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Calling All Industry Scientists NSF has selected 47 scientists to spend several months doing research in Japan under three new fellowship programs designed to even out the flow of knowledge between the two countries. But while the Japanese-funded programs are open to any qualified scientist, everyone in the first batch hails from either a university or government laboratory. “The lack of participation by industry has been a real disappointment,” admits NSF,s Charles (“TomR

And They’re Off! 23 Feet Under The Waves Remember submarine races? The competition that took place at the end of lovers’ lane? Well, lovers’ lane now stops at West Palm Beach, where Florida Atlantic University and the H.A. Perry Foundation are sponsoring the First Annual International Submarine Races June 23-25, in part to encourage improvements in the hydrodynamics, propulsion, and life support systems of underwater vehicles. About 20 human-powered “wet subs”R

Merieux-Connaught Merger To Benefit R&D Scientists at Toronto-based Connaught BioSciences, and Institut Merieux S.A., of Lyon, France, both pharmaceutical companies, have nothing to fear from the recently announced merger of the human health care divisions of the two firms— indeed, they may have much to cheer, according to Gerald Wood, Connaught’s vice president and chief financial officer. In fact, Connaught’s desire to strengthen its research efforts “is the main reas

Privileged Info: The Names Of Referees The right of scientific journals to keep the identities of their manuscript referees confidential has been buttressed by a recent court decision. The decision, first made last year by a district court and then upheld by a federal appeals court in March, is one of the byproducts of a case brought against Arco Solar Inc. When the solar energy subsidiary of the Arco oil company found itself charged with patent infringement by Solarex Corp. and RCA Corp. for i

In a striking move, Emeryville, Calif.-based Cetus Corp. is clarifymg its position on the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the company’s proprietary DNA amplification technology. This action comes after several months of confusion, doubt, and outrage within the scientific community over the firm’s unusual licensing policy for PCR. Since bursting upon the scientific scene less than two years ago, PCR, the process by which scientists can rapidly duplicate strands of DNA in

The search had been going on for four days. Crammed into the cockpit of the submersible Alvin—the research vessel used to survey the Titanic—geochemist Harmon Craig and a group of colleagues from Scripps Institution of Oceanography were scouring the Pacific Ocean floor off the island of Hawaii, looking for the crater of Loihi, an undersea hot spot thought to be the volcanic precursor of the next Hawaiian island. At a depth of 1,000 meters, with the darkness relieved only by the A

First she was his student, a medical resident working under an internationally recognized expert in the field of nuclear medicine. Then she was his academic and clinical colleague, making her way as a re spected scientist. Finally, after 10 years m the lab, Heidi S. Weissmann became the plaintiff, and Leonard M. Freeman the defendant, in a bitter and costly legal dispute that touches on one of the pillars of the research enterprise: assigning credit for original work. In February, weissman

The nation’s second-largest foundation is doing some in-house spring cleaning—the second time in as many years. Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts, a collective of seven funds established by Sun Oil Co. founder Joseph N. Pew and family, has decided to streamline its recently installed management hierarchy by replacing it with a “flat” structure, eliminating four vice presidential slots and installing. individual program directors to manage each of the trusts six pr

The Marconi International Fellowship is awarded annually to an individual who has significantly contributed to the advancement of the technology of communications through scientific or engineering discoveries, inventions, or innovations. The 1989 Fellow is Robert N. Hall, a physicist who recently retired from the General Electric Research and Development Center, Schenec tady, N.Y Hall this week will be awarded $35,000 in recognition of his invention of the semiconductor injection laser in 1962,

W.Va. To NSF: Give Us The Telescope NSF’s idea to turn an astronomical disaster into a bonanza for astrophysicists has run into opposition from two influential West Virginia Democrats. NSF officials knew that Sen. Robert Byrd, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee that passes judgment on NSF’s budget, and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who sits on the Senate Commerce and Science Committee that authorizes its programs, were eager for the state to recover from the unexpected collaps

The current round of appropriations hearings in Congress graphically illustrates the different politicalforces that shape the NIH and NSF budgets. NSF officials, grilled by new subcommittee chairman Rep. Bob Traxler (D-Mich.),were asked to submit an analysis of where they would cut if the foundation’s proposed $262 million increase (amounting to 14%) were to be trimmed-by $50 million, $100 million, or $200 million. Traxler said that it’s highly unlikely that his panel, which also fun

PALO ALTO, CALIF.—Faced with an unexpected dearth of donations, Stanford University may be forced to slow down development of its Near West campus, the innovative, 41-acre science megacomplex designed to pave the way for decades of 21st-century research. As originally planned, a major part of the $350 million project was scheduled for completion in 1994. The slowdown could mean that some of Stanford’s science faculty will have to wait as much as four years longer than expected fo