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Bernard Dixon European Editorial Offices The Scientist Uxbridge, U.K. A genetically engineered retrovirus has been insterted into yolk sac and other cells and exploited as a marker with which to identify their progeny over time. This ingenious technique is already contributing to the solution of the central problem of embryology - the means by which cells differentiate in response to the program carried in a primordial cell's DNA. J.R. Sanes, "Analysing cell lineage with a recombinant retrov

Peter J. Smith Department of Earth Sciences Open University Milton Keynes, U.K. An analysis of trace elements in three Chinese Permian-Triassic (P-Tr) boundary sections reveals no enhancement of iridium, thus offering no support for the idea that the P-Tr mass extinctions were due to bolide impact. On the contrary, other trace element concentrations indicate intense volcanism at that time. L. Zhou, F.T. Kyte, "The Permian-Triassic boundary event: A geochemical study of three Chinese sections

Mary Anne Fox Department of Earth Sciences University of Texas, Austin Austin, Tex. The Seventh International Conference on Organic Synthesis (July 1988) provided an excellent overview of rapidly developing methodology in the field. The lead-off lecture, published as a journal article, highlights synthetic applications of stereospecific radical reactions, the role of organic tellurides as accumulators and exchangers of carbon radicals, and the palladium-mediated conversion of organotellurides

Appointment of a new executive director is expected to be announced early this year by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation of New York, and one of the programs the new director will review and probably tinker with is the grant program in chemistry for liberal arts colleges. This program provides $45,000 for each of 10 schools to pair a recent Ph.D. in chemistry as a teaching fellow with an established chemistry professor as mentor. The foundation staff is considering proposing some improv

The development of composite materials has advanced tremendously since the days when artisans hand-forged high- and low-carbon irons or steels to make a lighter, tougher samurai sword. Today's advanced composites are manufactured in a variety of ways to produce stronger, lighter-weight, and more heat-resistant substances than the metals they replace. Composed of thread-like fibers of graphite, boron, or aramid embedded in a matrix of resin, metal, or other material, advanced composites have hu

Volume: 3, #3The Scientist February 6, 1989 NATIONAL LAB BRIEFS Plasma Lab Chilled By DOE If the last three months are any indication, it's going to be a tough year for the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. In November Robert Hunter, director of DOE's Office of Energy Research, dropped a bombshell by withdrawing $12.5 million of the $20 million that the lab had already committed to remodeling the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor to make possible higher energies. Hunter is said

TI: 1990 FEDERAL SCIENCE BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS DT: February 6, 1989 PG: 3 TY: NEWS (The Scientist, Vol:3, #3, pg. 3, February 6, 1989) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) ---------- (in millions of dollars) AGENCY 1989 1990 % Funded Requested Change NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH Major Organizations: NCI 1,571 1,646 +5 (Cancer) NHLBI 1,045 1,082 +2 (Heart,Lung,Blood) NIDR 130 136 +4 (Dental) NIDDK 559 582 +4 (Diabetes, Digestive, Kidney Diseases) NINDS 480 502 +4 (Neurological Disease) NIAID 743 8

A feud is brewing between the two health agencies that should be collaborating on the federal effort to combat cancer and AIDS. On one side are gung-ho researchers at the National Cancer Institute who want to test novel therapies as quickly as possible; on the other are the go-slow regulators at the Food and Drug Administration who insist on safety. FDA's detailed regulations governing clinical trials are so frustrating to researchers, grumbles Bruce Chabner, head of NCI's division of cancer t

The budget pledges more money for science, but whether this will translate into support for individual scientists remains. WASHINGTON, D.C.--For scientists who depend on funds from NSF and NIH, one important implication of President Reagan's final budget is a new emphasis on raising the size of individual grants. But it's not all good news: The budget, barring radical surgery by Congress, may fund fewer new grants than might be expected. And Reagan's desire to spend more on interdisciplinary c

University departments of chemistry and physics are suffering because of declining numbers of students. So what should they do to attract more bright young minds? One answer, says Alan McClelland, NSF deputy director of the science and engineering education division, is emphasizing the potential financial payoffs of a degree in chemistry or physics. At the Council of Scientific Society Presidents' recent annual meeting, McClelland argued that the fields of biology and computer science have con

For the past two years, intrepid astronomer Arthur Vaughn has been trying to save the Mount Wilson Observatory and its 100-inch Hooker telescope (The Scientist, June 27, 1988, page 5). The Carnegie Institute had planned to close the historic facility in 1985, when its interest shifted to a new observatory in Las Campanas, Chile. And federal money to keep the observatory open wasn't available in a time of declining budgets for astronomy. So Vaughn, who believes that the 85-year-old facility sti

Are the difficulties of doing both clinical and basic research hampering the progress of medical science? Sir David Weatherall is a worried man. When the Muffield professor of Medicine at Oxford University gazes out at the unsolved problems of medical science, he sees deadly diseases like cancer and circulatory problems still killing people by the millions around the world. And he fears that the diseases may remain scourges because of a failing of the scientific community. "The reason that we