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As enthusiastic support for the superconducting supercollider cools off, advocates step up efforts to save the megaproject Proponents of the superconducting supercollider are mounting a vigorous public relations campaign to win over Congress and the United States public and to head off a repeat of last summer's House vote to kill the $8.3 billion project. Funding for the Dallas-based SSC was restored last year only through the 11th-hour mobilization of dozens of physicists to converge

Commercial productivity is the payoff when firms provide scientists with a comfortably collegiate professional environment Recognizing the successful tradition of the university science environment, industry research directors are carrying over the academic spirit in their efforts toward building harmonious and productive labs. Their aim is to preserve the pursuit of pure discovery and the free exchange of ideas, while at the same time moving assertively toward the achievement of commer

Biomedical researchers vow to go on using animal subjects in their labs, despite acts of personal intimidation Researchers targeted by a wave of protests from animal rights supporters late last month vow that the hunger strikes, sit-ins, candlelight vigils, and even some acts of vandalism by the activists will not deter them from continuing their work. The demonstrations were staged as a part of a national week of protests against the use of animals in biomedical research called World

Scientists and other employees at the Science Center for Social Research in Berlin are waiting to see if a nationwide petition drive they've initiated denouncing the recent wave of neo-Nazi violence in Germany will prod the country's lawmakers to crack down on those racist activities. Staff members at the center, called Wissenschafts-zentrum Berlin fr Sozial- forschung (WZB)--a research institution studying economics, labor market development, and environmental protection policy--began composi

Ear to the Grindstone A Different Way Art For Earth's Sake Magnetic Personality Antimatter Matters While hearing aid manufacturers keep trying to make a less cumbersome and noticeable appliance, University of Virginia graduate student Jonathan Spindel has delved into the subject a little deeper. He has developed a device that transmits sound via a tiny magnet permanently implanted on the "round window" of the inner ear and an electromagnetic coil placed a short distance from the magnet.

Life scientists are increasingly adopting the belief that microorganisms are virtually everywhere and are responsible for just about everything. This, plus the maturation of molecular- level methods of working with these tiny creatures, is a source of considerable optimism for microbiologists as the 93rd general meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) convenes in Atlanta this week. What they see, in career terms, is that progress in their field is bound to yield an ever-widening

Reaction in the science community has been impassioned and partisan over the April 9 decision at the National Institutes of Health to "reassign" scientists Walter Stewart and Ned Feder to new posts, effectively ending their independent scientific integrity research at the institutes. Stewart and Feder's self- initiated investigative work, conducted over the past decade, has sparked intense controversy at times and has been central to a number of high-profile misconduct cases. The pair's probe

The Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government, created in 1988 by the Carnegie Corporation of New York as a five-year-long effort to assess the way science is taken into account in the formulation of United States policy, ends its tenure June 30. The commission, its advisory council, and its 15 committees and task forces have included "the elite of the science policy community in the country," in the words of Rep. George E. Brown, Jr. (D-Calif.)--among them three Nobel-ists (

Discussions of such disturbing national health issues as the reemergence of tuberculosis and cholera are among the highlights of the American Society for Microbiology's 93rd general meeting. At press time, an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 microbiologists were expected to attend the five-day conference, May 16-20, at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. The meeting is expected to feature some 3,000 scientific presentations--a mixture of lectures, seminars, presentations, and poster session

BU Professor Wins FASEB Women's Science Award Citing the 22 years it took for her to gain tenure as a university professor, neuroendocrinologist Susan Leeman notes that her professional life has not been free of frustration. And she attributes much of this frustration to the fact that she is a woman. Moreover, the 63-year-old Leeman, recent winner of the Women's Excellence in Science Award, presented by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), says the career pat

Citing the 22 years it took for her to gain tenure as a university professor, neuroendocrinologist Susan Leeman notes that her professional life has not been free of frustration. And she attributes much of this frustration to the fact that she is a woman. Moreover, the 63-year-old Leeman, recent winner of the Women's Excellence in Science Award, presented by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), says the career path for women in science today is not much easier t

The space station Freedom project, which underwent its most recent redesign in 1991, will face outright cancellation by Congress unless it can come up with yet a new design that cuts development and deployment costs in half, according to officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. At the behest of Vice President Al Gore, a blue-ribbon advisory panel, chaired by Massachusetts Institute of Technology president Charles Vest, is working with the space agency to work up options