December 1990

Bioscientist Royston turns his attention to creating a center in San Diego's crowded research community Ivor Royston, who at the age of 33 founded Hybritech Inc., the first company in the United States to exploit monoclonal antibodies commercially, and who became a millionaire in the process, is taking his vision for enterprise to a new nonprofit venture. Among the palm trees, a handful of research institutes, and the 90 biotechnology companies that make San Diego an idyllic place for scient

Minorities at the agency work largely on their own to help their peers land high-level science jobs BETHESDA, Md.--Ron King wants to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. But King, an intramural research fellow in the laboratory of molecular biology at the National Institutes of Health's National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, thinks that it's even more important to encourage other blacks to enter science fields. That's why he takes precious time out from his work in the lab

Bioscientist Royston turns his attention to creating a center in San Diego's crowded research community WASHINGTON--The debate is over, says presidential science adviser Allan Bromley. The federal science budget is a question of priorities. And for members of the United States scientific community, this means that from now on they must persuade the politically powerful that their cause is more worthy of precious federal dollars than the other domestic needs facing the country. Throughout the

The Scientist 4[24]:0, Dec. 10, 1990 News Profiles of Black Scientists JOHN DIGGS Background: Raised in rural Tennessee. B.S. in biology, Lane College, Jackson, Tenn., 1956; Ph.D. in physiology, Howard University, 1972. Came to NIH extramural program in 1974, spent eight years as director of extramural activities, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Current position: NIH deputy director for extramural research. "When I first came to NIH, there were a

U.S. students found their summer in Japanese labs professionally as well as culturally productive, but not many plan to return WASHINGTON--A National Science Foundation program to forge closer ties with Japanese scientists is gaining popularity among the next generation of United States scientists, say NSF officials. The Summer Institute in Japan, which sent 25 U.S. graduate students in science and engineering to Japanese research facilities last summer, will support 50 such students this com

SIMON SILVER Department of Microbiology & Immunology University of Illinois Chicago The hype is out of proportion, but the 12 October issue of Science spotlights the Human Genome Project with an attractive cover montage, a removable centerfold of current human chromosome maps (intended for wall display), and a status report. Real progress is being made, however, as exemplified by the promising new approaches presented in the same issue. J.C. Stephens, M.L. Cavanaugh, M.I. Gradie, M.L. Mador,

Your opinion page features headlined "Disorder In The Court When Science Takes The Witness Stand" [The Scientist, Oct. 29, 1990, page 15] were timely and to the point. The writer, Edward J. Imwinkelried, argues persuasively [ in "Court Rules Work To Exclude Valid Scientific Testimony"] for allowing scientists to help set procedural ground rules for admissibility of scientific evidence rather than waiting for such science to pass the popularity poll implied in the so-called Frye, or general acce

I wish to amplify on issues and information contained in the article "Toughest Federal Science Jobs Elude Women" [The Scientist, Oct. 15, 1990, page 8] that your readers have raised to us. The article correctly points out that one barrier to women is their lack of participation in discussions of science policy, high-level science planning, and so forth. A major reason for this is the low visibility of women at the national level. To remedy this situation, women must become visible as the signif

In 1663, English physicist Robert Hooke viewed cork under a microscope and observed that "these pores, or cells, were not very deep, but consisted of a great many little boxes." Although Hooke's discovery, which involved only the outer boundaries of cells, is considered the beginning of cell biology, it was nearly 200 years before two Germans, botanist Matthias Jakob Schleiden and physiologist Theodor Schwann, focused attention on the microcosm of life in the cell. Hooke, Schleiden, Schwann, a

The first molecular modeling software, developed at Columbia University in the mid-1960s by the late Cyrus Levinthal (see page 28), was capable of displaying and manipulating complex molecules in two dimensions. By the mid-1970s, at the University of California, San Francisco, molecular modeling had been taken to a new level by Robert Langridge, Michael Connelly, and Peter Coleman, with more sophisticated, three-dimensional graphics and new manipulative capabilities, including the ability to po