
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Real-Time Observation Of Queensland's Drinking Water
CSIRO and a local water authority in Queensland, SEQWater, have joined forces to monitor the Lake Wivenhoe catchment, which spans an area about the size of the city of Brisbane, and supplies water to the region"s 1.5 million residents.
Medical Devices

Microbial Analysis, Micropatterning Methods Featured In Cold Spring Harbor Protocols

Microbial populations have traditionally been studied in carefully controlled, laboratory-grown cultures. New metagenomic approaches are being developed to study these organisms in environmental or medical samples. The July issue of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols presents a method developed by Holger Daims from the University of Vienna for quantifying populations of microorganisms in a variety of naturally occurring conditions such as plankton samples or biofilms. Use of Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization and the daime Image Analysis Program for the Cultivation-Independent Quantification of Microorganisms in Environmental and Medical Samples combines fluorescent in situ hybridization using rRNA-targeted probes with digital image analysis. The results show an organism"s "biovolume fraction" in a given sample; this indicates the share of biochemical reaction space occupied by the quantified population and can be more relevant ecologically than absolute cell numbers. The article is freely available on the website for Cold Spring Harbor Protocols. Micropatterning methods are rapidly becoming standard approaches for investigating cellular behaviors such as growth and migration. Adhesive Micropatterns for Cells: A Microcontact Printing Protocol from Matthieu Piel and colleagues at the Institut Curie offers a simple, fast, and efficient method for generating micropatterns for cellular studies. Employing an elastomeric stamp to print proteins on the substrate of choice, this technique does not require much of the expensive equipment and technical expertise needed for most micropatterning methods, making it easier to implement in biology laboratories. The authors have provided a movie that illustrates the technique step-by-step as part of the protocol. The article is freely accessible on the website for Cold Spring Harbor Protocols. Cold Spring Harbor Protocols


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