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Reports that Agouron Pharmaceuticals, La Jolla, California, has been found guilty of stealing research. Work stolen from Huguette Pelletier when she worked at the University of California at San Diego; Pelletier's work published by Agouron in `Cell'; Decision of a state court jury against Agouron.

Comments on the letter by author Richard Buttery published in the 424 volume of the journal "Nature" about the Joint European Torus (JET) as of October 16, 2003. Statements given by the author on the situation that might occur if there were no substantial increase in the fusion budget in the Seventh Euratom Framework Programme; Criticism made by the author about the misinterpretation of his statements about JET in the letter; Relationship between JET and International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in La Jolla, California.

Discusses a legal case about whether a plasmid discovered at and patented by the University of California at San Francisco contributed to the early success of Genentech, Inc. Evidence of the conflict in the pages of `Nature'; How the case shows the commercial pressures on the biotechnology industry.

The seismicity pattern along the San Andreas fault near Parkfield and Cholame, California, varies distinctly over a length of only fifty kilometres. Within the brittle crust, the presence of frictionally weak minerals, fault-weakening high fluid pressures and chemical weakening are considered possible causes of an anomalously weak fault northwest of Parkfield. Non-volcanic tremor from lower-crustal and upper-mantle depths is most pronounced about thirty kilometres southeast of Parkfield and is thought to be associated with high pore-fluid pressures at depth. Here we present geophysical evidence of fluids migrating into the creeping section of the San Andreas fault that seem to originate in the region of the uppermost mantle that also stimulates tremor, and evidence that along-strike variations in tremor activity and amplitude are related to strength variations in the lower crust and upper mantle. Interconnected fluids can explain a deep zone of anomalously low electrical resistivity that has been imaged by magnetotelluric data southwest of the Parkfield-Cholame segment. Near Cholame, where fluids seem to be trapped below a high-resistivity cap, tremor concentrates adjacent to the inferred fluids within a mechanically strong zone of high resistivity. By contrast, subvertical zones of low resistivity breach the entire crust near the drill hole of the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth, northwest of Parkfield, and imply pathways for deep fluids into the eastern fault block, coincident with a mechanically weak crust and the lower tremor amplitudes in the lower crust. Fluid influx to the fault system is consistent with hypotheses of fault-weakening high fluid pressures in the brittle crust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the issues associated with the auction of an historic archive of molecular biology documents in San Diego, California. Reaction of the researchers to the separate sale of the papers; Value of the documents.

Seismic data provide images of crust-mantle interactions during ongoing removal of the dense batholithic root beneath the southern Sierra Nevada mountains in California. The removal appears to have initiated between 10 and 3Myr ago with a Rayleigh­Taylor-type instability, but with a pronounced asymmetric flow into a mantle downwelling (drip) beneath the adjacent Great Valley. A nearly horizontal shear zone accommodated the detachment of the ultramafic root from its granitoid batholith. With continuing flow into the mantle drip, viscous drag at the base of the remaining ∼35-km-thick crust has thickened the crust by ∼7 km in a narrowwelt beneath the western flank of the range. Adjacent to the welt and at the top of the drip, a V-shaped cone of crust is being dragged down tens of kilometres into the core of the mantle drip, causing the disappearance of the Moho in the seismic images. Viscous coupling between the crust and mantle is therefore apparently driving present-day surface subsidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The time-varying deformation field within a fault zone, particularly at depths where earthquakes occur, is important for understanding fault behaviour and its relation to earthquake occurrence. But detection of this temporal variation has been extremely difficult, although laboratory studies have long suggested that certain structural changes, such as the properties of crustal fractures, should be seismically detectable. Here we present evidence that such structural changes are indeed observable. In particular, we find a systematic temporal variation in the seismograms of repeat microearthquakes that occurred on the Parkfield segment of the San Andreas fault over the decade 1987-97. Our analysis reveals a change of the order of 10?m in the location of scatterers which plausibly lie within the fault zone at a depth of ~3?km. The motion of the scatterers is coincident, in space and time, with the onset of a well documented aseismic transient (deformation event). We speculate that this structural change is the result of a stress-induced redistribution of fluids in fluid-filled fractures caused by the transient event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A current issue on the settlement of the Americas refers to the lack of morphological affinities between early Holocene human remains (Palaeoamericans) and modern Amerindian groups, as well as the degree of contribution of the former to the gene pool of the latter. A different origin for Palaeoamericans and Amerindians is invoked to explain such a phenomenon. Under this hypothesis, the origin of Palaeoamericans must be traced back to a common ancestor for Palaeoamericans and Australians, which departed from somewhere in southern Asia and arrived in the Australian continent and the Americas around 40,000 and 12,000 years before present, respectively. Most modern Amerindians are believed to be part of a second, morphologically differentiated migration. Here we present evidence of a modern Amerindian group from the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico, showing clearer affinities with Palaeoamerican remains than with modern Amerindians. Climatic changes during the Middle Holocene probably generated the conditions for isolation from the continent, restricting the gene flow of the original group with northern populations, which resulted in the temporal continuity of the Palaeoamerican morphological pattern to the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on a study that augmented the global positioning system (GPS) data with interferometric synthetic aperture radar imagery to take into account the deformation associated with groundwater pumping and strike-slip faulting in Los Angeles, California. Overview of the data on the anthropogenic deformation in the area; Information on the GPS sites on the Santa Ana basin which is located in the area; Velocities measured in the GPS sites.

Studies the earthquake triggering hypothesis based on the Landers and Hector Mine earthquakes in California. Evaluation of the seismicity rate increase in Landers and Hector Mine; Increase of seismicity rate after the Hector Mine earthquake; Processes proposed that may explain triggering by oscillatory deformations.

Describes progress in the legal case in which the University of California, San Francisco, alleges that Genentech Inc. infringed on its patent for DNA for human growth hormone. Hormone leading to the development of the drug Protropin; Views of Genentech executives about the case; Details about key testimony; Problems with a paper published in `Nature' related to the case; Colleagues who have had to tesify against one another. INSET: Who's telling the truth about crucial plasmid?.

Presents research which demonstrated that phytoplankton are iron-limited in parts of the California coastal upwelling region. Phytoplankton growth limited by iron availability; Addition of iron to high-nitrate, low-chlorophyll (HNLC) regimes; Silicic acid:nitrate (Si:N) uptake ratios; Diatoms stressed by lack of iron; Si:cell, Si:C and Si:pigment ratios in diatoms; Implications of research.

Delves into the expectation of success in the economy of San Diego. Contribution of chemical sensor industry in the economic development of the town; requirements for the making of artificial organs; Performance of pharmaceutical industry in San Diego; Association of San Diego with wireless communications.

The article focuses on the calculation on the eruption cycles of geysers by Shaul Hurwitz of the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, and his team. The team suggests that years with lots of rain or snow resulted in higher than usual pressures in the 200°C-plus underground reservoirs that feed geysers, which shortens geyser eruption cycles. Conversely, after snowmelt in spring, cold water sinks into geyser conduits and lowers their temperature, lengthening eruption intervals. It mentions that this work is based on data recorded between 1998 and 2006 by temperature sensors in geyser outflow channels.

Focuses on the increase in the numbers of biotechnology companies in San Diego, California. Impact of the economic problems faced by the state and U.S. federal governments on the companies; Perceptions of the academic professionals regarding the future of biotechnology; Anticipation of the arrival of the pharmaceutical industry in the area.