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Consumers distrust some of the field's developments and put too much hope in other, well-publicized studies. CALLING ALL SCIENTISTS: The best source of information on biotech, says Carl Feldbaum of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, is the scientist, who can really help educate the press and the public. The public's fears when modern biotechnology began two decades ago have both diminished and evolved. Surveys indicate that today, many people accept that biotechnology will increasingly

Mouse has a kinky-waltzer. Drosophila has a bride of sevenless. Yeast has a Wee-1. Gene and protein names often are based on the flamboyant, the descriptive, and the intentionally obscure. For many researchers, naming their discovery may be a rare opportunity to imbue their science with creativity. (See list on page 6 for origins of these names.) NOMEN-CLUTTER: Multiple names for genes and gene products causes confusion, says University of Alberta's Lawrence Puente. But creativity plus

Contents Moral Might Self-Validation More Alzheimer's Progress Broader Role For Mobile DNA Preferential Hearing Special Delivery Perfect Pitch Genes Imaging Dsylexia Date: March 30, 1998 A GUIDE TO ETHICS: Eric Meslin took over leadership of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission last month. MORAL MIGHT Eric M. Meslin, 36, has taken over leadership of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (NBAC) in Rockville, Md. Harold T. Shapiro, NBAC's chairman and president of Princeton Univers

Although newly degreed life scientists may be ready for employment in an academic setting, they often come to the business world unprepared for the fast-paced, team-based, results-oriented environment of today's life science industry, a variety of observers from industry and academia assert. Some university and business leaders are helping to rectify such problems by teaming up to create educational programs focused on the business side of science. OFFERING AN ALTERNATIVE: Henry Riggs, preside

Question of the day: Why is basic research, particularly biomedical research, like highways and bridges? Answer: Because Congress loves them both, especially in this election year. 'MIRACULOUS': NIH, under the direction of Harold Varmus, would get an 8.4 percent increase in its budget under President Clinton's proposed plan. For that reason, as much as any other, the spending plan that Congress is now writing for the fiscal year that begins October 1 shapes up as one of the best research-fundin

Date: March 16, 1998 New Drug Development A regional lab visit highlights challenges of agency-wide change At the Food and Drug Administration's Central Region office in Philadelphia, cabinetsful of documentation offer only a vague notion of the paperwork involved in getting a new drug through FDA's review and approval process. Nicholas Falcone, the district office's coordinator of new drug applications (NDAs) and abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs)-the latter for generic compounds-hefts

DECOY RECEPTORS: Genentech's Avi Ashkenazi suspects that using ligands to bind to decoy receptors present in healthy cells, but not in cancer cells, could trigger apoptosis in tumors. Scientists studying signal transduction have spent the past several years piecing together the cell's apoptotic machinery-the complex signaling mechanisms that tell damaged cells to commit suicide. The discovery of more signaling proteins and their receptors has given biotechnology companies potential tools to fi

POWER EXCHANGE: Molecular biologist James Battey has become the second person to head NIDCD. SECOND GENERATION AT NIDCD Molecular biologist James F. Battey, 45, has been named the new director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) of the National Institutes of Health. Battey, who had been serving as acting director of NIDCD, succeeds the recently retired James B. Snow, Jr. Snow, a former University of Pennsylvania professor of otorhinolaryngology and h

CALLING ALL MENTORS: Washington's Steven Nourse says disabled students often are not encouraged by teachers and counselors to study science. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 requires that United States companies comply with mandates to improve accessibility for disabled individuals. Yet U.S. Census data show that disabled people constitute more than 10 percent of the general work force and only 2.7 percent of the scientific and engineering work force. To improve opportunities for th

IT ALL CONNECTS: Ohio State's Janice Kiekolt-Glaser believes that the more mind-body medicine is used in general medicine, the better. Research into the effects of molecular pathways on brain and body functions is reviving old questions Backed by solid research in molecular biology and fueled by consumer interest, the role of the mind in bodily health is entering the arena of serious scientific consideration. Evidence of communication between the central nervous system (CNS) and the immune sy

Few who have suffered from influenza need to be reminded of the misery it can inflict. Recent outbreaks in Hong Kong serve as a strong reminder that influenza is a costly and often fatal disease. In December, an outbreak of a deadly strain of avian influenza in Hong Kong caused the government there to mandate the slaughter of more than 1.5 million chickens. As of January, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers have identified 16 confirmed cases of the avian flu in humans.

PROCEED WITH CAUTION: There is no way to tell if rhesus macaques such as these are releasing the deadly herpes B virus into body fluids, researchers warn. The death last December of a 22-year-old research assistant at Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in Lawrenceville, Ga., has cast a pall over Yerkes and its parent institution, Emory University, and reminded scientists once again that their occupation can be deadly. Elizabeth Griffin died on December 10 of complications from a herpes B