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NSF told Congress about a great new plan for technology transfer but doesn't intend to spend much money on it WASHINGTON -- The National Science Foundation wants more university scientists to get into the technology transfer act. But a new program to do just that seeks only one tenth its originally planned funding. It also offers little assurance that the program will be around long enough to generate any commercial products. Last year NSF presented Congress with its plans for an $85 million

Department of Microbiology & Immunology University of Illinois Chicago A surface glycoprotein that is anchored via a lipid to the trypanosome cell membrane is transferred in vitro to red blood cell membranes, sensitizing the latter to attack by anti-trypanosome antibodies. M.R. Rifkin, F.R. Landsberger, "Trypanosome variant surface glycoprotein transfer to target membranes: a model for the pathogenesis of trypanosomiasis," PNAS, 87, 801-5, January 1990. (Rockefeller University, New York)

Paul Ehrlich, professor of biological sciences at Stanford University, and Edward O. Wilson, professor of science at Harvard University, have been selected by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to share the 1990 Crafoord Prize. The two scientists will split the $240,000 award, which honors the field of population biology and the conservation of biological diversity. The prize is named for the late Holger Crafoord, former founder and chairman of a medical supply firm in Sweden, and his wife,

In the estimation of the American Institute of Chemists, Harry Gray's studies of electron transfer have outpaced those of all his competitors to earn him a Gold Medal this year. Gray, the Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry and director of the Beckman Institute at the California Institute of Technology, has been selected to receive AIC's 1990 Gold Medal. Gray, 54, was cited by AIC for his studies of inorganic chemistry and chemical reactions involved in electron transfer, a fundamental pro

Harvey M. Florman has been appointed to the faculty of the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology in Shrewsbury, Mass., as a staff scientist. He comes from the University of Wisconsin, where he was a senior scientist. Florman is a reproductive biologist with particular interest and expertise in the study of sperm-egg interactions. He holds a grant from the National Institutes of Health for a research program concerned with sperm binding receptors on mammalian eggs, and will be affiliated

Cavazos Comes Late And Can't Stay Long If the Bush administration ever comes up with a coordinated plan to improve precollege science and math education, 10 A.M. on February 28 will hold an honored place in history. That's the date and time that Education Secretary Lauro Cavazos and NSF Director Erich Bloch appeared together - for the first time - before a congressional committee and talked about how their two agencies could team up to make things better. Bringing the two men together may not s

University of Minnesota math chairman resigns in controversy after his school is awarded a $67 million computer center contract MINNEAPOLIS -- Six months after the successful end to a heated competition to win a $67 million supercomputer research grant from the Army, University of Minnesota computer scientist Ettore Infante is trying to track down a bumper sticker portraying him as a warmonger. "It shows me on the head of a missile," says the genial dean of the university's Institute of Techn

Livermore Decides Not To Blow Its Stack In a decision hailed by environmentalists, Lawrence Livermore National Lab announced it wants to cancel construction of an on-site incinerator whose stack would have emitted small amounts of radioactivity. But Director John Nuckolls' proposal to go ahead with the rest of what is known as a Decontamination and Waste Treatment Facility is likely to embroil the lab in another lengthy round of regulatory agency battles. The incinerator was part of a plan to r

With larger membership come questions of how the group can best serve the needs of its expanded constituency When approximately 40 undergraduate and graduate students meet this coming weekend on the campus of Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh to discuss military and environmental security, they will be advancing the goals of a movement that has sprouted across the nation in recent years. The event is a regional conference sponsored by Student Pugwash USA, a society whose name is still

William L. Dewey looks at this week's meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology with an air of bemused satisfaction. "It's like going to a buffet lunch when you're really hungry and there's more there than you can eat," says Dewey, FASEB's president. "Too much good stuff." The organization's 74th annual meeting - taking place in Washington, D.C., from April 1 to 5 - is sponsored by four of the six FASEB corporate member societies (the American Physiological Socie

The chemical giant, looking for a better research climate, joins other German firms in the Western Hemisphere Eluding pressure from environmentalists and biotechnology regulators at home while looking for new markets to conquer abroad, the West German chemical giant BASF Corp. is establishing a foothold in the United States, with a $100 million research facility at the Massachusetts Biotechnology Park in Worcester. BASF's decision in 1988 to set up shop in the U.S. is the latest example of an

With Packard Foundation support, the 3-year-old MBARI is establishing its credibility in oceanographic research. MONTEREY, CALIF. -- A unique marine science institute is growing on the shore of Monterey Bay in central California, one that bonds scientists and engineers in a single unit through the use of the latest computer technology and unmanned submersible equipment. The three-year-old Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) is well-positioned to make a splash within the national