When immunologists prepare specimens, they stain them with various reagents to bring out details or to produce specific chemical reactions. Efficient immunostaining requires accurate timing and effective buffer washes. During the staining process, it is also important that the researcher or technician take care not to damage the specimen. Shandon Inc., of Pittsburgh, has released an immunostaining center that the company claims will save time and ensure accurate, consistent results while prote

As different as the developed world is from the developing world, so, too, are the diseases that plague their people. In industrialized countries, AIDS, cancer, and heart disease are prevalent; while in Africa, Asia, and South America, more than 700 million people suffer from one of three widespread tropical diseases: schistosomiasis, onchocerciasis, and trachoma. For the last 16 years, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, based in New York City, has done its part to help eradicate these deadl

With the 20th anniversary of Earth Day fresh in mind, Joshua S. Reichert recites a litany of environmental problems that he believes are the most pressing. Renewable energy, population explosion, widespread use of chemicals, disposal of toxic wastes, groundwater contamination, soil erosion, global warming, and ozone depletion are just a few of the many issues that he foresees environmental scientists and conservationists having to tackle in the years ahead. Reichert, who earned his doctorate i

Landmark Papers Although the term "bioconjugate chemistry" was coined relatively recently, researchers increasingly have been exploring the techniques and applications of this field, particularly during the past 10 years. Simply put, bioconjugate chemistry involves the joining through chemical or biological means of two molecules that exhibit different biological activities to form a new compound with specific biochemical properties. As scientists learn more and more about the roles of specific

More than 11,000 scientists from 30 countries are expected to attend the 199th national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston next week. The six-day-long gathering (April 22 through April 27) at the Hynes Convention Center will feature more than 4,400 papers presented during 604 technical sessions. The presidential plenary, which kicks off the week-long gathering Sunday, April 22, at 4:30 P.M., will focus on a problem that the field of chemistry shares with other disciplines: the

As it approached its 50th anniversary a few years back, the Whitehall Foundation of Palm Beach, Fla., decided it was time for some serious self-evaluation. Officials there wanted to make sure that the foundation was supporting the right kind of scientists - and that the scientists were enjoying substantial gains from the backing they were getting. The most efficient approach to finding out, the officials concluded, was to query the scientists themselves. So they prepared a survey asking grant

William L. Dewey looks at this week's meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology with an air of bemused satisfaction. "It's like going to a buffet lunch when you're really hungry and there's more there than you can eat," says Dewey, FASEB's president. "Too much good stuff." The organization's 74th annual meeting - taking place in Washington, D.C., from April 1 to 5 - is sponsored by four of the six FASEB corporate member societies (the American Physiological Socie

If the Franklin Institute Science Museum has its way, the prestige of its new Bower Award for Achievement in Science will someday rival that of the coveted Nobel Prize. The award, which carries with it an unrestricted minimum grant of $250,000, commemorates Benjamin Franklin, who viewed science and technology as a means to solve almost any societal problem. The grant accompanying the award is funded by the late Henry Bower (1896-1988), a Philadelphia chemical manufacturer and philanthropist wh

Demographers from the World Bank, the United Nations, and the Global Committee of Parliamentarians on Population Development all predict that between now and the year 2000 the world's population will soar by at least 20% to more than 6 billion, with 90% of this growth occurring in developing countries. With this growth, of course, will come an increased strain on already burdened food supplies, especially in the developing world, where hunger is a major problem. A decade from now, the current a

A quick walk through any hospital or biomedical research center clearly shows how interconnected medicine and engineering have become in the last couple of decades. Drug delivery systems (such as implantable, self-regulating insulin pumps), artificial implants (composed of new-age alloys and plastics), and imaging systems (for mapping blood flow and monitoring cell growth) all rely on the marriage of biomedicine and engineering. But the marriage of these two broad fields isn't always blissful.

Officials at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation are keenly aware that without strong university-based research—and without bright, university-educated scientists and engineers—companies like Hewlett-Packard Co., the Palo Alto, Calif.-based computer giant; would not be where they are today; That was the idea behind the 25-year-old foundation’s launching last year of the University Research Fellowships program. The program supports young science and engineering faculty ju

Amid controversy surrounding its sole supporter and namesake, pharmaceutical supplier Burroughs Wellcome Co., the Burroughs Wellcome Fund strives to fulfill the policy set by its founders 34 years ago. Under a logo depicting the watchful eye of Horus, the Egyptian god of medicine, the fund supports research and educational efforts in medical science. In its first fiscal year, 1955-56, the fund gave out $5,800. Since then, the grant amounts approved each year have grown significantly. In the