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Eighteen accomplished researchers, including a 91-year-old endocrinologist who's known affectionately as "the George Burns of science," are being honored for their achievements at the 134th annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), scheduled for April 28 in Washington, D.C. They will be feted during an event that will include the election of new academy members and the induction of members elected last year (T.W. Durso, The Scientist, May 27, 1996, page 3). The academy's highes

The 'environmental justice' movement presses for studies of links among poverty, exposure to toxins, and disease. A collaborative effort is under way to assess the legacy of environmental pollution that falls upon the poor. An Institute of Medicine (IoM) committee recently completed site visits as part of its 18-month study that will evaluate the research, educational, and health policy needs required to bring "environmental justice" to impoverished and minority communities. Environmental just

Twenty-five years after the notorious Tuskegee study came to light, the United States government will formally apologize to its unwitting participants. The White House announced in early April that President Clinton soon would issue an apology to the 399 African American men whose syphilis was observed from 1932 to 1972 as part of an experiment by the U.S. Public Health Service. Despite the discovery in 1947 that penicillin cures syphilis, researchers neither treated the men nor told them they

'EMOTIONAL ISSUES': Allegheny University’s Suzanne Ildstad is not surprised by the vigorous debate over xenotransplantation guidelines. Scientists are weighing in heavily with comments-both favorable and unfavorable-about the Public Health Service's (PHS's) draft guidelines for xenotransplantation, or transplantation of cells, tissue, or organs across species. While many researchers see the guidelines as a sound beginning to regulate a new field, some say they don't go far enough to prot

Many observers endorse waiving the pedagogy requirement initially, but say additional training in education is crucial Facing a shortage of qualified applicants, some public school districts have begun hiring college graduates who majored in the sciences, rather than in education, to teach science, primarily in high schools. Science education observers say the practice is likely to increase in coming years. Most are cautiously optimistic about its effectiveness, although many warn that greater

In the seven weeks since the announcement of the successful cloning of a lamb called Dolly from an adult ewe, the scientific community has had time to reflect on what they've read, heard, or watched in the mass media. Among the scientists and bioethicists interviewed by The Scientist, there is unanimous excitement about the research itself. Despite this enthusiasm, observers and participants have a mixed reaction to the initial media coverage of the Dolly story. Some are pleased with news repor

NO PROBLEMS? AWIS’s Catherine Didion comments that women often are not willing to acknowledge impediments to advancement. Women and underrepresented minorities-African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans-generally are paid lower salaries and occupy fewer supervisory positions than their white, male counterparts in industry, according to a recent study conducted by the National Science Foundation. The study also sheds light on the issues that women and minorities say often impede t

Photo: C. Garasi, C. Galino, N. Miller, A. Simon, J. & B. Peterson and the NMSU Visualization Center (scanning) 'WAKE-UP CALL': Comet Hale-Bopp could help illustrate the dangers of superstition, according to codiscoverer Alan Hale. He helped to discover Comet Hale-Bopp, science's biggest media darling since Dolly the cloned sheep, but astronomer Alan Hale has more earthly concerns these days. The adjunct professor of astronomy at New Mexico State University is worried about how difficult t

A Scientific American forum on the controversial issue has some scientists crying foul, contending editors failed to delete misstatements. TRUST BUSTED: UC-Berkeley’s Sharon Russell says her faith in Scientific American has been shaken. Some biomedical researchers are responding with disappointment and concern to the February issue of Scientific American, contending that portions of the magazine's cover package, a forum on the benefits and ethics of animal research, were misleading and

Sidebar : Two Efforts To Tackle Medical Marijuana Issues A MEDICINAL HERB? NIH may soon be looking into the therapeutic effects of marijuana as consensus grows among scientists that such studies are worth doing. Few areas of science policy are as politicized as the debate over the therapeutic benefits of marijuana. The federal government historically has been reluctant to acknowledge that the drug has medicinal value. Initiatives passed last November in Arizona and California legalizing mariju

Sidebar: Fourteen Journals Surveyed on Financial Interest of Authors For More Information On Academic-Industrial Collaborations Two recent studies have renewed attention on the perennial controversy over industry support of academic research. Some observers maintain that conflict-of-interest issues inherent in academic-industrial collaborations compromise scientific integrity and contribute to the public's mistrust of science, while others argue that such relationships benefit society and are a

RNA's Role At Beginning of Life - For Further Information Date: March 31, 1997 The International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life Mail Stop 245-1, NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, Calif. 94035-1000 World Wide Web: http://helium.ucsc.edu/~deamer/origins.html President: Andre Brack 420 members Journal: Origin of Life The RNA Society 9650 Rockville Pike Bethesda, Md. 20814-3998 (301) 530-7120 Fax: (301) 530-7049 World Wide Web: http://www.cup.org/Journals/JNLS