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NSB report's ambiguity and a lack of consensus on implementation hamper foundation's strategic planning In the face of congressional pressures and a climate of unease among university-based researchers, the National Science Foundation and its oversight body, the National Science Board, are wrestling to develop a plan for implementing policy recommendations set forth in a report by a special NSB commission on the agency's future. Their efforts are being complicated by lack of consensus about h

As his radical ecology experiment meets with criticism, even ridicule, he shows more interest in mainstream science Texas billionaire Edward Bass, best known for his bankrolling of Biosphere 2, now appears to be focusing his largess a bit closer to the scientific mainstream. The Biosphere 2 project, an experiment set up near Tucson, Ariz., attempting to establish a sealed, self-sustaining, three-acre module with eight humans inside, has taken a beating from the press and scientists over its la

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Roberto J. Poljak, a professor and head of the structural immunology laboratory at the Pasteur Institute in Paris since 1981, has taken a position as director of the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology (CARB) in Rockville, Md. Established in 1984, CARB is a research institute founded by the University of Maryland's Biotechnology Institute and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Poljak is known for developing the first three-dimensional models of key antibodies and a

1993 AAAS Meeting: Science And Education For The Future More than 4,000 scientists are expected at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, to be held in Boston February 11-16. Meeting highlights: Three days of symposia entitled "Future Chemistry: From Carbon to Silicon," February 14-16. Nano-engineering will be the focus of lectures by 20 different speakers. A special one-day symposium, "Science Education Reform in America," Saturday, February 13. Amon

Academicians who believe that the way to start the day off right is sitting down with a newspaper and a cup of coffee might want to avoid a new publication by the American Association of University Professors until the afternoon. The College and University Fiscal Crisis Update, which debuted in January, is filled with the latest in bad budget news from campuses around the United States, and is punctuated by comprehensive national lists of funding and job cutback statistics. Highlights (or lowl

Four-year investigation identifies precollege preparation, teaching styles, and peer influence as significant factors An extensive new study finds that the number of undergraduates in science, math, and engineering (SME) majors drops 40 percent between freshman and senior years. The losses vary substantially by field: In the physical sciences the decline is 20 percent, while in the biological sciences--the field with the most dramatic losses--the figure is 50 percent. The study also seeks to

Organizations supporting and opposing use of lab animals will make major efforts to win the hearts of U.S. schoolchildren As a new year dawns, the fierce duel over whether animals should be used for laboratory experiments and medical education enters a new phase. Both camps--on one side, groups that defend animal rights; on the other, those who want to uphold the use of animals in biomedical researchsay they will intensify the fight for the allegiance of future generations by targeting the

Clinton's choice of Gibbons as science adviser and Gore's anticipated activist role bode well for consideration of research issues, they contend Leading researchers as well as science policy specialists and association officials are hopeful, of course, that President Bill Clinton's administration will pursue an energetic, activist approach in tackling major science and technology issues. And, these observers generally agree, the Clinton years in this regard are off to a good start. In inter

During 13 years as director of the Office of Technology Assessment, the job of John H. Gibbons--President Bill Clinton's choice as White House science adviser--was largely a balancing act. He had to provide Congress with independent, authoritative analysis of technical and scientific questions while treading gingerly amid divergent political views, bureaucratic turf battles, and special-interest "stakeholders." Washington observers familiar with OTA's track record give Gibbons high marks for

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Once the United States' builders of sky-riding nuclear bombs, the Department of Energy is now looking back at Earth to clean up the mess such decades-long efforts have left. Specifically, the agency is beginning to address environmental problems in the land beneath its 12 major weapons research, production, and test sites and related facilities. It is a huge effort; environmental management now commands the largest budget in the agency at $5.5 billion this year. But DOE may have problems findi