Heroes and Villains

The New Scientist rounds up its "science heroes and villains of 2008." Topping the heroes column are Steven Chu, George Church, Svante Pääbo, among others. Chu was recently named Barack Obama's choice for energy secretary; Church started Knome, the Personal Genomes Project plus he had "cool paper" that said soil microbes could use antibiotics as food; and Pääbo for sequencing work on Neanderthals and woolly mammoths. The two villains included are Bruce Ivins, for allegedly being behind the 2001 anthrax attacks and Dale Hall, the director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service for allowing oil companies to disturb polar bears.