Monkey medicine

Intimidation of researchers involved in scientific experiments on monkeys is stifling recruitment into the field, a report says this week.

The Weatherall report, on the use of non-human primates in research, says there is anecdotal evidence that recruiting postdoctoral scientists or more senior academics is becoming "increasingly difficult". However, it recommends that experiments on non-human primates continue where there is no alternative, especially in neuroscience, communicable disease and reproductive biology.