Editor's Note: This first part of a two-part series charts the shared ground between research into alternative medical therapies and basic biomedical research. Increasingly, researchers are using powerful cellular and molecular tools to uncover biochemical pathways that may, for example, explain increasingly evident mind-body connections in health and illness. The second part, to appear in the March 21 issue, will explore efforts t

Bench scientists, along with antivivisectionists, wonder what an updated `bible' of animal care will bring Earlier this month, a National Research Council (NRC) committee held the last of three public forums to gather input for a revision of its widely influential Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Although publication of the new guide is not expected until next year, scientists and animal protectionists already are

In just the past few years, technical advances have made possible laser-scanning confocal microscopes able to produce kinetic images of living cells. Depending on the system, neuroscientists and other researchers now can capture images at up to video rates--30 frames per second--or, sometimes, faster. Additionally, they can record those images digitally, or with a video recorder, or with a 35 mm camera. They can view cell events on

New committee says paper collections are threatened, but librarians say that the information glut demands new acquisitions strategies A committee of more than 130 scientists from different disciplines--newly organized by a consultant with longstanding ties to several commercial academic publishers- -is calling for more federal funding for research libraries. Increasingly, they say, libraries are failing to keep collections of sci

About 5,000 scientists are expected to attend the 1994 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, to be held in San Francisco February 18-23. * John Gibbons, Assistant to the President of the United States for Science and Technology, and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy: "Science, Technology, and the Clinton Administration." * "Health Care Reform and Advances in Medicine":

Bench scientists will play a major role in an ambitious effort to streamline the campaign against HIV The soon-to-be-appointed National Task Force on AIDS Drug Development may have a strong, positive impact on the research and development of antiviral therapies to counter HIV infection, say industry and academic scientists, government officials organizing the task force, and members of the AIDS-affected community. Key to the task

Project scientists reject Institute of Medicine claims that their ambitious initiative is scientifically and financially deficient One of the main questions that Women's Health Initiative (WHI) investigators hope to answer, and one specifically challenged by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), is whether a low-fat diet will reduce breast cancer risk. This hypothesis arises from comparisons of epidemiological data from countries with

Editor's Note: As Neal Lane settles into his new job as director of the National Science Foundation, his enthusiasm is tempered by a clear understanding of the formidable challenges facing him, his agency, and the United States research community in general. While confident that the nation can maintain its scientific leadership internationally, the 55-year-old physicist and former Rice University provost acknowledges that, if Ameri

According to a report by the National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest) in Cambridge, Mass., male high school students won 75 percent of the 471 college scholarships awarded in 1993, the first year of the National Academy for Science, Space, and Technology (NASST) program in the United States Department of Education. This was so even though young women earn higher grades in science and math than young men in both hig

Despite impressive lab achievements, the big news this year has sprung from the corridors of power in Washington Scientists, policy experts, administrators, and observers of the research community appear satisfied that 1993 has been a strong year in terms of research advances. They cite, for example, bold steps taken this year in gene therapies and a continuing frenzy of research on the 60-atom molecules of carbon known as buckminsterfullerenes, or buckyballs. Overall, they feel, researchers

Foundation, the History of Science Society has seen the development of a number of specialized historical interest groups under its umbrella. In fact, the society has endeavored to remain a unifying instrument for the new groups, rather than see the field become fragmented, says society executive secretary Keith R. Benson. Benson is also a professor of medical history and ethics at the University of Washington, Seattle, and archivist for the history and philosophy of biology division of the Amer

One employment option with appeal for all parties involved assigning Stewart and Feder to a university under the provisions of the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA). The IPA allows federal employees to be temporarily assigned to nonfederal organizations for up to four years when it serves "sound public purpose," according to the federal personnel manual. The salaries and benefits of such employees continue to be paid by the federal government. The federal personnel manual also st