With a powerful group of local backers to ease the transition, controversial virologist Robert Gallo hopes for a fresh start, both personally and scientifically, when his Institute of Human Virology opens its doors this fall. The new institute, intended to advance the fight against AIDS and other diseases, will be affiliated with the University of Maryland at Baltimore. And it appears that his fellow scientists -- with a few sharp exceptions -- are ready to let accusations of scientific miscon

A rising tide of "irrationalism" in the United States and Europe is helping to fuel dangerous anti-science sentiments, according to a number of researchers and academics. Proof, they say, can be seen in the increased prominence given to postmodernist science studies in the universities, creationism, and alternative medicine. They claim that the spread of these and other untestable belief systems in society may destabilize science by skewing science education and diminishing public support for

As Longtime Chancellor William H. Danforth Steps Down Author: Franklin Hoke Mark S. Wrighton, 46, became the new chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis on July 1. Wrighton, a research chemist, was provost and chief academic officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology until his appointment. He succeeds William H. Danforth, Washington University's top officer for 24 years. The university's $1.7 billion endowment ranks it in the top 10 of United States schools; its operating bu

V.N. Mallikarjuna Rao, 58, has been named a distinguished scientist by E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Co., Wilmington, Del. In receiving the company's highest scientific title last month, Rao joins only two other DuPont researchers so honored: Howard W. Jacobson, an expert in fine particle synthesis and coating, and agricultural chemist Vincent G. Witterholt. The promotion recognizes an individual's scientific contributions to more than one business sector, according to company statements. Rao's m

After the April announcement that the seven regional telephone companies would be selling Bellcore, their jointly funded research arm, the question many telecommunications experts are asking is whether the move was made in time to preserve its intellectual capital and, thereby, its future. Growing competition over the past several years among the so- called Baby Bells has diminished their willingness to use the shared research resource, contributing to the decision to sell the Livingston, N.J.

Research Investments From The Budget Ax Editor's Note: It has been two years since President Bill Clinton appointed nuclear physicist John H. Gibbons to be director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Since then, Gibbons appears to have largely contented himself with the nuts- and-bolts work of analyzing complex issues and advising the president on policy options. In many ways, Gibbons was replicating in the executive branch the role he played during the previous dozen years

Growing number of alliances with pharmaceutical partners seeking access to gene technologies points to new success path for biotechs. NEW TOOLS: Drug companies need the novel technologies that are "bread and butter" to the biotech industry, says Pfizer's Peter S. Ringrose. With growing fervor, the world's largest pharmaceutical companies have been aggressively buying up a range of biotechnology company assets in the past few years, even as the stock market's interest in the younger industry h

FACILITATOR: Norman Anderson hopes to integrate behavioral and social sciences into NIH's behavioral research. Norman B. Anderson, 39, an associate professor of psychiatry and psychology at Duke University, has been named by National Institutes of Health director Harold Varmus to head the new Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR), effective July 1. The purpose of OBSSR is to promote and coordinate research at NIH into the role of various nonphysiological factors in health.

A prominent committee of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) advises beginning researchers that, if they suspect a colleague of violating the ethical standards of the scientific community, they have "an unmistakable obligation to act"--that is, to blow the whistle on the misconduct. VINDICATED BUT . . . Carolyn Phinney won $1.246 million in court; however, she suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and is now unemployed. Historically, however, many researchers who have tried to carry throu

CEOs underscore the commercial sector's reliance on academia's basic discoveries andtrained investigators DIFFERENT IN KIND: Increasingly, university research is company-backed, but most is direct-output work, says Batelle's Douglas E Olesen. In a recent letter to more than 300 members of Congress, the heads of 15 of the largest United States corporations argued for continued "robust" federal support of university-based research. Among those receiving the letter were presidential hopeful and

Buoyed by enabling legislation and scientific advances, institutions are aggressively shopping their faculties' `blue-sky' investigations. In just the past year, patents on the genes implicated in obesity, breast cancer, and other disorders have generated headlines in newspapers across the United States. In several of these cases, scientists have turned their patented discoveries into lucrative commercial deals worth several times their funding from other sources--crucial money in light of pro

PUSHED ASIDE: E. Loren Buhle was a cofounder of OncoLink, but later battled with Penn administrators over its content. University's move to rein in a junior professor raises questions about responsibility for patient-care advice and the appropriate role of experts on the Internet. A recent struggle for control of a popular Internet cancer-information service at the University of Pennsylvania represents more than just an M.D.-vs.-Ph.D. rivalry in an academic department, according to physicians