Today's Science sports a couple of government-funding news stories of interest. One reviews a series of bills that have been proposed in US Congress that would give a serious boost to funding for research and training. The other reports on the flood of grant applications submitted to the European Research Council, all vying for part of the €290 million available for young researchers this year. David Schwartz and Francis Collins contribute a policy forum piece that focuses on the relationship between environment and disease. "We need to understand how genetic factors and environmental exposures interact in individuals to alter normal biological function and to affect the risk of disease development," the authors write. Finally, a paper from Greg Hannon's lab describes a study of small RNAs in mice to find Piwi proteins linked to transposon suppression. "We also find evidence of an adaptive amplification loop in which MILI catalyzes the formation of piRNA 5' ends," according to the abstract.
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