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The successful growth of human brain cells in a dish already has some researchers pondering commercial applications WASHINGTON - When a team of neuroscientists at Johns Hopkins Medical School made headlines this past May for establishing a colony of human neurons that divide and grow in a petri dish, they may have launched a new era on the business side - as well as the science side - of neurobiology. The Johns Hopkins team, headed by Solomon Snyder, reported its achievement in the journal Sc

Despite praise from Congress, others charge that his single-minded drive for bigger budgets alienated many scientists WASHINGTON - Muted by the uproar following the removal of Bassam Shakhashiri as head of the directorate for science and engineering education at the National Science Foundation is the applause of many scientists who are glad to see him gone. "There aren't any tears being shed around here, I can promise you that," says one NSF program officer. "Most of us see it as a chance to

Genetic engineers at Crop Genetics and Mycogen place hopes on two different strategies for pest control Like Babe Ruth, John Henry sees himself as a slugger. The president and CEO of Crop Genetics International of Hanover, Md., Henry is going for a grand slam in his field of pest control: a genetically designed biopesticide against the European corn borer, a pest that munches $500 million worth of corn annually in the United States. In contrast to his heavy-hitting strategy are the efforts of

Watching Their Wallets The rankings of 1989's top 100 spenders on industrial R&D suggests that the R&D slowdown in the U.S. has begun to reach the labs of industry leaders. Technical Insights, Inc., the Englewood, N.J., firm that publishes Inside R&D, a weekly newsletter, finds in its latest annual survey that last year the top 100, headed by General Motors, increased research spending by 8.7 percent, after posting spending gains of 10.7 percent the previous year. Charles Joslin, editor ofInsid

Speakers' Fund For Women Geoscientists The Association for Women Geoscientists has received a $9,000 grant for three years from Phillips Petroleum to fund travel costs of members serving as speakers. The AWG Speakers Bureau maintains a list of 120 nationally recognized women geoscientists who are available for speaking engagements. Nonprofit, nongovernment organizations needing speakers to discuss geoscience topics can apply. Up to $300 in direct travel costs is available. The deadline for appl

Max Cooper, director of the Division of Developmental and Clinical Immunology in the Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and Jacques Miller, head of the Thymus Biology Unit at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, recently received a share of the first $100,000 Sandoz Prize for Immunology. The prize, to be given biennially by the Basel, Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company, encourages research in basic cellular, d

Harry B. Gray, Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, has been named winner of the 1991 Priestley Medal, the American Chemical Society's highest honor. Gray's research has focused on inorganic photochemistry and artificial photosynthetic systems. In addition, he has conducted research on electronic structures of iron- and copper-containing proteins, and on chemical reactions that involve transfers of electrons between metal centers in proteins. In Ma

A conflict-of-interest case demonstrates that she lacks the power to enforce guidelines on post-employment contact WASHINGTON - Last year the National Science Foundation broke its own rule that bars former employees from discussing a potential grant or contract with foundation officials for at least one year. But when NSF's new inspector general blew the whistle on the infringement, agency officials in effect shrugged their shoulders and promised to do better the next time around. The case of

Third Time's A Charm On Misconduct The scientific community learns from its mistakes in investigating allegations of misconduct - but not very quickly, says former NIH director James Wyngaarden. Wyngaarden, speaking last month at a luncheon sponsored by a National Academy of Sciences panel examining responsible conduct in research, says that he's developed a rule of thumb that predicts how institutions are likely to handle scientific misconduct by their faculty. "They blow it the first time," h

U.S., USSR to Share Plant Collections U.S. and Soviet agriculture officials plan to link the world's two largest collections of plant germplasm (genetic material contained in seeds and cuttings) via a computerized database accessible to both nations. The U.S. Agricultural Research Service's Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) has for the past six years allowed North American scientists to access the U.S. collection via personal computer. This fall two ARS scientists will travel to L

Reviewers will have to think twice, now that tenure evaluation letters can be used as evidence in bias cases Academic scientists who are denied tenure and then sue universities on the basis of discrimination will find little, if any, information to support their case in written evaluations submitted by their peers. In fact, tenure candidates and the universities considering them will now have difficulty even recruiting researchers to honestly evaluate colleagues' work. These, scientists and s

Applied Biosystems finds that as a start-up's glamour fades, it must stress a return to basics FOSTER CITY, CALIF. - The engineer who cofounded Applied Biosystems and made it into a superstar of the biotech instruments industry, only to step back and see it stumble, is back at the helm. And Andre Marion believes that what once worked for the company is also the surest route to its future success. "Success lies in the ability to take chances," says Marion, who returned to hands-on management o