Natural sweeteners    Polysaccharide Carotenoid  researchers are very familiar with the sentiments expressed by the great American inventor, in pursuit of a light bulb filament. Many of us have shelves and drawers full of negative results which were never published. Establishedjournals tend to reject negative studies, and our own pride censors such research.
The epidemiologists first started to lament this publication bias,which severely impairs the  meta-analysis of multiple trials,since negative outcomes are underrepresented. However,other researchers, who study carotenoids in cell cultures,animals and plants, performing extractions and chromatography of these notoriously fickle compounds, would also love an opportunity to learn from one another!ˉ mistakes.
Considering our present tight budgets due to a change in global economical priorities, it is even more necessary to avoid
duplicating unsuccessful experiments and to direct the available funding toward new approaches.The Internet presents an ideal venue for rapid dissemination of such valuable information about !°hings that won!ˉt work.! Theis already a Journal of Negative Observations in Genetic Oncology  focusing on gene mutation studies and cancer, Journal of Articles in Support of the Null Hypothesis for psychological studies, andJournal of Negative Results in Biomedicine just announced. We all should be encouraged to publish our  negative results in the established journals, or in the above mentioned online journals. Carotenoid News also  welcomes short notes of this nature in our columns (Technical Note,Letter to the Editor). Let us not forget that !°Research serve to make building stones out of stumbling blocks! (Arthur D Little).Maria S. Sapuntzakis (Chicago, IL) News from the CARIG Steering Committee The CARIG Steering Committee met at EB!ˉ02 inNew Orleans to decide on our future plans and election of new members. We accepted the resignation of Harold Furr from the Chair and elected Dale Cooper (Procter & Gamble Co.) in his place. Dr.Furr deserves our gratitude for his unflinching support of all CARIG ventures during his term on the Committee, and we wish him success and fulfillment in his new position at CraftTechnologies. Steve Clinton (Ohio State University) also ended his term, but three new members were elected. The membership of the CARIG Steering Committee now includes:Dale Cooper (chair) ¨C Procter & Gamble Co Boon Chew (treasurer) ¨C Washington State Universit
Neal Craft (fundraising) ¨C Craft Technologies, Inc John Landrum ¨C Florida International Universit Julie Mares-Perlman ¨C University of Wisconsin-Madiso Cheryl Rock (Conference coordinator) ¨C Universit of California - San Diego
Noel Solomons (fundraising) ¨C CeSSIAM, Guatemal Maria Stacewicz-Sapuntzakis (newsletter editor) ¨CUniversity ofIllinoisatChicagoSherry Tanumihardjo ¨C  University of Wisconsin-Madiso Wendy White (Conference coordinator) ¨C Iowa StateUniversity Among other topics discussed was the question of whether CARIG should become a Research Interest Section (RIS) within the American Society of Nutritional Sciences (ASNS).  However, one of the current requirements of ASNS is that all members of a RIS must be members of ASNS; it was decided this would be too restrictive, since a number of members of CARIG are not members of ASNS.  Meanwhile, ASNS has been very supportive of CARIG, and very helpful in making
arrangements for the meetings held in conjunction with Experimental Biology.
Carotenoids Minisymposium at EB!ˉ0 CARIG did not host a Conference this year because the th International Carotenoids Society had its 13 Symposium in January.  However, CARIG served as co-sponsor of the EBCarotenoids Minisymposium, and sponsored the James Allen Olson Memorial Perspective on Carotenoids: !°Carotenoids a Dietary Precursors of Vitamin A:Their Past and Their Future,! a lecture presented by Dr. Noel Solomons (see REPORT).  Other papers presented at theCarotenoids Minisymposiumincluded: A. B. Barua et al., !°Absorption and metabolism o3 11,12-H--carotene in rats with different vitamin A status!±; A. Horvitz et al., !°Bioavailability of lycopene from lycopen!(R)red!ˉ carrots!±; S. Zaripheh et al., !°The biodistributiolycopene in the F344 rat model! ; V. Diwadkar-Navsariwala etal., !°Compartmental analysis of the dynamics of lycopenmetabolism in healthy men!±; M. Root et al., !°Carotenoid statof middle-aged women in five counties in rural China!±; K.-JYeum et al. !°Dietary modifiation of antioxidant capacity in thelipid compartment of serum. !The James Olson Student Travel Award, sponsored by CARIG,was awarded to Veda  Diwadkar-Navsariwala, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Advance Notice of CARIG EB 2003 Conference As  it  has  in past years, CARIG will sponsor our annualConference concurrent with the EB2003 meeting in San Diego. The Conference will be held Saturday, April 12 from 12:30-4:30 and will feature topics of current interest to carotenoid researchers. Meeting details, including speakers, topics and
location, in the near future, and will be included in the next issue of Carotenoid News.CARIG plans to provide Student Travel Awards to Experimental Biology 2003.  Details will be published in the February newsletter.  We also plan  a display of  graduate  student.For more information,please visit http://www.bossgoo.com