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For over 14 years, the National Science Foundation has systematically deprived its grant applicants of certain basic legal rights that Congress intended them to have and which other granting agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health have made more of an effort to protect. Because of NSF’s circumvention of these rights, many scientists may have been denied grants for improper reasons—due to conflicts of interest, or because of blatantly erroneous information—without

No Room For Minority Bricks And Mortar Leading figures in biomedical research from academe, industry, and the federal government have told Congress that giving minority institutions a larger share of federal construction funds is vital to the long-term health of the nation. But their recent “Report on Extramural Biomedical Research Facilities Construction” makes clear that their support for enlarging the number of federal grantees holds only in the case of a rising tide that lifts

University of Alaska marine scientist. John Kelley can hardly contain his enthusiasm as he talks about the current activities and potential of Sigma Xi, the scientific research honor society, to promote science. The branch—or “club”—of the society that he has led in the city of Fairbanks for the last two years sponsors college scholarships, awards for teaching excellence, student science fairs, and field place- ments for budding researchers in the 49th state. Last month

This Time They Really Mean It The first time NSF ran its competition for science and technology centers, a fleet of Federal Express trucks pulled up to the agency’s loading dock on the Jan. 15, 1988, deadline and disgorged telephone-book-sized proposals. The length and complexity of many of the 323 proposals.threatened to oveiwhelm the agency’s merit review system. There’s got to be a better way, thought program director William Harris. So this year, as part of its second r

DOE May Stem Flow Of Information Will the recent disclosure that Department of Energy labs have been allowing foreign countries to obtain sensitive information on nuclear weapons lead to a crackdown on scientific access? Researchers are concerned that the findings of a General Accounting Office investigation could hinder access to legitimate material requested under freedom-of-information laws. The June GAO report, which was commissioned by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, reported t

WASHINGTON—”A frightening noise and then a blast of wind hit us, and we saw fire falling from the sky.” That was one of the many descriptions that reached the Scientific Event Alert Network (SEAN) after Ruiz, a volcano in Colombia, blew up Nov. 13, 1985. Peaceful for 140 years, Ruiz erupted and killed more than 22,000 people. Only three volcanoes have taken more lives; in contrast, Mount St. Helens, which got far more attention, is blamed for only about 60 deaths. But the

A Crime-Fighting Mass Spectrometer? Extrel Corp., a 25-year-old Pittsburgh company, recently received a $44,000 Phase I grant from the National Institute of Environment Health Services under the Small Business Innovation Research program to investigate a novel approach to detecting and identifying trace contaminants—such as illegal drug and explosives vapors—in the air. Wade L. Fite, founder, chairman of the board, and director of research at Extrel, says, “It looks very inte

High-Tech Fashion Model The Army needed a volunteer to test clothing that would protect its soldiers from chemical weapons, and, at a cost of $3 million, Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories has provided one. The six-foot-tall Manny, the most human-like robot ever built wears Army fatigues as comfortably as any other draftee can. Its 15 joints and 42 programmed movements put typical stress on the gear it’s testing, while its rubber skir is equipped with sensors to detect poison gas th

A virtual army of scientists dedicated to battling microscopic ene- mies is converging on Houston this week for the 29th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. More than 13,000 microbiologists, clinicians, biochemists. pathologists, pharmacologists, and other scientists are expected to attend the conference, which opened yesterday, sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). Researchers will present 1,365 short papers in 113 oral and poster sessions

MIT: A Solar Car In Your Future Imagine owning a car without ever having to buy gas, change the oil, or pay for expensive transmission repairs. A group of students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say they are ready to make that possible, forming a startup called Solectron that will market virtually maintenance-free solar-powered cars. James Worden, a graduate student in mechanical engineering and Solectron’s project manager, says prototypes for a $10,000 commuter car (with a

PALO ALTO, CALIF—In the high-pressure world of pharmaceutical research, scientists routinely risk corporate fortunes in a search for new compounds that could lead to big payoffs in such areas as cancer or heart disease. Indeed, virtually every major company has tried to speed up its process of creating and testing blockbuster drugs—a move that could save millions on development costs and beat a firm’s competitors to the marketplace. But progress in this high-stakes field has b

More than 8,000 chemists will gather in Miami Beach next week forthe 198th national meeting of the American Chemical Society. At the convention, researchers from around the world will present 3,500 technical papers and discuss issues faced both by the entire human race (environmental problems) and by ACS alone (membership problems). Twenty-nine technical divisions will sponsor sessions throughout the week. In addition to presentations of general papers, each division will feature special t