April 1996

Science? Many from academia and industry dispute an NCI scientist's charge that confidentiality agreements restrict the free exchange of information. CONCERNED: NCI's Steven Rosenberg worries that research agreements promote secrecy among scientists. Few scientists with research support from industry complain in these times of increasing competition for grants from federal agencies. Yet some investigators are concerned that corporate desires to keep firm control over so-called proprietary in

Clinical-Trial Recruitment 'PLEASANT SUPRISE': NCI's Otis Brawley notes the racial makeup of treatment-trial patients was not planned. The National Cancer Institute (NCI), the largest of the National Institutes of Health, proudly touts its record of recruiting minorities into clinical trials it supports. "We have incredibly good representation of minorities on treatment trials," maintains Otis Brawley, senior investigator in the Community Oncology and Rehabilitation Branch of NCI's Division o

Denizens Of The Deep Author: Karen Young Kreeger Stymied by drug-resistant tumors and antibiotic-outwitting microbes, researchers are taking the plunge and sifting through the largely unexplored biodiversity offered by marine organisms. Drugs and other products from the sea have been a steadily growing research interest for the last 20 years. Recently, however, backers from business and government have stepped up their involvement, opened up their wallets, and broadened their scope in the fiel

By Eric Albert Email: ealbert@world.std.com ACROSS 1 Pertaining to cell destruction 4 Y-shaped protein molecule 9 Lymphocyte developed in the thymus 10 Energy process need; abbr. 11 Organ of _____ (cochlea structure) 12 Be a chip off the old block, genetically 13 Pavlovian response result 15 Pioneer in radioactivity study 18 Growing without cultivation 19 Canal that conveys a body fluid 20 One DNA technology goal 24 Localized, abnormal change in the body 25 Prophase point 28 Rust, for one 29 T

By Eric Albert Email: ealbert@world.std.com ACROSS 1 Pertaining to cell destruction 4 Y-shaped protein molecule 9 Lymphocyte developed in the thymus 10 Energy process need; abbr. 11 Organ of _____ (cochlea structure) 12 Be a chip off the old block, genetically 13 Pavlovian response result 15 Pioneer in radioactivity study 18 Growing without cultivation 19 Canal that conveys a body fluid 20 One DNA technology goal 24 Localized, abnormal change in the body 25 Prophase point 28 Rust, for one 29 T

Let this be a warning to bosses and pompous big shots in labs around the United States: It's that time of year again when your students and your colleagues are busy devising devilish ways to prick your balloon. What's that? This article reached you too late? April Fool! FISHING FOR LAUGHS: Jeffrey Maynes, "troublemaker-in-chief" as a postdoc at U. Alabama, turned a colleague's lab into an undersea scene. The American Heritage Dictionary defines "practical joke" as "a mischievous trick playe

About Science Science is the study of that which is odd, unusual, peculiar, suspicious, or curious. In a word: funny. Therefore, science-and scientists-cannot help being amusing, absurd, jocular, whimsical, comical, entertaining, diverting, capricious, droll. In a word: funny. Can this be documented? Yes. Anything can be documented. For this project, I teamed up with Michael Rissinger, a research librarian at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City. Rissinger

A Technological Revolution In 50 Short Years Fifty years ago, a revolutionary technology was developed at the Moore School of Engineering and Science at the University of Pennsylvania. On Feb. 14, 1946, John W. Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert, Jr., threw the switch on the first large-scale, general-purpose, electronic digital computer that they had constructed-ENIAC (the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). The project grew out of a 1943 military contract to calculate the trajectories

In refuting my conclusion that the National Institutes of Health system for deciding which proposals to fund is flawed and badly in need of reform (The Scientist, Oct. 16, 1995, page 12), Brian Herman not only seems to accept the system as it is but also seems to see it as being as good as it can be and needing no improvement (The Scientist, Feb. 5, 1996, page 12). It is really too bad that he was not able to see the roughly 30 pieces of positive E-mails I got, in addition to faxes, letters, a

