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The National Institutes of Health's "Workshop on the Medical Utility of Marijuana," held February 19 and 20, served as a forum for researchers to present data on the therapeutic uses of the drug to an eight-member panel of scientists. The panel's recommendations may help determine future funding of studies to assess marijuana's possible healing powers. Panel members, who represent a broad spectrum of medical researchers, are: William T. Beaver, a professor of pharmacology and anesthesia at Geo

GREAT EXPENSE: Pittsburgh’s Bernard Fisher says that the government’s misconduct investigation against him cost too much. As renowned University of Pittsburgh cancer surgeon Bernard Fisher regroups after being cleared of misconduct in a highly publicized case, many observers are viewing the affair as a warning that the scientific community and the public need better ways of monitoring research activities. Fisher, cleared earlier this month of any wrongdoing, has filed a lawsuit ag

Sidebars: National Institutes of Health : Summary of Appropriations Research and Development Intestments Federal science and technology agencies are holding their own in President Clinton's recently proposed fiscal year 1998 budget, which allocates $75.5 billion-a 2.2 percent increase-to government-sponsored R&D. The National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation are slated to receive modest overall increases, approximately 2.6 percent and 3 percent, respectively. As the

Sidebar : Asthma Products - Delivering the Dosage Asthma Products - More Information CHEMICAL BLOCKER: Accolate was the first new asthma drug approved by FDA since the 1970s. New research is breathing life into the asthma drug market. Inspired by improving knowledge of asthma's biochemistry, more than 40 companies worldwide are investigating drugs to control the disease. This effort translates into new opportunities for creative chemists and biologists. For 25 years, a handful of drug firms,

The current sociopolitical climate in the United States affects funding and the ability to draw new investigators into the field, scientists contend. It seems as if one aspect of reproduction research or another is perpetually making headlines. In the most recent example, reports of cloned animals touched off a firestorm of debate on human cloning. Some researchers and ethicists contend that the field's notoriety comes from its connection with abortion-rights issues, an association that has st

Editor's Note: On the preceding page, Eugene Garfield pays tribute to information science pioneer Calvin N. Mooers, who died in December 1994 and who was memorialized at last October's annual meeting of the American Society for Information Science. Here The Scientist presents a classic article by Mooers, originally delivered as part of a panel discussion in 1959 and republished last year in the Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science as a prelude to the October meeting. Some c

Concerns over governance have nixed a merger between New York's Mount Sinai and New York University medical centers. The proposed venture, announced in June (M.E. Watanabe, The Scientist, Aug. 19, 1996, page 1), would have united the hospitals and medical schools of the two institutions. But according to a report in the February 15 New York Times (E.B. Fein, page 25), the deal fell through because Mount Sinai and NYU could not agree on who would control the combined medical school. Sources told

Institute, Center, or DivisionFY1997FY1998 Estimate National Cancer Institute $2,156,416 $2,217,482 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Inst. 1,370,952 1,404,770 National Institute of Dental Research 182,893 190,081 National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases 802,889 821,164 National Insitute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke 701,582 722,712 National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases 608,950 634,272 National Institute of General Medical Sciences 970,749 9

Asthma - FOR FURTHER INFORMATION Date: March 17, 1997 Abbott Laboratories Inc. http://www.abbott.com Arris Pharmaceutical Corp. http://www.arris.com Boehringer Ingelheim http://199.79.148.67 Sequana Therapeutics http://www.sequana.com 3M Pharmaceuticals http://www.3M.com Zeneca Pharmaceuticals http://www.zeneca.com The National Asthma Education and Prevention Program's recently released "Guidelines for the Diagnoses and Management of Asthma" can be accessed on the Intern

For more than 30 years, asthmatics have walked around with portable inhalers in their pockets. Taking a puff of medication from an inhaler, patients can stifle an asthma attack. If they inhale medicine daily, they may even prevent asthma attacks entirely. But there's a problem. Studies suggest that many asthma patients use inhalers incorrectly and end up with less medicine than they need. They might inhale their medication too quickly, for example. In many cases, asthma patients end up swallow

"Physicians will not be able to practice medicine in the next century without computers. Individual hospitals and medical centers will have their own intranets, as will health care systems." Robert Trelstad,Professor and Chairman of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine,Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. THE TIME FACTOR: Southwestern’s M. David Low says medical school faculty may worry about development time for computer-based instruction. Most physicians and educators agree that computer

Seven months after he was hired as president of the Salk Institute, Thomas Pollard has finally settled in at the modernist scientific citadel with its legendary view of the Pacific Ocean. Photo: Jim Cox/The Salk Inst. FOCUSED MISSION: Thomas Pollard’s mandates are to bolster the endowment and improve scientific leadership. Pollard officially began in his post at the San Diego laboratory on July 1. After months of commuting, the scientist has finally moved from Baltimore, where he was ch