The events observed in the beta-carotene experiment ("Cancer Prevention," Hot Papers, The Scientist, 12[10]:11, May 11, 1998) were interesting but not unexpected. While the beta-carotene and vitamin A were given at a good dosage (30 mg beta-carotene and 25,000 IU of vitamin A), there is no indication that any of the other vitamins were supplied to the subjects. It's likely that they only had the trivial amounts specified in the RDA. The choice of dosage for their study was probably based on mo

Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency became embroiled in controversy over the question of using results from Nazi scientists. An agency report had included data from experiments conducted on French prisoners investigating the toxicity of phosgene. Once the fact became known, the response was swift; 22 EPA scientists petitioned the agency administrator, Lee Thomas, to expunge the offending data from the report, and Thomas obligingly complied. When I read about the ruckus in t

A couple of decades ago most chemists could be assured that if they did a good job in the research organization of a profitable company they could look forward to continued employment until nor mal retirement age. Nowadays that is no longer the case. In scores of situations in recent years—involving companies as diverse as du Pont, Stauffer and Gulf—large chunks of research laboratories, or even whole labs, have been wiped out, and experienced researchers have been terminated or forc