Issue | August 1996 | August 1996 | The Scientist Magazine®

News

Researchers Wait For Federal Guidelines Two reports, one from each side of the Atlantic Ocean, conclude that research on xenotransplantation-the transfer of organs, tissues, or cells from animals to humans-should be pursued because the potential benefits of the practice outweigh its possible risks. But scientists in the United States are frustrated by the Public Health Service's slow pace in issuing federal guidelines for the research. CAUTIOUS STEPS: Xenotransplantation pioneer Suzanne Ilst

Fear Of Job Loss

Anxieties Hospital mergers are becoming a national trend, as institutions from New England to the San Francisco Bay area combine to strengthen their competitive positions in a changing health care market. The phenomenon has now emerged in New York, where the proposed merger between Mount Sinai Medical Center and New York University Medical Center (NYU), announced June 18, appeared to set off a flurry of similar transactions. In addition to combining their two hospitals, the institutions will me

Pets Vs. Pen Animals

Biotechnology Boom Molecular biologists find niche as new technologies are adapted to the animal health market. While the biotech boom resounds in human health research, the technology has made less of a roar in the animal health field. Uncertainty over product costs and regulatory approval has left some animal health companies hesitant to embrace biotechnology. But this situation could be changing. A growing number of vaccines for cats, dogs, and fish are based on recombinant DNA techniques.

Multiple Investigations

Changes In System REHIRED: Following her exoneration, Thereza Imanishi-Kari was named an associate professor at Tufts University. Participants, observers say the case highlighted a need to overhaul the mechanism for dealing with charges of scientific misconduct. The conclusion of the decade-long scientific misconduct case against Thereza Imanishi-Kari-she was exonerated in a June 21 decision of an appeals panel of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)-would appear to be a clear-cu

Eight Researchers Accept The National Medal Of Science For 1996

During the same week that Americans Kerri Strug, Tom Dolan, and Amy Van Dyken struck gold at the Atlanta Olympics, President Clinton was presenting medals of a different sort to eight of the United States' top scientists in Washington, D.C. The researchers were lauded at a White House ceremony late last month as winners of the celebrated National Medal of Science, the U.S. government's highest honor in science. They represent a wide range of disciplines and include two life scientists. Joinin

The Scientist - Crossword Puzzle - August 19, 1996

By Eric Albert Email: ealbert@world.std.com ACROSS 1 Blood-vessel wall's middle coat 4 Light bulb filament material 10 In the 300,000- to 300-megahertz range 11 Fermentation fungus 12 Contracting muscle opposed by another muscle 13 Pathogen-transmitting organism 15 Scientist Pavlov who went to the dogs 16 Type of 32 across 21 Agent used to improve citrus fruit color 22 Cardiovascular system component 25 ____ tube (embryo structure) 27 Snug as a run with no bug? 29 Put on a slide 30 Crystalline

Uncategorized

An Old Proposal For A New Profession: Scientific Reviewing

An Old Proposal For A New Profession: Scientific Reviewing The Scientist, Vol:10,#16, p.12, August 19, 1996. Author: Eugene Garfield Recently, T.V. Rajan of the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington presented thoughtful comments on the possible causes of the science research funding crisis (The Scientist, April 29, 1996, page 10). As the percentage of government-funded research proposals continues to drop while the pressure to publish original research remains high, he asked

Clarification

The articles "Today's Peptide Chemists Face A Dizzying Array of Synthesizer Choices" (S. Veggeberg, The Scientist, Jan. 23, 1995, page 17) and "Immunological Applications Top List Of Peptide-Synthesis Services" (K.Y. Kreeger, The Scientist, June 24, 1996, page 18) incorrectly listed the company name of Gilson Inc. in Middleton, Wis. In the article "Scientists Struggling With Concerns Raised By Genome Project Progress" (S. Benowitz, The Scientist, July 8, 1996, page 1), Paul R. Billings was inc

Opinion

Animal-Rights Movement's 'Bible' Contains Distorted Revelations

In his 1975 landmark book Animal Liberation (New York, New York Review/Random House), reissued in 1990, Australian ethicist Peter Singer presented allegations about mistreatment of animals in "trivial" experiments. His charges impact legislation and science to this day. The book, which condemns the use of animals by humans, inspired the formation of several anti-research organizations, which harassed individual scientists and misrepresented biomedical research to Congress and the public. The mo

