鈥淭here鈥檚 not one shred of evidence that these tests benefit human health.鈥�
Geneticist Ron Zimmern of the University of Cambridge criticises the sale of gene-based disease susceptibility tests, which he says are based on as-yet unproven links between certain genes and diseases such as cancer or diabetes (The Guardian, London, 30 January)
鈥淣atives who live in the jungle have seen it for generations. Their legends call it the 鈥榮naggle-toothed ghost鈥�.鈥�
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Environmentalist Vincent Chow in Johor, Malaysia, describes a mysterious giant ape that supposedly stalks the local forests. The state government has said it will send two expeditions to investigate recent sightings (Reuters, 27 January)
鈥淚t would be a real cultural deprivation if everyone could not share the mystery and wonder of the cosmos that modern science reveals to us.鈥�
Martin Rees, president of the UK Royal Society, on a poll testing British beliefs about science and religion (26 January)
鈥淲e have received only 50 pills of Tamiflu.鈥�
Tahseen Nameq, head of a joint committee set up to combat H5N1 bird flu in Kurdistan. The region has declared its first suspected human case, yet has only enough Tamiflu to treat four more people, says Nameq (AFP, 31 January)
鈥淪ending people scurrying to the dictionary or to Google to figure out what 鈥榗armine鈥� or 鈥榗ochineal鈥� means is just plain sneaky.鈥�
Michael Jacobson of consumer advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest, upon hearing that food and lipstick manufacturers may have to label products which contain dyes extracted from insects (TheNewMexicoChannel.com, 30 January)