WASHINGTON—Last month, the Public Health Service issued regulations on how federal grantees should respond to allegations of scientific misconduct. The new rules, which take effect November 8, require universities and other institutions to certify that they will follow specific procedures and meet certain timetables in investigating and reporting allegations of misconduct involving their employees. By putting the burden on the institution, the government is abiding by the wishes of t

WASHINGTON-A recent decision by the U.S. House of Representatives to spend $110 million to begin construction of the superconducting supercollider is expected to break a political and financial logjam that has stymied advocates of the 53-mile-long laboratory. The lopsided House vote on June 28 (see page 11 for excerpts of that debate) has been greeted by SSC backers as the first tangible commitment by Congress to build the $6 billion accelerator. Although the mammoth project must now clear a sim

WASHINGTON—The National Science Foundation is considering a major policy change that would limit its payment of salaries to university researchers. The controversial idea, still under discussion, would bar the 20,000 senior investigators the foundation supports each year from receiving any more than summer salaries in their grants. NSF now spends $200 million annually, roughly 12% of its total research budget, on salaries to senior scientists. More than half of that amount gces to provid

WASHINGTON—The Department of Energy pulled the plug on millions of dollars of geologic research last year after members of Congress from New England became afraid that such work might lead to a nuclear waste repository in their region, a recently released government report has revealed. The congressional action came in the form of amendments passed late in 1987 to a bill that sets United States policy on the disposal of highlevel nuclear wastes. Investigators from the congressional Gen

WASHINGTON-Sharing notebooks and other data with someone outside their laboratory is an idea that is anathema to many scientists. But they may need to get used to it as part of the price of performing science with public funds. The search for a better system to record, retain, and share data is emerging as a key issue in the ongoing debate over how to curb scientific misconduct. It promises to remain a significant issue long after scientists have finished arguing about whether Rep. John Dingell

WASHINGTON-United States astronomers are preparing to ask the National Science Foundation to build two telescopes for the price of one. Their request, to be submitted next month, is part of a larger effort to reduce the cost of new projects in ground-based astronomy by increasing international collaboration. A plan for two 8-meter telescopes, one on Mauna Kea in Hawaii and one at Cerro Tololo in Chile, has been drawn up by the National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO). The organization, wh

WASHINGTON-The search for a successor to James Wyngaarden as director of the National Institutes of Health has begun, and members of the committee given the job of sifting through the applications say that the process isn't wired. "There's no shoo-in for the job," says Joseph ("Ed") Rall, NIH deputy director for intramural research. "I expect an open and honest search. I don't see anyone on the committee with a political agenda." James Mason, the new assistant secretary for health within the Dep

WASHINGTON—Luther Williams, a molecular biologist and former president of a predominantly black graduate research university, has been named senior science adviser to NSF Director Erich Bloch. Williams becomes the fourth scientist to hold the job since Bloch created the position five years ago. Williams, 48, has spent the past 18 months at NIH, most recently as deputy director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. From 1984 to 1987 he was president of the 1,100-stude

WASHINGTON—What goes from zero to $10 billion in one year? National Academy of Sciences president Frank Press’s solution to the problems facing the scientific community. Last spring, Press delivered a stem talk to academy members about the need to set scientific priorities. The federal budget is a zero-sum game, he warned them, and the scientific community had better decide what’s most important before Congress acts for purely political reasons. That speech was widely a

WASHINGTON—The president’s new science adviser believes that the federal government doesn’t do an adequate job of dealing with the scientific and technical issues facing the country. The science adviser can play an important role in improving that situation, says Yale nuclear physicist Allan Bromley, if he is able to develop a close relationship with key figures in the Bush administration, oyersee a staff large enough to tackle those issues, and build public support for scie

WASHINGTON—If NIH is the crown jewel of federal biomedical research, then scientific misconduct is a scratch on its surface. And Brian Kimes is the man that NIH officials hope will begin to restore the luster their organization has lost in the eyes of Congress and the public. On April 10 Kimes became acting director of the newly formed Office of Scientific Integrity (OSI). The office was created by officials within the Public Health Service, NIH’s parent agency, as part of a two-

WASHINGTON—In some places, April showers may indeed bring May flowers. But in this town the vegetation must compete with the lobbyists, who appear in droves each spring to plead for their favorite projects as part of.the annual federal budget process. This year, advocates of the superconducting supercollider (SSC) are hoping to avoid last year’s bitter harvest, when Congress refused to spend anything to begin preparing for construction and instead retained level funding—$