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AMES, IOWA—The idea that biotechnology can help pull Iowa out of its worst economic crisis in 50 years has won converts in state government and stimulated the interest of companies worldwide. But the millions of dollars flowing into Iowa universities have not altered the view of scientists here that basic research cannot produce a short-term economic bonanza. Throughout the country, states are scrambling to amass expertise in biotechnology and related fields. An array of centers of exce

DUBLIN—The European Commission is expected to agree later this fall to divert at least $462 million over the next five years from the EEC’s Regional Fund into helping the science infrastructure of its less favored regions. The proposal is based on work done for the EEC by Ireland’s science agency, the National Board for Science and Technology. The NBST was hired in 1985 to determine how Regional Fund monies— traditionally used for road, sewer and drainage projects&#

MADRID—Ministers from 19 European countries have agreed to fund 58 new projects as part of the ongoing Eureka program in advanced technologies. The latest grants, worth a total of 709 million ECU ($800 million), bring to 165 the number of research projects approved since the program was begun in 1985. Meeting here last month, the science ministers also agreed on the possibility of participation by countries from Eastern Europe and North America. The list of participants has grown beyon

BRUSSELS—The European Commission has approved the next round of projects under the BRITE (Basic Research in Industrial Technologies for Europe) program. Some 112 projects will receive 105 million ECU ($120 million) for work in such fields as laser welding, corrosion-resistant alloys for turbines and robot-controlled knitting plants. About 45 percent of the money will be released immediately to a collection of large and small industrial companies, research institutes and universities in

Narjes said he expected the laboratories now funded almost entirely by the EEC, to make up for lost income through contract research with private companies and national governmental agencies. He said the combined staffs should remain near their present size of 2,260 scientists. The centers will cost the EEC about $115 million in each of the next four years, with three-fourths of the budget devoted to Ispra. Established in the 1950s, Ispra has concentrated on solar energy, nudear safety and reac

Karo Bio will focus on infectious disease, steroids and bone regeneration drugs. The research, conducted by a staff that is expected to reach more than 100 scientists by late 1989, will be carried out at the Huddings Hospital near here. In addition to having exclusive European licensing rights to products it develops, the new company will gain European rights to the nasal drug delivery system evolved by California Biotech that is undergoing clinical trials for use with substances such as insul

WASHINGTON—The Orphan Drug Act, passed in 1983, has been effective in bringing to market new drugs tsrgeted at rare diseases, but more research funds are needed to complete the task and expand it to cover medical foods and devices, federal lawmakers were told this month. In testimony before a House subcommittee on health and the environment, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Frank Young reported that nearly 160 drugs have been designated as orphans, of which 18 have been approv

WASHINGTON—Organizers of a new effort to carve out a larger role for minorities in science and technology, faced with a shortage of people in the various disciplines, believe the solution lies in part with making better use of the minority scientists that do exist. “The money is secondary at this point,” explained Melvin Thompson, director of the Institute on Science, Space and Technology to be housed at Howard University. “We’ll attract the resources we need by

LONDON—Europe has decided to remain at the forefront of condensed matter research with an agreement by nine countries to start building the $500 million European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) next year in Grenoble, France. At the same time, the United Kingdom has bolstered its reputation for remaining out of step with the rest of European science by refusing to pledge its support for the ESRF at a key meeting last month. Although the British Science and Engineering Research Cou

SAN FRANCISCO—What constitutes duplicate publication of scientific material? And what should happen to researchers who cross that line? The September 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine featured letters from readers who complained that an article on postmenopausal bone loss in the January 22 issue of NEJM was remarkably similar to an article by the same authors in the January issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The authors replied that the pa- per

SAN FRANCISCO—A California court has awarded a $65 million en- dowment from the Buck Trust to begin a multidisciplinary research institute on aging. The Buck Center on Aging, to be built in Main County, will be affiliated with the Berkeley, San Francisco and Davis campuses of the University of California system. The center expects to open in 1992 with a research staff of 60, including 15 senior researchers, and an annual operating budget of $4.5 million. The staff is expected to grow to

ADDIS ABABA—Ethtiopia’s military government is moving rapidly to create a National Science Center to force the pace of technical change in one of the world’s poorest countries. The center is an outgrowth of the increased support for science expressed in the country’s new constitution, approved in May and put into effect last month. The idea for a center comes largely from Abebe Muluneh a civil engineer in his late 40s who heads the country’s Science and Technolog