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Different Takes On The Weather Forecast U.S. and Soviet scientists are studying the greenhouse effect using very different methods—and, as a result, are coming up with some vastly divergent predictions for the future. U.S. researchers, who are modeling future scenarios with the help of supercomputers, forecast rising temperatures accompanied by summer droughts. But Soviet climatologists, who lack access to powerful number-crunchers, rely upon analyses of past climates to predict future t

Boosting Appreciation Of Science Your firm may want to take a page from the idea book of the Yale Council of Engineering: To celebrate February’s National Engineers Week, the council set its sights on increasing the number of books relating to science in area libraries. Realizing that the most successful effort would grow out of a strong community partnership, the council began by enlisting the help of local libraries and companies, it asked the Connecticut Library Association to make up

Monsanto Co. and the Soviet Union have brought glasnost to the lab with a three-year agreement to establish a joint laboratory at the modem Shemyakin Institute of Bio-organic Chemistry in Moscow. The agreement marks the first time that a bio- technology company has launched a major collaboration with the Soviet Union. The laboratory will be staffed by 10 to 15 Soviet scientists now being recruited from other laboratories at Shemyakin, and supported by Monsanto with a contribution of $300,00

Transgenic Sciences Is Metamorphosing Transgenic Sciences lnc.—a startup that is banking on a future where chickens lay eggs that contain pharmaceutical proteins, pigs grow up with more meat and less fat than-they do now, and mice produce beneficial human proteins in their milk—is undergoing a few transformations itself this month. Led by new CEO James Sherblom, formerly of Genzyme Corp., the firm aims to raise $5 million and augment its scientific staff as a result of the initial

[Editor’s note: Born in Cornwall in 1924, the son of a bank manager and a farmer’s daughter, Antony Hewish always enjoyed doing things with his hands. As a boy, he made models, gunpowder, and fireworks; decades later, he put his skills to good use helping to build and maintain some of the early radiotelescopes. When Hewish first started listening for radio signals from space, radioastronomy was an unfashionable field. But it soon became glamorous—and Hewish’s pioneerin

LIVERMORE, CALIF.—It seemed like a great idea at the time: In the spring of 1987, chemist Bob Peny, armed with a quiet resolve and the patent to a pollution-reducing process he had discovered while a researcher at Sandia National Laboratory’s Combustion Research Facility (CRF) in Livermore, left a secure, challenging, and well-paying job to start his own company, Technor Inc. Launched with a Department of Energy Small Business and Innovation Research grant, the startup seemed de

TOKYO—Takashi Chikayama is a true hacker—a person who spends long hours working to crack difficult software codes, not because he’s paid overtime, but because he loves programming. Unlike most members of his scientific cadre however, he doesn’t work in a basement university lab in Cambridge, Mass., or a plush office in Silicon Valley. Chikayama’s home is Tokyo—and he is Japan’s newest and quite possibly most potent weapon in the international battle

WASHINGTON—To some scientists the title will sound impressive; to others, it will be simply obscure: associate director for natural resources, energy, and science at the Office of Management and Budget. But scientists ought to know who carries this portfolio, because the person in that office has the potential to relax or squeeze important parts of the federal research budget for science. The current occupant is R6bert Grady. a newly appointed (see story, page 1) political scientist

In a star-studded eyent next month, the National Academy of Sciences will give out more than a quarter of a million dollars in prizes, ranging from honors for an associate professor of astronomy to a medal for a computer industry chairman of the board. One award is a new one: the National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology, intended for young scientists. The winner will be Kiyoshi Mizunchi, chief-of the section on genetic mechanisms at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digest

Venture Capital: Rx For Tech Transfer Blues? As many of the national labs can attest, inventing a better mouse trap is no guarantee that the world will beat a path to your door. So several government labs have been forced to adopt unusual methods to sell their wares to the private sector. The latest experiment is an $8.5 million venture capital fund set up by Argonne National Lab and the University of Chicago. The privately endowed fund, known as ARCH Venture Fund, is a nonprofit creature form

The Politics Of Filling The Pipeline If you think that an idea as all-American as national science scholars could be able to escape the taint of politics, you’ll have to think again. In last month’s address to Congress, President Bush proposed 570 such scholarships to entice the intellectual cream of U.S. youth to pursue careers in science and engineering, But his $5 million a year program to refill the U.S. science pipeline would be overseen by the Department of Education, and tha

Who needs venture capital? Not Stanford medical researchers whose work shows potential for clinical applications. Last month, Stanford University Hospital announced that it had awarded $351 ,200 to nine projects that need only to be developed a bit further to be ready for clinical testing. These are the first awards made by the hospital under its new technology transfer program, which was announced last summer. In an attempt to speed the transfer of innovative techniques from lab to bedside, th