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No one believes that science is always objective. But how much are the ideas, experiments, and even conclusions of science shaped by the surrounding culture? Social scientist Kalim Siddiqui, director of the Muslim Institute in London, wants to know. So he has invited Islamic scientists working outside the Muslim world— he estimates there are 500,000 of them—to attend a conference in London this winter to examine the question. Siddiquis own opinion is that modern science is ‘l

The dispute itself isn’t unique: three scientists are accused of stealing trade secrets after they left a research institute for positions in industry. But this dispute is taking place in China, where the outcome may have an important impact on the future of entrepreneurship in a state-controlled economy. The China Research Institute for Printing Science and Technology has accused three senior researchers of taking with them their work on advanced typesetting software when they accepted

{WantNoCacheVal} Imreg Rushes To Gain Approval Each day, more than a dozen clerks rustle through stacks of patient records as they photocopy, compile, and review an estimated 28,000 documents. The documents record data from clinical testing of what could, if approved by the FDA, be a new treatment for AIDS patients. The clerks are part of a small, highly motivated team employed by Imreg Inc., New Orleans. The tiny company is heatedly engaged in filing a new drug application for its promising I

California, home to almost one-third of the nation’s biotech firms, is eager for more. The state’s universities and venture capitalists have proven successful at nourishing nascent companies; now its Department of Commerce is joining the effort. Its advertising slogan, placed this spring in four magazines for scientists, urges: “Come to California and bring your genes.” But it isn’t all slick public relations—the agency also offers a free, 200-page report p

The American Association of University Professors in Washington, D.C., has watched in alarm as Britain prepares to eliminate tenure from higher education as part of the government’s Education Reform Bill (The Scientist, June 27,1988, page 21). The organization has passed the following resolution: “AAUP notes with great concern the intention of the British government to abolish the system of academic tenure in all United Kingdom universities. We deplore the governments’ dis

Give Iowa State An ‘A’ For Altered Genes What can a university do when it plunges into agricultural biotechnology research in a big way—but doesn’t want the public to fear the field-testing of experimental products? Iowa State trotted out the genetics primer. This summer, the university devoted its annual teacher education program to genetic engineering, bringing high school teachers up to date on biotechnology and helping them design lesson plans for their students. Ov

Case One: The Molecular biologist who refuses to believe that AIDS is caused by a virus BERKELEY, CALIF.—On a Saturday early in April, as Washington’s famous cherry trees began to blossom, eight of the nation’s top AIDS researchers gathered at George Washington University for a special meeting. But they weren’t there to discuss their latest findings, or to devise new strategies for fighting the deadly disease, or even to enjoy the Washington spring. Instead, says Berke

DOD dollars have been stripped from California and Massachusetts in behalf of heartland science. WASHINGTON—Last fall, Caltech mechanical engineer Frank Marble was due to receive $500,000 from the Department of Defense to study the fuel dynamics of the hypersonic aerospace plane. It was to be the second installment in a three-year, $1.75 million award under the Defense Department’s new University Research Initiative—a program designed to support on campus. research with pote

Thanks to physicist Don Braben, the oil giant funds Nobeists and little-known scientists when no one will LONDON—Harvard chemist Dudley Herschbach was reading a copy of Physics Today one day in 1981 when he came across an article on quantum chromodynamics. It explained how physicists use dimensional contraction to calculate the energy levels of subatomic particles. Intrigued, the soon-to-be Nobel laureate thought this might make a good exercise for his chemistry students to apply to atom

The baffling battle over Unix: Why would IBM team up with its arch rivals? Is its software consortium bluffing AT&T? Unix. After years of learning incompatible sets of commands and rewriting programs for each new computer, scientists thought they saw relief on the way. Computer workstations of all stripes run Unix. Cray-2 supercomputers run Unix. Even Apple Computer has introduced a version of the AT&T Bell Labs-developed system for its Macintosh II. Hosanna? Not yet. In the middie of May, s

Are science and technology being shortchanged in the current presidential race? So far, the campaign has focused on past policies and mistakes, not future directions. The talk about tomorrow has been nothing more than stirring rhetoric about making the United States great again, bringing it back, and other equally vague promises. Missing is any specific debate about science and technology (see The Scientist, June 27, 1988, page 1). Both George Bush and Michael Dukakis are “for” t

At every level of decision making in the federal government, scientific and technological factors have become increasingly important. This is true in fields ranging from educational policy to basic and applied research strategy, from trade negotiations to arms control policy, and from defense to health related issues. Therefore, it is in the interest of the nation to have a cadre of scientists and engineers helping to make key decisions. Yet, we have a dearth of scientists and engineers in im