Edward G. Brame, Jr.'s letter in the Feb. 5, 1996, issue of The Scientist (page 13) charged that there is a problem of intolerance, presumably within the research community, which he called scientific fundamentalism. This intolerance is to "new ideas that do not fit a prescribed mold," which are "often out-of-hand rejected and made fun of." He offers as evidence of this behavior the prevailing scientific attitude toward "cold fusion" and "paranormal phenomena." In the first case, cold fusion h

In his letter (The Scientist, Feb. 5, 1996, page 13) Arthur W. Galston appears to be of the opinion that "scientists ought to learn something about ethical theories" before they can "venture ethical pronouncements on that subject." Could Galston be a little confused about what constitutes a moral problem and, further, how we should go about solving such a problem? Perhaps Galston, like so many contemporary moral philosophers, has fallen for the idea that if there is no agreement on an issue, w

In the article entitled "Scientists' Heated Debate On Immigration Mirrors Issues Argued Throughout U.S." (R. Finn, The Scientist, Nov. 27, 1995, page 1), Gene Nelson is incorrectly referred to as a founding member of the Network of Emerging Scientists (NES). While Nelson is a valued member of the NES editors' group and a frequent contributor to the NES digest, he be-came active in our group after its inception. In addition, while reference to NES was made in the context of the immigration deb

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the first vaccine, which was developed against smallpox. As vaccine researchers launch a new century of challenging disease science, they might find inspiration in the simple beginnings of Edward Jenner's discovery. 

Edited by Karen Young Kreeger H. Roelink, A. Augsburger, J. Heemskerk, V. Korzh, S. Norlin, A. Ruiz i Altaba, Y. Tanabe, M. Placzek, T. Edlund, T.M. Jessell, J. Dodd, "Floor plate and motor neuron induction by vhh-1, a vertebrate homolog of hedgehog expressed by the notochord," Cell, 76:761-75, 1994. (Cited in nearly 90 publications as of February 1996) Comments by Henk Roelink, University of Washington SIGNALS FROM SONIC HEDGEHOG: Using cDNA, University of Washington's Henk Roelink and col

C.J. Hussussian, J.P. Struewing, A.M. Goldstein, P.A.T. Higgins, D.S. Ally, M.D. Sheahan, W.H. Clark, M.A. Tucker, D.C. Dracopoli, "Germline p16 mutations in familial melanoma," Nature Genetics, 8:15-21, 1994. (Cited in nearly 130 publications as of February 1996) Comments by Christopher J. Hussussian, Washington University School of Medicine This paper identifies and describes mutations in the p16 gene in families with malignant melanoma. These mutations affect the balance between the protei

Prospects In Industry For the scientist who left graduate school holding a master's degree, career prospects in industry look good, according to those involved in corporate hiring. A primary reason for this, they note, is that industry openings at the master's level aren't suffering from a mismatch of supply and demand. Ph.D.'s, on the other hand, are graduating faster than university faculty positions are opening up, and the business world is not picking up the doctoral-level researchers left

Cell-Culture Market Biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies are putting the pressure on manufacturers of cell-culture equipment and supplies to create products that will enable researchers to culture cells more efficiently and in large amounts. The increased need for these products is an outgrowth of the growing demand for genetically engineered products with proven or potential therapeutic value. The laboratory products industry is responding with new types of cell-culture vessels that

TAKING THE CROWN: Counterclockwise from top, Hugh Pelham, Günter Blobel, and James Rothman A trio of scientists separately researching proteins have won the 1996 King Faisal International Prize for Science. The prize, awarded this year for "outstanding achievements" in biology, goes to Gnter Blobel, John D. Rockefeller Pro- fessor at Rockefeller University in New York; James E. Rothman, program chairman in cellular biochemistry and biophysics at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Cen

Rep. JOHN EDWARD PORTER (R-Ill.), Chairman, House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, Washington, D.C. "THE SCIENTIST helps us stay abreast of the latest developments and provides us with a way to gauge how support of biomedical research helps produce breakthroughs in the laboratory." A senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, John Porter is a strong advocate of biomedical research support by the National Institutes of Health. He believe