The Scientist - Home

WASHINGTON - Terry B. Kinney Jr., administrator of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), hopes that his retirement this spring will be accompanied by an end to the criticism that the agency has lagged behind other federal science agencies in its use of peer review for awarding grants. The issue, which has dogged the U.S. Department of Agriculture's food and agricultural research programs for years, came into sharp focus last year in a National Research Council report that criticized several

News Critics Skeptical of USDA Biotech Meetings AUTHOR:DANIEL GROSSMAN Date: FEBRUARY 08, 1988 WASHINGTON - The Department of Agriculture is hoping that a series of meetings this spring will demonstrate its desire to learn more about biotechnology research and strengthen its role in federal regulatory efforts. But some observers view the four regional conferences as a slick way to promote existing programs. "It seems like a lot of this business is a cynical way of getting public approval fo

EUGENE, Ore. - For six days last month defense witnesses testified that Roger Smith Troen made a "choice of evils" when he participated in the October, 1986 theft of about 125 research animals from a University of Oregon psychology laboratory (see THE SCIENTIST December 14, p.1). On the seventh day, Lane County Circuit Judge Edwin Allen said he would hear no more of it. The lengthy pretrial hearing failed to convince Allen that a seldom-used state law of evidence should apply to Troen's animal

WASHINGTON - Well paying graduate fellowships are needed to attract more American-born engineering students, according to a new report from the National Research Council. The report tackles the controversial issue of the growing presence of foreign-born engineers in U.S. universities, both as students and faculty, and the parallel drop in the number of Americans pursuing advanced degrees in the field. Its subtitle, "Infusing Talent, Raising Issues," emphasizes its decision to avoid racial or e

WASHINGTON--Once more, with feeling. That's how officials at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences seem to view a cooperative agreement with the Soviet Academy of Sciences. They hope the new five-year agreement will lead to a more productive exchange of scientists than occurred under a nearly identical two-year pact that would have expired in April. The impact of perestroika and glasnost was visible in our discussions," said NAS President Frank Press on his return from Moscow after signing th

Alvey Provides Model for Collaboration BY JOHN STANSELL LONDON - The Alvey program in advanced microelectronics leaves a legacy of cooperative research that promises to outlast the completion of its last individual project later this year. Begun in June 1983, Alvey proved to be a model for government- university-industry collaboration, for joint efforts among competing companies, and for cooperative research throughout Europe. It has also received high marks for luring top scientists back to

Paris - The founder of the International Center for Theoretical Physics has called for extending the concept to other disciplines and eventually creating an International Center for Science. Abdus Salam has proposed a loose federation of new and existing international bodies that would study basic and applied science and science technology problems of interest in the developing world. (For an interview with Salam, see page 20.) The group would include the ICTP in Trieste as well as new or exis

LONDON -The publisher of a prestigious academic dictionary has apologized in print to an Oxford b ologist for misrepresenting his views on sociobiology and has revised the entry in a new version of the dictionary just released. The biologist, Paul Harvey, was angered when he received a sample copy of The Dictionary of Personality and Social Psychology in the fall of 1986. The dictionary, published by Basil Blackwell Ltd. in Britain and the MIT Press in the United States, was one of three deriv

Japanese May Invite 300 Into Labs WASHINGTON - Japan, under pressure to open its labs to outsiders, may soon be inviting more than 300 additional foreign researchers, under programs approved last month by the nation's Finance Ministry. During a visit here last month, Prime Minister Noboru Takeashita offered $4.4 million to help finance long-term visits by U.S. scientists to Japan's government university and industrial labs. He suggested that the National Science Foundation pick the recipients.

NEWS NIH Scientists Seek Animal Patents Author:JEFFREY PORRO Date: FEBRUARY 08, 1988 Japanese May Invite 300 Into Labs WASHINGTON - Japan, under pressure to open its labs to outsiders, may soon be inviting more than 300 additional foreign researchers, under programs approaved last month by the nation's Finance Ministry. During a visit here last month, Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita offered $4.4 million to help finance long-term visits by U.S. Scientists to Japan's government, univers

TOKYO—Physicist Ron Scott returned to the United States in 1980 after working in Japan on a one-year grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation. But two years after going back to work for McDonnell-Douglas, he said with his easy Texas drawl, “I felt I hadn’t seen it all. So I returned to Sendai for six months to write a paper.” Six years later Scott is still in Japan, working in the northeastern city of Sendai as a research physicist for the Inaba Biophoton Proj

Washington-Becoming infected with the AIDS virus is an occupational hazard facing laboratory workers who handle highly concentrated preparations of the virus, according to a study published in the January 1 issue of Science. To minirnize what they call a “very low” risk of infection, the authors urge a review of federal safety guidelines and increased vigilance in following prescribed safety procedures. WASHINGTON—A monthly science magazine that was shut down by the feder