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WASHINGTON -- Last month 10 scientists got to keep their labs open, thanks to a new policy at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The policy lets NIGMS edge further away from scientific merit in funding decisions and ration support so smaller laboratories can survive the increased competition for NIH funds. The beneficiaries are those scientists - like the 10 who didn't make the initial cutoff - who have no other sources of support or who are first-time applicants. The potential

Soviets Bump Up Against NIH Ceiling The Fogarty International Center's exchange program with the Soviet Union is oversubscribed for the first time in its 18-year history. "In the past, we didn't have a ceiling on the program because we could always count on the Soviets to limit themselves," says Gray Handley, director of international coordination and liaison for the NIH-based exchanges. But perestroika has increased demand for the short-term visits, in which the Soviets pay for the flight over

A flood of applications for small amounts of money reflects the problem of financing needed repairs to academic laboratories WASHINGTON -- New programs at the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation offer overwhelming evidence that the demand for federal funds to replace crumbling academic research facilities is substantial. Defying odds that would scare off any self-respecting bettor, university administrators are expected to shower NIH with more than 100 requests f

Wellcome Welcomes Visiting Professors Universities interested in hosting leading research scientists can tap the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Each year, Wellcome Visiting Professorships in the Basic Medical Sciences are presented to 21 scientists - three each in physiology, biochemistry/molecular biology, pharmacology, pathology, nutrition, immunology, and cell biology - for visits of two to five days at U.S. institutions. The Wellcome Visiting Professors teach, confer with students and faculty,

Don L. Anderson, professor of geophysics at the California Institute of Technology, has been named the first Eleanor and John R. McMillan Professor of Geophysics. The professorship in Caltech's Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences was endowed by Caltech alumnus John R. McMillan to honor the memory of his wife, Eleanor McMillan, who died in 1988. Anderson's research has focused on the study of planetary interiors, seismology, the structure of the earth, and the origin and evolution of o

WASHINGTON -- On March 22 the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology rolled up its sleeves and got down to business, namely, the task of getting United States industry to play a larger role in strengthening science. The council has a mandate to provide the president with all manner of scientific and technological advice on pressing issues of the day. And its 12 members, who were sworn in February 2 (The Scientist, March 5, 1990, page 3), represent a diverse elite, from billi

They're Having A Blast At Livermore An external panel will search for causes in three recent "highly unusual" accidents at Lawrence Livermore National Lab's high-explosive test facilities. The panel's main task will be to discover whether the three incidents, which occurred within a six-week period, "were just bad luck, or whether a pattern emerges," says a lab spokesman. "One of our very best records is in high-explosive safety," he adds. Two accidental detonations occurred at Site 300, a high

Temporary shutdown of research reactor turns into three-year hiatus as managers try to understand the world after Chernobyl OAK RIDGE, TENN. -- Though it may be impolite, it's hardly news when a scientist avoids a meeting to carry out an experiment. But for Oak Ridge National Laboratory nuclear physicist George Wignall, showing up late for an interview with a reporter was cause for celebration. "We've been waiting three and a half years for this machine," he explained to a reporter, exulting

Recombinant DNA Biodegradable Pesticide Mycogen Corp. has begun the first large-scale field trials in the U.S. of a pesticide developed through recombinant DNA techniques. The pesticide, called MVP, is a protein produced by a strain of the Bacillus thuringiensis (B.t.) bacterium. The San Diego firm inserts the gene that produces the B.t. toxin into another bacterium called Pseudomonas fluorescens. Then the new bacteria are killed, and a "biocapsule" forms around the toxin, which is fatal to lea

More than 11,000 scientists from 30 countries are expected to attend the 199th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston next week. The six-day-long gathering (April 22 through April 27) at the Hynes Convention Center will feature more than 4,400 papers presented during 604 technical sessions. The presidential plenary, which kicks off the week-long gathering Sunday, April 22, at 4:30 P.M., will focus on a problem that the field of chemistry shares with other disciplines: the

Sharing Science "Kids are natural scientists," says Yale biology senior Geoffrey Laff. "We're trying to capture them at a point when they think that learning is still a cool thing to do." Laff is founder of DEMOS, a volunteer student group that shares the magic and excitement of science with third, fourth, and fifth graders in New Haven, Conn., elementary schools. Every week, the 35 members of DEMOS (the acronym doesn't really stand for anything: "I like to let people use their imaginations," s

An immunologist who has turned entrepreneur builds a one-man publishing business around a 30,000-item directory It is one of those small yet irksome inconveniences that dog immunologists and those working with biological reagents. No matter how generous one's funding or how proficient one's technicians, there are certain nettlesome tasks that threaten to halt one's research. What to do, for example, when an experiment requires a highly specific monoclonal antibody? If it can't be found in a ca