Sidebar : For More Information on Diversity Training Groups February is Black History Month. To commemorate the occasion, employees at South San Francisco, Calif.-based Genentech Inc. have been taking part in activities that introduce them to African American culture. Members of African Americans in Biotechnology, one of the biotech firm's internal employee associations, have put together displays about the contribution of black scientists and sponsored lectures by prominent black investigators

Sidebar: Society for Neuroscience NEW MESSENGERS: Caltech’s Erin Schuman and colleagues discovered that one form of nitric oxide is important to long-term potentiation. Can you recall where you were when you heard about the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger? Why is it that, almost universally, people can remember with vivid and instantaneous detail this tragic event when they can't recall what they had for dinner just days before? How are some memories indelibly hard-wired into o

A Senate bill dealing with dissemination by drug firms of articles describing alternative uses of approved medications could be reintroduced soon. Sidebar: Off-Labels Reprints -- For Further Information CURRENT THINKING: "These are guidelines for companies to follow, says FDA’s Ilisa Bernstein. "It’s not a regulation." As the 105th Congress gets down to business this month, reform of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to be a lively topic of debate, especially in

The following resources are available online: October 1996 guidelines on the distribution of journal reprints and medical texts by drug companies issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA): http://www.fda.gov/cder/guidance/fr8oct96.htm Transcripts of an FDA-sponsored public meeting held last October on the promotion of FDA-regulated medical products on the Internet: http://www.fda.gov/opacom/morechoices/transcript1096/fdainet.html Full text of the Coalition for Healthcare Communicati

A prominent national science education reform program received a major blow when the National Science Foundation opted to discontinue its support. Sidebar: For Further Information - NAS Science Education Standards 'DISASTER': Without a funding renewal, Bill Aldridge worries about the fate of students and teachers in his project. Educators are devising ways of implementing the National Research Council's (NRC's) National science education standards, which were finalized and released a year ag

Science Education Standards National Academy of Sciences Science Education Standards: http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) main Web site: http://www.nsta.org NSTA's Scope, Sequence, and Coordination Web site: http://www.gsh.org/NSTA_SSandC American Association for the Advancement of Science's Project 2061: http://www.aaas.org National Center for Educational Statistics Third International Mathematics and Science Survey (TIMSS): http://www.ed

SIDEBAR : Examples of Women's Health Research Goals Advocates and scientists are optimistic as they update and expand their agenda to include varied research priorities. Today's newspapers are replete with reports detailing advances in women's health: New breast cancer-causing genes are reported with increasing regularity, as are discoveries of connections between hormones or genetics and disease. In the midst of this progress, advocates for research on women's health-scientists, clinicians, p

Participants in working groups at the September planning meeting sponsored by the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women's Health brainstormed about the state of their fields, describing gaps in knowledge and making recommendations for future research directions. The groups concluded that more data are needed in several key areas in order to enable researchers and health care providers to accomplish the following goals. Cardiovascular Disease/Vascular Biology evaluate chest

SIDEBAR : Plant Cell Death Resources A FIELD IN BLOOM: Micheèle Heath observes that plant cell death research is starting to take off. The study of programmed cell death in plants can be likened to a rapidly growing sapling, still in its infancy but ripe with the promise of eventually bearing fruit. In the past few years, several research articles have begun to reveal a complex picture of cell death in plants, much like the initial boom in the study of animal cell death, especially apo

SIDEBAR: For Further Reading 1996 LASKER LAUREATES: Seated, from left, are John Robbins and Rachel Schneerson; standing from left, are Ferid Murad, David Smith, Robert Furchgott, Paul Zamecnik, and Porter Anderson. The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation entered its second half-century earlier this month by presenting a new prize along with its coveted medical research awards. For the first time in its 51-year history, the New York-based philanthropy bestowed the Albert Lasker Award for Special

The October 9 issue of JAMA-Journal of the American Medical Association contains three special articles commemorating this year's basic and clinical awards from the Lasker Foundation: J.B. Robbins, R. Schneerson, P. Anderson, D.H. Smith, "Prevention of systemic infections, especially meningitis, caused by Haemophilis influenzae Type b: Impact on public health and implications for other polysaccharide-based vaccines," JAMA, 276:1181-5, 1996. R.F. Furchgott, "The discovery of endothelium-derive

The effort to collect samples of DNA from diverse populations strives to overcome alleged public misunderstanding of its aims. SIDEBAR: For More Information MISINTERPRETED: "We need to show that this is just not a group of self-perpetuating insiders," says HGDP committee chairman Ken Weiss. Members of a National Research Council (NRC) panel evaluating the issues-both controversial and prosaic-surrounding the proposed Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP) have their hands full. Conceived abou