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WASHINGTON—A draft report on the nation’s largest teachers’ pension system recommends a variety of new investment choices for its policyholders—but still may not silence its swelling chorus of critics. The report by a special trustee committee of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) calls for adding six pension funds to the $63 billion system. More than 1 million policyholders have joined the system in plans offere

WASHINGTON—A draft report on the nation’s largest teachers’ pension system recommends a variety of new investment choices for its policyholders—but still may not silence its swelling chorus of critics. The report by a special trustee committee of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) calls for adding six pension funds to the $63 billion system. More than 1 million policyholders have joined the system in plans offere

Biophysicist Harold Morowitz spent his last sabbatical pondering the cosmic mysteries aboard a yacht anchored off the West Maui mountains in Hawaii. The result of his musings can be found in Cosmic Joy and Local Pain: Musings of a Mystic Scientist (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1987). [For a review of the book, see THE SCIENTIST, September 21, 1987, p. 20]. The first possession he packed for his trip was Lawrence Henderson’s book The Fitness of the Environment. In this excerpt, Morowitz

WASHINGTON—Taking its cue from recent studies that point to a funding gap in science education at liberal arts colleges, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has begun a program to upgrade science curricula at selected undergraduate institutions. HHMI has invited 76 liberal arts colleges not affiliated with any Ph.D.-granting university and 18 historically black colleges to compete for the grants, which will range from $500,000 to $2 million. The winners will be announced next sp

AMES, IOWA—The idea that biotechnology can help pull Iowa out of its worst economic crisis in 50 years has won converts in state government and stimulated the interest of companies worldwide. But the millions of dollars flowing into Iowa universities have not altered the view of scientists here that basic research cannot produce a short-term economic bonanza. Throughout the country, states are scrambling to amass expertise in biotechnology and related fields. An array of centers of exce

DUBLIN—The European Commission is expected to agree later this fall to divert at least $462 million over the next five years from the EEC’s Regional Fund into helping the science infrastructure of its less favored regions. The proposal is based on work done for the EEC by Ireland’s science agency, the National Board for Science and Technology. The NBST was hired in 1985 to determine how Regional Fund monies— traditionally used for road, sewer and drainage projects&#

MADRID—Ministers from 19 European countries have agreed to fund 58 new projects as part of the ongoing Eureka program in advanced technologies. The latest grants, worth a total of 709 million ECU ($800 million), bring to 165 the number of research projects approved since the program was begun in 1985. Meeting here last month, the science ministers also agreed on the possibility of participation by countries from Eastern Europe and North America. The list of participants has grown beyon

BRUSSELS—The European Commission has approved the next round of projects under the BRITE (Basic Research in Industrial Technologies for Europe) program. Some 112 projects will receive 105 million ECU ($120 million) for work in such fields as laser welding, corrosion-resistant alloys for turbines and robot-controlled knitting plants. About 45 percent of the money will be released immediately to a collection of large and small industrial companies, research institutes and universities in

Narjes said he expected the laboratories now funded almost entirely by the EEC, to make up for lost income through contract research with private companies and national governmental agencies. He said the combined staffs should remain near their present size of 2,260 scientists. The centers will cost the EEC about $115 million in each of the next four years, with three-fourths of the budget devoted to Ispra. Established in the 1950s, Ispra has concentrated on solar energy, nudear safety and reac

Karo Bio will focus on infectious disease, steroids and bone regeneration drugs. The research, conducted by a staff that is expected to reach more than 100 scientists by late 1989, will be carried out at the Huddings Hospital near here. In addition to having exclusive European licensing rights to products it develops, the new company will gain European rights to the nasal drug delivery system evolved by California Biotech that is undergoing clinical trials for use with substances such as insul

WASHINGTON—The Orphan Drug Act, passed in 1983, has been effective in bringing to market new drugs tsrgeted at rare diseases, but more research funds are needed to complete the task and expand it to cover medical foods and devices, federal lawmakers were told this month. In testimony before a House subcommittee on health and the environment, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Frank Young reported that nearly 160 drugs have been designated as orphans, of which 18 have been approv

WASHINGTON—Organizers of a new effort to carve out a larger role for minorities in science and technology, faced with a shortage of people in the various disciplines, believe the solution lies in part with making better use of the minority scientists that do exist. “The money is secondary at this point,” explained Melvin Thompson, director of the Institute on Science, Space and Technology to be housed at Howard University. “We’ll attract the resources we need by