Only half of today's firms are expected to exist five years from now, but a similar decrease in jobs is notnecessarily in the offing FEELING FINE: Analyst Joyhn Wong sees biotech layoffs as part of a "healthy cycle". The past year has been a turbulent one for biotechnology. While 1994 saw the first genetically engineered food approved for sale Calgene's Flavr Savr tomato it also witnessed disappointing failures in clinical trials and other industry setbacks. Many investors have deserted biote

Rumors of impending layoffs began swirling around the Langford division of Cyanamid Canada Inc. in Guelph, Ontario, last July. As molecular microbiologist Lori L. Burrows recalls it, the Toronto-area veterinary vaccine manufacturer was a small pawn in a battle among three pharmaceutical titans. At first it seemed as if diplomacy would avert a bloodletting: Langford's parent company, American Cyanamid Co. of Princeton, N.J., planned to swap its human pharmaceuticals subsidiaries to SmithKline Be

The growth of the Internet has furnished researchers with unparalleled opportunities for exchanging information, but it's also burdened them with unprecedented confusion, scientists say. While the standard cliche has it that the Internet is an information superhighway, some cynics reacting to its bewildering complexity have dubbed it the information supercollider. It may be more apt to liken it to a vast library with a badly organized card catalog. The library not only is poorly indexed, but a

The world of science has no shortage of formal programs aimed at assisting the career advancement of members of racial or ethnic minorities. But these programs alone--effective as some can be--are not enough to overcome the professional barriers that scientists in these chronically underrepresented groups often confront, according to minority researchers. "Students have to understand that these minority programs generally only get them to first base," says Eloy Rodriguez, Cornell University's J

With no signs that the continuing scarcity of scientific jobs will ease any time soon, job hunters are being challenged to take more creative approaches to identifying open positions. The explosive growth of the Internet is providing a new, highly efficient medium for the dissemination of information on scientific employment. Electronic replies to job ads, too, can give a job seeker a quick-response advantage over his or her competition. There are dozens of different places to look for job ads

Allen Misher, president of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, says of his work on corporate boards, "The quality of the people I deal with, the intellectual interactions, are extremely important to me and highly enjoyable. It gives me an opportunity to deal on a scientific basis with people at the forefront of their disciplines. It's even fun on a personal basis." While the scientists who are asked to serve on corpor

Through the process of trial and error, scientific societies and veteran poster presenters have come up with the following rules of thumb for effective poster presentations. 1. Prepare a banner in very large type containing a descriptive title, the authors, and their affiliations. This banner should be situated high up on the poster so it can be seen above people's heads from a distance of 15 to 20 feet. 2. Bracket the poster with an introduction at the beginning and a list of conclusions at