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Big increases for NSF, NASA, the genome project, and the supercollider must vie with the needs of domestic programs WASHINGTON--President Bush has asked for significant increases for science in his 1991 budget proposal to Congress. But the really good news is that he's also asked for more money for housing, veterans' affairs, and other programs that compete with science for scarce resources. Why, in a time of fiscal austerity, is more money for other domestic programs a blessing for researche

Science departments seek high-tech instruments, promising companies a generation of skilled researchers in return. WASHINGTON--This spring two dozen students at North Carolina State University are mastering protein chemistry in the classroom with equipment usually found only in a state-of-the-art research laboratory. And the university didn't have to buy a single instrument. The reason? The new head of the biochemistry department, Paul Agris, convinced companies to loan or donate $500,000 in

14% increase features more for education, academic facilities, and some new projects that look into space. WASHINGTON--This year NSF decided to go with the flow. The 14% increase requested in President Bush's 1991 proposed budget, which continues the pledge first made by President Reagan in 1987 to double the agency's budget in five years, would give more money to several programs that Congress already supports. As a result, foundation officials think their $2.38 billion budget has a better ch

OTTAWA--Canada's parliament is considering legislation aimed at giving its computer industry better intellectual property protection for the designs upon which integrated circuits are based. The bill is "designed to attract research and investment in the Canadian integrated circuit industry, promote trade, and prevent piracy," says Harvie Andre, acting consumer and corporate affairs minister, who introduced the measure. "The new legislation will create a better climate for investment: When yo

Ex-chief Erickson pleads guilty, and a University of Illinois scientist is ousted from his laboratory. WASHINGTON--A new team at the U.S. Agency for International Development is cleaning up the mess left by the convicted ex-chief of its malaria research program. But some scientists who are looking for a vaccine for the deadly disease say that the bad odor left by the scandal leaves them wondering where their next dollar will come from. The scarcity of funds will certainly hamper the progress

No Thanks, We Already Do That As part of the bill setting NSF's annual budget, the Senate last fall asked the foundation to think about setting up an office of scientific integrity similar to the one created last spring by NIH. The legislators were worried that the present system, under which universities and other grantees have the primary responsibility for rooting out fraud, might not be adequate, and they urged NSF "to play a greater role" in overseeing scientific misconduct. Well, NSF offi

Get A Grant, Share An Instrument The NIH Biomedical Research Support Shared Instrumentation Grant program will now fund equipment that costs up to $400,000, an increase of $100,000 from 1989. But expect stiff competition for 1990's $32.5 million (The Scientist, Oct. 2, 1989, page 18). Applications must come from institutions with at least three investigators who plan to use the equipment and who already receive peer-reviewed funds from the Public Health Service. The equipment must be used 75% o

Donald Price, a leading Alz-heimer's disease researcher from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has received the $250,000 Metropolitan Life Foundation Award for Medical Research for 1990. Chosen by an independent committee of eminent physicians and research scientists, Price, 55, professor of pathology, neurology, and neuroscience and director of the Neuropathology Laboratory and the Alz-heimer's Disease Research Center, both at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital, was cited fo

Aklilu Lemma and Legesse Wolde-Yohannes, two Ethiopian researchers whose work focuses on schistosomiasis, have won the 1989 Right Livelihood Cash Award, which honors and supports research specifically geared toward improving the quality of human life. The prize is presented by the Right Livelihood Awards Foundation, a United Kingdom-based international charitable organization that has been giving four cash awards annually since 1980. The prize is the brainchild of Jakob von Uexkull, a Swedish-G

WASHINGTON--Although it's been touted as the first scientific group to report to the president in 15 years and a symbol of George Bush's commitment to science, the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology was sworn in last month with little pomp and circumstance. With barely two hours' notice to the press and no written descriptions of the backgrounds of its 12 prominent members, Vice President Dan Quayle administered the oath of office and then, after a few comments, left wit

NCAR, French In Joint Doppler Project Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., have been saving their research pennies in hopes of building an airborne Doppler radar system to monitor large-scale storms and global atmospheric processes that would be several times more powerful than their current system. But the $11 million price tag was too high for the 29-year-old, NSF-funded center to afford by itself. So last month NCAR officials announced an agreement wi

People's Deputy Vitali Goldanski, a leading scientist and politician, steps up campaign against Russian 'monarcho-Nazis'. Extending his involvement in the politics of his troubled country, Soviet chemist Vitali Goldanski has launched an international appeal warning of the rise of anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union. Goldanski, director of the Semenov Institute of Chemical Physics and a member of the Soviet Congress of People's Deputies, wrote in January to his foreign colleagues about a new "mo