July 1991

USDA's deadline nears, and scientists struggle to reconcile their research priorities with new regulations Laboratories throughout the United States that use animals for research are rushing to meet new federal regulations affecting the welfare of animals used for research. The regulations cover exercise for dogs, improved housing for cats, and the psychological well-being of nonhuman primates. The rules require labs to have on hand, ready for inspection, plans that comply with these regulati

Employees say cronyism and inconsistent leadership have seriously damaged the unit charged with keeping tabs on U.S. research WASHINGTON--The division within the National Science Foundation that monitors the health of the United States' scientific infrastructure is in a state of turmoil, according to knowledgeable sources and internal documents obtained by The Scientist. At the heart of the unrest, these sources allege, are conflicts of interest and favoritism in the awarding of contracts, ins

As more researchers switch labs, concerns mount over the nature of relationships between leading scientists and their institutions Rein Saral and three of his colleagues in the bone marrow transplant program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore are moving to Emory University in Atlanta. Surgical oncologist David Morton and about a half-dozen other investigators at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of California, Los Angeles, have switched to other institutions throu

The mean annual salary for most research and development managers--including directors and supervisors--rose in 1990 as compared with 1989, according to a new survey by Abbott, Langer & Associates, a management-consulting firm based in Crete, Ill. Although recessionary indicators forced many companies to pare their R&D spending, many managers continued to receive increases based on cost-of-living adjustments, larger workloads, and additional projects. Abbott, Langer received responses from 244

One need only read the labels on skin-care products--"not animal tested" and "cruelty free"--to realize that the animal rights movement has hit consumers in the heart, and manufacturers are responding to their concerns. While the rights and wrongs of animal research are still being fiercely debated, few scientists would deny the importance of finding substitutes for animals wherever possible. Not only is it desirable to minimize suffering of animals, but also massive amounts of paperwork and th

WASHINGTON--For the first time in the history of the National Institutes of Health, the director of one of its institutes is a person of color. And cancer cell biologist Kenneth Olden would like his appointment as director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to be read as a message of hope to prospective minority scientists everywhere. "My appointment says to minority youths that, if they work hard and prepare themselves, they can succeed," says Olden, who until

CLOSE-UP Author: Jeffrey Mervis (The Scientist, Vol:5, #15, pg. 5, July 22, 1991) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) ---------- Kenneth Brown has impressive credentials for his new job as director of the Division of Science Resources Studies (SRS) at the National Science Foundation. Holder of a Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, with a specialty in statistical methods and the economics of technology, the 51-year-old Brown also spent six years as deputy director of

If RU 486 (Mifepristone) were not an abortifacient, or an abortion-inducing agent, public attention would focus on its potential broad medical applicability. Unfortunately, "right-to-life" abortion opponents have effectively threatened the French manufacturer of the drug, Roussel Uclaf, and its parent firm, Hoechst AG, with an organized, worldwide economic boycott unless the drug is withdrawn from use. This threat of economic reprisal against the manufacturer has seriously delayed the potential

Fearing that the publicity surrounding RU 486, the French-made abortion-inducing pill that is now available throughout Europe, would create a demand in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration issued an import ban on the drug in June 1989. Agency officials argued that women in the U.S. might put themselves at risk if they used this non-FDA-approved drug to terminate their own pregnancies. Today, as a result of the ban, RU 486 supplies in the U.S., even for basic research purposes, ar

On April 10, 1991, just five days after New York Mayor David Dinkins proclaimed his unqualified support for testing and marketing of the French abortion pill, RU 486, in the United States, medical authorities in France announced the first confirmed death associated with the drug. Two other women had earlier suffered life-threatening heart attacks and survived. Sensing the public-relations disaster, proponents quickly announced that the fault was not with RU 486 itself, but rather with the pros

Regarding Diana Morgan's story on child care at scientific conferences [The Scientist, April 1, 1991, page 1], I agree that there is a need for day care at meetings. As more and more divorced fathers are awarded joint custody, there will be more balance and better integration of children's needs into meetings. I'm happy and heartened to see that happening. MICHAEL S. MCKAY Uncasville, Conn.

Scientific fraud continues to be a great moral debate, as evidenced by articles in The Scientist and general media. Sometimes our zeal to take part in these debates hinders our resolve to find practical solutions for them. To greet with hushed shock the possibility that something may have been put into a journal that was not true is to imply that it is a rare event. Not only is it not a rare event, but it is common. Since science does not depend on every detail's being absolutely and irrevocab

In its April 29, 1991, issue [page 12], The Scientist has published eight letters of comment on the debate between Forrest Mims and Arthur Caplan, which was featured in the Opinion section of the Feb. 18, 1991, issue of The Scientist [page 11]. Missing from these letters and from the debate is a description of creation "science," which, contradicting evolution, is the view that represents the standpoint of creationists. Creationists allege that creation ex nihilo took place 8,000 to 10,000 yea

