The Cold War is over, but government-imposed secrecy in United States science has not been relaxed, say many scientists and policy analysts. They add that more harm than good is being done by continuing the classification system at peak levels, asserting that the process of science, like that of democracy, thrives on the free exchange of information. And, while some of them disagree as to whether secrecy is on the increase or decrease in science, most say that the legal authority for a class

But it's still unclear which new approaches in human therapeutics will pay off big; cancer and neuroscience are among the contenders Despite the enormous amount of money invested in research and development of biotechnology-derived human therapeutics in the past two decades or so, biotech industry participants and observers say the future is still unclear. Only 21 biotech drugs have been released so far, and many of those are bioengineered versions of substances that have been known and used

Voters in Maryland strongly favor higher federal spending for health care and medical research, according to a recent poll commissioned by Research!America. The Alexandria, Va.- based nonprofit advocacy group sponsoring the study promotes the benefits of medical research. Seventy-six percent of those polled would increase federal spending on health care, while perennial favorites such as education and the environment fared slightly less well, with 72 percent and 68 percent, respectively, of re

The next president--whoever it may be after elections this fall--must make the future of the biotechnology business a priority, according to a leading industry group. In a detailed agenda released late last month and forwarded to each major party's platform committees, the Industrial Biotechnology Association (IBA) identified the issues most important to its 130 members. "The highest-visibility issues for biotechnology this election surround health care reform and patent issues," says IBA dir

The public strongly supports scientific research, according to a recent poll from Louis Harris and Associates Inc., but shows marked favoritism when asked to choose among fields. Of eight areas, medical research was rated as "most valuable" by almost half of those polled--49 percent--while environmental and energy investigation were so ranked by 29 percent and 10 percent, respectively. At the bottom end of the sampling, only 1 percent to 3 percent of the people questioned gave top votes to el

`SMART' READING Author: FRANKLIN HOKE Richard O. Claus, a fiber optics researcher at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, notes that because of the highly interdisciplinary nature of smart materials research, the seminal papers in the field, from one point of view, would include those in each of the several contributing areas, such as piezoelectric ceramics, optical fiber sensing systems, shape memory alloys, and electrorheological fluids. From another viewpoint,

Volume 6, #9The Scientist April 27, 1992 `Smart' Materials Research Expands Beyond Defense Arena Author: FRANKLIN HOKE Date: April 27, 1992 Excited by a new group of substances known as "smart" materials, a growing group of polymer chemists, solid state physicists, materials engineers, and other scientists are dreaming up such futuristic projects as bridges that heal themselves when cracks develop, submarines whose surfaces soak up obtrusive sonar waves, and airplane wings that s