The Scientist - Home

Postdocs fresh from academia looking to biotechnology this spring are in for a big letdown. While postdocs once were the bread and butter of a fledgling industry, the years of their being snapped up out of school have given way to their becoming an afterthought as the field shifts its focus from innovation to commercialization of existing products under development. The recruitment focus of these companies now centers on experienced bachelor's and master's degree holders and specialized Ph.D.'s

WASHINGTON--Walter Massey, poised to become the next director of the National Science Foundation, has succeeded in a series of tough jobs with an approach built on quiet attention to details and a commitment to reaching a consensus before taking action. It's a style of leadership that differs sharply from the outspoken and authoritarian method of Erich Bloch, whose six-year term ended August 31. And it's one that many scientists who know Massey say will serve him well as the foundation tries to

For funding to keep pace with the field's progress, researchers work to keep the public aware of their discipline's achievements When the Society for Neuroscience meets this week in St. Louis, the group's 18,000 members will have their first opportunity to reflect on the first year of the Decade of the Brain, a designation given the 1990s by Congress and President Bush in recognition of the need to better understand mental and neurological disorders. About 50 million people in the United Stat

As the process of political decentralization accelerates in the Soviet Union, it is being matched by the decentralization of the country's massive science bureaucracy. The Ukrainian Scientific Association, founded in Kiev in June, is among the latest independent scientific organizations springing up throughout the USSR that are seeking direct contacts with foreign institutions. These organizations hope scientists from the United States will help them take quick advantage of perestroika and gla

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ... (The Scientist, Vol:4, #21, pg.12, October 29, 1990) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) ---------- Following is information on how to contact some of the organizations mentioned in the two stories on the Decade of the Brain in this issue. The groups listed here represent only a few of the scores of voluntary health agencies devoted to the study of neurological disorders. National Alliance for the Mentally Ill 2101 Wilson Blvd, Suite 302 Arlington, Va.

To be effective as a control measure, the culling of a pest must exceed its capacity to regenerate. In North Australia, where feral donkeys are a serious pest of rangelands, a culling policy is being applied. Population studies have shown that 23 percent of the donkeys need to be removed each year to control density. Also, this figure must be exceeded if the population is to be reduced. D. Choquenot, "Rate of increase for populations of feral donkeys in northern Australia," Journal of Mammalog

Department of Chemistry University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pa. Hindered organoaluminum Lewis acids are able to distinguish between structurally similar ethers based on small differences in the size of the ether substituents. Complexation chromatography allows the efficient separation of a mixture of two very closely related ethers based on their differing affinities for a supported aluminum complex. K. Maruoka, S. Nagahara, H. Yamamoto, "Molecular recognition of ethers with modified organoa

Institute of Materials Science University of Connecticut Storrs In chemical vapor deposition (CVD), one of the goals is to deposit inorganic materials or metals at low substrate temperatures. To deposit metals, an organometallic precursor is often used. It has recently been shown that thermolysis of (trialkylphosphine) cyclopentadienylcopper(I) into a heated substrate will result in deposition of high-purity copper metal. The surface products of the decomposition reaction are free alkyl phosph

Department of Computer Science University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pa. Mobile robots in the workplace must select collision-free paths in real time, in environments that are constantly changing. A new algorithm is proposed that is based on representing obstacles in a quadtree, from data, for example, from a ceiling camera. Experimental results show faster calculations of collision-free paths than conventional algorithms. H. Noborio, N. Tomohide, S. Arimoto, "A quadtree-based path-planning alg

Department of Microbiology & Immunology University of Illinois Chicago Perhaps most of us (who live into our late 80s) will show symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. There is evidence of a familial propensity, so it is important to understand the genetic control and, through that, eventually the disease's biochemical basis. Lod ("log of the odds") scores range from significant to not significant (or back!). The results from 48 family lineages gathered by this group of 35 listed authors (plus an ad

(The Scientist, Vol:4, #21, pg. 24, October 29, 1990) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) -------- Hubble Trouble Aside, Fellowships Offered Now in its second year, the Hubble Fellowship Program encourages young scientists to do independent research in observational or theoretical astronomy related to the Hubble Space Telescope mission. The program is offered through the Space Telescope Science Center and supported by NASA. Up to 15 scientists will be appointed based on the quality of the propos

The Bower Award for Achievement in Science, the United States' richest prize for science, was presented to Paul C. Lauterbur on September 18 by the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Lauterbur, a professor of medical information science, chemistry, biophysics, and bioengineering at the Center for Advanced Study of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was recognized for his leadership in developing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the human body. The international award, establis