The Agenda

© THOM GRAVES

FOCUS ON NEUROSCIENCE >> In "A Channel At Large," Kerry Grens explores why the identity of an ion channel in the inner ear has eluded scientists for decades. That's just one of several neuroscience-related pieces in this issue, which you may very well be reading at the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting in San Diego, from November 3-7. Also see "Facelessness, faced," "The singing ear," and "Alzheimer's: Type 3 Diabetes?".

TOP EMPLOYER >> In The Scientist's annual survey, readers voted for the best places to work both in the US and abroad. Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) leads the US choices, all of which can be found in "Best Places to Work in Academia". To learn more about MGH and its history, attend the MGH History Tour on November 16th. For details, visit www.massgeneral.org/mghcalendar/.

OPEN ACCESS CLOSING >> Publishing consultant Joseph Esposito discusses the future of open-access publishing in "Open Access 2.0". Through November 30th take advantage of open access archives among the Royal Society journals, including Philosophical Transactions and Biology Letters. After that, online archives are available to subscribers only. View them at www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk.

KIDNEY BOOK >> In "Manna from Hell," Julia C. Mead explores the mysterious kidney disease known as Balkan endemic nephropathy. To read more about current nephropathy issues, pick up The Aging Kidney in Health and Disease, edited by Juan Macias-Nunez, J. Stewart Cameron and Dimitrios Oreopoulos, available Nov. 30 from Springer-Verlag New York. Read more at http://tinyurl.com/344wbb.