Anthologies Author: Ricki Lewis When mathematics professor Mark Snavely needed a textbook for his interdisciplinary science course-called, simply, "Discovery"-at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., he didn't know where to turn. What text covered chaos theory, climate change, infectious disease, and the theory of relativity? Unwilling to make students purchase several books and use little of each, Snavely did what many creative professors are doing-he designed his own text. WHAT THE PROFESSOR

Precarious Task Author: Ricki Lewis In the days of TV's June Cleaver -- stay-at-home-mom extraordinaire -- the idea of the female parent spending hours each day lecturing undergraduates or directing laboratory research bordered on absurd. Women were rare among the ranks of academic scientists, and those who were also mothers rarer still. Today women are prominent players in the academic life sciences, and many are mothers, too. Like their counterparts in industry (R. Lewis, The Scientist, Jan.

Field Author: Ricki Lewis Sidebars: A Tissue Survey Over the past decade, tissue engineering has evolved from a hodgepodge of different disciplines to a biotechnology field in its own right. A marriage of chemical engineering and cell biology, with input from genetics and surgery, tissue engineering combines living cells, biochemicals, and synthetic materials into implants that can function in the human body. Some 30 companies and dozens of academic laboratories are pursuing tissue engineeri

Tissue engineers are working on a variety of proj-ects. Here are just a few candidates for future human replacement parts. Skin: Chemical engineers agree that skin will be the first engineered tissue commercially available as a medical device to treat the large market of severe burn patients and those suffering from diabetic ulcers and other nonhealing wounds. La Jolla, Calif.-based Advanced Tissue Sciences Inc. and Organogenesis in Canton, Mass., have engineered skin substitutes currently in

Obstacles Author: Ricki Lewis Sidebar: Science Studios Anyone who's played a video game, gazed up in a planetarium, or taken Disney World's trip through the human body has glimpsed computer-created environments. Adding to that the ability to interact with the cyberworld produces what is popularly known as "virtual reality" (VR). Although life-sciences applications of the technology are just beginning, already variations on the VR theme are proving valuable in such areas as new drug development

Despite travel-budget cuts at many institutions and companies, as well as the growing number of gatherings on the annual calendar, attendance at many scientific meetings remains strong. But researchers are becoming choosier in deciding which conferences they will attend, more carefully weighing the expense--in both money and time spent away from the lab--against the expected scientific and career-building returns. Kenneth I. Berns, president-elect of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM),

The ends of centuries are momentous times for immunology. Edward Jenner introduced the first vaccine, against smallpox, in 1798. New York surgeon William Coley originated immunotherapy in 1893, when he infected cancer patients with killed bacteria to stimulate immunity against their tumors. And now, in the 1990s, "cancer vaccines" are finally in widespread clinical trials. Cancer vaccines are making headlines and have been the focus of five international scientific conferences in the past two y

End Of Century Marks Dawn Of Clinical Trial Era For Cancer Vaccines By Ricki Lewis The ends of centuries are momentous times for immunology. Edward Jenner introduced the first vaccine, against smallpox, in 1798. New York surgeon William Coley originated immunotherapy in 1893, when he infected cancer patients with killed bacteria to stimulate immunity against their tumors. And now, in the 1990s, "cancer vaccines" are finally in widespread clinical trials. Cancer vaccines are making headlines

Research Field Sidebars: MOST-CITED APOPTOSIS PAPERS, 1981-94 NIH FUNDING OF EXTRAMURAL GRANTS WHOSE TITLES MENTION `APOPTOSIS' WHERE APOPTOSIS RESEARCHERS GATHER The phenomenon of apoptosis--a form of programmed cell death--has sprung suddenly and dramatically into scientific consciousness. While references to apoptosis now abound in scientific literature, cell biology textbooks with copyrights prior to 1992 do not contain the term in their indexes. Before 1992, the National Institutes of He

The challenge of successfully combining the demands of family and career may be easing for women scientists in industry. With increasing numbers of women opting to work in private- sector research laboratories--and in the wake of the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993--many firms have revamped maternity-leave policies to better accommodate new parenthood and the transition back to work. The recently enacted federal law ensures workers in companies with 50 or more employees 12 weeks of unpaid,

But, just as antibodies are finding increasing utility in cell biology, a new Food and Drug Administration classification for those products with clinical utility may affect researchers' access to the important technology (see accompanying story). Monoclonal History MAbs were born in 1975, when Georges Kohler and Cesar Milstein at the Medical Research Council Laboratories in Cambridge, England, fused two types of cells to form a hy

But, just as antibodies are finding increasing utility in cell biology, a new Food and Drug Administration classification for those products with clinical utility may affect researchers' access to the important technology (see accompanying story). Monoclonal History MAbs were born in 1975, when Georges Kohler and Cesar Milstein at the Medical Research Council Laboratories in Cambridge, England, fused two types of cells to form a hy