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

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

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

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

pp.4 Meanwhile, in Istanbul, Turkey, another U.S. team of students was making an impressive showing, finishing seventh in the 34th International Mathematical Olympiad. The six-member team garnered two gold, two silver, and two bronze medals in the 11-day competition held last month. Andrew Dittmer of Vienna, Va., and Leonard Ng of Chapel Hill, N.C., won gold medals. Ng was also a gold-medalist in last year's competition. A total of 72 nations participated in the olympiad, with the U.S. finishi

The global eradication of smallpox as a threat to human health is one of the milestone achievements of modern medical science. It was accomplished through a unique international collaboration sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) and directed by virologist Donald A. Henderson, who now serves as deputy assistant secretary in the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The principal research centers supporting the eradication program were in Moscow and in Atlanta. W

A page 1 article in the June 6, 1993, edition of the New York Times ("Top Graduates in Science Also Put Their Dreams on Hold") reported that only a handful of this year's graduates from the prestigious California Institute of Technology had found jobs as of commencement day. The article also reported that half the class members had decided to delay their entry into the job market by going to graduate school. Their decisions should be viewed with concern, since additional specialized educati

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

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

pp.14 Editor's Note: From 1988 to 1992, research papers by chemists at the University of California, Berkeley, were cited well over 11,000 times in subsequent articles. This total, according to data from the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) in Philadelphia, exceeds that of any other of the world's research centers--academic, corporate, or otherwise. However, in terms of the impact of its published chemistry articles--the average number of citations the papers received in subsequent

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

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

Author: Franklin Hoke, pp.18 Since full-featured molecular-modeling packages began appearing on the chemist's desktop a few years ago, they have grown dramatically in sophistication and capability. Following in part on the availability of ever-more-powerful personal computer hardware, new software modules have been added regularly, often ported from workstation environments. At the same time, intuitive graphical user interfaces have helped make computer-aided chemistry increasingly accessibl

Author: EDWARD R. SILVERMAN, pp.20 The average salary paid to science faculty at institutions belonging to the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges rose only slightly in 1992-93 compared with the previous academic year, according to a recently released survey. Faculty in life and physical sciences departments at state universities and land grant colleges (institutions originally set up by United States government grants to teach agriculture) received salary i