Job opportunities expand as scientists from many disciplines join forces to preserve a multitude of plant and animal species WASHINGTON--New programs, reports, legislation, and other activities are focusing attention on the study and preservation of the world's diverse species and habitats. "There's a rising tide," says Robert Jenkins, vice president for science at the Nature Conservancy. "Biodiversity has come to be the thing that we're all concerned with." It's hard to imagine how a pie

Researchers Work To Give Biodiversity A Scientific Identity Author: ELIZABETH PENNISI, p.14 Ask biologists about biodiversity and they're likely to agree that the subject commands an increasing amount of their attention. But they may be at a loss to cite the key research in the field. Although biodiversity--the study of the planet's varied species, genes, and habitats, and the effort to preserve them--is building as a scientific endeavor and an environmental buzz-word, there is no consensus on

Volume 5, #6The Scientist March 18, 1991 A SHRINKING ROLE FOR SCIENCE IN SHAPING ANTARCTIC POLICY Author: ELIZABETH PENNISI Date: March 18, 1991 History shows that science once was the driving force behind Antarctic policies. But the present state of affairs suggests that the role of science is diminishing. In 1959, one year after the International Geophysical Year opened this icy frontier to science, the Antarctic Treaty was written by the dozen nations involved in that resea

Polar scientists worry that new international interests might threaten their ability to do good science in the future The ability of polar scientists to do research may be jeopardized by the political winds swirling around the world's last frontier, say Antarctic science veterans. For most of the past three decades, scientists dominated the setting of policy in Antarctica. But researchers are worried that the current discussions about Antarctica's future could threaten the basic tenets of the

WASHINGTON--The 6 percent increase requested for the National Institutes of Health in 1992 would provide enough funds to support 632 more research grants but not enough, say science policy analysts, to put federally supported biomedical research on firm financial footing. Given the sorry state of the economy and the huge federal deficit, scientists as well as members of Congress are praising the president's proposed $8.78 billion NIH budget as a step in the right direction. But agency official

A three-tiered training program lets scientists and educators experiment with new ways to improve student performance. WASHINGTON--A little-known program in the Department of Education that scientists can tap into to help educate youth has seen its funding increase more than 50 percent for this year and is on the White House list for another boost next year. One of the best-kept secrets in science education, the department's Eisenhower Program for Mathematics and Science Education is part of

Oil, the environment, and attrition may create a demand for geoscientists that will reverse a 7-year decline in the field As growing environmental problems and the search for oil outside the Persian Gulf place heavy demands on the geosciences, geologists say that education in their field is being revitalized, fueling new opportunities for undergraduate research. They now hope that their effort to attract students has arrested a precipitous seven-year decline in the number of geosciences gradua

The laboratory's spinoffs earn it a reputation as the center for a thriving industry in oceanographic research and equipment WOODS HOLE, Mass. -- A Japanese oceanographer spending six months at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution a few years ago decided to track down the inventors of a half-dozen key oceanographic instruments to learn what new projects they were working on. He sought help from his WHOM colleagues in planning a cross-country journey to meet them. But, to his surprise, he found

BENTHOS CAMERAS BRING THE DEEP INTO VIEW Author: Elizabeth Pennisi (The Scientist, Vol:5, #3, pg. 10, February 4, 1991) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) -------- Few people passing through Woods Hole, Mass., can avoid seeing the products of Sam Raymond's entrepreneurship. Looking like oversized volleyballs, his yellow buoys brighten docks behind Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Tourists who visit the WHOI exhibits are awed by images of the Titanic in its graveyard on the oc

Analysts warn that good marketing and sound financing are as key to survival for new ventures as top-notch science ST. LOUIS--After 20 years of vigorous scientific growth, neuroscience has vacated the biotechnology umbrella to emerge as a promising industry of its own. With an annual United States market of $4.4 billion in sales, neuropharmaceuticals is one area of biotechnology in which investors are always looking for a great deal. About two dozen startups are pursuing new technologies for d

As Congress sends mixed signals on funding, USDA, NOAA, and EPA promise to go beyond their in-house staffs Efforts by three federal agencies to increase their use of extramural scientists could mean more funding for academic research, but only if Congress cooperates. The United States Department of Agriculture, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency plan to expand programs that give out money for extramural, peer-reviewed research. T

Dozens of research teams vie for a vast commercial market awaiting those who discover how to protect the body against itself BOSTON--A decade ago, disorders like Graves' disease, myasthenia gravis, and systemic lupus erythematosus--diseases in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissues--were mysteries that eluded reliable or effective treatment. Too little was known about how the immune system works and, consequently, why it goes awry in these diseases. But research during the past

U.S. students found their summer in Japanese labs professionally as well as culturally productive, but not many plan to return WASHINGTON--A National Science Foundation program to forge closer ties with Japanese scientists is gaining popularity among the next generation of United States scientists, say NSF officials. The Summer Institute in Japan, which sent 25 U.S. graduate students in science and engineering to Japanese research facilities last summer, will support 50 such students this com

When scientists are wed to their labs as well as to each other, they can encounter extraordinary personal and professional challenges In 1939, on the eve of war in Europe, Gertrude Scharff felt that marriage to a fellow scientist working in the United States offered her the best chance to survive as a physicist. Her husband, she hoped, represented her ticket to greater opportunities to carry out research. Forty years later, the tables were turned for neurobiologist Patricia Goldman. Goldman w

Augmenting old devices and procedures with the latest computer-based techniques yields new opportunities for today's neuroscientist ST. LOUIS--In 1984, five fighter pilots spent three days hooked up to one of the world's most sophisticated machines for probing the brain's electrical impulses. But it was only last month that San Francisco neuroscientist Alan Gevins presented his results from that experiment. The project, hailed by colleagues as a synthesis of various research techniques, was a