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New legislation designed to reward outstanding scientists might help to keep them in the Public Health Service ranks Attracting senior-level scientists to Public Health Service jobs in the Department of Health and Human Services and keeping them there has been tough over the past 10 years. Congressmen, policymakers, and other government officials contend that scientists have been leaving government service for better opportunities and agencies have had difficulty replacing them because thei

p.21 The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and the National Center for Nursing Research are offering Research Planning Grants to support the development of plans for research projects on the etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, treatment, cure, and prevention of diabetes mellitus and its complications in minority populations, with the exception of Native Americans and Alaskan natives. (These populations are covered under a separate program.) The research may involv

Philadelphia's Franklin Institute AUTHOR: Barbara Spector, p.23 AUTHOR:Rebecca Andrews, P.23 Philadelphia's Franklin Institute Geochemist James Lawrence Powell, who has been president of Reed College in Portland, Oreg., since 1988, will be leaving higher education administration to become president and chief executive officer of the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia. His appointment at the museum, which is heavily visited by schoolchildren, becomes effective in August. Po

NIH's new director isn't shy about stating her agency's needs, while NSF's new leader likes things the way they are WASHINGTON--Bernadine Healy, the new director of the National Institutes of Health, wants to shake things up. Walter Massey, the new director of the National Science Foundation, hopes to stay the course. If both wishes are fulfilled, scientists may see NIH becoming more active on a variety of issues, such as managing research dollars and promoting women, and NSF continuing to p

Martin Marietta Boosts Royalty Split SSC Magnets Attract Criticism PBS Series Looks At Astronomers Chips In The Edifice Of Science NSF Cleans Up Its Antarctic Act Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and four other DOE facilities operated by Martin Marietta Energy Systems in Tennessee, Ohio, and Kentucky will get higher royalties under a new policy adopted by the government contractor. Martin Marietta will now give inventors of licensed technology 15 percent of gross royalty recei

Academic and industrial researchers hold differing views on whether--and how severely--the chemistry profession is suffering Talk to academic chemists these days and they're likely to tell you they're worried. The anxiety they feel doesn't concern a difficult experiment; rather, they fear for the future of their profession. They see fewer United States college students majoring in chemistry. But they also see diminishing quality in the current crop of doctorates. They see unfilled job open

Former congressman Walgren, now a lobbyist, advises his clients to befriend lawmakers before advancing their own cause WASHINGTON--Scientists who feel frustrated because they can't get Congress to consider their remedies for what ails science can take a tip from a former legislator who is already sympathetic to their cause: Leave your data at home and start thinking instead about becoming friends with the congressional member whose ear you're trying to gain. Doug Walgren was such a frien

Critics encourage scientific societies to address the needs of women members by accommodating children at professional gatherings Last fall, Miriam Forman, director of professional programs for the American Physical Society, decided to break with tradition. At a major meeting of the society, held last month in Cincinnati, the children of the 2,000 members expected to attend would be as welcome as their parents. Forman contracted a company to run a five-day program for infants and childre

p.20 Federal agencies involved in studies of the brain and behavior are focusing increasingly on cognition. The National Institute of Mental Health plans to spend $3 million to support research to determine the behavioral principles and brain mechanisms of cognition. The National Institute on Aging is seeking applications for research and training in the neural and psychological mechanisms underlying cognition in aging. The NIMH program in cognition in mental health and mental disorders will a

Allan R. Sandage, an astronomer at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution, in Pasadena, Calif., has been chosen to receive the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences' 1991 Crafoord Prize. The $260,000 Crafoord Prize has been given annually, on a rotating basis, since 1982 for contributions in fields not recognized by the Nobel Prizes--mathematics, astronomy, geosciences, and biosciences. According to the award citation, Sandage was honored for his contributions to "the study of galaxies,

A secluded meeting at a New York estate offers the opportunity to talk openly and informally about science issues WASHINGTON--Top-level science advisers from a half-dozen nations, including the United States and the Soviet Union, recently held a weekend conference in the countryside near New York, The Scientist has learned. At least one participant has suggested that the late-February meeting could turn out to be the first in a series of regularly held gatherings of top international scien

p.4 A New Name For Cold Fusion Faisal Foundation Embraces Conservation Knocking Down The Doors Red Squirrel Redux The Patient Is Healthy The public may have long ago forgotten the phenomenon of cold fusion. And most of the scientific community never accepted what two University of Utah researchers said they had found two years ago when they applied an electric current to palladium rods wrapped in platinum coils and immersed in heavy water. But there is a core of researchers still on the