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Table of Contents Gene Genies Nuclear Mass All in the Family Presenilin Problems Scientists Recast Stymied Stem Cells Plants on the Wild Side Deadeye Death Gene HUMAN ENHANCEMENT: Gene-shopping could be a future consumer craze, if the predictions in a book about science in the year 2025 are correct. The year 2025 will be no time for traditionalists, if the three authors of a new book on future science are on the mark. In the book 2025: Scenarios of U.S. and Global Society Reshaped by Scienc

PRIZE WITH A PRICE: Science historian Peter Galison has taken some ribbing from his family since being named a MacArthur fellow. One could almost pity Peter Galison. A historian of science at Harvard University, Galison is one of seven members of the scientific community among the 23 recipients of this year's John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowships. The coveted five-year awards provide unrestricted support plus health insurance to talented individuals, with no reports or proj

Despite lingering debates, statistical method wins acceptance and exerts influence among researchers. Meta-analysis-a statistical method of quantitatively combining and synthesizing results from individual studies-has begun to exert an influence on science, its practice, and its use in policymaking, despite early opposition and skepticism. One recent example that has attracted considerable media attention concerns the use of "fen-phen" (fenfluramine/phentermine), the popularly prescribed obesi

The laboratory is shrinking. Scientists and engineers are borrowing miniaturization, integration, and parallel-processing techniques from the computer industry to develop laboratory devices and procedures that will fit on a wafer or microchip. A growing number of companies and investors are betting that the technology will revolutionize drug development, genomics, environmental monitoring, forensics, and clinical diagnostics, in much the same way the microprocessor transformed the computer indu

'PERSONAL GOAL': NIAID's Penelope Hitchcock would like home STD tests to be as convenient as home pregnancy tests. While great attention has been focused on development of better therapies for HIV, incidence rates of other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the United States remain alarmingly high. Yet, as pointed out in an Institute of Medicine (IOM) report entitled The Hidden Epidemic: Confronting Sexually Transmitted Diseases (Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, 1997), the Americ

Table of Contents Fisher Case Is Settled Loaded Questions Malaria Immunity Scientific Immigration Slips Terminating Telomerase Getting Tough With E.Coli Hospitable Merger `No Confidence' Vote For Confide Mendel's Mighty Midgets Bullish on Cloning Research 'A VICTORY': Bernard Fisher accepted a favorable settlement in a long-running dispute with the government and the University of Pittsburgh. Showered with praise, apology, and a financial settlement, cancer surgeon Bernard Fisher has triump

In Bonnie Hallam's class at Huey Elementary School in Philadelphia, first-graders don't just read about ecology-they make an ecosystem. Every year, a corner of Hallam's classroom becomes a pond. Filling a huge wooden barrel with water, students carefully arrange topsoil, mulch, logs-even goldfish and butterflies. "The kids get so involved," Hallam says. "Everyone has a good time." It's a different scene from a few years ago, when science was scarce in Hallam's class. "I've always liked science

REVERSING A TREND: A textbook by Ken Miller of Brown takes an unconventional macro-micro approach. In one controversial pedagogical technique, the conventional order of instruction is reversed. Biologists who teach their subject to first-year college students face a troubling dilemma. Over the past 20 years, the amount of subject matter that they must cover has expanded severalfold. During the same time, by most accounts, incoming students' scientific background and ability to understand theo

Sidebar: Focus On Inquiry ECHOES: TIMMS study director Albert Beaton says the U.S. elementary curiculum is too repetitive. International comparisons of precollege science and math achievement interest anyone concerned with future technological literacy and economic competitiveness. For scientists and mathematicians, such information also foreshadows the quality of future students and researchers in their professions. A poor performance at the elementary and secondary school levels can be a wak

HANDS-ON ENDEAVOR: Aspiring science writer Dawn Breault did summer research with cell biologist Sam Bowser at the Wadsworth Center in Albany, N.Y. Many undergraduate students are returning to their respective campuses a little wiser in the ways of science after spending their summer vacations working on research projects at various institutions across the United States. In most cases, the experience helps undergraduates determine if they really want to pursue a career in science. It provides a

Table of Contents More Newsworthy Sheep Grade Strike Earns an F Brain Drain Sexual Chemistry Cheaper Journals Michign Misconduct Matters Lucky 7 Cloning BRCA2 Credit: Graham G. Ramsay ON THE LAMB: Dario Fauza performed fetal surgery on ovine patients. While Dolly the cloned sheep has yet to disappear from the headlines, other ovines have made medical history. Dario Fauza, a fellow at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital in Boston, along with Anthony Atala, an assistant professor of

The TIMSS results reveal, and national education standards stress, the value of inquiry-based learning, in which students apply the scientific method. They observe, hypothesize, experiment, and discuss and interpret results. Such learning allows students to build from everyday observations. "Even as simple an idea as dropping raisins in 7-Up and watching them bob up and down teaches principles of science," notes Richard Olenick, chairman of the physics department at the University of Dallas in