February 1993

As his radical ecology experiment meets with criticism, even ridicule, he shows more interest in mainstream science Texas billionaire Edward Bass, best known for his bankrolling of Biosphere 2, now appears to be focusing his largess a bit closer to the scientific mainstream. The Biosphere 2 project, an experiment set up near Tucson, Ariz., attempting to establish a sealed, self-sustaining, three-acre module with eight humans inside, has taken a beating from the press and scientists over its la

NSB report's ambiguity and a lack of consensus on implementation hamper foundation's strategic planning In the face of congressional pressures and a climate of unease among university-based researchers, the National Science Foundation and its oversight body, the National Science Board, are wrestling to develop a plan for implementing policy recommendations set forth in a report by a special NSB commission on the agency's future. Their efforts are being complicated by lack of consensus about h

Slowdowns in corporate R&D are foreseen, which, experts reason, will cut employment potential for researchers in 1993 The 1993 employment outlook for scientists in industry is marginally optimistic, at best, according to various economic indicators and industry experts. With the exception of a few sectors that, as a result of sustained consumer demand, appear relatively recession-proof, such as the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, hiring will be tied to the sluggish recovery of th

1993 AAAS Meeting: Science And Education For The Future More than 4,000 scientists are expected at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, to be held in Boston February 11-16. Meeting highlights: Three days of symposia entitled "Future Chemistry: From Carbon to Silicon," February 14-16. Nano-engineering will be the focus of lectures by 20 different speakers. A special one-day symposium, "Science Education Reform in America," Saturday, February 13. Amon

Companies discussed in the accompanying article: Bio-Rad Laboratories 2000 Alfred Nobel Dr. Hercules, Calif. 94547 (800) 4 - BIORAD Fax: (800) 879-2289 Products: Call for catalog BIO 101 Inc. 1060 Joshua Way Vista, Calif. 92083 (800) 424-6101 Fax: (619) 598-0116 Products: phage DNA isolation yeast transformation Geneclean DNA purification Mermaid oligomer purification RNaid RNA purification Circleprep plasmid preparation G nome DNA isolation, for genomic DNA BioWhittaker Inc. 8830 Biggs F

Academicians who believe that the way to start the day off right is sitting down with a newspaper and a cup of coffee might want to avoid a new publication by the American Association of University Professors until the afternoon. The College and University Fiscal Crisis Update, which debuted in January, is filled with the latest in bad budget news from campuses around the United States, and is punctuated by comprehensive national lists of funding and job cutback statistics. Highlights (or lowl

Editor's Note: The thorough and timely review of scientific literature pertaining to a researcher's chosen specialty is fundamental to the process of science, says Nobel Prize-winning geneticist Joshua Lederberg. However, says Lederberg--former president of Rockefeller University and now University Professor at that institution--keeping up with the steady, potentially overwhelming flow of significant published documents can be a daunting chore for the diligent, conscientious researcher. In Oct

Patrick H. Cleveland (The Scientist, Nov. 23, 1992, page 12) laments growing antipathy toward animal experimentation, but he gives the animal protection movement too much credit. The movement is highly fractionated, wastes much of its resources on mass mailings, and commits only a small fraction of its resources to animal research campaigns. In fact, much opposition to animal research is scientific. I doubt I shock many readers of The Scientist when I suggest that many, if not most, animal exp

I am sure my colleagues at liberal arts colleges would join me in thanking you for an insightful article on the pleasures and occasional pains of doing science in a smaller college (Linda Marsa, The Scientist, Nov. 23, 1992, page 21). But the headline you chose, "Doing Science Off The Beaten Path At Liberal Arts Schools," undercuts the message of the article. "Off the beaten path" suggests that our institutions are all in academic Nowheresville. How about "Science In Liberal Arts Colleges--The

The article on analytical ultracentrifugation (Franklin Hoke, The Scientist, Nov. 9, 1992, page 18) was well-written and informative but had one omission. It did not mention the National Analytical Ultracentrifugation Facility, which is part of the Biotechnology Center at the University of Connecticut. This facility was set up by an initial grant from the National Science Foundation in 1988. The principal investigators are Emory H. Braswell, Todd M. Schuster, and David A. Yphantis. The facility

In his essay on page 10 of this issue, Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg describes the many potential benefits to the science community of electronic publishing. I certainly concur in advocating its use, as witness my recent decision to mount The Scientist on NSFnet and the Internet. Originally planned primarily to facilitate access to large mainframe computer programs and data files, NSFnet has evolved into a major communications network and a splendid means of disseminating the valuable inform

Chemical engineers and biologists say that collaborations between their disparate disciplines are beginning to bear some valuable fruit, not just in the applied field of biotechnology, but also in understanding basic cellular mechanisms. Yet those who are currently working at this cross-disciplinary interface say the challenge today is to get these two scientific cultures to interact. One way to bridge such a gulf is to have a meeting and invite interested members from each discipline to atten

C.C. Thompson, T.A. Brown, S.L. McKnight, "Convergence of Ets- and Notch-related structural motifs in a heteromeric DNA binding complex," Science, 253:762, 1991. Catherine C. Thompson (Carnegie Institution of Washington, Baltimore): "Our analysis of GABP, the heteromeric DNA binding protein, revealed the functional properties of a structural motif found in a diverse array of proteins. One of the subunits of GABP, GABPa, is a member of the ETS family of DNA binding proteins. Although the other

U. Keller, G.W. tHooft, W.H. Knox, J.E. Cunningham, "Femtosecond pulses from a continuously self-starting passively mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser," Optics Letters, 16:1022-24, 1991. Ursula Keller (AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, N.J.): "Until the late 1980s, advances in ultrashort pulse generation were dominated by dye lasers. These ultrafast laser systems with pulse duration shorter than 100 femtoseconds are relatively large, are maintenance-intensive, and require a laboratory environment wi

A.I. Abazov, O.L. Anosov, E.L. Faizov, V.N. Gavrin, et al., "Search for neutrinos from the sun using the reaction 71Ga(ne,e- )71Ge," Physical Review Letters, 67:3332-35, 1991. R.T. Kouzes (Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories, Richland, Wash.): "The fusion mechanism that drives the stellar furnace was long thought to be well understood. Sophisticated computer models have been developed to describe this process, and experimental tests of the model for our sun have been carried out for more

Roberto J. Poljak, a professor and head of the structural immunology laboratory at the Pasteur Institute in Paris since 1981, has taken a position as director of the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology (CARB) in Rockville, Md. Established in 1984, CARB is a research institute founded by the University of Maryland's Biotechnology Institute and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Poljak is known for developing the first three-dimensional models of key antibodies and a