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LONDON-Theres no shortage of obscure prose in the scientific literature, judging from entries to competition organized by The Veterinary Record, which recently announced the winner. He is Martin Gregory of Weybridge, England who submitted a sentence from G.W. Arnold and ML. Dudzinski’s book Ethology of FreeR anging Domestic Animals (ier, 1978) The authors wrote: “That the sense of smell used by these cattle was established because of the marked audible variation in inhalation inte

WHO’S WHO IN SCIENCE IN EUROPE A Biographical Guide in Science. Technology, Agriculture, and Medicine. Fifth edition. Longman Group Ltd.. Essex, UK, 1987. 3 vols. 2,880 pp. £395. Distributed in the United States and Canada by Gale Research Co., Detroit, MI. $695. Despite initial astonishment at finding distinguished Spanish biochemist and new UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor’s name omitted, and mild amusement on discovering that social scientists continue to be ignored

WHO GOT EINSTEIN’S OFFICE? Eccentricity and Genius at the Institute for Advanced Study. Ed Regjs. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA. 1987. 320 pp. $17.95. Since Albert Einstein’s sojourn there, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey has enjoyed a worldwide reputation as a preeminent think-tank. As the author, philosopher Ed Regis, puts it, the institute is a “Platonic Heaven” where esoteric thinkers can muse about the most abstract forms of the universe. H

COMPUTATIONAL PHYSICS Physics Today. October 1987. Vol. 40, no. 10. Pages 25-72. American Institute of Physics, New York. The special articles in the October 1987 issue of Physics Today explore not only the use of computers by scientists, but also the discipline of computational science—a mode of operation complementary to, and distinguishable from, the familiar methods of theoretical and experimental science. The introduction and four review articles show clearly that computer simulati

LA RECHERCHE MAL MENEE (Research Misled.) Pierre Piganiol, Editions Larousse. Pals, 1987 288 pp. Fr 69 The Creativity of French research is on the decline. State-supported research is too isolated from industry, too centralized and often “functionnalized,” to the extent that researchers are discouraged from physical as well as intellectual mobility. The most prestigious engineering schools have not given enough importance to research, but often serve as stepladders for students to

DOCTORS IN SCIENCE AND SOCIETY Essays of a Clinincal Scientist Christopher C. Booth. The Memoir Club. British Medical Journal, London, 1987. 318 pp. £14.95. Distributed in the U.S. by Taylor & Francis. Philadelphia. $32. As a student at Oxford in the early ‘70s, I shared a house with an odd assortment of characters, one of whom was researching a 10th century English king. One day he burst into the house in great excitement, proclaiming he had just found a manuscript that carried m

“The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking" wrote Albert Einstein in 1946. A new book, Breakthrough: Emerging New Thinking (Walker and Co., 1988), attempts to change those modes of thinking. The Beyond War Foundation, a nonprofit educational group, brought together dozens of scholars from Western nations and the Soviet Union to discuss the politics, science and ethics of nuclear disarmament. In this excerpt from the book, which is also being publish

"Bizarre Bifocals," by Editorial "That Nagging Feeling," by Donald E. Fink "No Longer a Mad Scientist's Dream," by Clive Hollands "Biology Behind Bars," by Editorial "An Appalling Appearance," by "Reagans Science Aide Cautious on Expanded Soviet Ties" "Are Proper Processes In Place?," by Stuart Pugh "Profit or Perish," by Calvin Sims "Too Much Redundancy," by Larry W. Sumney "More Spin-Ins Than Spin-Offs," by Lester C. Thurow "Selling Science," by John R. Hensley "Invent

One of the most significant expenditures for any science-based company is its people. Clearly, if a company could reduce its personnel costs without sacrificing any productivity or intellectual resources, its bottom line would look much better. Renting staff...that is, using scientifically trained individuals just when the company needs them—is a method of reducing costs while maintaining the level of sophistication and expertise to which a company is accustomed. Take, for example an

BRUSSELS—Some 500 companies will benefit from the five-year, $2 billion budget set by research miniisters for the second phase of the European Economic Community’s Esprit program of information technology research. The agreement secures the immediate future for 3,000 researchers and 200 projects whose Esprit 1 funding had virtually expired and who had been pawns for the past year in the British government’s opposition to the EEC’s intended funding for collaborative re

Japan launched an R&D program in superconductivity this month without the international collaborators that officials there had hoped to attract. Some U.S. researchers said they didn’t know they had been invited, while others are waiting to see how the program develops. The International Superconductivity Technology Center (ISTEC) that opened January 14 is being funded by about 50 Japanese companies, including large electronics firms such as Toshiba and Hitachi, electric utility compani

LONDON—Leaders of Britain’s highly successful doing industry say that reduced government spending on academic research in chemistry, biology and medicine will limit industry’s ability to hire talented people and turn new ideas into profitable products. Coming from one of Britain’s leading research-based manufacturing businesses, the attack may well influence the Thatcher government as it comes under increased pressure to boost funds for basic research in higher educat