If you’ve got an idea for a research project that could save the world if only you could get a few million dollars of funding, don’t bother call. ing the Rockefeller Foundation. If they have an interest in such a grand-scale science effort, they’ll hand- pick the scientists they want to work on it. On the other hand, if you’re more modestly inclined investigator whose proposal requires less than $100,000, you might indeed do well to ring up the folks at Rockefeller, whi

While the Soviet Union and China seem to be warming up to capitalism's style of doing business, a group of U.S. scientists is, in a sense, going in the opposite direction - pioneering a new social environment for research that might best be described as "scientific collectivism." Indeed, the team of 60-plus scientists running the X-11A X-ray beam line at Brookhaven National Laboratory's National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS), Upton, N.Y., describe themselves as "communal, even socialist" in s

Movement toward developing a robust, internationally active biotechnology industry is gaming momentum in the People’s Republic of China.. And as the movement picks up steam, one byproduct is an increasing number of stimulating opportunities for scientists and entrepreneurs connected with biotech firms outside of China. In an interview with The Scientist, Liu Yonghui, director of the National Center for Biotechnology Development in Beijing, said that his country wishes to “improve the

Jack E. Oliver took two major risks 17 years ago when he moved from Columbia University to Cornell University to rebuild the geology program. First he proposed a research project that relied on an untested scientific technique. Then he proposed an unusual strategy for carrying out the fieldwork. In his quest to probe the 25-mile-thick slab of rock that makes up the earth’s crust, Oliver wanted to use sound waves to describe subterranean structures. But he didn’t buy the fleet of

"We are creating a miniature star for a billionth of a second," says Robert L. McCrory,director of the University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics. "It’s not something an individual scientist can do." Indeed, at McCrory’s upstate New York lab, it took 60 scientists to mimic Mother Nature in a project capped last March with a feat in fusion that no other research team had ever done. McCrory and his crew of colleagues used lasers to heat and compress a capsule

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

ITHACA N.Y—In the late 1950s Mildred Dresselhaus was a post-doctoral associate at Cornell and her husband, Gene, was a junior faculty member there. But Cornell's rules barring nepotism prevented the couple from building physics careers there, and they packed their bags for MIT, which had an outstanding reputation for recruiting women faculty. Thirty years later, Mildred Dresselhaus is an institute professor of physics and electrical engineering and her husband is a senior scientist at

Although such appropriations and bond issues promise to foster excellence throughout the state, the primary beneficiaries of much pump priming are usually state colleges and universities. These efforts, in turn, have triggered recruitment wars between established research institutions and newer programs trying to join the top echelon. The bidding is particularly fierce in such fields as ceramics, computers, chemical engineering and all aspects of biotechnology. And although higher salaries alo

When Robert Kupor, a biotechnology consultant with Cable, Howse, and Ragen in Seattle, was asked by some clients recently to evaluate a company’s new treatment for emphysema, he put aside his MBA and picked up his Ph.D). in molecular biology. His scientific sleuthing, which involved poring over conference abstracts and talking with researchers, allowed him to judge the potential market for such a technology with an understanding that went far beyond the fledgling firm’s management