Conferences serve many purposes, both professional and social. They aim to foster efficient information exchange, offer the opportunity to investigate employment possibilities, and provide a chance for old friends to get reacquainted. With a certain regularity and for a brief time a far-flung community comes together. I am not the only one to have noticed, however, that many conferences serve younger professionals poorly. Graduate students and recent postdocs—the people who have the most

Campaign ‘88 has now passed through the Straits of Super Tuesday. Not all candidates passed in safety. Republican George Bush swamped his opponents, while among the Democrats the field was narrowed considerably, with Michael Dukakis, Albert Gore and Jesse Jackson the apparent survivors. Whoever the eventual nominees for the two parties, the pair should focus their debates, at least in some part, on ways to ensure the effective use of our scientific assets. In our last issue we ran a p

Every few weeks I read another journalist’s jab at the value and quantity of scientific journals. When discussing the ever-expanding literature, reporters of the popular press frequently indulge in superficial analyses that distort reality, whether through misunderstanding or exaggeration. Nancy Jeffrey revealed profound misunderstanding in “Mollusks, Semiotics and Dermatology: Narrow Scholarly Journals Are Spreading” (Wall Street Journal, August 27, 1987, p. 25). She invites

Here is a book that belongs on the desk of every biomedical researcher in the United States: Building a Healthy America Conquering Disease and Disability Facts, Figures and Funding, edited by Terry L. Lierman. Lierman is president of Capitol Associates, Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based government relations firm specializing in health-related issues and funding. The volume, published last November, is the successor to a series of handbooks initiated by Mary Lasker, all entitled Killers and Cripple

The strategic role of the private foundations Purnell Choppin observes in this issue (p. 16-17) that “the health of the biomedical research enterprise [in the United States] is inseparable from the health of the NIH.” Since two thirds of federal support for biomedical research in this country goes into or through the NIH, and since that amounts to one third of total national support for basic research in biomedicine, one can only agree with the statement of the president of the How

Our titanic national debt will eventually force hard decisions. Science funding will not be exempted. When that time comes, a public that has heard from the scientific community about why its work is valuable will more likely support science than one that hasn't. We cannot expect the public to respond positively if we have not told them our story. We can only do so through the media. Molecular biologist Bryan Sykes of Oxford University recently spent seven weeks working for a British televis

Our titanic national debt will eventually force hard decisions. Science funding will not be exempted. When that time comes, a public that has heard from the scientific community about why its work is valuable will more likely support science than one that hasn't. We cannot expect the public to respond positively if we have not told them our story. We can only do so through the media. Molecular biologist Bryan Sykes of Oxford University recently spent seven weeks working for a British televis

Scientific fraud has received much attention lately, both within the scientific community and increasingly beyond it. In this issue, in fact, you will find continuing discussions of the problem and its impact. (See pp. 11-13.) Unfortunately, some journalists with a taste for the sensational have exaggerated its frequency. The obvious example is William Broad and Nicholas Wade’s Betrayers of Truth (Simon & Schuster, 1982). (On the other hand, careful science journalists have detected genui

The,. election this month of Federico Mayor Zaragoza as the new director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization inspires hope for the future of the agency. When 142 of 158 member states—an mipressive majority—cast their ballots for Mayor, they signaled a common desire that the organization move forward and, in the words of the new director-general, “keep what must be kept and modify what should be changed.” In choosing Mayor to g

In the wake of the news that Susumu Tonegawa of MIT had been chosen as the 1987 Nobel laureate in medicine (See THE SCIENTIST, November 2, 1987, P. 4), an article by Stephen Kreider Yoder appeared in the Wall Street Journal (October 14, 1987, p. 30) under the headline “Native Son’s Nobel Award Is Japan’s Loss: Scientist’s Prize Points Up Research System’s Failings.” The writer asserted that Tonegawa’s prize is “as much an embarrassment as a victo

Last spring I pointed to student participation in research as a way to improve undergraduate science education and promised to focus subsequently on precollege science education. (THE SCIENTIST, March 23, 1987, p. 9.) One key strategy for improving science education is the revitalization of elementary and secondary school math instruction. Mathematics is said to be the “queen of the sciences.” Indeed, it is basic to achievement in almost every field of science. But in the court

When launching THE SCIENTIST one year ago, we promised readers a unique publication—the first newspaper for science professionals. We said it would be filled with useful information that scientists and policy-makers could apply in their daily work. We promised news and features found nowhere else. What’s more, we promised an attractive newspaper with arresting color illustrations, an accessible tabloid format, and concise, crisply written stories that respected the time of busy re