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For Big Instruments, Call Energy December 1 is the deadline for applications to the Department of Energy’s Research Instrumentation Program, which buys equipment costing more than $100,000 for universities that have received at least $150,000 in DOE support over a two-year period. The $5-million-a-year program was started in 1984, along with other instrumentation support programs at the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense. DOE bankrolls larger instruments than the o

Joseph Gall, whose investigations have focused on the structure and function of chromosomes, has received the 1989 V.D. Mattia Award from Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. for his contributions to biomedical research. Gall, 61, was presented with the award on September 28 at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology; the Nutley, N.J.-based company’s basic research center. A native of Washington, D.C., Gall received his B.S. (1949) and his Ph.D. (1952) in zoology from Yale University. From 1952 to 1

WASHINGTON—Although House and Senate conferees compromised on the higher of two numbers in all parts of the National Science Foundation’s 1990 budget, scientists will still be getting less than President Bush requested for the foundation last February. And the repeated promise of a doubling of the NSF budget within five years is likely once again to ring hollow in their ears. The October 17 agreement, which must he approved separately by each house and by the president, gives NS

Don’t Touch That Money! The embattled U.S. Agency for International Development malaria vaccine research project (The Scientist, July 10, 1989, page 1; Oct. 16, 1989, page 12) received another blow last month with the release of a government report that condemns the manner in which AID has managed the $100 million effort. The problems are so extensive, says the General Accounting Office, that AID officials should postpone any plans to build a $15 million field testing station in the Sout

Wolfram Research Inc. has taken a major step to broaden distribution of its Mathematica software system. signing an agreement with Digital Equipment Corp. to share marketing rights to the program. Under the licensing agreement, whose terms remain confidential, both Wolfram and Digital will be able to sell the software for use on Digital VAX and RISC computer systems. Mathematica, which Wolfram Research Inc. introduced in June 1988 for personal computers, is a software package that can per

First Publication For Seattle Theorist A 72-year-old retired aerospace engineer with a new theory of life will finally get a hearing in a peer-reviewed journal. Dwight H. Bulkley, director of the Seattle Institute for the Life Sciences, is publishing his paper, “Electromagnetic Theory of Life,” in next month’s issue of Medical-Hypotheses. Bulkley, who describes the Seattle Institute as a “think-tank” of about two dozen people who meet at their homes for informal d

Light Source Fortunes Brighten After five years of rejection, Argonne National Lab has finally garnered congressional approval to begin construction of its $456 million Advanced Photon Source. Wasting not a moment, the lab broke ground just days after receiving $40 million for construction in the 1990 DOE budget, which took effect October 1. The APS, which will be the nation’s second-largest basic science project (after the Superconducting Supercollider) when it is completed in 1995, is

WASHINGTON—On the second Wednesday of each month, a dozen diplomatic science advisers gather behind closed doors at the French embassy here and talk about the future. The diplomats represent the 12 nations of the European Community (EC), and the focus of their discussion is 1992, the year targeted for the establishment of a unified European economy. Although the EC now controls only a small share of the funds that Europe spends on science, that share is expected to grow considerably in th

WASHINGTON—Members of Congress have rolled out the welcome mat for Allan Bromley the president’s new science adviser and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. But their enthusiastic greeting also has focused attention on the many difficult science-based problems facing the country. The issues aren’t new; among others, they include setting priorities for science, improving science education in elementary and secondary schools, replacing aging university equ

Forty-five years ago David Hubel thought he would become a physicist. That is, until he went to his first international scientific meeting. “I was scared off by the number of people,” recalls Hubel so he switched to a science still in its infancy and far more intimate—a science called neurophysiology, The move proved to be very useful for science—in 1981 Hubel received the Nobel Prize in medicine for his contributions to understanding the organization and functioning of

Neurologist Frank Wilson’s first foray into music came at the age of 12, when he struggled through six months of the universal childhood ritual known as piano lessons. It wasn’t until many years later, however, while listening to his daughter rehearse for a piano recital around the time of her own 12th birthday, that his interests in music and the medical sciences converged. As she played Chopin’s “Fantasy Impromptu,” Wilson found himself for the first time rea

Stockholders in Transgenic Sciences Inc. are hoping that scientists studying mice will view the firm’s first product as a boon. The Worcester, Mass., company says its offering, Cryozyte, will enable researchers to preserve mouse embryos on-site, thus eliminating the need for the bulky and expensive equipment traditionally used for cryopreservation. Before Cryozyte, says James Sherblom, chief executive officer of the two-year-old biotech firm, labs without the cryopreservation apparatus ha