Articles by Peter Gwynne

By Peter GwynneSHOW US THE MONEYDespite limited sources of capital, would-be entrepreneurs with solid biobusiness ideas can usually obtain financial support.Art PappasJASON VARNEY | VARNEYPHOTO.COMIt might lack the intellectual cachet of life science in Boston-Cambridge and the Bay area, but North Carolina boasts a significant amount of research in biomedical fields. The work consistently produces both intellectual property and scientist-entrepreneurs eager to exploit it by forming startup compa

By Peter GwynneSHOW US THE MONEYDespite limited sources of capital, would-be entrepreneurs with solid biobusiness ideas can usually obtain financial support.Art PappasJASON VARNEY | VARNEYPHOTO.COMIt might lack the intellectual cachet of life science in Boston-Cambridge and the Bay area, but North Carolina boasts a significant amount of research in biomedical fields. The work consistently produces both intellectual property and scientist-entrepreneurs eager to exploit it by forming startup compa

Newsday NODS OF APPROVAL A single breakout season can earn a major league baseball player the accolade of his own bobblehead doll. Scientists have a tougher time, though. Nobel laureate James Watson had to wait 50 years to earn head-nodding credibility; he joins a small pantheon of scientists so honored. Francis Crick, Watson's colleague in the discovery of DNA's structure, hasn't made the cut, but Albert Einstein has. And for the psychiatry world, Sigmund Freud nods approvingly. ($21.95; www

Last November, after several hours of tough debate, the Massachusetts Medical Society's House of Delegates voted down a proposal that would give future editors of the society's New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) complete control over the use and marketing of the prestigious journal's logo. Instead, in a concession to supporters of the journal's editors, the group agreed to set up a committee comprising deans of medical schools and schools of public health to arbitrate disputes between futur

The paper airplanes rained down as usual. The cluster of authentic Nobel laureates sat in their usual spots on the stage of Harvard University's Sanders Theater. The traditional mini-opera had cloning as its subject. What could the occasion be but the awards ceremony for the 1999 Ig Nobel prizes? This year's event, sponsored by the scientific humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research, recognized some pieces of research that may have actual, if so far unproven, redeeming scientific or social

As an issue on the cusp of science and social policy, the value of marijuana in medicine refuses to go away. For several years, researchers wishing to undertake clinical trials of marijuana's medical effects on humans have claimed that the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are stonewalling by insisting that the protocols are unacceptable. Those organizations complain that several pr

Research universities and federal funding agencies are taking a new approach to cutting-edge research in life sciences: multidisciplinary teams of scientists. Already in 1999, two Ivy League universities have announced plans for new institutes that will bring together physical and biological scientists to tackle problems. Other major universities have embarked on similar initiatives within the past year. And a research institute that will open a campus in the Midwest next year plans to carry ou

Stockholm may be the home of the genuine Nobel Prizes, but Cambridge, Mass., has its own answer to the creme de la creme of the scientific world. Every fall since 1991, the Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony has blown a figurative raspberry at those members of the profession who take themselves too seriously. Produced by Annals of Improbable Research (AIR), a publication occasionally described as the MAD magazine of science, the event marks achievements that, in the words of Marc Abrahams --editor of AIR

Photo courtesy of Lee P. Thomas WILLING PARTNER: The University of Kentucky works closely with business and industry, says Ed Carter, vice president for management and budget. In the course of an academic research project, you make a discovery that has potential applications outside the laboratory. As you explore the idea further, you become convinced that the advance might form the basis for a new company. But as a working scientist, you know roughly as much about commercial start-ups as you

Arris Pharmaceutical Corp. and Sequana Therapeutics Inc. join up in a merger that creates a new company, Axys Pharmaceuticals, that "will be the first company integrated from gene to drug," according to a spokesman. Amersham Life Sciences and Pharmacia Biotech link up to form Amersham Pharmacia Biotech Ltd., a new company that "will be the largest biotechnology supplier in the world." Triangle Pharmaceuticals Inc. acquires fellow pharmaceutical company Avid Corp., thereby gaining "access to a n

Although newly degreed life scientists may be ready for employment in an academic setting, they often come to the business world unprepared for the fast-paced, team-based, results-oriented environment of today's life science industry, a variety of observers from industry and academia assert. Some university and business leaders are helping to rectify such problems by teaming up to create educational programs focused on the business side of science. OFFERING AN ALTERNATIVE: Henry Riggs, preside

Imagine it as F. Lee Bailey meets Albert Einstein, with David Letterman hovering in the background. The Annals of Improbable Research (AIR) and the Journal of Irreproducible Results (JIR), two of a handful of publications that take an intentionally humorous view of science and scientists, are moving slowly toward a date in court. George H. Scherr, publisher of JIR, is suing Marc Abrahams, editor of AIR, and Improbable Research Inc., AIR's parent company, for what Scherr claims is unfair competi

For students at the University of California, Los Angeles's College of Letters and Science (CLS), learning has taken on a new dimension this quarter-a cyberdimension. Each one of the roughly 1,000 courses that the college offered during the quarter had its own home page on the World Wide Web. But the concept of Web-based courses, made mandatory at CLS as of September 25, has drawn plenty of controversy. It has also spurred the growth of a cottage industry-the preparation of course home pages-th

Since January of this year, graduate students at Virginia Tech have faced an experience unlike any encountered by their peers in other universities. They must submit their master's degree theses or doctoral dissertations in formats capable of being posted on the World Wide Web. "What we're doing is putting theses and dissertations in our library in an electronic format so that they can be found in a search," explains John Eaton, associate vice provost for graduate studies at Virginia Tech. "We'

The medical use of electricity dates back at least to the ancient Greeks, who used shocks from electric fish to treat gout. Modern medical researchers are more cautious about applying electrical energy to patients' bodies. Nevertheless, one electrically based technology, called iontophoresis, is growing in popularity, particularly among anesthesiologists and physical therapists. Increasing interest in the technique, which uses electric current to deliver drugs through the skin, has given rise t