Articles by Robin Eisner

As the eminent institution moves to recover from the David Baltimore scandal, some scientists continue in assessing its impact A business-as-usual mood prevails these days at New York City's Rockefeller University. The prestigious research institution is moving to regain its balance following the dizzying chain of events leading to the December resignation of scandal-hounded scientist David Baltimore from its presidency. Meanwhile, university scientists and administrators around the United St

In Blaenavon, South Wales, on a warm September morning last year, a psychotherapist from Colorado and a computer repairman from northeastern England, both on vacation, sat on a grassy hill slope and measured how water flowed through the layer of topsoil covering the hill. Their readings will help determine the quality of this land, which is currently used for sheep grazing. The next day, on a nearby tract of land, a California elementary school teacher and a New Hampshire accountant, both als

OTA study contends that intellectual, financial, and regulatory challenges from other nations could erode America's global domination The United States is the world's front-runner in biotechnology because of its strong basic research structure and its ability to convert research into pharmaceutical and agricultural products, according to a report published by Congress' Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) last month. But the 283-page study, "Biotechnology in a Global Economy," warns that sev

Universities and other grant recipients seek to comply with requirement that curricula include moral rectitude courses "So what do you do if you see misconduct in scientific research?" asked a student at last month's introductory lecture for a new "Ethics in Research" series, organized jointly by New York's Rockefeller University, Cornell University Medical College, and the Sloan-Kettering Institute. Cornell medical dean, Robert Michels responded to the question by voicing his school's offici

Still reeling from recent bouts of bad P.R., and in a bind for funding, some schools are reassessing their research missions As the academic year begins, university executives, research administrators, and others are reviewing with considerable trepidation a deskload of headaches affecting their 1991-1992 research agendas. There are stacks of articles about university misconduct and fraud from major newspapers and magazines, accounting ledgers revealing budgetary shortfalls, and memos from di

Microbiologist J.K. Arap Keter is betting that some recently collected strains of the bacterial genus Rhizobium will soon join the family of other nonpolluting, inexpensive, microbial biofertilizers currently in use by thousands of East African farmers on legume crops. But first he and colleagues in the department of soil science at the University of Nairobi in Kenya must show that the new isolates can foster different plants' growth by helping the plants use nitrogen. After that, they must cu

Attending some scientific conferences can be as frustrating for the career-driven researcher as a stroll through a bookstore is for the book-starved browser. With offerings so vast, one simply may not have the time or the energy to satisfy the intellectual appetite. In the spring of 1990, the advisory committee to the NSF chemistry division decided to conduct its annual meeting a little differently. Instead of devoting one hour to one topic before moving on to another, committee members deci

Fearing that the publicity surrounding RU 486, the French-made abortion-inducing pill that is now available throughout Europe, would create a demand in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration issued an import ban on the drug in June 1989. Agency officials argued that women in the U.S. might put themselves at risk if they used this non-FDA-approved drug to terminate their own pregnancies. Today, as a result of the ban, RU 486 supplies in the U.S., even for basic research purposes, ar

Biomimetics: Creating Materials From Nature's Blueprints AUTHOR: ROBIN EISNER, P.14 In order to design a 21st-century, impact-resistant substance, materials scientist Mehmet Sarikaya of the University of Washington in Seattle finds inspiration in a 500-million-year-old feat of evolution--the shell of a present-day mollusk, the abalone. Following blueprints drawn from analysis of the microarchitecture of the shell, Sarikaya and colleague Ilhan Aksay have manufactured a prototype material tha

AUTHOR: ROBIN EISNER, pg. 5,17,25. A poll of 166 biotech firms cites frustration with FDA and U.S. Patent Office as major concerns of companies The typical biotechnology company regards the Food and Drug Administration's lengthy approval process for new drugs as the greatest barrier to success, according to a recent survey of 166 United States biotech firms. And if FDA isn't enough of a thorn in the side of the companies, U.S. Patent Office delays and a lack of management expertise are two o

The recessionary economy makes finding work tough for both new graduates and experienced researchers Summertime, and the sidewalks are steaming--tempers short, and the work day long. It's the time of year when people are considering whether they should start looking for a new job. If they begin the search now, they can at least look forward to a new place to work when the cool weather comes. Summer is also the season for new science graduates to make a decision as to whether they should continu

A renewed interest in ancient pharmaceuticals spurs debate over the extent to which natives should be compensated Lisa Conte, president of two-year-old Shaman Pharmaceuticals in San Carlos, Calif., needed a way for her company to find new therapeutic agents to compete with massive drug-screening efforts and biotechnology-based drug-discovery initiatives waged by the major pharmaceutical companies. The strategy she came up with was to look for leads from plant-based, non-Western medicines used

R.G. McDaniel, a University of Arizona plant geneticist, holds a patent on a flowering plant that grows in Arizona. The plant produces a "natural insecticide" that is lethal to insects yet is relatively safe for consumption by humans and warm-blooded mammals. Meanwhile, in Independence, Oreg., Krishen Bhat, the vice president for research at an agricultural company called Botanical Resources--a subsidiary of John I. Haas Co., the major hops refinery in the United States--is hurriedly working to

With species preservation now becoming at least as important as entertainment, researchers in many fields take up zoo residence "And on your right, enveloped by a cloud of vapor billowing from a just-opened tank that stores eggs, sperm, and embryos at sub-zero temperatures, the scientists in their white lab coats seem to blend into their habitat." This may be what a Cincinnati Zoo tour guide will say this fall as she takes a group of visitors through a unique feature at the zoo--an in vitro f

New policies may make it more difficult for them to work temporarily, but may make it easier for them to get permanent visas Universities, industries, and government agencies that employ foreign scientists see the 1990 Immigration Act, which revamps the visa application process for skilled workers and the quotas of temporary and permanent visas issued, as a mixed blessing. The 110-page law, signed by President Bush last November, triples the number of permanent visas for skilled workers to 1