The Scientist - Home

WASHINGTON—The federal government ought to be spending $500 million a year by 1990 on competitive grants for research in agricultural biotechnology, a National Research Council committee has told the Department of Agriculture. In a report issued late last month, the Committee on a National Strategy for Biotechnology in Agriculture urged a major restructuring of U.S. agricultural research. It argued that the country needs much more emphasis on basic research and improved techniques and appl

WEST BERLIN—Two scientific societies here have announced their opposition to proposed federal legislation that would contain criminal penalties for scientists engaged in most types of work involving in vitro fertilization. The German Research Society (DFG) and the Max Planck Society (MPG) have warned that "embryo experimentation in the Federal Republic would come to an end if the creation of embryos for research purposes is prohibited unconditionally." Tight constraints, the DFG said, woul

WASHINGTON—Cost-sharing arrangements and user fees may take on new prominence in the scientific community with the appointment of a federal official who has applied that approach successfully to federal water projects. Robert K. Dawson, named last month as associate director for natural resources, energy and science within the Office of Management and Budget, believes the private sector should share the cost of federal programs as one step in curbing the budget deficit. He has spent the pa

LONDON—The death of defense scientist David Sands in a car crash March 30 was neither a suicide nor a crime, the Basingstoke coroner has ruled. Sands, who worked for Easams, a company owned by Marconi, is one of at least four scientists working in the United Kingdom who have died in puzzling circumstances in the past several months. The ruling was the third time in nine months that local coroners have failed to decide the cause of death in cases involving scientists with military connectio

WASHINGTON—Two years ago, having decided to create a microelectronics center to help the area's sagging economy, the Rochester Institute of Technology realized it needed additional funds for construction and equipment. Its president, M. Richard Rose, contacted the Washington lobbying firm of Cassidy and Associates. Last summer Congress specified that $11.1 million from the Defense Department's budget go to the institute for a variety of purposes, including the new center. Today, smocked st

LONDON—Scientists working in this country's military sector may suffer a "considerable" reduction in funding within two or three years if the Conservatives are returned to power in next week's elections. On the other hand, those involved in civil R&D may benefit from money transferred out of defense work. These intentions were outlined by Defense Secretary George Younger as he unveiled this year's Defense White Paper shortly before the June 11 election was announced. "We shall be taking a

PASADENA, CALIF—NASA's current plans for a space station are being challenged by advocates of a smaller station, more useful to scientists, that could be built more quickly and with fewer shuttle flights. This opposition has crystallized in recent weeks around two embattled figures: Peter Banks, the former chairman of NASA's task force on scientific uses of the space station, and Oliver P. Harwood, a senior engineer at Rockwell International. Banks, director of Stanford University's Space

LONDON—Space scientists from Western Europe and the Soviet Union are involved in what may be the most extensive extraterrestrial collaboration between the two sides in the 30-year history of the space age. The cooperation comes in the form of an orbiting observatory that is expected to begin transmitting data shortly. The Roentgen laboratory for collecting X-rays in space was built largely by scientists from the Netherlands, Britain, West Germany and the 13-nation European Space Agency and

William R. Graham has directed the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy since Oct. 1, when the US. Senate approved his nomination to succeed George A. Keyworth II. Graham, whose background is largely in classified military systems research, had been serving as acting administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration when President Reagan named him science adviser. A strong supporter of Reagan's 1980 presidential bid, Graham advised him on defense policy issues bot

WASHINGTON—The sudden and unexplained departure of Donald Fredrickson as president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute is due chiefly to conflicts arising from his wife's participation in HHMI activities that exceeded the normal bounds of a spouse's interests, say several longtime friends and colleagues. According to these associates, Fredrickson's wife has played an active role in certain affairs of the $5 billion organization since Fredrickson became affiliated with the institute in 1

WASHINGTON—The Chinese government will not allow astrophysicist Fang Lizhi to come to the United States this year because of the potential "destabilizing" influence of such a visit on Chinese students in this country. Word of that decision came in a recent letter to scientists and administrators at the University of California at Santa Cruz, who had invited Fang for a month-long visit of lectures and joint research at the university's Lick Observatory. Last winter Fang was stripped of his

WASHINGTON—Surgeon General C. Everett Koop's plan to "revitalize" the Public Health Service's commissioned corps has drawn the fire of researchers at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control. And the outcome of a May 18 NIH meeting designed to soothe them is not clear. "It looks like some of you came loaded for bear and weren't sure I was a bunny, so you shot anyway," Koop said following a series of pointed questions from the audience. Putting members back into