Friendly Fire and the Limits of the Military Justice System.

On 22 April 2004, Corporal Patrick Tillman was killed in action in Afghani- stan as a result of friendly fire. The controversial death of the Army Ranger, who had given up a lucrative career in professional football to join the Army, generated widespread media interest, military and congressional investigations, books, and most recently a documentary. Earlier in the day, Corporal Tillman’s Ranger platoon had split into two groups, with Tillman and his platoon leader in the first group. Due to dangerous terrain, the second group, led by the platoon sergeant, abandoned its planned route and instead followed the first group’s route in vehicles down a canyon road late in the day toward the village of Manah, where Tillman and the remainder of the platoon waited

Studies on Nucleic Acid Reassociation Kinetics: Retarded Rate of Hybridization of RNA with Excess DNA

The rate of reaction of excess double-stranded bacteriophage phi X174 and plasmid RSF2124 DNA drivers with enzymatically synthesized asymmetric RNA tracers was measured. Other reactions were carried out with excess Escherichia coli DNA and E. coli RNA labeled in vivo. RNA and DNA fragment lengths were held approximately equal. For each case it was shown that in DNA excess the rate constant for RNA· DNA hybridization is 3- to 4.5-fold lower than that of the renaturation rate constant for the driver DNA. This retardation was also observed in pseudo-first-order hybridization reactions driven by excess strand-separated RSF2124 DNA. It was concluded that the rate constant for RNA· DNA hybridization depends partially on which species is in excess

Brexit is damaging UK science already. Here is a plan to fix it

British science and technology are already haemorrhaging talent and collaborations because of the Brexit vote, write Mike Galsworthy (left) and Rob Davidson of Scientists for EU. The government’s promise to underwrite Horizon 2020 funding was a bare minimum and uncertainty about future funding has made the UK a much less attractive place for research. They present an eight-point plan to limit damage to UK science and put its knowledge economy back in contention

Debunking the myths about British science after an EU exit

In this extract from their evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on Science and Technology, Dr Mike Galsworthy (left) and Dr Rob Davidson explore the relationship between EU membership and the effectiveness of science, research and innovation in the UK