When Christine Benally was a high school student in Shiprock, N.Mex., on the easternmost edge of the Navajo Reservation, her educational goals went no further than getting a vocational degree--as her father, a mechanic, did before her and as many of her friends would do, as well. "I figured something like that would do me," recalls Benally. "Get a technical degree, get out fast, start earning money." Yet some 15 years later, Benally has a doctoral degree in environmental toxicology under her b

Immunoassay technology, a quick and cost-effective method of detecting and measuring minute quantities of substances in the human body, has now transitioned from the clinical and biological research arenas to environmental investigations. The technique, which exploits the capacity of a mammalian antibody to latch onto a particular chemical with great specificity, is used in at-home pregnancy tests, workplace drug-screening programs, and AIDS testing. Within the last year, however, several immun

Robert Krucz, an astronomer with the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., has received the University of Arizona's 1992 George Van Biesbroeck Award. The annual award recognizes an astronomer whose contributions to the field have been unselfish and unrecognized. Krucz was honored for developing and distributing--without compensation--computer programs useful to astronomers. For 25 years, Krucz has been developing computer programs for studying the atmosphere and c

As American Indians continue to join the ranks of U.S. scientists, many seek to remind their peers that native cultures have been contributing to Western science for half a millennium. "Indians were first-rate geneticists and agronomists," says Hopi tribal member Frank Dukepoo, an associate professor of genetics at Northern Arizona University. "If we'd been able to evolve [without European contact], we'd have had Indian scientists," he argues. "But as they evolved into being scientists, they

Princeton University's Joseph H. Taylor, Jr., who in 1974 discovered a binary pulsar that has helped verify gravitational aspects of general relativity theory, will receive this year's Wolf Prize in physics. The $100,000 award, to be presented to Taylor in May by the president of Israel, is one of six given annually by the Israel-based Wolf Foundation. The other five awards are in the fields of chemistry, medicine, mathematics, agriculture, and the arts. Pulsars, rapidly spinning neutron star

Philip H. Abelson, former editor of Science magazine, has been selected to receive the National Academy of Sciences' 1992 Public Welfare Medal. The academy's highest honor, awarded annually to recognize extraordinary use of science for the public good, will be presented to Abelson at a ceremony in April. Abelson, who held the top editorial post at Science for 23 years, is currently the magazine's deputy editor for engineering and applied sciences. When he assumed its helm in 1962, Science had a

In the last few years, developers of statistical software have tried hard to reach the nonstatistician. User-friendly, menu-driven programs, with high-resolution graphics to visualize the results of statistical analyses, are becoming increasingly available. And while software packages may not take the place of a fundamental understanding of statistics, they can help improve the statistical literacy of a scientist who understands the basics. Many of the software manuals include detailed explanat

Barry R. Bloom, an immunologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, last month received the first annual Bristol- Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Infectious Disease Research. The $50,000 cash prize was given in recognition of Bloom's contributions to immunology, including the development of an experimental recombinant multiple vaccine and investigations of leprosy and tuberculosis. Throughout

The 1991 Nobel Prize winners in science were announced last month, and for the first time in 43 years, none of the laureates is from the United States. Yet their work--in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, phase transitions in materials science, and patch-clamp methodologies--collectively has influenced research in the U.S. and throughout the world. As is typical of Nobel Prize winners, their pioneering advances have changed the way science is done across the spectrum of scientific discip

VOLUME 5, No:23 The Scientist November 25, 1991 People 1991 Kyoto Prizes Recognize Advances In Deterministic Chaos, Polymer Science Author: Rebecca Andrews, p.21 At about $300,000 each, the international Kyoto Prizes are among the most lucrative cash awards given in science or the arts. These prizes, sponsored by the Inamori Foundation of Japan in three categories each year--advanced technology, basic sciences, and creative arts and moral sciences--were presented at a cerem

Last Friday, the 1991 Gairdner Foundation International Awards were presented in Toronto to six scientists--three from the United States, two from England, and one from Canada. The winners, each of whom received a $30,000 prize and a small statuette, come from a cross-section of disciplines. They were recognized for contributions to medical science ranging from the growth and functioning of blood vessels and their constituent cells to the invention of a revolutionary technique for copying piece

Analytical chemists and lab managers based on the West Coast of the United States traditionally have had to travel long distances to attend major trade expositions in their field. The Pittsburgh Conference--commonly known as PittCon--the "grandaddy" of analytical shows, for example, usually is held in New York or New Orleans and has never made it farther west than Chicago. While smaller, regional conferences take place in many areas, they tend to emphasize scientific meetings and presentations