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This year, the Bower Award and Prize in Science -- the richest American science prize -- as well as the Bower Award for Business will honor the development of computer technology. The awards are presented annually by Philadelphia's Franklin Institute Science Museum. PIONEER: Frederick Brooks, Jr. was cited for his "major contribution to making the computer useful. Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., who defined computer architecture in such a way that computer hardware and software developed independen

The Board of Directors of City Trusts of the city of Philadelphia honored three researchers last month for inventions that have contributed to the "comfort, welfare, and happiness" of mankind. The three were given John Scott Awards, consisting of a copper medal and a $10,000 prize. An unshared award went to Barry J. Marshall, a 1995 Lasker laureate and a clinical associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Virginia, for discovering the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its rol

The growth of the CRO industry has led to a plethora of new employment opportunities, both within CROs and pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms managing their relationships with CROs or other contract-service providers. BOOMING: Charles and Cathy Lineberry left positions at Glaxo Wellcome to form their own CRO. Pharmacologist/pathologist John S. Noble, president of Innapharma Inc., a small CRO in Suffern, N.Y., worked initially as a bench scientist, and eventually became director of worldw

Sidebar: A Checklist for Evaluating Forecasts With the year 2000 approaching, scientific, environmental, technology, and health organizations have been making predictions about the state of science and technology in the next five years and beyond, as have some individuals. Many such agencies and associations are also using the approaching turn of the century to set goals for themselves. Should the predictions come true and the goals be met by the start of the next century, forecasters anticipa

Andy Hines, staff futurist at the research firm of Coates and Jarratt Inc. in Washington, D.C., lists several criteria for judging the many predictions that have been and will be made for or around the year 2000 (The Futurist, 29:20-24, November- December 1995): Author: What are the credentials or reputation of the author or institution? Do they have a bias? Are they advocates, enthusiasts, or opponents? Method: Is a formal method such as a Delphi survey -- a polling of experts-used? Assumpt

Association for Women in Science members are making plans to celebrate the victories of the past and look ahead to future challenges. 

Women Nobel Prize winners will help the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) kick off its 25th anniversary celebration in February. Laureates Rosalyn Yalow and Gertrude Elion will speak at a symposium titled "Women Nobelists: Their Work, Their Lives, and Their Impact on Science and Technology" at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), slated for February 8-12 in Baltimore. Also presenting at the symposium, scheduled for the afternoon of February

Engineering Going to Women Engin. Phys. Math/Comp. Agri./Biol. Sci. Sci. Sci. 1971 0.8% 14.7% 36.0% 24.1% 1991 15.5% 32.4% 36.1% 48.7% in Science and Engineering Going to Women Engin. Phys. Math/Comp. Agri./Biol. Sci. Sci. Sci. 1971 0.5% 5.8% 7.8% 14.5% 1991 8.7% 18.4% 16.9% 34.4% Source: National Science Foundation

Government Just Says No Author: Peter Gwynne Can smoking marijuana help to alleviate the loss of appetite and weight that accompany AIDS? Much as they would like to know, people with AIDS and their physicians seem unlikely to get a definitive answer to that question any time in the near future. FIELD OF DREAMS: The University of Mississippi grows marijuana for NIDA, for use in reserach that meets the institute's criteria. For more than three years, a physician proposing to undertake a pilot

Investigator-Initiated Basic Grants Author: Lee Katterman At a time when biotechnology and some pharmaceutical companies are working hard to finance research and product development, a small number of firms are tapping a pot of federal money generally thought to support only projects led by academic scientists. Some industry officials value this source of support for studies a company might not otherwise be able to afford, while others avoid it because of the strings that come with it. SEPAR

Prodded by savings-hungry Republicans in Congress, the colossus that is the Department of Energy (DOE) awakened in January to find itself under attack and its offspring-a cherished, $6 billion network of national laboratories-at risk of being orphaned. Alarmed, DOE embarked upon a campaign to save the department and reshape the laboratories, by shrinking and restructuring them. At the last moment, one day before the deadlock that led President Bill Clinton to shut down much of the federal gov

The Scientist 9[23]:1, Nov. 27, 1995 News Scientists' Heated Debate On Immigration Mirrors Issues Argued Throughout U. S. By Robert Finn Sidebar:INTRA-ETHNIC COMPARISONS OF NATURAL SCIENTISTS ON SELECTED VARIABLES Several recent studies demonstrating dramatic increases in the number of scientists and engineers coming to the United States from other countries have ignited controversy that mirrors the current national debate over immigration. Critics are blaming this inf