Scientists most often work with collaborators in the same or closely related disciplines, and they usually strike up their relationships in professional settings or at social gatherings. Unusual, then, is the collaboration between Glenn C. Conroy and Michael W. Vannier. Conroy is a biological anthropologist and paleontologist, while Vannier is a radiologist--and their relationship was launched by a trip to the grocery that Conroy took one day. While waiting in the checkout line, Conroy browsed

Arden Kelton has developed his sea legs as an entrepreneur by riding out high and low tides. Kelton, who holds a Ph.D. in medical physics from the University of California, Los Angeles, is founder and president of Lamplighter Industries Inc. The Yanceyville, N.C., firm uses a ceramic technology invented by Kelton's partner, engineer David Emmett, to manufacture electronic display lighting for instrument light panels. During recent weeks, Kelton has been scrambling to do something that for a lot

When Gilbert H. Nussbaum treats his cancer patients, he's well aware that they're running out of hope: They've already undergone chemotherapy or surgery, but their tumors have recurred. Nussbaum administers hyperthermia to these desperately ill patients, searing their tumors with intense heat. Yet Nussbaum is not a physician. He's a radiation physicist at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology in St. Louis. He got his professional start as an atomic physicist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxvi

Barbara Stocker is a librarian, Tom Monahan and Mary Boguslaski are patent attorneys, and Randy McBeath is a marketer. Randy Atkins produces television features, and Elizabeth Culotta writes for a newspaper. Ken Freese searches out commercial applications of research at a government laboratory, while Tom Walsh plays a similar role at a university. Yet all have a common background: They were trained as scientists, some with many years of experience as bench researchers or instructors. By applyin