A conflict-of-interest case demonstrates that she lacks the power to enforce guidelines on post-employment contact WASHINGTON - Last year the National Science Foundation broke its own rule that bars former employees from discussing a potential grant or contract with foundation officials for at least one year. But when NSF's new inspector general blew the whistle on the infringement, agency officials in effect shrugged their shoulders and promised to do better the next time around. The case of

Petition intended to stop attendance at meetings until Fang is released; but some say the tactic is wrong or worthless WASHINGTON - The firm, clear voice belies his frail appearance at the podium. But that shouldn't have surprised anyone at last month's press conference. Former Soviet dissident Yuri Orlov is talking about a subject that he knows all-too-painfully well: a boycott by scientists of meetings sponsored by a Communist government until that government relinquishes its control over a

New joint effort doesn't erase differences in how the two agencies view the long-term impact of getting proposals on the wire WASHINGTON -- The National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation have teamed up to study how the government might develop a system for scientists to submit their grant applications via modem. University grants administrators predict that such submissions are inevitable, and speculate about the possibility of a single application for all federal grants

WASHINGTON -- The National Institutes of Health has begun to withdraw its financial ties to Thereza Imanishi-Kari, the Tufts University immunologist accused of failing to support data in a 1986 Cell paper on gene expression. The decision parallels a new NIH investigation into the case that agency officials say has produced "mounting evidence of inconsistencies" in her work. The latest chapter in the controversy, involving a paper whose coauthors include Nobel laureate David Baltimore, unfolded

NSF's Bassam Shakhashiri finds new support in his once-lonely campaign for funds to train the next generation of researchers WASHINGTON - After nearly six years of stoking the boiler at the National Science Foundation, Bassam Shakhashiri believes that the train with increased funding for science education is finally leaving the station. And his message to the scientific community is simple: Either climb aboard and lend a hand or be left back at the gate. As NSF assistant director for science a

WASHINGTON - Life scientists on the President's Council of Advisers for Science and Technology won their first skirmish last month in an ongoing campaign to prod PCAST into the 1990s. The issue that arose during the council's second public meeting was the question of whether PCAST should create its own advisory group on biotechnology. Presidential science adviser Allan Bromley, who also is director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, asked the council whether it wanted

Bush has attended each of the White House panel's meetings, raising hopes that PCAST will have an impact on science policy WASHINGTON -- On the job for barely three months, the members of the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology are pleased that President Bush has attended at least a portion of each of their meetings. Powerful figures in their own right, they know that direct access to the Oval Office is one important measure of political clout in this city. But the 12 me

As six-year term ends, Bloch wins praise for raising NSF's profile, but questions remain on how to set priorities WASHINGTON -- You won't see this advertisement in the classified section of any newspaper or magazine. But it describes the type of person that the scientific community hopes will become the next director of the National Science Foundation. The six-year term of the current office holder, Erich Bloch, expires this coming August, and - although there has been no official announcemen

WASHINGTON -- The unity of a coalition that each year campaigns for a large increase in the NIH budget has been splintered by a group of bench scientists who say the agency should fund more grants to individual investigators. The disagreement reflects the growing strain on the scientific community from declining funding rates for such grants and the perception of some scientists that their work is being squeezed out by megaprojects like the war against AIDS and the effort to map and sequence t

WASHINGTON -- The South shall rise again - along with states from the Midwest, Southwest, Rocky Mountains, Pacific Northwest, and Great Plains. At least, that's the hope of supporters of a National Science Foundation program to help states whose scientists receive dispropor-tionately little federal support. They are trying to use that program as a model for a government-wide effort at geographic self-help. "We have a common problem - poverty and bad politics," says biochemist Kenneth Pruitt, a

A flood of applications for small amounts of money reflects the problem of financing needed repairs to academic laboratories WASHINGTON -- New programs at the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation offer overwhelming evidence that the demand for federal funds to replace crumbling academic research facilities is substantial. Defying odds that would scare off any self-respecting bettor, university administrators are expected to shower NIH with more than 100 requests f

WASHINGTON -- On March 22 the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology rolled up its sleeves and got down to business, namely, the task of getting United States industry to play a larger role in strengthening science. The council has a mandate to provide the president with all manner of scientific and technological advice on pressing issues of the day. And its 12 members, who were sworn in February 2 (The Scientist, March 5, 1990, page 3), represent a diverse elite, from billi