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Hosts of new applications have turned the light microscope into an exquisitely sensitive measuring device that can be used to image dynamic cellular events right down to the molecular level. Indeed, dramatic improvements in optical microscopy have brought about a renaissance in the use of light microscopes in biology and medicine. And within the last few years, the combination of novel optical systems with video and digital image processing capabilities have opened up whole new fields of resear

WASHINGTON--A panel of high-energy physicists has recommended slashing experimental programs at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Fermilab, and Brookhaven National Laboratory in response to expected budget cuts of up to 15 percent to be proposed by the Department of Energy (DOE). The cuts, if contained in the fiscal year 1993 budget that President Bush will submit in January to Congress, could mean layoffs of hundreds of scientists, the early termination of several research efforts, and

Choice Cuts Raub Leaves NIH for OSTP Shopping Around For Space Grants Changes Ahead For University Coalition National Public Radio Talks Science Federal investigators looking at how certain agencies use their special authority to offer higher salaries for hard-to-fill technical slots have discovered that many scientists and engineers are actually taking pay cuts to join the government. Some 35 percent of the people hired during 1987-88 under these rules agreed to pay cuts, some exceedi

The United States Department of Energy has narrowed the scope of its University Research Instrumentation Program. The program offers grants to colleges and universities to purchase specialized instruments for energy-related research. This year, applications must be limited to instruments applicable to one of five areas: biological and environmental research, chemical science, university infrastructure for high-energy physics, materials science, or mechanistic plant and microbial research. The

Industry and government scientists will be working overtime to comply with new demand for fuller information on nutrients WASHINGTON--When President Bush signed the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) into law on November 8, 1990, he set in motion a process that's expected to increase the work load for food chemists in government and industry and raise a new set of scientific questions for academic researchers who study nutrition. The new Nutrition Labeling and Education Act

Today's trend toward industry consolidation yields a grim byproduct for some researchers: the loss of their jobs Chiron buys Cetus, while Genzyme merges with Integrated Genetics. Quidel acquires Monoclonal Antibodies, and American Home Products agrees to buy 60 percent of Genetics Institute. The headlines are coming fast and furious these days. But while the torrent of announcements concerning mergers and acquisitions among biotechnology firms are greeted warmly by many industry watchers as a

A House panel questions methodology, motivation behind agency's warning that a huge shortfall threatens the work force WASHINGTON--A congressional committee is investigating whether political considerations influenced the National Science Foundation's prediction that the United States faces a cumulative shortage of some 675,000 college-educated scientists and engineers over the next two decades. The NSF prediction, based on studies conducted since 1985 by agency policy analyst Peter House and

Universities and other grant recipients seek to comply with requirement that curricula include moral rectitude courses "So what do you do if you see misconduct in scientific research?" asked a student at last month's introductory lecture for a new "Ethics in Research" series, organized jointly by New York's Rockefeller University, Cornell University Medical College, and the Sloan-Kettering Institute. Cornell medical dean, Robert Michels responded to the question by voicing his school's offici

Two years ago, Joseph Alexander, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Vanderbilt University, returned to his Nashville, Tenn., position after a six-month stay in Japan, during which he learned how to apply nonlinear systems theory to models of biological systems. It's a new field, but one in which his hosts at Kyushu University already excel. Today, Alexander's fond memories of his NSF-sponsored visit are still very much alive. Indeed, about his life in the city of Fukuoka, wher

-------- MacArthur Funds Environment Studies The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, through its World Environment and Resources Program, fundsresearch aimed at increasing scientific and popular understanding of the functioning, extent, and value of tropical biotic systems. Eligible areas of study include biological inventories, biogeographic studies, ecological research, natural resource management, endangered species recovery programs, conservation education, design and protectio

Analytical chemists and lab managers based on the West Coast of the United States traditionally have had to travel long distances to attend major trade expositions in their field. The Pittsburgh Conference--commonly known as PittCon--the "grandaddy" of analytical shows, for example, usually is held in New York or New Orleans and has never made it farther west than Chicago. While smaller, regional conferences take place in many areas, they tend to emphasize scientific meetings and presentations

WASHINGTON--The National Science Foundation has reshuffled its grant-making bureaucracy to give greater prominence to the social and behavioral sciences. The reorganization, announced earlier this month by NSF director Walter Massey, also addresses simmering problems within the foundation's policy analysis and survey research programs that have led to congressional inquiries and heated debate within the field. The new NSF organizational chart, as described by Massey during a meeting of its gov