Letter

Letters

I read Myrna E. Watanabe's article on sponsored clinical research in the managed care setting (The Scientist, June 24, 1996, page 1) with great interest. It is clear that clinical research of all sorts eventually will need to be conducted by and in managed care organizations (MCOs). After all, traditional settings for such research are disappearing as managed care is becoming a major, if not the dominant, modality of health care delivery. Moreover, assurance of research validity will require th

Letters

Robert Finn (The Scientist, June 10, 1996, page 15) recently considered the increasing opportunities for academic life scientists to serve as consultants for industry. Finn's article mentioned rewards and drawbacks of such consulting for "biologists," but did not consider the concerns of a sizable subset of consultants, namely those life scientists asked to serve as experts in litigation. Scientists such as toxicologists, who can often command a hefty fee for their expertise, must exert extrem

Letters

My colleagues and I enjoy reading The Scientist and commend you on an interesting and timely publication. However, I wish to draw your attention to the important inaccuracy and misunderstanding presented in a May 13, 1996, article entitled "Drug, Biotech Firms Beginning To Embrace Combinatorial Chemistry" (K.S. Brown, The Scientist, page 1). It is widely accepted that combinatorial chemistry "was born" in the early 1980s when Mario Geysen, then in Melbourne, Australia, invented the pin method

Leaders of Science

Lovell Jones

The Scientist Date: August 19, 1996 THE SCIENTIST® The Newspaper for the Life Sciences Professional "THE SCIENTIST is focused on areas that most other publications shy away from....They are issues you see in other periodicals, but they don't have the breadth in terms of looking at their impact on minority and medically underserved populations." Lovell Jones, director, Section of Experimental Gynecology/Endocrinology,Department of Gynecologic Oncology, University of Texas M.D. Anderson C

Research

Psychoneuroimmunology Finds Acceptance As Science Adds Evidence

Despite some scientists' skepticism and funding shortages, the nascent field of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) is gaining greater acceptance in the mainstream medical world. PNI seeks to understand the complex communications among the brain and the immune system, and their implications for health. Only within the past two decades have researchers begun to muster experimental evidence to figure it all out. Today, powerful new molecular techniques allow scientists to detail links between stress and

Hot Paper

Photoreceptor Biology

Edited by Karen Young Kreeger M.P. Gray-Keller, P.B. Detwiler, "The calcium feedback signal in the phototransduction cascade of vertebrate rods," Neuron, 13:849-61, 1994. (Cited in more than 30 publications through June 1996) Comments by Mark Gray-Keller, University of Washington, Seattle The biochemical reactions governing vision are some of the most complex and sensitively regulated processes in the human body. In vertebrate retinal photoreceptors-called the rods and cones-calcium ions play

Hot Papers

Edited by: Karen Young Kreeger E.M. Connor, R.S. Sperling, R. Gelber, P. Kiselev, G. Scott, M.J. O'Sullivan, R. VanDyke, M. Bey, W. Shearer, R.L. Jacobson, E. Jimenez, E. O'Neill, B. Bazin, J.-F. Delfraissy, M. Culnane, R. Coombs, M. Elkins, J. Moye, P. Stratton, J. Balsley, "Reduction of maternal-infant transmission of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 with zidovudine treatment," New England Journal of Medicine, 331:1173-80, 1994. (Cited in nearly 130 publications through June 1996) Comment

Profession

How To Spur Scientific Revolution: Amass Copious Data, Keep It Simple

It's another late night in the lab, and you are poring over a data set that just doesn't make sense. No matter how you crunch the numbers, they just don't fit. Unless. . . . If you disregard the generally accepted model and ignore the ideology of the day, an intriguing mechanism emerges. Your midnight model explains all the data, but it runs counter to everything you've been taught about biology. You'd be in good company. In the past, scientists have grappled with some seemingly bizarre concep

Technology

Scientific Publishers Increasing Electronic Information Offerings

Developments in the electronic publishing of scientific material are proceeding apace, with publishers rushing to take advantage of the unique capabilities of the new media. Some publishers of journals and reference works that once were printed only on paper are hurrying to establish CD-ROM editions. Others are bypassing this step and heading straight to the World Wide Web (R. Finn, The Scientist, Oct. 16, 1995, page 16; F. Hoke, The Scientist, Sept. 19, 1994, page 17). However, no one in the

Notebook

PETERSEN LEAVIN NSF: Deputy director Anne Petersen will become senior vice president at the Kellogg Foundation Expect to see several new faces at the National Science Foundation this fall. Deputy director Anne C. Petersen, the first woman ever to serve in that position, will leave in September for a new post, as senior vice president for programs at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Mich. "They focus on areas that I really care about," says Peterson, cofounder of the Society for Res