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Switching jobs is a wrenching experience for anyone. But biotech scientists who move to a competitor face the added strain of a possible suit if they can take their knowledge with them. The problem is highlighted in a case brought by Genentech, the San Francisco biotechnology company. The suit, filed February 8, accuses five former employees of misappropriating trade secrets relating to TPA, the company’s blockbuster, new drug to dissolve blood clots, and other recombinant proteins after

WASHINGTON--The $3.3 billion increase in spending for science and space programs proposed by the administration for 1989 is shrinking rapidly as it begins to make its way through Congress. On March 17 the House Budget Committee sliced the request in half. But the panel’s non-binding reductions in spending authority varied greatly by agency. The National Science Foundation, for example, received $300 million of its $330 million increase, while the $400 million increase for general scienc

Washington--Limited oppotunities for proprietary research, an inability to copyright and license software and institutional red tape are major obstacles in transferring technology from federal laboratories to U.S. industry according to a new report from the General Accounting Office. The report examined 10 laboratories operated by six government agencies, raging from the Air Force’s Lincoln Laboratory to the National Institutes of Health. Interviews with lab officials found that a major

Under Erich Bloch, who was appointed director of the National Science Foundation in 1984, the agency has broadened its activities beyond its traditional support of individual laboratories and researchers. Bloch has strengthened NSF’S engineering component and put greater emphasis on on industry university cooperation, including the establishment of research centers around the country as the focus for advanced study in areas ranging from computers to exotic materials to basic biology. He a

Editor’s note: This is the final article in a three-part series on utilities for IBM PCs or compatibles. The first part, on enhancing input! output operations, appeared Feb- ruary 8, 1987, P. 22. The second, on DOS utilities, appeared March 21, 1988, p. 14. In this final installment, I’ll consider the so-called desktop utilities, (not to be confused with the term desktop publishing). When SIDEKICK first came out in 1984, it used the desktop metaphor in an attractive way. Just as y

Borland International 4585 Scotts Valley Drive Scotts Valley, CA 95066 (408) 438-5300 Price: $167. Student version: $39.95. Requirements: IBM PC/XT/AT or compatible. 384 K RAM. PC DOS or MS DOS 2.0 or later. Also available for Macintosh. Eureka was designed for the popular market. It’s easy to use, nice to look at and fun to play with. Like many of Borland’s products, its appearance is spectacular. Eureka is oriented toward business applications, but certainly has many scientific a

Holy trinity of software. beware! Move over spreadsheet data base handler and word processor. Make room for the equation solver, the simulation/prediction program for those who live by the numbers. What is an equation solver? Basically, it's: a software package that will do complex mathematical computations without being programmed by the user. Most solvers are more than just souped-up calculators. In addition to built-in trig functions, step functions, math routines, etc., they can plot cal

Universal Technical Systems, Inc. 1220 Rock Street Rockford, IL 61101-1437 (813) 963-2220 Price: $395. Student version: $44.95 (sold through McGraw-Hill). Requirements: IBM PC/XT/AT or compatible. 512 K RAM. Dual floppy/ hard disk. DOS 2.0 or later. TK!Solver, the oldest equation solver, hit the market in 1984. It had a brief moment of glory as the first of its kind, but, burdened with a difficult and confusing user interface, it never achieved widespread use. Universal Technical Systems sa

Version 1.0 Pacific Crest Software 887. NW Grant Avenue. Corvallis, OR 97330 503-754-1067 Price: $295.. Sold to students and faculty on an individual basis for $75. Requirements: IBM PC/XT/AT or compatible. 256 K RAM. DOS 2.0 or higher. The name of this package comes from the vendor’s description of the product’s main features under five headings: (1) a programmable calculator with built-in functions; (2) a data analysis system in which data can be sorted; analyzed, transformed an

Version 1.8 Analysis Technology Company 3914 Miami Road, Suite 310 Mariemont, OH 45227 (513)561-1100 Price: $149. Academic discounts available. Requirements:IBM PC/XT/AT or compatible. 512 K RAM. Minimum of 10 MB hard disc. Graphics adapter. Barely promoted outside specialist publications, IAS is a well-designed math, science and engineering tool. The interface consists of menus and submenus that stack and are visible simultaneously. Menus allow you to select basic math functions and severa

Version 2.0 MathSoft One Kendall Square Cambridge, MA 02139 1-800-MathCAD Price: $349. Student version: $40 (sold through Addison-Wesley). Requirements:IBM PC/XT/AT or compatible. 512 K RAM (640 K recommended). DOS 2.0 or later. Math coprocessor recommended. MathCAD has the simplest user interface of the six packages reviewed here. After booting up, you get a blank screen, except for a single “Command:” line at the top. It is a bit intimidating to the uninitiated, but the unclutte

Since scientists operate in small worlds populated by people with common research interests, they repeatedly encounter one another in the literature as well as at conferences. The world I inhabited as a graduate student and for some years thereafter revolved around the study of antibiotics. I earned my doctorate in the department of microbiology at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, where antibiotics were the focus of interest. The chairman of the department was Selman A. Waksman. He