April 1993

Stock market declines have taken their toll on established firms, but startup ventures still attract backing Launching a new biotechnology company calls for a number of key ingredients, as any wide-eyed scientist who has tested the entrepreneurial waters will attest. You need your enlightened concept, of course, and the enduring visionary force that eventually is to hammer your concept into shape as a viable product. You also need the right people--and the proper blend of them--to keep the

While some experts see virtue in the new president's technology policy, others warn of hidden probems High-technology company executives and association officials, along with leading scientists and others in the United States research and development community, are largely upbeat in their initial responses to President Bill Clinton's economic program and his ambitious effort to redirect U.S. technology policy. At the same time, several science and technology policy-watchers interviewed by Th

University department chairpersons have been pushing to see dollar support for NIH double in the near future Five billion dollars is not enough, according to a group pushing for the federal government to pump more money into the basic biomedical research funded by the National Institutes of Health. And with Bill Clinton now in the White House, members of the group--the National Caucus of Basic Biomedical Science Chairs-- say they are very optimistic about achieving their goal. Composed of 2

At an April 1 meeting in Washington, D.C., the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government formally began the process of going out of business. The commission's five-year charter ends June 30. The panel was convened in 1988 under the auspices of the Carnegie Corporation of New York to assess the ways in which policymakers take science and technology issues into account when making decisions. The blue-ribbon panel is cochaired by Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg, former president

PBS show on Rachel Carson and Silent Spring would include "interviews with foes and friends." The interviews with "foes" were with only one person: myself. The only other opponent was Professor Robert White-Stevens of Rutgers University, who died several years ago and thus, for obvious reasons, was not interviewed. Instead, two or three selected film clips were shown, to represent him as a spokesman for the pesticide industry. Several "friends" came on camera for a total of about 30 times, plus

As president of Americans for Medical Progress (AMP), I am writing on behalf of our 1,600 members concerned with the radical "animal rights" movement's threat to medical progress. AMP is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the future of medical research that eases human suffering and saves human life. The article "Opponents Set 1993 Tactics For Animal Rights Showdown" (Ron Kaufman, The Scientist, Jan. 25, 1993, page 1) doesn't tell the whole story with respect to the issue of the us

One way to combat future science phobia and illiteracy is to bring children closer to scientists, educators say. And because scientists often have many stories to tell, publishers have found that using them as authors of children's science books can help bring the excitement of research to youngsters with an authenticity and perspective that nonscientist-authors cannot easily convey. The secret of good writing is for the final product to look effortless. But writing a successful book requir

Entomologist, JOHN CASIDA, to get Wolf Prize in agriculture ROBERT W. PARRY, a University of Utah chemistry professor, has won the American Chemical Society's 1993 Priestley Medal Pesticide Chemistry and Toxicology Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, will receive the 1993 Wolf Prize in Agriculture. Since 1978, the Israeli-based Wolf Foundation has been granting four $100,000 prizes annually for individual achievements among the five fields of agriculture, chemistry, m