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Susan A. Gerbi, a professor of biology at Brown University, has been elected president of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB). Although she does not officially take the helm of ASCB until mid-November, at the society's 32nd annual meeting in Denver, Gerbi has already identified four activities she hopes will keep the society vigorous. The first development Gerbi wants to see is increased subscriptions and advertising revenue for the society's journal, Molecular Biology of the Cell,

The decision on whether the National Institutes of Health should continue its quest for patents on partial human cDNA sequences now rests with Health and Human Services secretary Louis Sullivan. In September, NIH director Bernadine Healy revealed that the agency had received an initial rejection from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) for the approximately 2,700 partial gene sequences generated by former NIH researcher Craig Venter and others. Then, on October 5, an HHS spok

Better Late Than Never Gruesome Child's Play Breath-Taking Advance Accelerated Science Foundation Taking A Global View Different Strokes... Just Like Grandma Used To Make Thomas Alva Edison finally got his B.S. degree yesterday--61 years after his death. Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, N.J., which specializes in adult education, conferred upon Edison a posthumous degree in applied science and technology, with a specialization in electrical technology, at commencement ceremonies

Denis Burkitt, who first established the link between a virus and a cancer and later helped demonstrate the importance of adding more fiber to the Western diet, has received the Bower Award and Prize in Science. The three-year-old award carries a cash prize of $373,000, and will be formally presented in January by Philadelphia's Franklin Institute to honor outstanding work in the life or physical sciences. Members of the international committee that chose the 81-year-old Burkitt to receive t

Despite advances in brain research, career horizons remain foggy for the researchersAs the Society for Neuroscience convenes its 22nd annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif., this month, researchers will share a wealth of new knowledge about the central nervous system--about, for example, the uses of monoclonal antibody technology in studying the brain and the cognitive consequences of aging. But, as in other scientific disciplines, neuroscience research gains have not translated easily into achi

New agency rules will require universities to ensure that grantees have no monetary stake in corporate enterprises The Department of Health and Human Services is moving ahead with final work on long-awaited regulations to deal with financial conflict-of-interest questions involving researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health and other Public Health Service (PHS) agencies, NIH officials confirm. A draft of the regulations obtained by The Scientist puts nearly all responsibility f

Better pay and richer research environments in the business sector lure young science grads away from academic labs Two years ago, when Thomas Malvar was finishing his doctorate in molecular immunology, he came to a major career crossroads. Should he go the traditional route and do his postdoctoral training in a university? Or should he follow a more adventurous path and do his postdoc in industry--a road that some of his professors warned was a professional dead end? Like a small but growin

Figures recently released by the Department of Energy indicate that the once-booming field of nuclear science continues to lose its appeal among young researchers--a trend that academic and government observers consider a growing threat to the United States nuclear industry. The DOE statistics--tallies on university enrollment that the department collects annually--show a steadily declining number of young scientists enrolling in nuclear engineering departments in United States academic insti

There won't be any loss of continuity in the Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards program caused by the recent death of Alice Fordyce, former executive vice president of the New York- based Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, say scientists associated with the program. Fordyce died September 9 at the age of 86, after a brief illness. Jordan U. Gutterman, who replaced Fordyce as Lasker Foundation executive vice president and director of the Lasker awards program on Dec. 31, 1990, says that the

NAS On The Move Patently Extraordinary Grants for Health-Related Projects My Lab Has Fleas SSC Helps Minority Businesses Sea Stories Bruce M. Alberts, a biochemist and molecular biologist at the University of California, San Francisco, has been nominated to succeed 12-year president Frank Press as head of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Alberts was selected by special committee and approved by the academy's 17-member governing council. Other individuals may be nominated by petit

Although funding has been restored for the superconducting supercollider, the skies have not cleared over the Dallas-based project, as well-founded fears of another budget wrangle next year persist, say SSC officials. The Senate voted on August 3 in favor of continued SSC funding after the House voted the project down on June 17, but physicists associated with the SSC say they are still wary. They are concerned over a Congress that will have as many as 130 new members after this fall's election

With knowledge gained, surgeons and researchers in Pittsburgh proceed with ambitious plans for xenotransplantation Clinicians and medical researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center are pressing forward with plans for a series of four baboon-to-human liver transplants, even after the death earlier this month of the first human recipient of a baboon liver. Despite the recipient's death, and despite strong opposition from animal rights groups, the transplant team hopes interspecie