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Martin Marietta Boosts Royalty Split SSC Magnets Attract Criticism PBS Series Looks At Astronomers Chips In The Edifice Of Science NSF Cleans Up Its Antarctic Act Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and four other DOE facilities operated by Martin Marietta Energy Systems in Tennessee, Ohio, and Kentucky will get higher royalties under a new policy adopted by the government contractor. Martin Marietta will now give inventors of licensed technology 15 percent of gross royalty recei

Academic and industrial researchers hold differing views on whether--and how severely--the chemistry profession is suffering Talk to academic chemists these days and they're likely to tell you they're worried. The anxiety they feel doesn't concern a difficult experiment; rather, they fear for the future of their profession. They see fewer United States college students majoring in chemistry. But they also see diminishing quality in the current crop of doctorates. They see unfilled job open

Former congressman Walgren, now a lobbyist, advises his clients to befriend lawmakers before advancing their own cause WASHINGTON--Scientists who feel frustrated because they can't get Congress to consider their remedies for what ails science can take a tip from a former legislator who is already sympathetic to their cause: Leave your data at home and start thinking instead about becoming friends with the congressional member whose ear you're trying to gain. Doug Walgren was such a frien

Critics encourage scientific societies to address the needs of women members by accommodating children at professional gatherings Last fall, Miriam Forman, director of professional programs for the American Physical Society, decided to break with tradition. At a major meeting of the society, held last month in Cincinnati, the children of the 2,000 members expected to attend would be as welcome as their parents. Forman contracted a company to run a five-day program for infants and childre

p.20 Federal agencies involved in studies of the brain and behavior are focusing increasingly on cognition. The National Institute of Mental Health plans to spend $3 million to support research to determine the behavioral principles and brain mechanisms of cognition. The National Institute on Aging is seeking applications for research and training in the neural and psychological mechanisms underlying cognition in aging. The NIMH program in cognition in mental health and mental disorders will a

Allan R. Sandage, an astronomer at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution, in Pasadena, Calif., has been chosen to receive the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences' 1991 Crafoord Prize. The $260,000 Crafoord Prize has been given annually, on a rotating basis, since 1982 for contributions in fields not recognized by the Nobel Prizes--mathematics, astronomy, geosciences, and biosciences. According to the award citation, Sandage was honored for his contributions to "the study of galaxies,

A secluded meeting at a New York estate offers the opportunity to talk openly and informally about science issues WASHINGTON--Top-level science advisers from a half-dozen nations, including the United States and the Soviet Union, recently held a weekend conference in the countryside near New York, The Scientist has learned. At least one participant has suggested that the late-February meeting could turn out to be the first in a series of regularly held gatherings of top international scien

p.4 A New Name For Cold Fusion Faisal Foundation Embraces Conservation Knocking Down The Doors Red Squirrel Redux The Patient Is Healthy The public may have long ago forgotten the phenomenon of cold fusion. And most of the scientific community never accepted what two University of Utah researchers said they had found two years ago when they applied an electric current to palladium rods wrapped in platinum coils and immersed in heavy water. But there is a core of researchers still on the

Volume 5, #6The Scientist March 18, 1991 NIH GUIDELINES COULD FACE A VETO FROM WHITE HOUSE Author: Jeffrey Mervis Date: March 18, 1991 WASHINGTON--The Bush administration is unlikely to endorse any conflict of interest regulations that require clinical scientists to do anything more than disclose financial holdings in the companies whose products they are evaluating, according to White House officials. National Institutes of Health administrators have recently completed work o

Volume 5, #6The Scientist March 18, 1991 A SHRINKING ROLE FOR SCIENCE IN SHAPING ANTARCTIC POLICY Author: ELIZABETH PENNISI Date: March 18, 1991 History shows that science once was the driving force behind Antarctic policies. But the present state of affairs suggests that the role of science is diminishing. In 1959, one year after the International Geophysical Year opened this icy frontier to science, the Antarctic Treaty was written by the dozen nations involved in that resea

NIH takes aim at the links between industry and those doing clinical trials while ignoring firms that get funds for technology innovations WASHINGTON--Current government efforts to prevent financial conflicts of interest among clinical investigators appear to ignore an obscure but well-funded federal program that operates with few safeguards against such potential abuse by researchers. And some scientists think that omission could be a costly mistake. Officials at the National Institutes of

New ASTM regulations promise to set clear definitions, enabling scientists to develop truly degradable plastics WASHINGTON--The growing public demand for truly biodegradable plastics has gone unfulfilled, in part because of a lack of agreement on what "biodegradability" means. But a new and comprehensive set of standards to define and measure such natural polymers, due out this spring, promises to help clear up the confusion within the scientific community as well as society at large. "The n