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Discussions of such disturbing national health issues as the reemergence of tuberculosis and cholera are among the highlights of the American Society for Microbiology's 93rd general meeting. At press time, an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 microbiologists were expected to attend the five-day conference, May 16-20, at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. The meeting is expected to feature some 3,000 scientific presentations--a mixture of lectures, seminars, presentations, and poster session

BU Professor Wins FASEB Women's Science Award Citing the 22 years it took for her to gain tenure as a university professor, neuroendocrinologist Susan Leeman notes that her professional life has not been free of frustration. And she attributes much of this frustration to the fact that she is a woman. Moreover, the 63-year-old Leeman, recent winner of the Women's Excellence in Science Award, presented by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), says the career pat

Citing the 22 years it took for her to gain tenure as a university professor, neuroendocrinologist Susan Leeman notes that her professional life has not been free of frustration. And she attributes much of this frustration to the fact that she is a woman. Moreover, the 63-year-old Leeman, recent winner of the Women's Excellence in Science Award, presented by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), says the career path for women in science today is not much easier t

The space station Freedom project, which underwent its most recent redesign in 1991, will face outright cancellation by Congress unless it can come up with yet a new design that cuts development and deployment costs in half, according to officials of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. At the behest of Vice President Al Gore, a blue-ribbon advisory panel, chaired by Massachusetts Institute of Technology president Charles Vest, is working with the space agency to work up options

Notebook Modern Genetics Turns 40 The scientific community recently marked the 40th anniversary of the discovery of the world's most famous molecule, the DNA double helix, as dozens of molecular biologists traveled to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York to help its discoverers, James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick, celebrate. The pair shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1962 for their discovery of the messenger of genetic information, which they produced in 1953 at th

The best research in medical informatics necessarily draws on many types of training, and, perhaps for this reason, it sometimes goes by slightly different names. "Some of the labs around the country that do similar things to what we do would call their labs biomedical engineering," says Nunzia Giuse, a research assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. "Or they would call it artificial intelligence in medicine. You also find informaticians, people who ha

Progress Or A Journal Publishing Face-Off? Author: RON KAUFMAN, p.1,6,22.. Early this year, the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE) was officially established to provide molecular evolutionary biologists with information about their field. Just two months later, a different group of scientists formed the International Society of Molecular Evolution (ISME) with a similar mission. While both societies claim that the advancement of their discipline was an important motivation for

At its members' meeting on April 13 in Research Triangle Park, N.C., the Association of Biotechnology Companies (ABC) voted unanimously to merge with the Industrial Biotechnology Association (IBA), forming a new group called the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). The merger becomes official July 1. IBA members had also unanimously endorsed the merger at their meeting in February (Notebook, The Scientist, March 8, 1993, page 4). "I expected a strong vote, but I never expected unanim

The ability of David Kessler, the 41-year-old commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, to survive the purge of Bush appointees by the Clinton administration is an achievement being greeted with praise by some in the pharmaceutical, food, and biotechnology industries; and measured disappointment by some manufacturers of medical devices. Kessler was asked to retain his position by the Clinton administration in February. He took the reins of the agency in December 1990, and at that tim

Growing awareness of environmental challenges keeps employment outlook relatively bright in this diverse research area According to experts in this professional market, there is reason for optimism based on a combination of factors--mostly a heightened public concern about environmental threats along with stepped-up vigilance by environment-monitoring governmental agencies. Robert Baillod, professor and head of the department of civil and environmental engineering at Michigan Technological Un

Praise for some of her achievements is tempered by ongoing concern over future NIH strategies What will be the long-term impact of Bernadine Healy's brief two years as the first woman director of the National Institutes of Health? With her recently announced resignation, effective June 30, the fate of projects and issues she has pressed for or influenced becomes less clear. Among these are her creation of a women's health office at the institutes, her development of a strategic plan for NIH re

Smarter consumership and rigid demands from investors leave little room for fuzzy thinking in entrepreneurial plans Despite recent setbacks in drug approvals, the mounting campaign for cost-cutting in the health care industry, and ongoing tribulations in the United States and global financial markets, the domestic biotechnology startup world is apparently holding its own. As the industry at large matures, analysts say, new entrants are learning from the highly publicized mistakes of their pr