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Controversy over propriety is rekindled as new physics and marine biotech centers make their respective moves to gain federal allocations WASHINGTON--Buried within the 1992 appropriations bill signed last month by President Bush for NASA, the National Science Foundation, and several other federal agencies is an allocation of $43 million to start the building of two new academic research facilities. One--a $211 million observatory to measure gravity waves, to be built at two sites thousands of

Where academic research and commercial enterprise converge, this new breed of college official serves as science's gatekeeper When Katharine Ku took on the directorship of the Office of Technology Licensing at Stanford University earlier this fall, she inherited quite a legacy from her predecessor, Neils Rimers. Her professional endowment included royalties totaling $25.6 million last year; a portfolio of patents and licenses that includes one of the most lucrative and commercially successful

OTA study contends that intellectual, financial, and regulatory challenges from other nations could erode America's global domination The United States is the world's front-runner in biotechnology because of its strong basic research structure and its ability to convert research into pharmaceutical and agricultural products, according to a report published by Congress' Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) last month. But the 283-page study, "Biotechnology in a Global Economy," warns that sev

VOLUME 5, No:23 The Scientist November 25, 1991 Research FUNDING BRIEFS   ONR Funds Young Researchers The Office of Naval Research will offer grant support this year to approximately 14 young academic researchers through its Young Investigator Program. ONR receives approximately 300 applications for the program annually. The Young Investigator Program is open to any United States citizen holding a tenure-track position at a U.S. university or college who received a P

Hosts of new applications have turned the light microscope into an exquisitely sensitive measuring device that can be used to image dynamic cellular events right down to the molecular level. Indeed, dramatic improvements in optical microscopy have brought about a renaissance in the use of light microscopes in biology and medicine. And within the last few years, the combination of novel optical systems with video and digital image processing capabilities have opened up whole new fields of resear

WASHINGTON--A panel of high-energy physicists has recommended slashing experimental programs at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Fermilab, and Brookhaven National Laboratory in response to expected budget cuts of up to 15 percent to be proposed by the Department of Energy (DOE). The cuts, if contained in the fiscal year 1993 budget that President Bush will submit in January to Congress, could mean layoffs of hundreds of scientists, the early termination of several research efforts, and

Choice Cuts Raub Leaves NIH for OSTP Shopping Around For Space Grants Changes Ahead For University Coalition National Public Radio Talks Science Federal investigators looking at how certain agencies use their special authority to offer higher salaries for hard-to-fill technical slots have discovered that many scientists and engineers are actually taking pay cuts to join the government. Some 35 percent of the people hired during 1987-88 under these rules agreed to pay cuts, some exceedi

The United States Department of Energy has narrowed the scope of its University Research Instrumentation Program. The program offers grants to colleges and universities to purchase specialized instruments for energy-related research. This year, applications must be limited to instruments applicable to one of five areas: biological and environmental research, chemical science, university infrastructure for high-energy physics, materials science, or mechanistic plant and microbial research. The

Industry and government scientists will be working overtime to comply with new demand for fuller information on nutrients WASHINGTON--When President Bush signed the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) into law on November 8, 1990, he set in motion a process that's expected to increase the work load for food chemists in government and industry and raise a new set of scientific questions for academic researchers who study nutrition. The new Nutrition Labeling and Education Act

Today's trend toward industry consolidation yields a grim byproduct for some researchers: the loss of their jobs Chiron buys Cetus, while Genzyme merges with Integrated Genetics. Quidel acquires Monoclonal Antibodies, and American Home Products agrees to buy 60 percent of Genetics Institute. The headlines are coming fast and furious these days. But while the torrent of announcements concerning mergers and acquisitions among biotechnology firms are greeted warmly by many industry watchers as a

A House panel questions methodology, motivation behind agency's warning that a huge shortfall threatens the work force WASHINGTON--A congressional committee is investigating whether political considerations influenced the National Science Foundation's prediction that the United States faces a cumulative shortage of some 675,000 college-educated scientists and engineers over the next two decades. The NSF prediction, based on studies conducted since 1985 by agency policy analyst Peter House and

Universities and other grant recipients seek to comply with requirement that curricula include moral rectitude courses "So what do you do if you see misconduct in scientific research?" asked a student at last month's introductory lecture for a new "Ethics in Research" series, organized jointly by New York's Rockefeller University, Cornell University Medical College, and the Sloan-Kettering Institute. Cornell medical dean, Robert Michels responded to the question by voicing his school's offici