Graphic: Cathleen Heard SmithKline Beecham and Glaxo Wellcome; Pfizer and Warner-Lambert; Pharmacia & Upjohn and Monsanto; PE Biosystems and Third Wave; Astra and Zeneca. In the last year, many top-tier biotech and pharmaceutical giants have reached definitive agreements to merge. The unions are touted as hostile or friendly, strategic or tactical, market driven, Machiavellian, culturally astute, even desperate. Competition has forced drug companies to up the ante for blockbuster development

Unplanned obsolescence is the fallout of risky biotech businesses, especially in glycobiology, a small niche marketplace. A specialty manufacturer can spend millions in R&D to bring a new piece of equipment to market, only to find that customer demand never catches up with cost. As a result, high-profile customers can be left high and dry with brand-new instruments and little or no guarantees for parts, reagents, or support. Also, manufacturers sell off product lines and offer limited period

Graphic: Cathleen Heard It's what the government doesn't know about food that can kill you, says a federal science-policy analyst. "We do rely on Centers for Disease Control [and Prevention (CDC)] data, and the new numbers on foodborne illness are certainly something we didn't want to see," the analyst says. She is referring to a disturbing CDC report issued in September1 that ups the ante for foodborne diseases to an estimated 76 million incidents per year--twice the number reported in a widely

Richard Gill Richard Gill runs the biosciences division of a global technology transfer company, calling himself "a mercenary technologist." It's an aggressive line of work--mining unsung discoveries at universities, drug companies, and eccentric inventors' garages; obtaining licensing agreements; and getting finished product out into the marketplace. "I use harsher language to describe what I do than 'merchant scientist,'" the popular moniker for his job, says Gill, the senior vice president

Joan Massague Joan Massague, chairman of cell biology and genetics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, affirms that translational and multidisciplinary science is expanding rapidly. "It's become apparent that the entire field is related to cell and molecular biology and genetics; but it's time to bring all the patient knowledge to fruition," he said. The Human Genome Project may have created thousands of positions in basic gene science, he continues. However, today's investigators "

As drug companies downsize and research grants in big universities dry up, Chinese scientists in the United States are taking a more aggressive stance toward their own professional and economic development. Chris Pak As though taking the cue from President Bill Clinton and Premier Jiang Zemin, whose open TV debate a few months ago shocked and surprised many Chinese and Americans, Asian scientists in the United States are going after a base of political power. A few are adopting roles ranging

For many, the name Michael Milken is synonymous with avarice and conspicuous consumption that characterized Wall Street speculators of the 1980s. However, in the time since his release from federal prison after pleading guilty to securities fraud, serving a two-year sentence, and paying more than $1 billion in fines and settlements, the 48-year-old former junk bond king has been working toward being more closely associated with a cure for prostate cancer. The foundation Milken started in 1993,

For many, the name Michael Milken is synonymous with avarice and conspicuous consumption that characterized Wall Street speculators of the 1980s. However, in the time since his release from federal prison after pleading guilty to securities fraud, serving a two-year sentence, and paying more than $1 billion in fines and settlements, the 48-year-old former junk bond king has been working toward being more closely associated with a cure for prostate cancer. WHEELING AND DEALING: NCI's Marston Li

Professional Cassandras who foresee the end of the United States' scientific preeminence read doom in the stars, doom in the schools, and doom, especially, in the minds of young people. Reputable experts debate whether declining enrollments will lead to drastic shortages of Ph.D.'s in the 21st century, a prelude to America's scientific downfall. Some point to ominous, but by now shop-worn, roadsigns of national decline. These include anything from falling achievement test scores to the rise in