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During 13 years as director of the Office of Technology Assessment, the job of John H. Gibbons--President Bill Clinton's choice as White House science adviser--was largely a balancing act. He had to provide Congress with independent, authoritative analysis of technical and scientific questions while treading gingerly amid divergent political views, bureaucratic turf battles, and special-interest "stakeholders." Washington observers familiar with OTA's track record give Gibbons high marks for

Bio-Rad Microscience Division 19 Blackstone St.Cambridge, Mass. 02139 (800) 444-1422 Fax: (617) 864-9328 Leica Inc. 111 Deer Lake Rd. Deerfield, Ill. 60015 (800) 248-0123 Fax: (708) 405-0147 Meridian Instruments Inc. 2310 Science Pkwy. Okemos, Mich. 48864 (800) 247-8084 Fax: (517) 349-5967 Molecular Probes Inc. 4849 Pitchford Ave. Eugene, Ore. 97402 (503) 465-8300 Fax: (503) 344-6504 Molecular Dynamics Inc. 880 E. Arques Ave. Sunnyvale, Calif. 94086 (800) 333-5703 Fax: (408) 773-8343 Ni

Once the United States' builders of sky-riding nuclear bombs, the Department of Energy is now looking back at Earth to clean up the mess such decades-long efforts have left. Specifically, the agency is beginning to address environmental problems in the land beneath its 12 major weapons research, production, and test sites and related facilities. It is a huge effort; environmental management now commands the largest budget in the agency at $5.5 billion this year. But DOE may have problems findi

The 33 winners in the 11th annual Polaroid International Instant Photomicrography Competition were announced in early December. Prizes totaling $13,750 were awarded for images that best combined artistic beauty and useful scientific information. A panel of top microscopy experts selected the winners from nearly 600 entries from Australia, Austria, Canada, England, Germany, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the United States. The winning image was a 400X magnification of the feathery structure o

While salaries are on the upswing, the number of job opportunities is predicted to decline The coming of a new year, the establishment of a new presidential administration, and some encouraging signs of an economic upturn may yield professional gain for some in the science community. Nevertheless, research directors and human resource managers at United States biomedical research institutions say their approach to the hiring of scientists will remain cautious in 1993. Many add, however, tha

Researchers who stalk rare or fantastic creatures must endure the scorn of colleagues and funding agencies Physical anthropologist Grover Krantz sometimes fantasizes about flying his ultra-light aircraft over the Pacific Northwest on a warm spring day. Controls in one hand and an infrared heat detector in the other, Krantz scans the thawing ground-cover in search of the telltale heat of a rotting Bigfoot carcass. Bagging a body would be the ultimate evidence in a decades-old quest that has l

Executives and analysts see industry perking up, thanks to increases in product flow and supportive legislation The past year was a tumultuous one for the biotechnology industry, according to corporate executives and industry analysts. During 1992, the unprecedented level of financing that had been available in 1990 and 1991 virtually disappeared. Public biotech companies saw their stock lose nearly half its value from highs in January to lows at midyear. Landmark legislative decisions in fa

George Soros, a Hungarian-born investor active in promoting free and open societies in Central and Eastern Europe through his philanthropy, has announced a $100 million donation to support scientific research in the countries of the former Soviet Union. His donation will establish an International Science Foundation for the Former Soviet Union. Although details about the foundation's staff and procedures remained sketchy when Soros announced the donation at the National Academy of Sciences in

Burning Up The Track Scientists Say The Darndest Things Sunshine Science Clinical Training Prized Quarry Comparing Notes Beltway Fellows The feasibility of solar-powered cars will be on display when Sunrayce 93 takes place this summer. Starting in Texas on June 20 and going to Minnesota, the 1,000-mile, seven-day race is expected to draw hundreds of college students from 36 North American universities to determine who has designed the fastest and most efficient solar-powered vehicle. T

Clinton Tenure Nears Date: December 7, 1992 Science policy watchers in some cases are using terms such as "disastrous" and "devastating" to characterize cuts imposed by Congress on the Bush administration's budget request for the 1993 fiscal year. As the dust settles after months of budget wrangling on Capitol Hill, 1993 figures that have emerged from the fray appear to spell serious belt-tightening for the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and other major civili

Sciences Date: December 7, 1992 The energetic young field of computational biology is looking to the coming generation of massively parallel computers for its future, researchers say. These machines, enhanced by the contributions of computer scientists who are developing innovative programming tactics, will be crucial in allowing biological researchers to reach ambitious goals. "Parallel computers are going to let this field take off," says Andrew McCammon, a theoretical chemist at the Unive

Influence On Lab Research Date: December 7, 1992 For the scientists who won this year's Nobel prizes in chemistry and in physiology or medicine, a commanding citation record, as determined by the Philadelphia-based Institute for Scientific Information, was a clear indication that they were in the running for this most coveted award. The prize in physics, however, went to a French physicist at CERN whose citation history, although impressive, has not been nearly as meteoric as the other recipi