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WASHINGTON--NIH has balked at what would have been unprecedented funding of the Soviet component of collaborative research with a Soviet émigré now in the United States (The Scientist, April 2, 1990, page 1). But the scientist, geneticist Valery Soyfer, says that he'll be able to carry out most of the work by having his collaborator, molecular biologist Maxim Frank-Kamenet-skii, spend time in Soyfer's new laboratory at George Mason University. Persecuted and penniless in the Sovi

Is conservation enough? This new breed of scientists seeks to do more, repairing the harm done by man CHICAGO--As a boy in his native England, ecologist Stuart L. Pimm spent almost every weekend watching birds. As an adult, he abandoned the outdoors to take up such theoretical pursuits as modeling change in biological communities. But now the University of Tennessee ecologist is back on a birdwatch of a different sort, this time in the tropical underbrush of a small Pacific island near Guam.

ARGONNE, ILL.--Amy Moore, a junior at a suburban Chicago high school, wears a combination madras-and-faded-denim skirt and has zipper pulls hanging from her multipierced ears. She does well in science, is computer literate, and wants to be an astronautical engineer. She's not sure what first piqued her interest in space, but she knows what influenced her career choice. "The "Challenger accident aggravated me to no end," says Moore. "I never want to see anything like that again. I don't want to

Does university management foster free inquiry at national weapons labs, or does it inhibit the university's own academic freedom? That's the question University of California Regents will face in September when they vote on a proposed renewal of the university's current contract to manage Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories for the Department of Energy. Although opponents of the nuclear arms race have long fought the university's 40-year oversight of the labs, faculty oppo

The successful growth of human brain cells in a dish already has some researchers pondering commercial applications WASHINGTON - When a team of neuroscientists at Johns Hopkins Medical School made headlines this past May for establishing a colony of human neurons that divide and grow in a petri dish, they may have launched a new era on the business side - as well as the science side - of neurobiology. The Johns Hopkins team, headed by Solomon Snyder, reported its achievement in the journal Sc

Despite praise from Congress, others charge that his single-minded drive for bigger budgets alienated many scientists WASHINGTON - Muted by the uproar following the removal of Bassam Shakhashiri as head of the directorate for science and engineering education at the National Science Foundation is the applause of many scientists who are glad to see him gone. "There aren't any tears being shed around here, I can promise you that," says one NSF program officer. "Most of us see it as a chance to

Genetic engineers at Crop Genetics and Mycogen place hopes on two different strategies for pest control Like Babe Ruth, John Henry sees himself as a slugger. The president and CEO of Crop Genetics International of Hanover, Md., Henry is going for a grand slam in his field of pest control: a genetically designed biopesticide against the European corn borer, a pest that munches $500 million worth of corn annually in the United States. In contrast to his heavy-hitting strategy are the efforts of

Watching Their Wallets The rankings of 1989's top 100 spenders on industrial R&D suggests that the R&D slowdown in the U.S. has begun to reach the labs of industry leaders. Technical Insights, Inc., the Englewood, N.J., firm that publishes Inside R&D, a weekly newsletter, finds in its latest annual survey that last year the top 100, headed by General Motors, increased research spending by 8.7 percent, after posting spending gains of 10.7 percent the previous year. Charles Joslin, editor ofInsid

Speakers' Fund For Women Geoscientists The Association for Women Geoscientists has received a $9,000 grant for three years from Phillips Petroleum to fund travel costs of members serving as speakers. The AWG Speakers Bureau maintains a list of 120 nationally recognized women geoscientists who are available for speaking engagements. Nonprofit, nongovernment organizations needing speakers to discuss geoscience topics can apply. Up to $300 in direct travel costs is available. The deadline for appl

Max Cooper, director of the Division of Developmental and Clinical Immunology in the Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and Jacques Miller, head of the Thymus Biology Unit at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, recently received a share of the first $100,000 Sandoz Prize for Immunology. The prize, to be given biennially by the Basel, Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company, encourages research in basic cellular, d

Harry B. Gray, Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, has been named winner of the 1991 Priestley Medal, the American Chemical Society's highest honor. Gray's research has focused on inorganic photochemistry and artificial photosynthetic systems. In addition, he has conducted research on electronic structures of iron- and copper-containing proteins, and on chemical reactions that involve transfers of electrons between metal centers in proteins. In Ma

A conflict-of-interest case demonstrates that she lacks the power to enforce guidelines on post-employment contact WASHINGTON - Last year the National Science Foundation broke its own rule that bars former employees from discussing a potential grant or contract with foundation officials for at least one year. But when NSF's new inspector general blew the whistle on the infringement, agency officials in effect shrugged their shoulders and promised to do better the next time around. The case of