CAMBRIDGE, MASS.—In 1969, the Union of Concerned Scientists was formed to combat the perceived threat of the United States military’s spread onto campuses, throughout southeast Asia, and into space. Next week, the organization will again rally faculty and students against a potential threat to their well-being. But this time the danger—the possibility of global warming and its impact on the environment—affects the entire planet. Officials of the Cambridge, Mass.-based

When Richard McKinney draws his bow and takes aim during the Seoul Olympics next week, he will have an unusual ally-science—in his quest for the gold. Even though he won a silver medal in the 1984 Olympics and is a favorite to grab another medal in Seoul, the United States archer has, for four years, been tested. Measured, observed, and advised by two researchers at Arizona State University. "I think their work has helped me tremendously," McKinney says. "It's one reason I have stayed on t

Geneticist Kunkel shows how breakthroughs can be made without big budgets, big staffs, or big bullies When it comes to tackling scientific problems of enormous difficulty, Louis M. Kunkel’s seven-member team at Boston’s Children’s Hospital proves that it isn’t always necessary to have a big staff or to have a big budget. And it’s not necessary to play rough, either. For five years, Kunkel and his crew have been doggedly pursuing the genetic basis of muscular d

Matthew Meselson is catalyzed whenever he sees ‘misguided’ national policies CAMBRIDGE, MASS--At age 19, future Harvard biochemist and noted activist Matthew Meselson dropped out of college, went to live in Paris, and pondered forging a career as a Freudian analyst ot na- tions. With youthful hubris, he thought he might be able to explain the genesis of wars and other avoidable human catastrophes by scrutinizing the actions of governments past and present through the prism of mode