NEW AT THIS SITE
	Mary Ann Wallace

You don't have to be a member of the team to contribute. The Winter Olympics begins shortly with a great opportunity to have several news articles featuring the events. If you've got a great story or know of training methods behind the scenes at the Olympics, write it up and send it to newseditor=AT=sportsci.org. Check out our guidelines that give general advice for contributing articles. If you're interested in being on the team, drop us a line at editor=AT=sportsci.org with what you'd like to do.

The Ferret has joined us! This column features short items about sport research, highlights of conferences, hot topics on mailing lists, and anything else of interest to the sportscience community. Check out the news surrounding the recent deaths of three wrestlers, reliability of measuring oxygen consumption at sub-zero temperatures, and other topics. If you've got something of interest to pass on, send a paragraph or two to ferret=AT=sportsci.org.

What happens if you train too little or too much before competition? John Hawley sets us straight on the essential things to do in tapering before a major race. Don't miss John's Train Gain column for sound advice and the latest research on this important part of an athlete's training program.

As important as tapering is the fuel your body gets in the days leading to that competition. Louise Burke, in her CompEat column, gives us the facts on carbohydrate loading and depletion. To deplete, or not to deplete, Louise helps us make that decision.

Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, one of the most influential scientists in physiology, is the feature of Frank Katch's History Maker column. Lavoisier's work in the 18th century supplied the basic truth that oxygen is the only element involved in human or animal respiration and responsible for combustion. Prior to Lavoisier's work, it was commonly thought that the heart was responsible for combustion. Take a journey back in history and revisit Lavoisier's discoveries in metabolism, nutrition, and exercise physiology.

Ken Daley's newsletter has something to interest everyone. This time, a review of fitness assessment software that analyzes eight strength tests, Wingate test, four sport-specific field tests, Universal treadmill or running track protocol, along with VO2max prediction from running, swimming or cyling performances to mention just a few. Ken points out several internet sites of interest that contain advice for the novice athlete, sports information for the disabled athlete, top health and medical web sites.

Tom Fahey's Encyclopedia and our academic Journal are still under development.

In Research Resources, Will Hopkins has completely revised the section on reliability to give equal emphasis to shifts in the mean, within-subject variation, and retest correlation. There's also a spreadsheet for confidence intervals for reliability that you can download. Reliability is all about retesting to see if you get similar results. Sport scientists doing controlled trials or monitoring an athlete's performance want to know what outcomes they can expect. So if you want to be on the cutting edge of what's happening in statistics, find the latest in A New View of Statistics.

The US Olympic Committee once banned the use of glycerol. What does glycerol do? Why would an athlete want to take it? Read the latest review in Training & Technology on glycerol hyperhydration and its use for endurance events in hot or humid conditions.

Some great additions to our advisory board. Mark Hargreaves joins us as a biochemist and Arnd Krueger brings his knowledge of sport history to our site. We also welcome Clifford Larkins as one of our contributing editors. See how they fit in with the rest of the team on the Contact Us page.