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Editor’s note: Last November 30, we published an Opinion piece by Alexander Kohn, professor of virology at Tel Aviv University. In the article, Kohn questioned the wisdom of inserting the CD4 gene from HIV into cell lines, especially HeLa cells. Such research could, Kohn suggested, expand the host range of HIV In this response, Howard M Temin, of the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research, tries to lay Kohn’s concern to rest. We invite further comment. Alexander Kohn and the headl

It’s not easy, at first sight, to discern signs of ideological harmony between biologists who are working toward the environmental dissemination of genetically altered organisms and “activists” who are deeply apprehensive about the idea. Look more closely, however, and one argument appears as a possible basis for unity: the need for far greater investment in the ecological research necessary for prudent development of this novel range of technologies. As reflected in the ag

In the annual Westinghouse Science Talent Search almost 40 years ago, the top girl and the top boy each received prizes. Although it is unclear which gender benefited most from the dual awards, the judges presumably wanted to recognize the abilities of both boys and girls. Despite the best attempts of the Talent Search and other efforts, women are still greatly underrepresented in the United States’ scientific and engineering workforce. This problem is suddenly achieving national atte

WASHINGTON—If Air Force pilots one day are able to use their brains’ internal chemistry to combat fatigue and stay alert during long periods of stress, the achievement will be the result of intensive research by military scientists. But it will also be due to a phone call that program manager Bill Berry made in the fall of 1982 to MIT neuroscientist Richard Wurtman. WASHINGTON--DC The National Institutes of Health has created an adminstrative structure for directing what could

WASHINGTON—The National Science Foundation’s science and technology centers program, intended to be a beacon for collaborative U.S. research that would speed applications to the marketplace, instead has become a lightning rod for criticism from the scientific community. NSF’s decision not to fund any such centers this fiscal year provoked keen disappointment among scientists, especially those who had raced to meet the January 15 deadline. A number of applicants echoed the

ITHACA N.Y—In the late 1950s Mildred Dresselhaus was a post-doctoral associate at Cornell and her husband, Gene, was a junior faculty member there. But Cornell's rules barring nepotism prevented the couple from building physics careers there, and they packed their bags for MIT, which had an outstanding reputation for recruiting women faculty. Thirty years later, Mildred Dresselhaus is an institute professor of physics and electrical engineering and her husband is a senior scientist at

BOSTON—A Soviet committee created to reduce bureaucracy and increase efficiency within the scientific establishment has received more than 5,000 letters by citizens from all walks of Soviet life. Last month the chairman, Yuri Osipyan (see THE SCIENTIST, January 25, p. 1), carried his message to the annual meeting here of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Osipyan is also director of the Soviet Institute of Solid State Physics. Soviet scientists are eager for more

In [the United States] biotechnology is still perceived primarily as a regulatory and legal problem, not an economic opportunity. A regulatory structure has been fashioned that is functioning quite well in assuring the public that the science of biotechnology is safe. Beyond the regulatory concerns, however, there is a political vacuum. Historically, I think, it is fair to say that our country rarely charts a long-term strategy for emerging technologies in order to assure they are properly rec

How I Work as Poet and Scientist Author:RONALD HOFFMANN Date: March 21, 1988 I begin with a vision of unity of creative work in science and in the humanities and arts. The shared ground is clear: both involve acts of creation, accomplished through craftsmanship, with an attention to detail. Both science and art value the true economy of statement. They share a desire to communicate, although that often gets obscured by jargon and by the deadening ritual of the research report in science, by too

As editor of the New England Journal of Medicine for more than a decade, Arnold S. Relman has played a significant role in setting publication standards for scientific journals. He champions the “Ingelfinger rule”promulgated by his predecessor, Franz Ingelfinger, which bars contributors from publicizing their articles before publication in the Journal. He also has strongly supported embargoes that permit reporters to receive advance copies of scientific journals on condition that th

Last year the world of science celebrated the 300th anniversary of Isaac Newton’s Principia. Trinity College, Cambridge (UK) celebrated the event with a Newton Tercentenary Conference last summer. One result of the conference is the book 300 Years of Gravitation (Cambridge University Press, 1988), edited by Stephen Hawking and Werner Israel. The book contains 16 review papers by leading researchers in cosmology, relativity and particle physics. In his pref- ace to the book, excerpted bel

8p.m. Only two hours late. Not like arriving at 5 a.m. by car from Udine or Venice or somewhere, after winter fog in Milan. The Italian government had hoped that the center would help revive Trieste, once the great port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but in the summer of 1987 it is still off the main air routes. I’m glad to get a lift along the spectacular coast road to the tiny resort of Grignano—but not, this time, to the homely Hotel Mi- gnon. Surprisingly, the luxurious Adria