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WASHINGTON: On July 29, as Donald Kennedy announced his resignation as president of Stanford University, research institutions throughout the United States were rushing to meet a 5 P.M. deadline to comment on changes in the rules governing how much they can charge for the indirect costs of doing federally funded research. Although the timing was a coincidence, the simultaneity of the activities symbolized Kennedy's inability to quell, through personal response, the indirect costs controversy t

UC VS DOE Far East to West FASEB Attracts Two Societies The Infinite Voyage Part, V The Rat Next Door A few months ago, some University of California officials hinted that the UC system's 45-year stint as caretaker of the Energy Department's national labs could come to an end if DOE officials carried out a plan to open the negotiations to other bidders on soon-to-expire contracts for running the labs. The potential crisis passed, however, as DOE announced it would be negotiating exclus

Volume 5, #16The ScientistAugust 19, 1991 LEFT-HANDED SUGAR GETS A FREE RIDE OUT OF YOUR SYSTEM Chemical compounds can exist in forms that are mirror images of each other. Like gloves, they can be either left-handed or right-handed. Sugars are such "handed" molecules. Human digestive enzymes have evolved to act upon right-handed sugar molecules, while often allowing left-handed forms to pass directly through. Both l-tagatose, the left-handed form, and d-tagatose, the right-hand

Volume 5, #16The ScientistAugust 19, 1991 PUT THEM ALL TOGETHER, THEY SPELL CHEMISTRY In the spring of 1990, the advisory committee to the NSF chemistry division decided to conduct its annual meeting a little differently. Instead of devoting one hour to one topic before moving on to another, committee members decided to hold the meeting like a retreat. Says NSF chemistry division director Kenneth Hancock: "We decided to sit back and literally ask where the intellectual frontier

Volume 5, #16The ScientistAugust 19, 1991 WHERE ARE NSF'S CHEMISTRY DOLLARS HEADED This year, the National Science Foundation's chemistry division is asking Congress for a 10 percent increase, or $10 million above FY 1991's $100 million, to offset a trend of the past five years that merely kept the division's budget apace with cost-of-living increases. About half of the increase would be distributed across the board to the organic, inorganic, physical, and analytic subdivision

USDA's deadline nears, and scientists struggle to reconcile their research priorities with new regulations Laboratories throughout the United States that use animals for research are rushing to meet new federal regulations affecting the welfare of animals used for research. The regulations cover exercise for dogs, improved housing for cats, and the psychological well-being of nonhuman primates. The rules require labs to have on hand, ready for inspection, plans that comply with these regulati

Employees say cronyism and inconsistent leadership have seriously damaged the unit charged with keeping tabs on U.S. research WASHINGTON--The division within the National Science Foundation that monitors the health of the United States' scientific infrastructure is in a state of turmoil, according to knowledgeable sources and internal documents obtained by The Scientist. At the heart of the unrest, these sources allege, are conflicts of interest and favoritism in the awarding of contracts, ins

As more researchers switch labs, concerns mount over the nature of relationships between leading scientists and their institutions Rein Saral and three of his colleagues in the bone marrow transplant program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore are moving to Emory University in Atlanta. Surgical oncologist David Morton and about a half-dozen other investigators at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of California, Los Angeles, have switched to other institutions throu

The Polymer Education Committee of the American Chemical Society offers annual awards for excellence to high school and junior high school science teachers who have introduced the study of polymer chemistry into their classrooms. Previous award recipients have instituted courses in polymer chemistry; developed texts, demonstrations, lab experiments, computer programs, and videotapes that facilitate inclusion of polymer chemistry concepts in already existing science courses; or shared their own

The Smithsonian Institution's new George E. Burch Fellowship in Theoretic Medicine and Affiliated Theoretic Sciences will be awarded to young researchers with demonstrated potential for ground-breaking studies in a health-related discipline. An endowment from the Burch Heart Research and Education Fund will allow the institution to award one fellowship each year. The late George E. Burch, Jr. was a cardiologist and champion of what he called "venture research," the pursuit of philosophical con

The mean annual salary for most research and development managers--including directors and supervisors--rose in 1990 as compared with 1989, according to a new survey by Abbott, Langer & Associates, a management-consulting firm based in Crete, Ill. Although recessionary indicators forced many companies to pare their R&D spending, many managers continued to receive increases based on cost-of-living adjustments, larger workloads, and additional projects. Abbott, Langer received responses from 244

The National Institutes of Health offers a variety of funding opportunities for the study of pediatric AIDS. AIDS in children differs from the disease in adults in its means of transmission, symptoms, and care, and therefore requires separate studies. Areas of special interest include AIDS-related developmental and behavioral disorders, early infection of the nervous system, accurate methods for assessing psychological or neurological damage in children, therapies especially suited for use with