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E.O. WiLson, editor, NationalAcademy Press; Washington, D.C.; 496 pages, $19.50 (paperback); $32.50 (hardback) People have far fewer genes than do salamanders or many flowering plants, says Wilson as he piles up statistics to demon- strate the abundance of genetic information stored in living things. This richness—and its fragility—are examined from different angles by this volume’s 55 contributors. PATTERNING IN SEED PLANT SPECIES Jonathan D. Sauer, University of Californi

Congress is in a tizzy; science leaders are worried legislation could do harm to the innocent WASHINGTON--Fraud in science has become a cause célébre among Washington politicians. For a two-week period this spring, it seemed that everywhere one looked there were concerned and aggrieved congressmen. And as the politicians aired the dirty linen of science in public and fulminated over measures they claimed needed to be taken to assure the public that science would be pursued in a spot

Scientists, beware! The West German hacker who invaded scores of U.S. military computer systems last year could easily strike again. Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory who finally tracked the electronic wizard down have been studying his M.O. Their conclusion: His tactics were often ridiculously simple. Many of the systems he entered used account names and passwords so obvious as to be worthless. And many current systems continue to use similar passwords. The best defense? Difficult p

Between 1977 and 1986, the United States produced more than 42% of all articles on mapping and sequencing the human genome that appeared in 3,200 of the world’s leading scientific journals, the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) reported in a study issued in late April. “The United States is the clear leader in basic research, publishing more articles on mapping and sequencing than European or Asian nations,” it concluded. The next largest contributor over t

Faculty salaries seem to be losing steam, according to the latest annual survey from the American Association of University Professors. In 1986-87, the average salary levels for all disciplines rose 5.9%, but in 1987-88 the increase was only 4.9%. Adjusted for inflation, the increase was less than 1%. Private independent institutions gave bigger raises than did public or church-related universities. Salaries differed according to region. The highest average salary ($43,590) came from the Pacif

NSF has elevated its programs in instrumentation and related areas to the level of a division in the Directorate of Biological, Behavioral, and Social Sciences. The new Division of Instrumentation and Resources includes such programs as instrumentation and instrument development, field stations, database software development, history and philosophy of science, ethics and value studies, and special projects such as science and technology centers. John Wooley is acting division director. The fir

There is a growing market out there for part-time and/or temporary work in the sciences. Employers have long seen the advantages—savings in overhead and benefits plus greater flexibility in many activities—but now the practice of research is changing, moving toward almost interchangeable scientists performing routine, clearly divided tasks. At the same time, based on our work in the professional relations office of the American Chemical Society I see an increasing interest in this

The ramshackle state of some of the nation’s science labs has prompted the Kresge Foundation in Troy, Mich., to step beyond its regular pattern of giving and add a special program for upgrading scientific equipment. The foundation, with assets of more than $1 billion, traditionally restricts its funding to construction and building-renovation projects. Now, says Kresge program officer Gene Moss, the foundation expects to give away between $10 million and $20 million for scientific equip

Following Is a selection of notable grants that have been awarded recently by public and private funding sources. PHYSIOLOGY: Auditory Cortex. $1,894,000 over three years from NIH to University of California, Irvine; L. Kitzes NEUROSCIENCE: Growth factors or other trophic factors in brain injury. $25,000 from Toyota USA Foundation to University of California, San Francisco; F.M. Longo, WC. Mobley Molecular and developmental neuroscience and computational neuroscience. $375,000 from Del E. We

FINAL WARNING: The Legacy of Chemobyl Robert P Gale and Thomas Hauser Warner Books; New York 230 pages; $18.95 The second anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in April was marked by the publication of several books, each trying to tell the story from a different angle, each attempting to serve a different political purpose. One of them, Richard Mould’s Chernobyl The Real Story (Pergamon Press), got the full endorsement and cooperation of Soviet authorities. The book contains 160 photog

Requests to fund university research facilities, also known as "academic pork," that have become a growing and controversial part of the congressional budget-making process have been trimmed in the 1989 appropriations for the Department of Energy. Only two such projects, totaling $16.6 million, appear in the bill passed May 17 by the House, in contrast to nine projects, worth $73.7 million, that the House approved last year. Loma Linda University’s Proton Beam Cancer Treatment Center ($1

Want to take a cruise in the Black Sea? Short of defecting to the Soviet Union, the best way may be to join up with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The institution’s research vessel Know the first U.S. ship to enter the Black Sea in 13 years, is in the middle of a planned series of six trips to the Soviet body of water. Its scientists are using the radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl disaster to study circulation patterns and chemical processes in the sea. Meanwhile, back in