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New Ph.D.'s are at a 10-year low as cultural and educational obstacles keep blacks from careers in science and engineering As ambitions go, Nola Campbell's do not seem grandiose. The senior at Roosevelt High School in Washington, D.C., just wants to get a Ph.D. in chemistry and become a scientist. But the odds are against her, for one simple reason: Campbell is black. The statistics paint a bleak picture of her chances. In 1987 only 222 blacks received Ph.D.s in the sciences and engineering

Bernard Dixon European Editorial Office The Scientist Uxbridge, U.K. " One source of unease about the deliberate release of genetically engineered microbes for agricultural and other applications is the inadequacy of present techniques for monitoring the movement of certain types of organism. The answer: gene probes, which also provide new information about the relations between different groups of bacteria. T.C. Hazen, L. Jimenez, "Enumeration and identification of bacteria from environment

Frank A. Wilczek School of Natural Sciences Institute for Advanced Study Princeton, N.J. " Some of the most subtle and surprising manifestations of quantum mechanics involve the appearance of phase factors as particles wind around another. The prototype of this is the Aharonov-Bohm effect, whereby charged particles are deflected as they orbit around a solenoid, even though there is no force acting. Similar ideas appear in the theory of quark confinement and in the theory of fractional statist

Peter J. Smith Department of Earth Sciences Open University Milton Keynes, U.K. " A search in Zimbabwe has revealed detrital zircon grains up to 3,800 million years old. Although older than any dated Zimbabwean rocks, they are, disappointingly, much younger than the precrustal zircons of Western Australia (4,200 million years old). M.H. Dodson, W. Compston, I.S. Williams, J.F. Wilson, "A search for ancient detrital zircons in Zimbabwean sediments," Journal of the Geological Society, 145 (6),

Francisco J. Ayala Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of California, Irvine Irvine, Calif. " The pelvis of Lucy, a three-million-year-old hominid, reveals that she was already quite adept at walking upright. Bipedality evolved very early in human evolution because it enabled males to nurture a family: It freed their hands to carry food. C.O. Lovejoy, "Evolution of human walking," Scientific American, 259 (5), 118-25, November 1988. " The oldest fossil record of terres

The National Institute of Mental Health, expanding its study of several new AIDS-related issues, has budgeted a total of $34.4 million for five programs in 1989, plus $2.1 million for training programs. The expanded research initiatives are: behavior change and prevention strategies to reduce transmission of HIV; the risk of HIV infections in severely mentally ill persons; measurement of and clinical treatment for HIV-related mental disorders; central nervous system effects of HIV (neurobiolo

Are you thinking of buying a new computer because your IBM PC or compatible is too slow - and are you also finding it difficult to justify a $3,000 expense just for an increase in processing speed? For those scientists looking for extra speed, but not ready to invest in a new machine, a very practical alternative exists: Add-on cards are available that will speed up any IBM PC or compatible so that it runs even faster than an IBM AT. Commonly called "accelerator cards" or "speedup boards," th

The rhesus monkey ambles over to the side of its cage and reaches up to a blue metal box strapped to the bars. With a long finger it touches a metal bar protruding from the box. Five touches . . .10 . . .15 - and a small white pellet rolls out into a slot. The monkey fishes out the banana-flavored snack and pops it into its mouth. Then it presses a second metal bar and the voice of Willie Nelson fills the room: "Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys. . ." No, this scene at the Uni

The rhesus monkey ambles over to the side of its cage and reaches up to a blue metal box strapped to the bars. With a long finger it touches a metal bar protruding from the box. Five touches . . .10 . . .15 - and a small white pellet rolls out into a slot. The monkey fishes out the banana-flavored snack and pops it into its mouth. Then it presses a second metal bar and the voice of Willie Nelson fills the room: "Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys. . ." No, this scene at the Uni

Ever wonder what happens to those bright-eyed science and engineering undergraduates who come to Washington each summer as interns to learn how policy is really made? Well, for at least one recent intern, a summer in Washington led to a high-profile job with the Bush transition team. Bradley Mitchell, 26, who was sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers in 1984, has become the presidential transition team officer to NSF, NASA, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. His job a

Volume 3, #1The Scientist January 9, 1989 UNIVERSITY BRIEFS Astronomer Pins Hopes On His Star Appeal Exhausted by the hunt for research funds? Disgusted with departmental politics? Take heart, there may be an alternative. Witness the tale of Canadian astronomer Bruce Campbell. For four years, Campbell toiled at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, British Columbia. But chronic underfunding made it impossible for the observatory to offer him a permanent positio

Editor's note: The Scientist talked at length with four black scientists and aspiring researchers about the problems they have faced living in a culture that offers them little or no encouragement to become professional scientists. The individuals stand at vastly different stages of their careers and pursue different fields, and their experiences vary dramatically. But their stories illuminate the problems facing black scientists in the United States, and hint at possible solutions. SHIRLEY JA