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Inspired by the mandate to find alternatives, researchers link up to create new technologies and substitute chemicals WASHINGTON--Leslie Guth always thought her research was too technical for casual conversations. Not anymore. Now when Guth, a materials scientist for AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., mentions that she's looking for new ways to finish electronic circuit boards without using chlorofluoro-carbons, people are eager to hear more about her battle against what many env

WASHINGTON-The Bush administration last month shaped the course of the two most important agencies for academic science within the federal bureaucracy by identifying its candidates for the directorships of the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Its choices also suggest that presidential science adviser Allan Bromley has gained the upper hand in such personnel decisions over a range of competing interests within the White House. The selection of cardiologist Berna

Before parting with money to fund the NSF program, corporate backers demand to play a greater role in charting its development WASHINGTON--The National Science Foundation wants industry to invest more than $100 million in a new minority education program that would produce 50,000 baccalaureates and 2,000 Ph.D.'s a year in science and engineering by the year 2000. What the NSF doesn't want, say officials organizing the program, is a lot of advice from the businesses on how to set it up. That an

Cellcor's new approach to immunotherapy links patient and lab; the firm's success is tied to skirting the FDA bottleneck BOSTON--What do you get when you cross research with clinical care? The answer, immunologist Michael Osband says emphatically, is a new industry--"biocare." His Boston-based company, Cellcor Therapies Inc., is one of about a half-dozen firms worldwide that are developing therapies tailor-made in the laboratory for individual patients. It's been eight years since Michael Osb

New York alliance offers guidance and support to Russian researchers who are seeking employment in their adopted country Alexander Bolonkin, a mathematician specializing in aerodynamics, has a 10-year gap in his r‚sum‚, from 1972 to 1982, because he was serving time in a Soviet prison camp. Bolonkin is now studying English, but he still has quite a bit to learn; he says he came to the United States "1« hours ago" when he means "1« years ago." Since arriving in the U.S.,

As the shock over the mirror defect in the Hubble Space Telescope begins to wear off, some 1,000 astronomers, many of whom had anticipated funding from NASA and all of whom expected unprecedented pictures and data from the $1.6 billion instrument, are trying to salvage their research plans. Scientists at NASA headquarters in Washington D.C., the Space Telescope Science Institute (STSI) in Baltimore, the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and here throughout the world are analyzing

Who Says Science Can't Be Fun? Playing The Odds Sign Of The Times Bridging The Gap The Invisible Professor The organizers of next month's annual meeting of the Association of Science-Technology Centers in Orlando, Fla., have made a bold bid to boost attendance by including in the registration packet a one-day pass for three popular theme parks in the area -- Universal Studios, EPCOT Center, and Sea World. The ploy is one way for ASTC, an association of more than 300 museums and affiliated insti

Allan Goldstein believes the thymosins he discovered can cure immune diseases, and he hopes his company and institute will prove it WASHINGTON--Science moves too slowly for biochemist Allan Goldstein. For most of his professional life, he has been trying to unravel the mysteries of the human immune system through a better understanding of a group of hormones known as thymosins. He discovered them 26 years ago, and their use in 1974 to save the life of a five-year-old girl, along with his encou

Love of their institutions motivates many to make the transition from university laboratories to executive offices What's it like to be a medical school dean? Geneticist Leon E. Rosenberg, dean of Yale University's School of Medicine, describes the experience as sometimes elegantly harmonious, sometimes extraordinarily fast-paced--and rarely dull. "When I'm feeling serene," Rosenberg says, "I say that [the job] is sometimes like being a conductor of an orchestra: searching for the right sound

As sources of money dry up, potential backers demand that science startups have prototypes to show off, if not products ready to roll PALO ALTO, CALIF.--For much of the eighties, software engineer Eric Hannah rode the roller coaster of venture capital funding for new high-tech startups in northern California. But after one rocketing success and one crashing failure, he's promised himself never to risk another ride. In fact, one of the things he likes most about the Silicon Valley company he's

A House panel, demanding changes in the way grants are managed, accuses scientists of overstating the crisis in research funding WASHINGTON--In a report that has left National Institutes of Health officials "a little shell-shocked," a House committee has laid out an unprecedentedly specific set of spending guidelines in an effort to fix what it sees as a longstanding problem in the way NIH has handled its rapidly growing budget. In blunt language, the House report says its members are tired o

Gary Alpert strayed from his career track, but at Harvard he found he could still do good research as well as make good money BOSTON--When Gary Alpert arrived at Harvard 15 years ago as a graduate student, he was eager to pursue an academic career in insect behavior. Then the Pharaoh ant got in his way. Lots of them, actually. They were all over the place, running rampant through the biology labs and hallways and showing up in lunch bags and research preparations. Years earlier, the bugs had h