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WEST BERLIN--The West German government has proposed a ban on the creation of human embryos for research and measures to determine the sex of fetuses developed by artificial insemination. Scientific organizations see the legislation as a threat to all research in the field. Justice Minister Hans Englehard and Health Minister Rita Süssmuth and Minister of Research and Technology Heinz Riesenhuber have been asked to prepare a draft of what is being called an embryo protection bill. It fol

Toronto--Canada faces a bleak future without a large increase in federal spending on science, according to a new report prepared for Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. The National Advisory Board on Science and Technology, composed of academic, labor and industry leaders, found that Canada ranked last among eight industrial countries in several aspects of scientific achievement. Those areas included overall and industrial R&D spending as a percentage of gross domestic product, international pate

LONDON--Glaxo, the British pharmaceutical giant, plans to build a new research and development laboratory in Japan that would employ up to 300 scientists and support staff. The center, to be completed by the early 1990s on the outskirts of Tokyo, will assume responsibility for drug trials in that country. The company’s investment in research rose by 51 percent in the second half of 1987, according to chairman Sir Paul Girolami.

WASHINGTON--Between 12,000 and 14,000 scientists are expected to attend the 88th annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) in Miami Beach next week. The six-day meeting, which begins Sunday, May 8, will feature 315 sessions (including poster sessions), exhibits by more than 300 companies, a placement service and a special student science day. Also, ASM’s Committee on Continuing Education of the Board of Education and Training is sponsponsoring 24 advance workshops for

Switching jobs is a wrenching experience for anyone. But biotech scientists who move to a competitor face the added strain of a possible suit if they can take their knowledge with them. The problem is highlighted in a case brought by Genentech, the San Francisco biotechnology company. The suit, filed February 8, accuses five former employees of misappropriating trade secrets relating to TPA, the company’s blockbuster, new drug to dissolve blood clots, and other recombinant proteins after

WASHINGTON--The $3.3 billion increase in spending for science and space programs proposed by the administration for 1989 is shrinking rapidly as it begins to make its way through Congress. On March 17 the House Budget Committee sliced the request in half. But the panel’s non-binding reductions in spending authority varied greatly by agency. The National Science Foundation, for example, received $300 million of its $330 million increase, while the $400 million increase for general scienc

Washington--Limited oppotunities for proprietary research, an inability to copyright and license software and institutional red tape are major obstacles in transferring technology from federal laboratories to U.S. industry according to a new report from the General Accounting Office. The report examined 10 laboratories operated by six government agencies, raging from the Air Force’s Lincoln Laboratory to the National Institutes of Health. Interviews with lab officials found that a major

Under Erich Bloch, who was appointed director of the National Science Foundation in 1984, the agency has broadened its activities beyond its traditional support of individual laboratories and researchers. Bloch has strengthened NSF’S engineering component and put greater emphasis on on industry university cooperation, including the establishment of research centers around the country as the focus for advanced study in areas ranging from computers to exotic materials to basic biology. He a

Editor’s note: This is the final article in a three-part series on utilities for IBM PCs or compatibles. The first part, on enhancing input! output operations, appeared Feb- ruary 8, 1987, P. 22. The second, on DOS utilities, appeared March 21, 1988, p. 14. In this final installment, I’ll consider the so-called desktop utilities, (not to be confused with the term desktop publishing). When SIDEKICK first came out in 1984, it used the desktop metaphor in an attractive way. Just as y

Borland International 4585 Scotts Valley Drive Scotts Valley, CA 95066 (408) 438-5300 Price: $167. Student version: $39.95. Requirements: IBM PC/XT/AT or compatible. 384 K RAM. PC DOS or MS DOS 2.0 or later. Also available for Macintosh. Eureka was designed for the popular market. It’s easy to use, nice to look at and fun to play with. Like many of Borland’s products, its appearance is spectacular. Eureka is oriented toward business applications, but certainly has many scientific a

Holy trinity of software. beware! Move over spreadsheet data base handler and word processor. Make room for the equation solver, the simulation/prediction program for those who live by the numbers. What is an equation solver? Basically, it's: a software package that will do complex mathematical computations without being programmed by the user. Most solvers are more than just souped-up calculators. In addition to built-in trig functions, step functions, math routines, etc., they can plot cal

Universal Technical Systems, Inc. 1220 Rock Street Rockford, IL 61101-1437 (813) 963-2220 Price: $395. Student version: $44.95 (sold through McGraw-Hill). Requirements: IBM PC/XT/AT or compatible. 512 K RAM. Dual floppy/ hard disk. DOS 2.0 or later. TK!Solver, the oldest equation solver, hit the market in 1984. It had a brief moment of glory as the first of its kind, but, burdened with a difficult and confusing user interface, it never achieved widespread use. Universal Technical Systems sa