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By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is to announce on Wednesday a plan to permit exploration for oil and natural gas off the coast of Virginia as a way to create jobs and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

You might expect young women scientists to make less than older men. But veteran female life science researchers, even in very advanced positions, still make less than their male counterparts. So finds a report in the journal Academic Medicine . [See http://bit.ly/9C7nlF ]

Previous studies about income disparities in the life sciences didn’t take into account factors such as holding leadership positions. So for this study, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital surveyed more than 3,000 investigators at the top 50 academic medical centers. The anonymous responses included information on professional leadership activities, the number of papers published and the journals they were in, hours spent working on professional, scientific and clinical activities--and, of course, pay.

For many diabetics, the unpleasant chore of drawing blood several times a day in order to check blood glucose levels is a part of life. Efforts to develop devices that can test blood glucose without the need to repeatedly prick fingers have faltered thus far due to questions about accuracy as well as complaints about skin irritation. One company is hoping to solve these problems with a biochemical sensor that adheres to the skin like a bandage and sends continuous blood glucose readings to a handheld wireless device. [More]

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists at a leading British climate research center had a culture of withholding information from global warming skeptics but did not deliberately manipulate data to support their case, lawmakers said on Wednesday.

Even as scientists and politicians from around the world debated in December how to deal with a practical problem of profound importance--global climate change--another international group of physicists was waiting with bated breath for a more esoteric development. In both cases, at the conclusion of events, the participants were left salivating and unsatisfied.

The Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS) experiment, located in the deep Soudan mine in Minnesota, is designed to directly detect new elementary particles that might make up the dark matter known to dominate our galaxy. In early December rumors started circulating that the CDMS experiment might actually have seen a signal.

Ford Motor Co. was in New York City on Tuesday (in anticipation of the upcoming International Auto Show that starts later this week) to show off its first attempt to go gas-free--the Transit Connect Electric .  Scientific American went for a spin in the all-electric compact van (about the size of a minivan but with much more headroom) on the rain-slicked streets of New York to get some idea of what the vehicle looks, sounds and feels like. [More]