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PALAISEAU, FRANCE—France takes great pride in its mathematical tradition. But its position has slipped since the days of Blaise Pascal, Pierre Fermat, Evariste Galois and the fictitious Bourbaki. Frenchman have collected five of 30 Fields medals awarded by the International Mathematicians' Congress since 1950, but only one has come in the past 20 years. And the number of mathematicians has declined precipitously since the 1970s, triggering a shortage that threatens the country’s p

NEW YORK—Biotechnology companies that had been on the verge of going public are adjusting to the post-Black Monday shortage of public capital without the major layoffs and cutbacks that some analysts had predicted. Because such companies tend to be small, with heavy research investments and few proven products, some analysts saw them as particularly vulnerable to takeovers and restructurings in their search for cash. But for at least two firms that scuttled their plans for initial publi

Here is a book that belongs on the desk of every biomedical researcher in the United States: Building a Healthy America Conquering Disease and Disability Facts, Figures and Funding, edited by Terry L. Lierman. Lierman is president of Capitol Associates, Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based government relations firm specializing in health-related issues and funding. The volume, published last November, is the successor to a series of handbooks initiated by Mary Lasker, all entitled Killers and Cripple

LONDON - The Thatcher government has decided to scrap existing schemes to help individual companies commercialize their research, in favor of support for a long-term collaborative effort between universities and industries throughout Europe. At the same time it is adding $35 million to the budget of the Department of Trade and Industry for innovative programs, and plans to continue its support for new high tech firms. "The government should not take on responsibilities which are primarily tho

The Soviet government has informed AAAS that the following scientists will speak on these topics: Y. VELIKHOV, vice president, USSR Academy of Sciences, A review of Soviet progress in science; K. FROLOV vice president, USSR Academy of Sciences, head, machine study section; no title. E. SOKOLOV head, general biology section, USSR Academy of Sciences, The rational uses of biological resources and their protection; Zh. ALFEROV, director, Joffe Physical Technical Institute, The development of semi

New YORK - The Soviet Union is considering proposals for a new science agreement with the United States that would replace a 1972 agreement that was allowed to lapse. The new agreement could he the highlight of this summer's superpower summit, if the two sides are unable to complete work by that time on a treaty to cut in half the number of strategic nuclear weapons. Negotiations on a basic sciences agreement could begin within several weeks, according to Rd Mcsweegan a microbiologist at the Na

WASHINGTON - Japan, under pressure to open its labs to outsiders, may soon be inviting more than 300 additional foreign researchers, under programs approved last month by the nation's Finance Ministry. During a visit here last month, Prime Minister Noboru Takeashita offered $4.4 million to help finance long-term visits by U.S. scientists to Japan's government university and industrial labs. He suggested that the National Science Foundation pick the recipients. Charles T. Owens, a Japan special

Another valuable asset in community relations is the site itself. Encouraging curiosity and welcoming the public inside the factory fence brings two enormous benefits. First, visitors become familiar with what is going on in the factory. Meeting workers who are going about their jobs with confidence helps to allay unease about safety-chemical workers are ordinary people after all, with the normal human instincts for self- preservation. It is an important step for the public to realize that a c

The committee finds no evidence to suggest that learning occurs during verified sleep (confirmed by such [measurements] as electrical recordings of brain activity). However, waking perception and interpretation of verbal material could well be altered by presenting that material during the lighter stages of sleep. We conclude that the existence and degree of learning and recall of materials presented during sleep should be examined again as a basic research problem. Many studies have found t

Maier-Leibnitz is emeritus professor of physics at the Technical University Munich. His address is Pienzenauerstrasse 110, 8000 Munich 81, West Germany Based on an article in the Summer-Autumn 1986 issue of Minerva A Review of Science, Learning and Policy. See also "English Spoken Here," THE SCIENTIST,September 7, 1987, p. 9.

When the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science opens in Boston later this week, eight of its scores of sessions will deal with AIDS. That is far more attention than the meeting allocates to any other single topic. Even superconductivity, the glamour kid of science, gets only two. Despite all those days of discussion, judging by the condensed program available in advance of the meeting, the organizers have ignored a critical aspect of AIDS research: the safet

Scientists like to succeed. They like to get the results they hope for, to be recognized for what they have done. But they also know that the greatest success may come from something unexpected, including failure. For example, the failure of Michelson and Morley to detect ether drift was a magnificent failure, which upset classical physics and helped advance Einstein's revolutionary ideas. At the other extreme are the dismal failures that do nothing but consume time and energy and erode the sp