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The following time line, detailing events relating to Genome Technologies' suit against Bento Soares and cDNA sequencing efforts in general, was culled from interviews conducted by The Scientist as well as information contained in court pleadings, statements, and media reports. The Integrated Molecular Analysis of Genome Expression (IMAGE) Consortium forms as an informal, ad hoc collaboration among colleagues to freely share complementary DNA (cDNA) libraries. The consortium is started by Greg

While scientists and bioethicists work out their relative contributions to ethical debates, both say that many of the most important issues will eventually be resolved by yet another professional group-lawyers. The regulations and policy guidelines produced by various federal panels and commissions are often largely written by lawyer members. In addition, researchers and ethicists say that, given the social and economic realities of present-day society, new laws will be needed to fully guarante

The pressures of practicing science in the 1990s are taking their toll on researchers in the United States and throughout the world. Some of the evidence is clear: rising unemployment and underemployment, as well as ferocious competition for rapidly dwindling resources. Other signs, scientists say, are less obvious --increased research misconduct, sexual discrimination, disrupted family and personal lives, and the creation of "serial postdocs" with less and less of a chance of ever obtaining a

The biotechnology industry has shown signs recently of recovering from the doldrums of the past year, which encompassed a wave of consolidations, layoffs, and a critical cash crunch. However, as some indications arise that biotech as a whole is starting to regain investor confidence, industry analysts say that the agricultural biotech sector seems to be lagging. Ag biotech observers, including scientists in both business and academia, agree that the industry's growth has been hampered by regul

if (n == null) The Scientist - Growth In Untenured Academic Science Jobs Seen Hurting Careers The Scientist 9[18]:1, Sep. 18, 1995 News Growth In Untenured Academic Science Jobs Seen Hurting Careers By Franklin Hoke The proportion of poorly paid, temporary jobs in academic science is growing, while the share of full-time, tenured positions is declining, according to researchers and observers of university employment practices. The chance that a new Ph.D.

Despite well-publicized, lucrative licensing deals, most university technology experts find that patenting and licensing inventions is a process laden with potential pitfalls. While universities claim that the investment is generally worthwhile for a number of reasons, the challenge, many specialists say, is choosing the right project and matching it with the right industry at the right time. Patents often languish, investments frequently sour. The fact is, for every income-earning patent, mil

On The Decline Author: Neeraja Sankaran The time-honored tradition of visiting professorships -- invitations extended to faculty taking sabbaticals from their own institutions to teach and do research here -- will once again be in evidence as schools reopen in the fall. As throngs of students return to their classrooms and laboratories, they may find that certain familiar faces are missing or replaced by new ones, or that there are new names and courses listed in the fall directories. The pra

Cal Takes The Field For ALSPrized Pizza The Digital MerckThe Whole Kit And Kaboodle Immortal GenesIndia Joins MacArthur Leaders Extraordinary ExpeditionsTourette Training Grants On September 6, Baltimore Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr. broke the consecutive-games-played record of 2,130 set by Lou Gehrig, the New York Yankees first-baseman who died in 1941 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) -- now known as Lou Gehrig's disease. To honor Gehrig, 260 one-time, $5,000 seats were sold along

In the book Shoeless Joe, better known as the movie Field of Dreams, the main character converts an Iowa cornfield into a baseball field after a voice says, "If you build it, he will come." In Great Falls, Mont., supporters of the McLaughlin Research Institute (MRI) began construction of a 42,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art, genetics research facility on prairie farmland in 1991 with the hope that if they built it, scientists would come. The new building, constructed with federal and state f

STRONG WORDS: OSTP's Skip Johns blasts Congress for its "shortsighted act". Only a presidential veto--or a last-minute change of heart--could have stopped the Republican-led Congress from abolishing its only in-house source of science-policy analysis, the 23-year-old Office of Technology Assessment. But a threatened veto is now unlikely to come, and Congress has voted and moved on to other matters. OTA is history. On July 27, House and Senate conferees sealed the agency's fate in H.R. 104-21

A federal law written with corrupt Department of Defense contractors in mind has become a serious concern for university administrators, while at the same time giving scientific-fraud whistleblowers new hope for success in pressing their charges. BREAKING NEW GROUND: Scientist-lawyer Eugene Dong first saw the scientific fraud aspects of the False Claims Act. The False Claims Act, also known as the Lincoln Law, was passed in 1863 and amended more than a century later, in 1986. Originally, the

As the school year commences, returning scientists are again applying for grants, awards, and other financial support to pursue their various disciplines. But six academic scientists among the 24 recipients of this year's John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowships--popularly known as the "genius awards"--are in an extremely fortunate position: Their explorations for the next five years will extend as far as their imaginations will take them. "When the director called me up to co