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WASHINGTON--Deputy Director John Moore has left the National Science Foundation to become professor of economics and director of the International Institute at nearby George Mason University. His decision, in addition to creating a vacancy that President Bush must fill, may force the administration to speed up its timetable for deciding who will lead the science foundation in the 1990s. Moore, 54, holds an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering and a Ph.D. in economics. The former associ

Cold, Clear Nights and Cosmic Radiation Although the future of Antarctica is still uncertain (The Scientist, Nov. 13, 1989, page 2), scientists continue to brave the harsh weather conditions for the sake of research. The newest addition to the list of hardy researchers is a team of physicists from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The team, organized by Purdue physicist James A. Gaidos, will travel to Antarctica in shifts until the end of Februar

Harold Furth could see the hard times coming. Oil prices were dropping and, with them, the prospects for funding research into alternative energies such as fusion, his specialty. So, like others in his field during the early 1980s, the head of the Princeton Plasma Laboratory started promoting his program as good basic research, rather than as the pursuit of a working fusion reactor. Meanwhile, researchers in pursuit of a malaria vaccine had their own troubles. Serious scientific obstacles h

PALO ALTO, CALIF.—It wasn’t very good news for the public.., or for the electric power industry. Researchers had found that sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants could aggravate the condition of asthmatics. But the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), which financed the research, didn’t flinch. EPRI was created in 1972 to support research on subjects that are important to the electric utility industry. Its $379 million annual budget comes entirely from contribut

WASHINGTON—Although the 1991 budget that President Bush will present to Congress next month is expected to propose bigger budgets for many science research programs, the sobering truth is that there isn’t going to be enough money available to support the programs. The budget, still in preparation and scheduled to be delivered January 8 to Congress, is expected to contain major increases in a variety of scientific projects already under way. The figures could be as large as $400 m

Imagine a research team 42,000 members strong. Ranging in age from 9 to 90, they’re up before dawn in their quest to outdo one another in a daylong data collection binge. Then contemplate a database with more than a billion entries. It spans 90 years and includes more than a thousand species of birds sighted in the Western Hemisphere. That’s the Audubon Society Christmas, Bird Count, the world’s largest and oldest wildlife survey. A statistician’s nightmare? Possibl

PASADENA, CALIF.—An industry-funded research institute that pledges to be independent of the companies that are funding it is the latest player in the debate on, the environmental and public health risk of toxic chemicals. The Institute for Evaluating Health Risks (IEHR) says it is the nation’s first independent institute formed to specifically address environment-related health risks. It was put together by ethicist Charles Powers, a former philosophy professor at Yale Universi

IEEE Delegation In The Soviet Union Eight members of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. returned home from their visit to the Soviet Union with basically what they were looking for—more insight into the Soviets’ research in optoelectronics. The IEEE delegation met with its engineering counterpart, the A.S. Popov Society, for the first time since 1984 (The Scientist, July 24, 1989, page 8), and toured Soviet industries, labs, and universities in Moscow and Le

Faces In The Crowd November has been a busy time for personnel moves at important science policy positions in and around the government. They include: John Toll, a physicist and former chancellor of the University of Maryland, who was named president of the Universities Research Association Inc. URA, a consortium of 72 schools with strong programs in particle physics, operates the Superconducting Supercollider laboratory being built outside Dallas under contract with the Department of Energy

WASHINGTON—The National Science Foundation has changed its format for proposals in a strong message to applicants about what their priorities should be. The new format reflects the nation’s increasing concern about the training of new scientists and information overload. On October 1, NSF began requiring that all proposals include a statement about a proposed project’s educational potential and a list of the young scientists being trained in the applicant’s laborato

Summer With The Navy Each summer, the U.S. Navy opens its doors to university scientists and engineers who want to work temporarily at 19 Navy research and development centers. The program, which is administered by the American Society for Engineering Education, offers three levels of appointments: summer faculty fellows, who must have two years’ teaching and research experience; senior fellows, who must have conducted research for five years and have significant publications; and distin

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. has presented its second annual Award for Distinguished Achievement in Pain Research to Ronald Dubner. Dubner, 55, is chief of the Neurobiology and Anesthesiology Branch of the National Institute, of Dental Research at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.. Dubner was the first to identify specific pain-sensing cells (nociceptors) and their connections to the central nervous system. Prior to his work, it had been believed that the nerves in the skin respond