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With the self-declared goal, of addressing “the drought of scientific and engineering talent that is drying up America’s leadership and international competitiveness,” Robert E. Mercer has accepted the position of chairman of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME). Mercer, chairman of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., has long been active in the cause of science and engineering education. Stressing that by the year 2000 one in three Americans will be a m

Fusion Controversy To Get Review Dissident physicist R Leonardo Mascheroni, who made headlines last year when he attacked the fusion research program at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, may finally get the technical review, he has demanded. The National Academy of Sciences has agreed to conduct a study for the Department of Energy on inertial confinement fusion programs, with a report due by September 1990. NAS officials say that the as-yet-unnamed panel will likely ask Mascheroni, who has

After seeing countless sentimental ads of big-eyed puppies and kittens distributed by animal rights activists, the Washington, D.C.-based Foundation for Biomedical Research has responded with a few emotional ads of its own. ‘Thanks to animal research, they’ll be able to protest 20.8 years longer,” reads one ad that depicts an angry crowd demonstrating against the use of laboratory animals. Another ad shows slides of cancer cells, diseased heart tissue, and the AIDS virus benea

Francis Crick Critiques Gerald M. Edelman Nobel Prize winner Francis Crick has taken to attacking a fellow laureate in public of late. Crick recently told a University of California, San Diego audience that a two-year-old book, Neural Darwinism, The Theory of Neuronal Group Selection (Basic Books, 1987) by Nobelist Gerald M. Edelman makes misleading claims for itself. Crick quoted Edelman’s description of the book as “a radically new view of the function of the brain and the nervo

A Rose By Any Other Color... We all know that biotechnology is important—it is a powerful tool that holds the key to the future of medicine and many other industries. But when—before now—has it ever been fun? Some scientists may have always suspected that the new science had its frivolous side, and now DNA Plant Technology (Cinnaminson, N.J.) intends to exploit it. DNAP, which recently merged with Advanced Genetic Sciences (Oakland, Calif.), announced recently that it had exp

Transferring East Bloc Technology Forget research universities. Forget national labs: This technology broker combs the scientific halls of the Soviet Union—the entire Eastern bloc—looking for new technologies that could be of value to U.S. companies. Kiser Research, started in 1980 by businessman John Kiser Ill and engineer Barney O’Meara, is currently working to find homes in the U.S. for advanced materials developed in the USSR and its neighboring nations. The company tra

WASHINGTON—Why, wondered Erich Bloch soon after he became director of the National Science Foundation in 1984, couldn’t scien tists submit their grant proposals to NSF electronically? What Bloch had in mind was a gradual shift of the entire grants process—from the development of a proposal through its review by a panel of outside experts—from brown paper envelopes to phone circuits. Spurred by that clear vision, NSF drew up plans, solicited proposals, and in October19

SAN FRANCISCO--Something new was happening at this year's edition of the AAAS annual meeting. In recent years, the paucity of attendees had turned it into something of an embarrassment. This year, scientists turned out in droves - 5,100 paid attendees showed up in San Francisco between Jan. 14 and 19, up from the 4,570 who attended the 1988 meeting in Boston. And there appeared to be more action in the meeting rooms and corridors of the mazelike, megasized Bay City Hilton. Perhaps it was the

Austin Darragh says he's a 'scientific auditor.' Indeed he's made a mint testing many of the drugs in your medicine cabinet. DUBLIN--Austin Darragh is a frequent flier, but only between April and September. Better weather conditions then mean fewer flight delays - and hunting isn't in season. So, during spring and summer he's often on night flights visiting his clients along the U.S. eastern seaboard. "It gives me a kick to see all the twinkling little lights on the streets below," says Dar

Spend money on optical computers? That would be like spending it on fusion-powered desk lamps. Even if the technology problems could be solved--which they can't--the final product won't do the job any better than what we've already got. For two decades this has been the prevailing attitude of research strategists at industrial corporations toward optical computing. But all that may begin to change next week at an Optical Society of America meeting in Salt Lake City. For almost 20 years, comput

New industry links profut researchers and their work, but critics fear ethics conflicts and damage to NIH's basic science mission. WASHINGTON--In 1983, Ira Pastan was chief of the molecular biology lab within the division of cancer biology and diagnosis at the National Cancer Institute. Like most of NIH's 3,100 intramural scientists, he had spent his career conducting basic research - in his case, probing gene regulation and hormone activity - in the hope of understanding how organisms funct

Richard Nicholson, assistant director for mathematical and physical sciences at the National Science Foundation, has been named executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Nicholson will replace Alvin Trivelpiece, who left the association after only 20 months to become director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Nicholson, a chemist by training, has held a number of positions since leaving Michigan State University in 1970 to join NSF. "We wanted someone who ha