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U.K. produces more papers than any other European nation, but articles from Switzerland carry more clout For centuries, the nations of Europe have been competing fiercely with one another. They have fought long and bitter battles over mere slivers of land. They have clashed repeatedly in pursuit of new markets. Fortunately, outright warfare over land and markets is largely a thing of the past. But there is one realm in which the competition, although more civilized, is still hotly contested

Sidebar: What Can Scientists Do To make Animals 'Happier' Animal rights activists have had an impact, but the biggest changes are coming from scientists themselves Why should a physicist or a chemist care about the endless public debate over the use of research animals? Almost every scientist knows the creatures are crucial for progress in biology and medicine. And scientists are fed up with the clamor being raised by folks who seem to care less about the human animal than about the lab anima

Some call him a genius, others a charlatan; but even his critics agree that Huang's optical computers are unsurpassed HOLMDEL, N.J.--Absent was the cautious reserve usually adopted by scientists in formal presentations. In its place was Alan Huang's characteristic approach to the scientific briefing: machine-gun bursts of excited speech, highly animated hand gestures, all in support of the virtues of Huang's passion - optical computers, whose circuits run on light rather than electricity. Hu

New Ph.D.'s are at a 10-year low as cultural and educational obstacles keep blacks from careers in science and engineering As ambitions go, Nola Campbell's do not seem grandiose. The senior at Roosevelt High School in Washington, D.C., just wants to get a Ph.D. in chemistry and become a scientist. But the odds are against her, for one simple reason: Campbell is black. The statistics paint a bleak picture of her chances. In 1987 only 222 blacks received Ph.D.s in the sciences and engineering

Bernard Dixon European Editorial Office The Scientist Uxbridge, U.K. " One source of unease about the deliberate release of genetically engineered microbes for agricultural and other applications is the inadequacy of present techniques for monitoring the movement of certain types of organism. The answer: gene probes, which also provide new information about the relations between different groups of bacteria. T.C. Hazen, L. Jimenez, "Enumeration and identification of bacteria from environment

Frank A. Wilczek School of Natural Sciences Institute for Advanced Study Princeton, N.J. " Some of the most subtle and surprising manifestations of quantum mechanics involve the appearance of phase factors as particles wind around another. The prototype of this is the Aharonov-Bohm effect, whereby charged particles are deflected as they orbit around a solenoid, even though there is no force acting. Similar ideas appear in the theory of quark confinement and in the theory of fractional statist

Peter J. Smith Department of Earth Sciences Open University Milton Keynes, U.K. " A search in Zimbabwe has revealed detrital zircon grains up to 3,800 million years old. Although older than any dated Zimbabwean rocks, they are, disappointingly, much younger than the precrustal zircons of Western Australia (4,200 million years old). M.H. Dodson, W. Compston, I.S. Williams, J.F. Wilson, "A search for ancient detrital zircons in Zimbabwean sediments," Journal of the Geological Society, 145 (6),

Francisco J. Ayala Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of California, Irvine Irvine, Calif. " The pelvis of Lucy, a three-million-year-old hominid, reveals that she was already quite adept at walking upright. Bipedality evolved very early in human evolution because it enabled males to nurture a family: It freed their hands to carry food. C.O. Lovejoy, "Evolution of human walking," Scientific American, 259 (5), 118-25, November 1988. " The oldest fossil record of terres

The National Institute of Mental Health, expanding its study of several new AIDS-related issues, has budgeted a total of $34.4 million for five programs in 1989, plus $2.1 million for training programs. The expanded research initiatives are: behavior change and prevention strategies to reduce transmission of HIV; the risk of HIV infections in severely mentally ill persons; measurement of and clinical treatment for HIV-related mental disorders; central nervous system effects of HIV (neurobiolo

Are you thinking of buying a new computer because your IBM PC or compatible is too slow - and are you also finding it difficult to justify a $3,000 expense just for an increase in processing speed? For those scientists looking for extra speed, but not ready to invest in a new machine, a very practical alternative exists: Add-on cards are available that will speed up any IBM PC or compatible so that it runs even faster than an IBM AT. Commonly called "accelerator cards" or "speedup boards," th

The rhesus monkey ambles over to the side of its cage and reaches up to a blue metal box strapped to the bars. With a long finger it touches a metal bar protruding from the box. Five touches . . .10 . . .15 - and a small white pellet rolls out into a slot. The monkey fishes out the banana-flavored snack and pops it into its mouth. Then it presses a second metal bar and the voice of Willie Nelson fills the room: "Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys. . ." No, this scene at the Uni

The rhesus monkey ambles over to the side of its cage and reaches up to a blue metal box strapped to the bars. With a long finger it touches a metal bar protruding from the box. Five touches . . .10 . . .15 - and a small white pellet rolls out into a slot. The monkey fishes out the banana-flavored snack and pops it into its mouth. Then it presses a second metal bar and the voice of Willie Nelson fills the room: "Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys. . ." No, this scene at the Uni