Experts say opportunity is richest in areas where diverse fields of study intersect and where new tools thrive Given today's dismal economic climate, new science graduates aiming to gain a foothold on a professional career in research can expect to face a tougher challenge than did their counterparts in previous years. For a lot of them, according to working scientists and others interviewed for this article, the problems will be twofold: They must contend, of course, with the limited job poo

But more visibility and funding are needed if their esoteric studies are to have impact beyond the playing field Like many sports scientists, David Lamb came to his profession by way of an interest in athletics. "I wanted to be a coach, but my [physical education] student teaching was one of the stereotypical worst experiences. So I decided to go back to school." It was there, at Michigan State University, says Lamb--now a professor of preventive medicine and health at Ohio State University

Growing enterprises are rethinking staff needs and realigning priorities as they move to parlay early gains As more biotechnology companies bring products beyond the discovery stage, small, research-driven organizations find themselves acquiring large staffs. Company officials say this new era of growth demands that they change recruiting strategies to hire employees with different skills, cope with increased competition among companies for workers, and create management structures that will p

Strong academic-industry links are deemed essential to the resuscitation of math's ability to attract and retain top-notch students Mathematicians are looking at the numbers, and some don't like what they see. Despite a spate of recent reports and studies urging greater support for the mathematical sciences and math education, academic funding levels and student retention rates are still far below what math practitioners believe is warranted. A follow-up study to a 1984 National Research Cou

Increasing fears about carcinogens and other poisons will fuel further growth in the already booming field, experts say The science of toxicology has come a long way in a relatively short time. Back in 1961, when a fledgling society of researchers devoted to the study of poisons and their effect on the human body was well-formed enough to merit holding an annual meeting, the group had 161 members. Next week, as the Society of Toxicology (SOT) convenes its 31st annual meeting, its membership

"We're a state school that depends on the kindness of the board of regents and the state government," says Charlotte Tilson, marketing manager at the University of Arizona Press. "But if the point is getting regular funding, we might be better off having ties with the Mafia. Nobody seems to care very much. "When the latest [state] funding cuts went through and the [university] marching band lost $75,000 to $100,000, you never heard such an uproar in your life. There were bake sales and mar

Publishing books on or about science presents unique challenges, academic press directors say. First among these challenges, says Susan Abrams, executive editor for the natural sciences at the University of Chicago Press, is the fact "that some scientists just won't write them--it's not their style. And, of course, [finding the] time is a problem. With the state of grant support being what it is, people are spending more and more time just trying to get their work funded." Unlike scholars

Industry and government scientists will be working overtime to comply with new demand for fuller information on nutrients WASHINGTON--When President Bush signed the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA) into law on November 8, 1990, he set in motion a process that's expected to increase the work load for food chemists in government and industry and raise a new set of scientific questions for academic researchers who study nutrition. The new Nutrition Labeling and Education Act

WASHINGTON -- Clinical investigators trying to include more women and minorities in their studies must rethink the traditional researcher-subject relationships and pay more attention to the needs of populations. And while the immediate costs of complying with federal mandates for increasing the use of underrepresented populations as research subjects may be significant, the long-term consequences of not doing so may be considerable, they say. "When I sit on committees, I hear members of re

USDA's deadline nears, and scientists struggle to reconcile their research priorities with new regulations Laboratories throughout the United States that use animals for research are rushing to meet new federal regulations affecting the welfare of animals used for research. The regulations cover exercise for dogs, improved housing for cats, and the psychological well-being of nonhuman primates. The rules require labs to have on hand, ready for inspection, plans that comply with these regulati

AUTHOR: MARCIA CLEMMITT, pg. 1, 6-7. After a decade of toiling in the business world, Nobelist Melvin Schwartz once again tries to make things happen in the lab Melvin Schwartz remembers his first physics experiment. "I was seven," he says, "and I'd read that you could make a magnet by putting [electrical] current around iron." Wrapping a light cord around a pair of scissors didn't work, he recalls, but "there was a light socket, and I thought I'd try putting the current through the scissors.

Well-rounded scientists who directly oversee the building of accelerators and reactors swap glory for grander achievements High on a ridge in Berkeley, Calif., construction workers swarm over a $100 million scientific instrument, called the Advanced Light Source, that will allow scientists to peer into living cells and photograph lightning-fast chemical reactions. A continent away, at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y., bulldozers have begun chewing up the dirt for the Relativistic