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In Norman, Okla., this month, about two dozen speakers will gather to challenge dominant paradigms of modern theoretical physics and to discuss alternatives. At the annual meeting of the Southwestern and Rocky Mountain Division (SWARM) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) on May 22-24, these self-styled dissidents are planning to renew their attack on the special theory of relativity and big-bang cosmology. This is not the first time the group has met in a AAAS foru

Contents Abstractors, Indexers Protest Reinventing Peer Review Bowhead Bioremediation Pan-American Science Symposium Pigeon Perception The Sex Lives Of Trees Culpeper Scholarships 75-Year Headach Ends NIH Names Gene Therapy Panel Dreyfus Duo The Philadelphia-based National Federation of Abstracting and Information Services (NFAIS) has issued a call to journal publishers, libraries, authors, online distributors, and others in what it calls the "information chain" to come up with a solution to a

For many, the name Michael Milken is synonymous with avarice and conspicuous consumption that characterized Wall Street speculators of the 1980s. However, in the time since his release from federal prison after pleading guilty to securities fraud, serving a two-year sentence, and paying more than $1 billion in fines and settlements, the 48-year-old former junk bond king has been working toward being more closely associated with a cure for prostate cancer. The foundation Milken started in 1993,

For many, the name Michael Milken is synonymous with avarice and conspicuous consumption that characterized Wall Street speculators of the 1980s. However, in the time since his release from federal prison after pleading guilty to securities fraud, serving a two-year sentence, and paying more than $1 billion in fines and settlements, the 48-year-old former junk bond king has been working toward being more closely associated with a cure for prostate cancer. WHEELING AND DEALING: NCI's Marston Li

Only half of today's firms are expected to exist five years from now, but a similar decrease in jobs is notnecessarily in the offing FEELING FINE: Analyst Joyhn Wong sees biotech layoffs as part of a "healthy cycle". The past year has been a turbulent one for biotechnology. While 1994 saw the first genetically engineered food approved for sale Calgene's Flavr Savr tomato it also witnessed disappointing failures in clinical trials and other industry setbacks. Many investors have deserted biote

CEOs underscore the commercial sector's reliance on academia's basic discoveries andtrained investigators DIFFERENT IN KIND: Increasingly, university research is company-backed, but most is direct-output work, says Batelle's Douglas E Olesen. In a recent letter to more than 300 members of Congress, the heads of 15 of the largest United States corporations argued for continued "robust" federal support of university-based research. Among those receiving the letter were presidential hopeful and

A National Science Foundation report, scheduled for release this summer, on the demographics of scientists and engineers (S&E) in the federal work force shows a rise in employment of about 6 percent_13 percent among scientists_from 1989 to 1993. But according to various federal officials, these figures may already be outdated, in light of employment cuts that have occurred since the report period or are being proposed by Congress and the Clinton administration. PARING DOWN: H. Ronald Pulli

Situated equidistant from Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, N.C.--smack in the middle of the Research Triangle--sits the only National Institutes of Health institutional campus outside of the Washington, D.C., Beltway. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is currently responsible for nearly 50 percent of all federally funded research on such subjects. It commands a diverse research agenda that covers populations and geographical boundaries far beyond the triangle or t

In Recognition Of His Work On Health Risks From Lead Clair C. Patterson, 72, a professor of geology at the California Institute of Technology's division of geological and planetary sciences, has been awarded the 1995 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. Patterson was presented the honor--a gold medal and $150,000--on April 28 at a ceremony in Los Angeles. EMPHASIZING EDUCATION: William Wiley hopes to establish Sigma Xi as an intellectual resource for teachers and legislators at various c

President-Elect Of Scientific Honor Society Sigma Xi UNLEADED LEGACY: "These discoveries will affect the health of millions of people for decades to come," asserts Clkair Patterson, regarding the environmentally friendly products that have arisen from his work. William R. Wiley, corporate vice president of research and technology policy at Battelle Memorial Institute, Richland, Wash., was chosen to become the president of Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, in 1996-97. Wiley was elected

For the second time in three years, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) will hold its annual meeting together with the Division of Biological Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (ACS). The cooperative event will take place from Sunday, May 21 through Thursday, May 25 in San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center. More than 3,000 scientists are expected to attend the conference and exhibition, bringing together a broad span of chemists, biochemists, and biol

Contents Attention, Shoppers Ground-Breaking Discoveries The Streak Continues Bioengineers Find A Home Next Its Sweat and Tears Cleaner Living Through Chemistry Winning Rubes Flake Fate Just Say An announcement in a March 31 issue of Update, a newsletter of the National Association for Biomedical Research (NABR), that a guide to socially responsible corporations will delete positive references to animal research has resulted in "a big misunderstanding," according to an author of the guide. Updat