Articles by Robert Buderi

PALO ALTO, CALIF.—It wasn’t very good news for the public.., or for the electric power industry. Researchers had found that sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants could aggravate the condition of asthmatics. But the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), which financed the research, didn’t flinch. EPRI was created in 1972 to support research on subjects that are important to the electric utility industry. Its $379 million annual budget comes entirely from contribut

BOULDER, COLO.—During the course of the devastating heat wave that struck Texas in the summer of 1980, climatologist Stephen Schneider estimates he fielded 25 calls from reporters trying to fathom the situation. When corn belt yields fell some 40% in 1983, Schneider, who is Senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) here, got that many phone calls in a month. And when severe drought struck the southeastern United States n 1986, queries came in a rate of 25

PALO ALTO, CALIF—In the high-pressure world of pharmaceutical research, scientists routinely risk corporate fortunes in a search for new compounds that could lead to big payoffs in such areas as cancer or heart disease. Indeed, virtually every major company has tried to speed up its process of creating and testing blockbuster drugs—a move that could save millions on development costs and beat a firm’s competitors to the marketplace. But progress in this high-stakes field has b

MALIBU, CALIF—Almost, nothing is visible on the Pacific Ocean this warm, clear day. No boats, no suffers, no swimmers—only waves breaking on the beach. That’s no doubt just fine by Michael J. Little, because there’s enough going on already. In his office high above the Malibu surf, the physicist swivels in his chair and reaches into a drawer to extract what looks like a wooden box for chessmen. No knights and rooks come spilling out, however. Instead, Little careful

IBM and Du Pont; Eastman Kodak, Hewlett-Packard, and Upjohn: just a few of tile U.S. corporations famous for being on the cutting edge of scientific research. And although each of these companies has long operated across international boundaries, this research has traditionally been conducted within the U.S. Increasingly, however, that is changing. In the past five years, all of these industry leaders have opened research facilities in Europe or Japan— regarding a new era of truly mult

PALO ALTO, CALIF.—Faced with an unexpected dearth of donations, Stanford University may be forced to slow down development of its Near West campus, the innovative, 41-acre science megacomplex designed to pave the way for decades of 21st-century research. As originally planned, a major part of the $350 million project was scheduled for completion in 1994. The slowdown could mean that some of Stanford’s science faculty will have to wait as much as four years longer than expected fo

PALO ALTO—In the first week of May, Nancy Kendzierski and a team of Hewlett-Packard Co. software engineers will arrive at the Computer HUman Interaction conference in Austin, Tex., armed not with the floppy disks of their trade but with a six-minute-long videotape containing their vision of tomorrow’s computers. The tape demonstrates a portion of what H-P calls its Cooperative Computing Environment (CCE). The project is based on the concept that teams of machines and people can

Jezzy Leszczynski was living the good life: He was a visiting scientist in quantum chemistry at the University of Florida, his two children were happy, his wife was working at the university as a postdoctoral fellow in environmental science. So why did Leszczynski suddenly leave his family behind to become a research associate at the University of Alabama? No, this isn’t some sad tale about a “science marriage” on the skids. The fact is, Leszczynski hops on a bus or piles

A key experiment has been approved, but many researchers worry that slipping genes into humans is premature. BETHESDA, MD.--Maybe W. French Anderson wouldn't be in the center of a slow-burning controversy if it weren't for the letters. But he can't escape them. Several times a week, new correspondence lands on his desk on the seventh floor of Building 10 at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. The letters come from all across the United States and from dozens of foreign countries, a

Out of the Minneapolis suburbs they swarm in business suits, popping up at technical conferences and slowly picking the brains of the best scientists in a given field. Reconnaissance complete, they return home to sharpen their plans. A target is singled out for the kill—and if all goes well, Cray Research Inc. has sold another multimillion dollar supercomputer. This is the company’s newest sales hit team, comprising 60 of the company’s best salespeople, engineers, and scientis

For being at the right place at the wrong time, Bernard Erlanger missed the road to riches back in 1957. The Columbia University microbiologist knew that he had helped pioneer a powerful technique for making antibodies to steroids, and he even suspected that it might have commercial applications. Indeed, the method is now commonly used for everything from controlling animal litter size to testing human hormonal disorders—and the paper Erlanger wrote has become one of the most cited in his

EMERYVILLE, CALIF.—Six-packs of Budweiser and individual bottles of Coors, Michelob, and Miller line a laboratory shelf in the Aquanautics corporate headquarters. But they’re for work, not play. Scientists at the young firm hope that the beers will prove to be Aquanautics’ savior—transforming a company founded on a pipedream to a company thriving on innovation. If they have their way, Aquanautics’ 14 scientists will guarantee us fresher-tasting beers. Why do we ca

Right after Black Monday, analysts said venture capital would dry up. This tour-page special report shows the still thriving field finding money in new places but facing increased scrutiny. CAMBRIDGE, MASS.—One year ago this month the stock market suffered its worst decline since 1929. In the wake of Black Monday, pundits prophesied dire consequences—for the economy in general and for corporate and entrepreneurial science and technology in particular. Corporate R&D budgets would

CAMBRIDGE, MASS.—If Rainer Weiss doesn't reach his goal of staring God in the eye—or at least gazing back to the first moment of creation—it won't be for lack of trying. Over the past 16 years, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist has appeared before a host of committees, flitted between coasts on red-eye flights to meet with collaborators, and even endured what some call a scientific version of a shotgun wedding with rival physicists at Caltech. For the pipe-smo