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Pity the planners at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility. After 25 years operating one of the nation’s top experimental accelerators, LAMPF officials fear that their operation may fall victim to the Energy Department’s desire to attract international partners for the superconducting supercollider. Both LAMPF and a similar Canadian meson physics facility in British Columbia want to upgrade their accelerators to the tune of several hundred million dollars—and it appears likely

By building a tiny “cityscape” on a chip of gallium arsenide, with crystal “skyscrapers” less thanone ten-thousandth of an inch high, Cornell University scientists have developed a simple method to improve electronic devices based on gallium arsenide (GaAs). As the basis for high-speed transistors, microprocessors, and tiny solid-state lasers, gallium arsenide outperforms silicon. However, its use has been limited by the number of defects plaguing the sandwich-like devic

Debra Jan Bibel; Science Tech Publishers; Madison, Wisc., and Springer-Verlag, London; 330 pages; $35 “When a science is making rapid and giant strides forward, as has been the case in immunology these past 25 years, there is little time to reminisce,”writes immunologist Arthur Silverstein in the introduction to this book. He laments that “most of [the young immunologists act (and write the introductions to their scientific papers) as though the entire history of the field we

Ever since the first space shuttle flight, space enthusiasts have decried the wastefulness of discarding the huge external fuel tank that helps boost a shuttle into orbit. So when NASA put out a call for profitable uses of these tanks, many organizations let their imaginations soar. NASA had hoped for small experiments that could be tucked away in unused nooks and crannies to take advantage of the half-hour spent by each tank in low gravity before it burns up upon reentry. But the size (154 fee

By not charging corporate and government clients for the indirect costs of contract research, British universities have been effectively subsidizing the research. (The Scientist, May 30, page 5). This practice, says a recent report from the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals, must stop. The report contains guidelines that would add more than $100 million to the $500 million annually that universities now charge for research. The guidelines are not mandatory, but universities are under

Uncle Sam casts a regulatory eye over animal research in universities, but until recently no one had firmly tackled the issues raised by dissections and experiments in high schools and junior highs. Enter the Buckeye State. Beginning this month, 10 workshops sponsored by the Ohio Academy of Science and Ohio State University will be held across the state to educate secondary school science teachers about the controversies swirling around animal research. Rather than tell teachers how to use anim

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.—Teenager Alisa Pura excitedly runs toward a cluttered lab bench at the University of California, San Francisco, where her friends and high school teacher are taking turns peering through a microscope at a Drosophila larva. “How many years of school does it take to do what you do?” “Do you really use all the calculus, physics, and chemistry you learned in college?” “Why is that larva wriggling so fast?” The questions, posed rapid-f

Pantyhose last longer, seeds germinate faster, piano strings hold their tune better, golf balls travel further—it would seem there is nothing that a few hours at -300 degrees Fahrenheit won’t improve. That’s the discovery of physicist Jeff Levine and mechanical engineer Bruce Norian, who started Applied Cryogenics, Newton Upper Falls, Mass., eight years ago to improve cutting tools by exposing them to extreme cold. Norian had observed that the Gillette company of South Boston,

In a memo circulated to the staff of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on September 30, executive officer Alvin W. Trivelpiece announced his resignation in order to become director of the Oak Ridge National Lab and vice president of Martin Marrieta Energy Systems, which runs the lab for DOE. Alex Zucker, who has been acting director of the lab since February 1, tells The Scientist: “I think it’s a very good move for the lab. I think Trivelpiece will bring stren

WASHINGTON—Most members of Congress and the executive branch have a nagging fear that visiting foreign scientists are stealing research secrets from United States labs and turning them into products that compete successfully against those of U.S. firms. Indeed, the Reagan administration wants to both restrict foreign access to information from U.S. government labs and pressure foreign nations to open up their labs. THE EXTENT OF FOREIGN PRESENCE As part of its attempt to gauge the exten

Right after Black Monday, analysts said venture capital would dry up. This tour-page special report shows the still thriving field finding money in new places but facing increased scrutiny. CAMBRIDGE, MASS.—One year ago this month the stock market suffered its worst decline since 1929. In the wake of Black Monday, pundits prophesied dire consequences—for the economy in general and for corporate and entrepreneurial science and technology in particular. Corporate R&D budgets would

The Yanomamö are among the most violent people ever studied, yet Napoleon Chagnon is battling to protect them from the likes of us SANTA BARBARA, CALIF.—When a Yanomamö headman complained to Napoleon Chagnon that a missionary was intimidating the village’s shamans, the feisty anthropologist decided to remove his mantle of scientific detachment and take action. The next time the missionary came rushing into the village center to stop the dancing, Living with a tribe