Eavesdrop on a few conversations taking place between sessions at a scientific meeting and you're likely to hear researchers complaining that among the general public, scientists get no respect. Often cited as evidence are the media's portrayal of scientists as "nerds," deficiencies in science literacy among laypeople, and the inadequacy of government funds allocated for science. But in actuality, the public does not view scientists as occupational Rodney Dangerfields, according to the latest

A 17-year-old high school student on the threshold of pursuing a scientific career worries about the public's perception of science and of what research brings to the world. A 72-year-old academic chemist is concerned that young scientists are looking to industry, rather than academia, for fulfilling work. These two people, at opposite ends of a professional lifetime, are different in many ways. But they, and three other researchers of different ages interviewed for this article, agree on many

What does it take to succeed in an entrepreneurial scientific venture? Following are some pointers from scientists who have prospered as entrepreneurs and others who have helped scientists scratch their entrepreneurial itches: * "You should identify the niche you want to be in and have the scientific expertise and inside information as to how you can build the niche adequately," says Robert Zipkin, president of Biomol Research Laboratories Inc. of Plymouth Meeting, Pa. Zipkin founded and inco

With funding opportunities dwindling in an unpredictable economic climate, graduate students planning to earn their Ph.D.'s in the next two years face a host of uncertainties, according to Betty Vetter, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology. Although the National Science Foundation and other agencies are anticipating a shortage of Ph.D. scientists beginning in the mid-1990s, students who will earn their doctorates before then are bracing th

The first molecular modeling software, developed at Columbia University in the mid-1960s by the late Cyrus Levinthal (see page 28), was capable of displaying and manipulating complex molecules in two dimensions. By the mid-1970s, at the University of California, San Francisco, molecular modeling had been taken to a new level by Robert Langridge, Michael Connelly, and Peter Coleman, with more sophisticated, three-dimensional graphics and new manipulative capabilities, including the ability to po

When the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced the names of the 36 new MacArthur Fellows this past summer, there were eight scientists included on the list. But according to Kenneth Hope, director of the MacArthur Fellows Program, it makes no difference to foundation officials whether this year's recipients are physicists, painters, or poets. "We never make distinctions by field," Hope says. Rather, "individuals who show creativity and promise and who have the po

In 1986, after 30 years with Merck Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories, chemist T.Y. Shen took an early retirement. But he wasn't settling down to a life of leisure. After a successful career in industry, Shen wanted to take a stab at becoming an academic scientist. I enjoyed my career at Merck very much, first in research and later in administration, he says. But I wanted to do more research and enjoy an academic life in a second career. As Shen's experience shows, just because a scientis

Picture an unsuspecting scientist, hot on the research trail, looking for information that's readily available on one of the many computer bulletin boards used for scientific information searches. He flips on his computer and modem, dials into a bulletin board, finds the information, and downloads it onto a floppy disk. Chances are that he's just saved hours of precious library or lab time by using the bulletin board. But the next time he accesses that disk, he may discover he has acquired an

When aquatic toxicologist Greg Smith recalls the way he got his first job after receiving his Ph.D. in 1988, he has every reason to consider himself lucky. For one thing, unlike many other newly hatched scientists, he never had to answer a classified ad. Smith, now employed at Battelle Memorial Institute, a nonprofit research institute in Columbus, Ohio, was spared a lot of the hassles of job-hunting because he took his degree in a specialty that happens to be in extremely high demand. Althoug