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A task force of communications experts met in January to craft funding priorities for the new NIH arm, the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. One goal for the institute, according to the task force, should be to increase the number of physicians doing research in this field. Noting that less than half of the nation's otolaryngologists are trained to do biomedical research, the task force called for substantially increased training opportunities for scientists and

Asteroid Is Named In Honor Of Texas Astronomer Michael A. Cusanovich Michael Riordan Merit Awards Edward C. Stone, Jr Philip D. Magnus Edward C. Stone, Jr After 40 years of devoting his life to astronomy, Harlan Smith has been given something in return: an asteroid. The announcement of the designation of "Minor Planet (3842) Harlansmith" was made during a banquet honoring Smith for his 25 years as director of the University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory. Smith, a member of

Analytical chemists are often faced with the task of separating complex chemical mixtures into pure chemical species that can then be precisely identified. To accomplish this task, scientists often use liquid chromatography (LC) or gas chromatography (GC) techniques followed by use of a variety of sophisticated spectroscopic detectors to analyze the purified compounds. At next month's Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, more than 800 companies will unveil a v

A lack of commitment from industry is proving to be the Achilles heel of proposed national efforts to explore high-temperature superconductivity. Even as a White House Science Council report by the so-called Gormory committee was urging the creation of a half-dozen industrial, academic, and governmental consortia to spur long-term research that could lead to commercial applications of the poorly understood phenomenon, two existing consortia were already having trouble attracting company funds.

The next time your graduate students complain of overwork, lack of direction, and inadequate funds, show them the study presented by UCLA's Patricia J. Gumport as part of a session on U.S. research universities. The professor of graduate education interviewed dozens of graduate students in physics and history at a "mid-level" university--and discovered that science is Fat City compared to the humanities. Several million dollars in grant money flow in to support physics students, while those in

Forget filling out grant applications or begging your department head for discretionary funds - your next research award may come courtesy of the daily papers. Last month, two of Canada's leading newspapers, The Globe and Mail and La Presse, ran full-page ads that shouted in end-of-the-world-size type: "ATTENTION SCIENTISTS. $1 MILLION GRANT AVAILABLE FOR DISCOVERY OF NON-INVASIVE MEANS TO DETECT GASTROINTESTINAL DAMAGE CAUSED BY ARTHRITIS MEDICATIONS." Placed by Searle Canada Inc., the ad was

Computer artists transform equations into dramatic simulations at the Ilinois Supercomputer Center. On a hot day in Illinois, a storm is brewing. Above cornfields and a dusty road, a cloud dramatically billows and grows. To the experienced eye of veteran meteorologist Robert Wilhelmson, the gathering tempest looks like a potential tornado. But don't run for the storm cellar. The cloud is only 12 inches high and the sky is just the deep blue background of a computer screen. The whole scene e

Tired of being the defenseless targets of animal rights protestors, scientists are fighting back-and winning. SAN DIEGO--In a laboratory at Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, Calif., Michael J. Campbell conducts experiments on mice in an attempt to develop a vaccine for deadly B-cell lymphoma. But the 28-year-old biologist is also fighting what he regards as another deadly affliction, this one a threat to science itself. Two years ago, Stanford proposed building a new facility

Competition for research funds will heat up, but most scientists sat that NIH is making the right decision. WASHINGTON, D.C.--The National Institutes of Health have long struggled with a painful dilemma. Given finite dollars, how can a funding agency manage to reward proven investigators while still nurturing fresh talent? In recent years, NIH's answer has been to trim existing grants in order to fund more new scientists. But in a recent major change in policy, NIH has decided to sharply redu

The Bundestag is about to hand down a decision whether biotech work can continue FRANKFURT--It's not often that a country grapples publicly with its future in a key area of science and technology. But that's what is happening now in West Germany. Later this month, a plenary session of the Bundestag (the nation's parliament) will begin debating the report of a parliamentary commission, entitled Prospects and Risks of Genetic Engineering, which recommends a total ban on the release of genetical

Francisco J. Ayala Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of California Irvine, Calif. Latimeria chalumnae was discovered 50 years ago, one of a group of fishes (coelacanths) thought to have died out 80 million years ago. Latimeria raised hopes of gathering direct information on the transition from fish to amphibians, because coelacanths were thought to be ancestral to the tetrapods. Studies of Latimeria anatomy and physiology have shown that it is not the missing link betw

Sokartes T. Pantelides IBM Research Division Thomas J. Watson Research Center Yorktown Heights, N.Y. A recent paper gives an interesting view, strictly experimental, on the possibility of an electromagnetic "fifth " force, in complete analogy with the highly controversial gravitational fifth force. D.F. Bartlett, S. L"gl, "Limits on an electromagnetic fifth force," Physical Review Letters, 61 (20), 2285, 14 November 1988. The dispersion front of a tracer fluid flowing in a porous medium has