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Laying It On With A Shovel Walking Away From Trouble Feeling Insecure About National Security GAO: NASA Flunks Physical Molecular biologist David Baltimore, president of Rockefeller University and former director of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, returned to MIT last month for a "rededication" of the institute. Baltimore, who has taken heat from Congress for his role in defending a former colleague, immunologist Thereza Ima

CLOSE-UP -- J. Leslie Glick (The Scientist, Vol:5, #2, pg. 8, January 21, 1991) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) ---------- J. Leslie Glick, president and chief executive officer of Bionix Inc. of Potomac, Md., insists that he never really intended to start a neurospecialty company. "I essentially had decided to retire," recalls the 68-year-old biologist and biotech executive. "But there are only so many museums in Washington, and I wanted to do something that would benefit the

An agency report suggests merit review revisions that would simplify proposals, extend grant duration, and give staff more autonomy WASHINGTON--A report of an in-house panel that examined peer review at the National Science Foundation proposes drastic remedies for what it says is an overburdened and inefficient system of selecting and awarding grants. Its recommendations--longer-term grants, more autonomy for program officers and less reliance on outside reviewers, fewer categories of grants,

Dozens of research teams vie for a vast commercial market awaiting those who discover how to protect the body against itself BOSTON--A decade ago, disorders like Graves' disease, myasthenia gravis, and systemic lupus erythematosus--diseases in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissues--were mysteries that eluded reliable or effective treatment. Too little was known about how the immune system works and, consequently, why it goes awry in these diseases. But research during the past

A husband-and-wife team and their biotech firm rush to develop medicine that will stop allergic reactions before they even begin The allergy market is nothing to sneeze at. Consumers spend millions of dollars annually on medications to treat symptoms of allergic reactions. But at least one small biotechnology company is hoping to make this market disappear. Nancy and Tse Wen Chang and their Houston company, Tanox Biosystems Inc., appear to be front-runners in this first leg of a race to creat

Although $12 billion a year is spent in the U.S. for pet food and care, research funding for companion animal health falls short Three-year-old Jessie, her gums white from blood loss, was rushed, hemorrhaging and near death, to the emergency room of a Canadian hospital. Test results showed that she was suffering from massive ulcers brought on by an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medication she had been given to treat a hip condition. After a surgeon at the hospital removed the largest ulce

Howard A. Schneiderman, 63, chief scientist and senior vice president of the St. Louis-based Monsanto Co., died December 5 of complications associated with leukemia. Schneiderman came to Monsanto in 1979 from the University of California, Irvine, where he was dean of the school of biological sciences and director of the Center for Pathobiology. He conducted research in developmental biology and genetics, including growth control, congenital malformations, and cancer. Under Schneiderman's direc

Orville Vogel, professor emeritus of agronomy and soil at Washington State University, and Hilary Koprowski, director of the Wistar Institute, received the 1990 John Scott Awards at a November 27 ceremony. The awards, given by the city of Philadelphia's Board of Directors of City Trusts, recognize men and women whose inventions have contributed to the "comfort, welfare and happiness" of mankind. Vogel, 82, was honored for his breeding of semidwarf wheats, which helped spawn the "green revoluti

The Inamori Foundation of Japan has awarded the 1990 Kyoto Prize for Advanced Technology to Sydney Brenner, director of the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, for lifetime achievements in molecular biology research. The Kyoto Prizes, Japan's highest international awards, are given each year in three categories: advanced technology, basic sciences, and creative arts and moral sciences. The latter two were won by British primate researcher Jane Gooda

Joseph Prospero has been named director of the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (CIMAS) at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. Prospero, an atmospheric chemist who formerly was chairman of Rosenstiel's Division of Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry, is a specialist in the global-scale properties of aerosols. CIMAS, a joint program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Miami, brings together

Ronald C. Davidson, professor of physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1978, has been named director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). Funded by the United States Department of Energy, PPPL operates on an annual budget of nearly $100 million. Research at the laboratory focuses on the creation of energy from the fusion of hydrogen nuclei confined by magnetic fields. Davidson's new position began on January 1. Davidson joined the physics faculty of MIT in 1978,

An epidemiologist's move to attend a closed meeting spurs debate over freedom of information versus the right to privacy WASHINGTON--No grant applicant had ever tried to breach the sanctity of an advisory council at the National Institutes of Health--until last summer, when University of Texas epidemiologist Darwin Labarthe knocked on the door. Notwithstanding the closed-door policy of the outside panel that advises the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Labarthe told the NHLBI directo