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Controversy centers on whether and how the elite science body should deal with members whose behavior is questionable For the first time in its 129-year history, the National Academy of Sciences has sent a letter to one of its members hinting that he should resign. The unprecedented move has called into question the academy's role as an ostensibly apolitical body. The ensuing debate has focused on, among other issues, whether NAS should censure its members whose activities are offensive to a l

The award ceremony will take place in Toronto on October 23; the winners will divide the foundation's largess, which totals $220,000 Canadian.

In an effort to cope with hurdles posed by the post-Cold War "new order," National Science Foundation director Walter E. Massey is looking to a 15-member special panel to assist NSF with charting out a "new strategic plan" to the year 2000 and beyond. Massey says he is hopeful that the newly formed Special Commission on the Future of the NSF, which he announced during an August 13-14 presentation before the National Science Board (NSB), will serve to complement the "long-range planning process"

Soap opera star Susan Lucci has been nominated for an Emmy Award 13 times for her portrayal of Erica on ABC-TV's "All My Children," but has never walked away with the statuette. Research!America also knows what it feels like to leave an Emmy ceremony empty-handed. The group, which promotes public awareness of the benefits of medical research, received an Emmy nomination this year for "Eddie Butler," a public-service announcement on Alzheimer's disease, but lost out to a spot on steroids by the

Officials, scientists, and others agree that her close ties to Bush policies could cost the agency director her job More than ever before, the future direction and leadership of the National Institutes of Health will hinge on the outcome of a United States presidential election. There is strong feeling among many key congressional staffers and other Washington observers that NIH director Bernadine Healy, because she appears to be inextricably linked to the Bush administration and its policies,

Researchers are perturbed by the weak support being given to a discipline that they consider vital to planet Earth's survival The job market for agricultural scientists has shown little or no net growth over the past several years. Fortunately, in a sense, the same weak economic climate that's slowed job creation has also slowed the flow of students through the agricultural science departments, say university officials nationwide. Thus, the production of Ph.D.'s today generally matches the num

The fifth NIH Research Festival, an in-house showcasing of hundreds of research projects supported by the 13 institutes operating under the National Institutes of Health aegis, will be held at the Bethesda, Md., campus September 21-25. Events scheduled for NIH's 16,000 researchers and other staff include five symposia, 31 workshops, three poster sessions with more than 450 presentations, and a scientific equipment show. Although originally planned to serve the intramural research community at N

Weissmann v. Freeman battle is revived as Dingell subcommittee decides to launch a new investigation Since the age of two, Heidi Weissmann says, she always wanted to be a doctor. She started college when she was 15, began medical school when she was 19, and by age 30 her supervisor was calling her one of the nation's premier authorities on biliary imaging in nuclear medicine. Yet now, at age 41, Weissmann is unemployed. Since 1987, she has claimed the United States radiological community has b

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD.--Right now there are 24 acres of mud, grass, and trees. But when construction is completed by the fall of next year, two of the United States' largest physics societies will leave their cramped offices in New York and join a third group in moving to a brand-new, spacious, five-story office building just outside Washington, D.C. The move is designed to improve professional information gathering and interaction with government policy-making institutions and other scien

Their field is blossoming, but many are disturbed by what they see as a lack of official recognition The field of medical genetics--whose practitioners are, for the most part, Ph.D.'s--recently received a significant boost by being offered member status by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), an Evanston, Ill.-based indepen- dent body that evaluates and certifies physician specialists, such as cardiologists. The prestigious ABMS hasn't admitted a new field to its 23-group roste

As some hail the VP nominee's grasp of the issues, others claim he exploits science in order to advance his own political agenda When Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton tapped Tennessee Sen. Al Gore as his vice presidential running mate last month, many political pundits found it easy to challenge the wisdom of Clinton's decision. They pointed out the striking similarities between the two men--both young political moderates from neighboring southern states--wondering what, indeed, Gore was adding to t

The compilers of the new Directory of Federal Laboratory & Technology Resources, due out early next year, say their publication should make it easier for researchers and others to locate like-minded federal investigators and their facilities. Cooperative research projects involving federal and private researchers might be one important outcome, they say. But some in the nonfederal research and development community say that, while the directory may help with its primary purpose of technology