The Scientist - Home

Corporate restructurings are forcing some U.S. companies to curtail R&D spending even as they are being urged to increase such investments to remain competitive. Many companies, saddled by the massive debts often involved in such transactions, are having "to change their business strategy from long-term to shorter-term cash flow, which can't help but have an adverse effect on R&D," said Roland W. Schmitt, senior vice president and chief scientist at General Electric and chairman of NSF's Nationa

WASHINGTON—President Reagan's decision to support the construction of a Superconducting Supercollider (SSC) may be the most significant step in its long history. But the January 30 announcement is far from the last word on the subject. A host of unresolved issues remain, from its high price and its uncertain return to its impact on the scientific community in the United States and around the world. Politics is sure to play a major role in choosing the site, including the value of support f

For psychiatrist David A. Hamburg, an early interest in biobehavioral aspects of stress and aggression has broadened to embrace many issues in education, health and public policy. After brief stints at Walter Reed Army Institute of Medical Research and as chief of the adult psychiatry branch at the National Institute of Mental Health, he established the psychiatry department at Stanford University's medical school in 1961. Hamburg left Stan-ford in 1975 to become president of the Institute of Me

WASHINGTON—Financial problems have claimed another victim in the science publishing field. The National Academy of Sciences has decided to fold its quarterly journal, Issues in Science and Technology. "Issues just hasn't been able to attract the audience needed to make it financially successful," said Pepper Leeper, a spokeswoman for the Academy. "It never really broke even," she added, declining to release figures. The 2 ½-year-old journal, aimed at scientists and an informed public,

PALMERSTON NORTH, N.Z.—The head of the major trade union representing scientists and technologists in Britain has denounced "the failure of successive British governments, particularly the present Conservative administration, to provide sufficient funds for science and for R&D, or to take a positive lead in drawing up a national strategy for science." Speaking at the ANZAAS Congress here last month, Clive Jenkins, general secretary of the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial

PARIS—The recent decision by the French government to ban for three years any genetic manipulation of the human embryo within the country's leading research centers follows a recommendation from its own expert committee on bioethical questions. The ability to shape public policy has been a hallmark of the committee since it was formed in 1983. Its report, denouncing a "zeal to procreate" among some segments of society, warned that current advances in genetics could be exploited in eugenics

BOSTON—The company that agreed to market the world's first genetically engineered pseudorabies livestock vaccine has charged the vaccine's developer with "fraudulent misrepresentation" of the vaccine's safety and efficacy. According to a claim filed November 13 in U.S. District Court in Houston, TechAmerica Group Inc. would not have entered into its agreement with Novagene Ltd. "had it known the truth with regard to such statements, representations and omissions" in the data presented on t

FRANKFURT—The message from last month's national elections is that the environmental Green party can no longer be dismissed as a temporary phenomenon. But it is still too soon to know whether it can translate its electoral gains into an ability to influence government policies on scientific research. Part of that answer lies in whether the Greens join with the Social Democrats (SPD) and succeed in incorporating their views into formal opposition to the ruling coalition of Christian Democra

NEW YORK—A 200-gallon aquarium isn't much to brag about. But the tank, together with workstations, microscopes, displays and a helpful staff, have made quite a splash at the new New York Hall of Science in Queens. The aquarium is one of more than 100 exhibits at the museum, which formally reopened its doors last fall after a five-year, $9 million renovation and a summer-long dress rehearsal. Like the museum itself, the aquarium exhibit is designed to "bring the microscope into the macrosco

WASHINGTON—Maxine Frank Singer, chief of the biochemistry laboratory at NIH's National Cancer Institute, has been named the next president of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Singer, a molecular biologist, will succeed James Ebert, who has been president since 1978. Founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1902, the private, nonprofit Institution has an annual budget of $16 million. It supports research in biology, astronomy and the earth sciences by 60 scientists and 120 fellows at five cente

SANTA FE, N.M.—The Department of Energy believes robotics and other automated processes can free molecular biologists from much of the tedious work now performed manually in their laboratories. But responses among the 160 scientists, technicians and research administrators who attended a workshop on the subject here last month suggest the department needs to work on its sales pitch. The three-day meeting was organized by Tony Beugelsdijk, a chemist specializing in laboratory robotics at Lo

LONDON—Proponents of nuclear power received a boost recently with the recommendation of a government panel to build a pressurized water reactor at Sizewell in Suffolk. The 3,000-page report, written by Sir Frank Layfield, a planning lawyer, is the product of a four-year inquiry into the subject. Rob Campbell, the managing director of Babcock Power, a manufacturer of steam generators, said the report "signals the light at the end of the tunnel" after a decade of anti-nuclear protests. The p