It's hard to overestimate the importance of professional meetings to any scientist's career. But it is particularly crucial for women to attend, organize, and present their work at conferences, according to successful female scientists. OBSTACLES: "Women have lower visibility, less mentorship, [and] fewer female colleagues per department," observes Lawrence Berkeley Lab's Mina Bissell. "Women have lower visibility, less mentorship, [and] fewer female colleagues per department," observes cell

Sidebars Malaria: A Statistical Index Funding Agencies For Malaria Research Researchers in the field lament what they call gross underfunding, but say a joint approach will help ensure that avaliable monies are well spent. After several years of declining interest in malaria research and decreasing support for such studies, the field is gaining much-needed momentum. Spurred in part by an international conference held in Dakar, Senegal, in January, funding agencies and scientists around the gl

Sidebar: National Institute on Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) - For More Information ALL FOR ONE: "Our unifying theme is human development in all its aspects," explains NICHD director Duane Alexander. Since its founding nearly 35 years ago, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) has undertaken an unusually broad mission. Rather than focus on a single disease, organ system, or stage of life, as do most other institutes of the National Institutes of Heal

Sidebar: For Further Information - Alternative Medicine With consumer interest in "natural" remedies on the rise, some academic and corporate researchers have begun to look for new drugs among ancient remedies. Several such efforts focus on the rich, detailed pharmacopoeia of Chinese herbal medicine, which has been painstakingly recorded and passed on for generations. In contemporary China-as in much of the world-herbal concoctions remain the predominant form of medication. In the hands of West

Sidebar: Further Information - Companies Creating Antisense Drugs BROADENED FOCUS: Shaji George says an equal number of biologists and chemists make up Innovir Laboratories' research team. Embracing the idea that tomorrow's drugs will not merely treat symptoms, but also attack disease-causing genes, scores of biotechnology companies are developing compounds to intervene in the cell's genetic machinery. One focus of this activity is antisense therapeutics: the use of synthetic nucleic acids de

DAZZLING 'EM: Robert Anholt points out that a good reputation as a speaker enhances one's career. Love of discovery, not public speaking, inspires most scientists to choose their careers. Yet most researchers find that success in science and giving lectures go hand in hand. Some have even found that speaking pays quite handsomely-but they are the exception to the rule. "Only a very few scientists get rich giving talks," observes Robert Anholt, a professor of zoology at North Carolina State Un

SIDEBAR : Sleep Research Resources Some consider sleep an unavoidable nuisance; others, a sweet indulgence. For the most part, though, we take our slumber for granted, rarely considering why we spend a hefty chunk of our lives unconscious. But for sleep researchers, that question represents a supreme mystery. Exactly what purpose sleep serves, as well as how the body regulates sleeping and waking, remain largely unknown. Behavioral scientists and physiologists have pursued these questions for

SIDEBAR : Resources For Free Radical And Antioxidant Research Professional Societies: Oxygen Society 74 New Montgomery, Suite 230 San Francisco, Calif. 94105 (415) 546-3124 - Fax: (415) 764-4915 E-mail: 76125.3071@compuserve.com 750 members President: Bruce Freeman Executive Director: Carol Holland Parlette Journal: Free Radicals in Biology and Medicine Internet home page: http://www.biophysics.mcw.edu/oxsoc/ International Society for Free Radical Research c/o Lester Packer, president-elec

Increasing numbers of the students returning to high school this fall will take all or part of their classes in "magnet" schools or programs that emphasize math, science, and technology. Whether they are residential academies that attract top scholars or part-day programs for students seeking exposure to technical careers, these specialized public school offerings are designed to draw students with similar interests and talents. OPPORTUNITY: North Carolina magnet student Christiane Haeffele p

Fresh Air Into Biotech With high-priced products and numerous regulatory roadblocks, biotech firms are having a hard time finding public and venture-capital funding, industry analysts report. To sustain themselves through years of development, trials, and marketing, these companies are adopting novel capital-preserving tactics. One such strategy is "enhancement"-inventing and marketing drug-delivery methods and other technologies that "give new life" to established drugs, as well as to generic

Research Efforts Abound After more than a year of commemoration, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) this week concludes its 25th-anniversary celebration at the annual meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism in Washington, D.C. NIAAA was signed into existence in 1970 by President Richard Nixon ironically-or, perhaps, fittingly-on New Year's Eve, a holiday marked by excessive alcohol consumption. The institute initially was charged with developing health, educat

Purification Process For some researchers, isolating and purifying DNA is a housekeeping task: a routine but necessary part of most experiments, and one often taken for granted-until, of course, a restriction enzyme fails to cut a plasmid or a PCR reaction fizzles. For others, including contributors to the Human Genome Project, DNA purification represents an important, rate-limiting step in a lengthy quest for information. Yet wherever scientists' interests lie along this spectrum and whatever