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WASHINGTON—Government scientists, in an unusual display of consensus, have spelled out research priorities for the burgeoning field of global climate change. Their plan, contained in a report that was scheduled for official release this month, is the most comprehensive description of how the federal government hopes to increase its understanding of environmental changes throughout the world. “We tried to examine what we need to know about the earth system and what is most problema

The Alfred P.: Sloan Foundation in New York City may place even more emphasis on science and technology once its new president has settled into his job. Last month Ralph E. Gomory, a mathematician and former senior vice president for science and technology at IBM, took charge of the 55-year-old organization. Although neither Gomory nor the foundation will let on what new emphases might be in the works until he has been there a few more months, Gomory has made known his keen interest in problems

In announcing the award, the foundation noted Davidson’s record of drawing on his interdisciplinary talents when addressing scientific questions, exemplified by his application of physical and chemical principles in his investigation of the molecular biology of nucleic acids. In the 1960s, he and a team of colleagues invented heteroduplex analysis, a method for observing gene sites on DNA and RNA molecules through the electron microscope. Also of significance are his kinetic and mechanis

The dedication last month of Fermi National Laboratory as a National Environmental Research Park may mark the resurgence of an obscure, 20-year-old Department of Energy program to study the environment. In the past three months the program has gained, along with Fermilab’s unique prairie acreage, a catchy new name—ParkNet—and a mandate to use DOE computer networks to expand collaborative research on the environment. DOE officials say that the new name and the emphasis on comp

In the face of a threatened lawsuit from environmentalists, the Department of Energy has backed down from its plan to spend $75 million this year as the first step in building a plutonium refinery at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory. The decision, which was made shortly before a House Armed Services subcommittee voted to strip the funds from the department’s 1990 budget request, also affects the Lawrence Livermore National Lab, which is designing the device. The cut eliminates al

David Korn, dean of Stanford University’s medical school, has spent a good deal of time thinking about the long-term impact on the research community of its growing links to industry. But Kom, who spoke at last month’s NIH-sponsored forum on conflict of interest, says that he has learned from those who organize such conferences that, When they ask you to talk about principles, they really want to know about money.” In fact, Korn received the loudest applause at the two-day con

Cambridge researchers say they aren’t worried about last month’s City Council ordinance, which regulates the treatment of vertebrates used in laboratory experiments. According to Dick Taylor, professor of biology and chairman of the Animal Care Committee at Harvard University, the newlaw won’t affect the way research is conducted. The research laboratories in Cambridge already have very high standards, and, he says, “we’re very proud of how we care for the animals.

Forced by court action brought by animal rights activists, U.S. Department of Agriculture officials have had to rush into print a draft of new regulations for improving the lot of apes and monkeys living in the nation’s research facilities. Now they are bracing under a deluge of complaints from primate researchers. As called for by 1985 amendments to the Animal Welfare Act, the regulations compel researchers to provide “a physical environment adequate to promote the psychological w

Small wonder that Progenics Pharmaceuticals Inc., a 1-year-old company headquartered in Tarrytown, N.Y., is already battling with giants like SmithKline, Genentech, and Biogen in the race to market CD4, a drug that could potentially inhibit the infection of human cells by the AIDS virus. Precociousness is the corporate culture at this startup, whose three founders were all under 30 when they raised their first $1 million to set up operations in April 1988. Terry Burnham, one of the founders,

When the space shuttle Columbia touched down in late 1983, payload specialist Byron K. Lichtenberg emerged from the Spacelab-1 mission both triumphant and troubled. The experiments—on everything from astronomy to protein crystal growth studies—had gone exceedingly well, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration wanted him to fly again. There was, however, a slight problem: Lichtenberg, a biomedical engineer, was about to become unemployed. For the five years leading u

A group from The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. will visit Moscow in September to discuss optoelectronic devices such as fiber optics and lasers with the A.S. Povov Society, a Soviet radio and electronics organization. Eight members from the New York-based IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization, will meet with a delegation from its Soviet counterpart for the first time since 1984 in a series of workshops, tours, and discussions as part of a

WASHINGTON—Malaria, a wily scourge that kills from one to three million human beings each year, now finds itself associated with a victim of another sort: a 15-year-old, $100 million federally funded program to develop a vaccine against this ancient threat. Wracked by internal bickering, distracted by lawsuits and investigations, and stymied by a lack of progress, the Agency for International Development’s (AID) malaria project has fallen years behind in its’ search for an e