January 1994

The four-year-old award, which consists of a gold medal and a cash prize of $250,000, will be presented in April by Philadelphia's Franklin Institute Science Museum to honor outstanding work in the life or physical sciences.The international committee that chose the 72-year-old chemist, who becomes the first woman to win the award, said that Karle is being recognized for facilitating wide-ranging research in chemistry, biology, and

Plight Of Female Researchers Date:January 10, 1994, pp.1 Through campus `site visits,' AWIS will investigate the prevalence of gender bias in academia The Association for Women in Science (AWIS) is planning an ambitious project to assess the climate for female researchers in academia--by visiting several United States colleges and universities and talking with the women themselves. The effort will take AWIS representatives into

For the first time in its 88-year history, the United States Forest Service has a research scientist at its helm instead of an engineer, a forester, or a public administrator. Environmental researchers are applauding the appointment of Jack Ward Thomas, a wildlife biologist from Oregon, as a breath of fresh air for an agency in the midst of transition from the primarily timber commodity-based outlook of the past decade to an ecosyst

According to a report by the National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest) in Cambridge, Mass., male high school students won 75 percent of the 471 college scholarships awarded in 1993, the first year of the National Academy for Science, Space, and Technology (NASST) program in the United States Department of Education. This was so even though young women earn higher grades in science and math than young men in both hig

Programs Date:January 10, 1994, pp.1 Report warns of inadequate oversight and ineffective planning and management of the growing number of federal initiatives Science education specialists are endorsing a recently released report by a top-level advisory panel warning that, despite unprecedented government spending on science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SMET) education, the United States "remains at risk of losing i

Date:January 10, 1994, pp.4 March 16, 1998 Contents The Big Apple Recognizes Science Postdocs In Government Labs Energetic Endeavor Teaching Teachers About The Sea New NAS Publishing Outlet Scientists In Congress The Big Apple Recognizes Science The Mayor's Awards for Excellence in Science and Technology, organized and administered by the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), were presented last month by New York Mayor Da

Allen Misher, president of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, says of his work on corporate boards, "The quality of the people I deal with, the intellectual interactions, are extremely important to me and highly enjoyable. It gives me an opportunity to deal on a scientific basis with people at the forefront of their disciplines. It's even fun on a personal basis." While the scientists who are asked to serve on corpor

Environmental Scientists Hail New Forest Service Chief Author: Karen Young Kreeger Date: January 10, 1994 For the first time in its 88-year history, the United States Forest Service has a research scientist at its helm instead of an engineer, a forester, or a public administrator. Environmental researchers are applauding the appointment of Jack Ward Thomas, a wildlife biologist from Oregon, as a breath of fresh air

Year Environmental Study Author: Phil Beck Date:January 10, 1994, pp.23 Year Environmental Study F. Herbert Bormann and Gene E. Likens, whose ongoing, 30- year ecosystem study has led to fundamental discoveries that have changed environmental law and international policy, have received the 1993 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. The $150,000 prize, established by John and Alice Tyler in 1973 and administered under the

Editor's Note: Now that the Cold War is history, it's clear that the United States' mighty defense and aerospace firms increasingly will be pursuing profit in areas other than the development of military weaponry. According to the newsletter Science Watch--published by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) in Philadelphia--the effectiveness with which these corporations refocus their product-development attention from swords

Author: Ricki Lewis Date:January 10, 1994, pp.17 The following vendors develop and/or market DNA probes for a variety of research and diagnostic purposes. For information about specific services, products, and prices, please contact these companies directly. Lofstrand Laboratories 7961 Cessna Ave. Gaithersburg, Md. 20879 (310) 330-0111 Fax: (301) 948-9214 Microbiological Associates Inc. Life Sciences Center 9900 Blackwell R

A major part of the problem in major research universities is the way science is taught. At our institution, we are so stringently organized along departmental lines that only the most interdisciplinary individuals have an interest in looking at science in a more integrated fashion--in relating their expertise to other courses and other subjects. "Cold fusion" could have originated only in a university where physicists and chemists

I disagree with the evaluation of gel scanner systems in the Oct. 4, 1993, issue of The Scientist [C.D. Potter, page 18]. The article states that gel scanners are "expensive" when compared to gel documentation systems. This statement is potentially misleading. The article does not distinguish between gel documentation systems, which primarily perform one function, and gel scanners, which may perform a wide range of functions, inclu

The more serious flaw in the presentation was its lack of consideration of ethical issues. The moratorium referred to in the article was on research with tissue from induced abortions, not on all research in this field. There are legitimate concerns that clinical use of fetal tissue for transplants will in many cases require scheduled (not elective) abortions. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine a brain surgery team waiting for an ab

Our hopes should by buoyed, for instance, by the knowledge that the National Institutes of Health is now led by Harold Varmus, a distinguished biologist. Varmus appears eager to defend the clear merits of basic biomedical investigation and to voice the demand, on behalf of the nation's bench scientists, for the financial--and philosophical--support that curiosity-driven research clearly deserves. Not unrelated is the sense of confi

E.E. Farmer, C.A. Ryan, "Octadecanoid precursors of a jasmonic acid activate the synthesis of wound-inducible proteinase inhibitors," Plant Cell, 4:129-34, 1992. Clarence A. Ryan (Institute of Biological Chemistry, Washington State University, Pullman): "The understanding of signaling pathways that regulate genes in response to environmental and developmental signals is a central theme in plant biology. How plants regulate genes in

X.-k. Zhang, B. Hoffmann, P.B.V. Tran, G. Graupner, M. Pfahl, "Retinoid X receptor is an auxiliary protein for thyroid hormone and retinoic acid receptors," Nature, 355:441-6, 1992. Magnus Pfahl (La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation, Calif.): "Thyroid hormones as well as the vitamin A-derived hormones (retinoids) influence a myriad of biological processes, including such complex programs as metamorphosis and morphogenesis. Retinoids

Editor's Note: As Neal Lane settles into his new job as director of the National Science Foundation, his enthusiasm is tempered by a clear understanding of the formidable challenges facing him, his agency, and the United States research community in general. While confident that the nation can maintain its scientific leadership internationally, the 55-year-old physicist and former Rice University provost acknowledges that, if Ameri