August 1993

VOLUME 7, No:16 The Scientist August 23, 1993 Universities Mobilizing Against Letter Bomb Threat Author:CONNIE O'KANE, p.1 Science departments and individual researchers take protective measures, in case the mailing of deadly missives resumes As faculty, administrators, and students start arriving back on campuses throughout the United States for the new semester, the intense, frightening publicity generated by separate letter bombs that seriously injured two science

Many of them argue that, without the SSC, the field of particle physics may lose its vitality--maybe even its future The struggle in Congress over funding for the superconducting supercollider (SSC)--now something of an annual event--is disrupting work at the laboratory and raising frustrations throughout the high-energy physics community, say physicists. Many of them also worry not only about the future of the multibillion-dollar Waxahachie, Texas, project, but also about that of part

Chemistry Job Horizon Author: MARCIA CLEMMITT, p.1 Especially for inorganic chemists, the employment picture for the discipline is said to be the grimmest it has been in decades A recent survey reveals that chemists currently face one of the worst job markets in the past 20 years in their discipline. Yet many of them believe that their field's growing importance to other research areas, especially biomedicine, will put chemists in a better position than many other science professionals

A report released last month by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) proposes the creation of a National Vaccine Authority (NVA) to oversee the entire process of vaccine research and development in the United States. The authority will also act as a liaison between the federal government and private industry for vaccine production. The report discusses, among other topics, the role of applied research in the development of new or improved vaccines against such diseases as tetanus and cholera both

Colleagues and other scientists familiar with him describe theoretical physicist Neal F. Lane, President Bill Clinton's nominee for the directorship of the National Science Foundation, as "open-minded," "straightforward," and a "consensus-builder." They also say that these and other attributes of the Rice University provost will be necessary to defend and advance basic research as budgetary constraints tighten around the science agency. If confirmed, Lane, 54, will replace Walter E. Massey, wh

Administrator Is Nominated As Secretary Of Air Force Departing Healy Appoints Immunologist, Richard J. Hodes, As Director of National Institute On Aging Obituary ~ Clarence M. Zener AUTHOR: Ron Kaufman, pp.21 Author: Ron Kaufman Sheila E. Widnall, associate provost and a professor of aeronautics and mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was nominated last month by President Clinton to become secretary of the Air Force. Pending Senate confirmation, Widnall would become

The subject of cancer risk assessment (S. Brudnoy, The Scientist, March 8, 1993, page 14) is of continuing interest to academic scientists, but even more important to regulatory agencies. This topic is not as controversial scientifically as some may make it. All human carcinogens are genotoxic; that is, they can react under suitable conditions with DNA and genes, a fact leading to analytical detection. An exception as a nongenotoxic human carcinogen is high levels of the hormone diethylstilbest

I am writing in reference to a citation champion entitled "Why do female adders copulate so frequently?" (T. Madsen, R. Shine, J. Loman, T. Hakansson, Nature, 355:440-1, 1992), as reported in The Scientist (Hot Papers, March 8, 1993, page 15). Difficult as it is to get scientifically sound but new ideas into print, one's professional sensitivities are perturbed to read about such a preposterous idea printed in Nature and heavily cited by other scientists within one year. Polygamy among cert

K. M. Creegan, J. L. Robbins, W.K. Robbins, et al., "Synthesis and characterization of C60O, the first fullerene epoxide," Journal of the American Chemical Society, 114:1103-5, 1992. Donald M. Cox (Exxon Research and Engineering Co., Annandale, N.J.): "Fullerenes and C60 in particular are now available in useful quantities, thanks to the discovery of the arc synthesis method by W. Kratschmer and colleagues (Nature, 347:354, 1990). `This ready availability of C60--or buckyball, as it is more

M. Leid, P. Kastner, R. Lyons, et al., "Purification, cloning and RXR identity of the HeLa cell factor with which RAR or TR heterodimerizes to bind target sequences efficiently," Cell, 68:377-95, 1992. Mark Leid (Oregon State University, Corvallis): "The diverse effects of retinoic acid (RA) on development, cellular growth and differentiation, and homeostasis are mediated by two families of RA receptors that arose independently during evolution and belong to the steroid/thyroid hormone super