The Scientist - Home

Bruce G. Buchanan Department of Computer Science University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pa. " Two methods have been developed for efficiently processing bit strings: compactly encoding the strings (for example, wing lengths of runs of 0's and 1's) and processing the strings on multiple machines in parallel. A recent article describes a combination of the two techniques and makes suggestions for generalizing this method to two-dimensional digitized pictures. A.Y. Wu, A. Rosenfield. "Parallel pr

Ron Magold Medical Products Department E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. Wilmington, Del. " Modifications in cyclopropyl iminium ion rearrangements have led to the new synthetically versatile methodology. Total synthesis of (+)-Lycorine has been used to exemplify this elegant method. R.K. Boeckman, S.W. Goldstein, M.A. Walters, "Synthetic studies of the cyclopropyl iminium ion rearrangement. Part 3. Application of the cyclopropyl acyliminium ion rearrangement to a concise and highly convergent s

Recent figures show that of approximately 21,500 engineering professors in the U.S., only 200 are black, only 300 are Hispanic, and only 400 are female. The GE Foundation of Fairfield, Conn., is doing its best to change those demographics for the next generation of scientists by committing $35 million to two programs, one aimed at doubling the number of college-bound students from inner-city schools by the year 2000, and the other hoping to double minority faculty in science and engineering.

Several years after inventing an instrument capable of both measuring a cell's direction of motion and determining which parts of the cell are shifting forward, David Soll, University of Iowa biologist and cell motion expert, just isn't satisfied with the two-dimensional tool. He and colleague Edward Voss have embarked on a project to create a viewing system that will allow scientists to look at cells in three dimensions. Soll sees a need for such an instrument because, "A living cell placed

When one of the most widely used methods in the analytical laboratory also tops the lists of least-loved jobs, there has to be room for improvement. And for many years, this has been the situation with the Kjeldahl method for nitrogen (or protein nitrogen) analysis. Now 105 years old, this mainstay technology of many chemists in food laboratories has proved its worth for several reasons. First, unlike more modern instrument-based methods, the Kjeldahl method can be used on large sample sizes

Veterinarian Honored For Work On Identifying Cattle Leukemia Virus Kay Asay Herbert Oberlander George Papavizas Robert Webster As a result of a crucial discovery in the 1970s, veterinarian Janice M. Miller has helped the United States livestock industry stay competitive in world markets today. Her finding: that a virus causes leukemia in cattle. The result: a diagnostic test to detect the virus. In recognition of the breakthrough, Miller was recently selected as the 1988 Distinguis

The Department of Energy and the University of California have gone on the offensive to head off an effort by antinuclear activists to end a 45-year relationship between the state university and the nation's nuclear weapons laboratories. DOE, in an attempt to appease university faculty who are unhappy with the labs, has added $5 million to the system's current five-year contract to operate Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos national labs, with the money going to non-nuclear research and a campu

NIH officials are smiling broadly because of last month's report by the Institute of Medicine. The report prescribes higher salaries and greater administrative flexibility as cures for NIH's inability to attract and retain top-quality researchers. In addition, the report not only rejects an earlier executive branch suggestion that NIH's intramural program be privatized, but it also gives the program a badly needed pat on the back. "We're very pleased," says NIH director James Wyngaarden. "It'

Paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson's biggest claim to scientific fame is his discovery 14 years ago of "Lucy," a three-million-year-old fossil hominid, our possible ancestor. Now, Johanson, the director of the Institute for Human Origins in Berkeley, wants to make a name for Lucy and himself in a totally different field - toys, subspecies educational. Under Johanson's direction, E.T. designer Jonathan Horton and museum exhibit designer Kevin O'Farrell have already fashioned prototype "action

Volume 3, #2The Scientist January 23, 1989 UNIVERSITY BRIEFS Scientists Take To The Silver Screen When movie director Roland Joffé set out to chronicle the dawn of the Atomic Age, he sent out an unusual casting call. Rather than use actors to portray most of the Los Alamos physicists of the 1940s, he decided that only real scientists would do. So he and his crew passed around the word at several universities, and he soon recruited 50 scientists, engineers, and physician

U.S. industry produces nearly 300 million tons of hazardous waste annually, and spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year trying to treat it, carry it away, bury it, or otherwise get rid of it. And as the amont of waste--and the cost of dealing with it--rises, corporate America is beginning to search for a better approach. Increasingly, industry is shifting its attention from treating and storing what comes out of the "pipe," to reducing the amount of waste produced in the first place.

"One of the big problems we had in venture capitalism was that in order to check an idea, you had to start a company," says David Rammler. But no more. Rammler, an organic chemist-turned-financier who has been involved with eight startups and is a former director of research in the Institute for Molecular Biology at Syntex Corp., solved that problem a year ago by forming a venture capital firm that employs more scientists than MBAs--and which thoroughly tests ideas from potential scientist/en