My commentary on the National Institutes of Health's Office of Scientific Integrity in the May 13, 1991, issue of The Scientist [page 12] referred to its overreaction to political pressure in combating fraud. I think it's important to add a mention of some related history. In an earlier era of red-baiting, NIH refused to award grants to such distinguished scientists as Linus Pauling and Elvin Kabat, because they were accused (without trial) of misconduct. Because most readers are probably not

The status of the antiprogestin, abortifacient drug RU 486 in the United States is a clear case of science held hostage by politics. Although this drug may have a wide variety of uses, from contraception to the treatment of cancer, the Bush administration's antiabortion position--which is little more than pandering to a small number of antiabortion legislators and their constituents--threatens access to what may be a pharmaceutical breakthrough. First, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration iss

For University of Illinois chemistry professor William Pirkle, chromatography is like a soap-opera wedding. Imagine, he says, a happy couple who stop and talk to well-wishers standing on the church steps before leaving for their honeymoon. One of the newlyweds encounters an old flame--the true love--and then parts from his or her beloved. Alas, where there once was togetherness is now a separation. In chromatography, explains Pirkle, what separates disparate entities in a chemical mixture, suc

D. Levy, R.J. Garrison, D.D. Savage, W.B. Kannel, W.P. Castelli, "Prognostic implications of echocardiographically determined left ventricular mass in the Framingham Heart Study," New England Journal of Medicine, 322:1561-66, 1990. Daniel Levy (Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Mass.): "We've known for some time about the hazards of hypertension. More recently, we've begun to learn about the effects of high blood pressure on the heart. All muscles, including the heart, respond to work by in

M. Frezza, C. di Padova, G. Pozzato, M. Terpin, et al., "High blood alcohol levels in women: The role of decreased gastric alcohol dehydrogenase activity and first-pass metabolism," New England Journal of Medicine, 322:95-99, 1990. Charles S. Lieber (Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York): "We had shown before that gastric alcohol dehydrogenase activity contributes significantly to alcohol metabolism in men, and therefore represents some `protective'

P.K. Moore, O.A. al-Swayeh, N.W.S. Chong, R.A. Evans, A. Gibson, "L-N G-nitro arginine (L-NOARG), a novel, L-arginine-reversible inhibitor of endothelium-dependent vasodilatation in vitro," British Journal of Pharmacology, 99:408-12, 1990. Phillip K. Moore (Department of Pharmacology, King's College, University of London): "Our paper described the discovery of a novel inhibitor of the biosynthesis of nitric oxide. "L-NG-nitro arginine (L-NOARG) and its methyl ester derivative (L-NAME) are str

L. Varticovski, B. Drucker, D. Morrison, L. Cantley, T. Roberts, "The colony stimulating factor-1 receptor associates with and activates phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase," Nature, 342:699-702, 1989. Lyuba Varticovski (St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Boston): "We have determined that activation of the colony stimulating factor-1 (CSF-1) receptor results in activation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase). PI 3-kinase is a recently discovered enzyme that phosphorylates phosphatidylinositol in po

M. Palacios, R.G. Knowles, R.M.J. Palmer, S. Moncada, "Nitric oxide from L-arginine stimulates the soluble guanylate cyclase in adrenal glands," Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 165:802-09, 1989. Miriam Palacios (Wellcome Research Laboratories, Kent, England): "The discovery of the formation of nitric oxide (NO) from L-arginine by vascular endothelium, and the discovery of the role of NO as the endogenous stimulator of soluble guanylate cyclase (Biochemical Pharmacology, 3

Last July, James Fallon, a professor of anatomy and neurobiology at the University of California, Irvine, traveled on a Fulbright scholarship to the University of Nairobi, Kenya, to build a neuroscience laboratory on the campus from the ground up. "I hadn't taken a sabbatical in 12 years," Fallon says, "and I could have gone to some high-profile place like Cambridge. But I thought, `Why not go to a completely different culture?' And the lure of starting something from scratch and making a lasti

1990 MEAN ANNUAL SALARIES OF SUPERVISORY R&D PERSONNEL (The Scientist, Vol:5, #15, pg. 20, July 22, 1991) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) ---------- Job Title Salary Directors (all) $76,946 Directors, life sciences 86,213 Directors, biochemistry 75,922 Directors, physical sciences 75,212 Directors, chemistry 77,049 Managers (all) 65,614 Managers, life sciences 58,580 Managers, physical sciences 73,216 Section heads (all) 65,870 Section heads, life sciences 67,062 Section head

Michael Heidelberger, an award-winning pioneer in immunochemistry, died June 25 at the age of 103. At the time of his death, he was still a researcher at the New York University Medical Center. Among Heidelberger's many scientific accomplishments was the discovery that antibodies are proteins. Heidelberger was born in New York and completed his undergraduate and graduate education at Columbia University. After earning his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1911, he joined the faculty of the Rockefeller Ins

The American Chemical Society has awarded Stanford University chemistry professor Carl Djerassi the 1991 Priestley Medal. The medal, which is ACS's highest honor and is widely regarded as the United States' most prestigious award in chemistry, will be presented to Djerassi next April at the society's national meeting in San Francisco. World-famous for developing the first oral contraceptive--"the pill"--Djerassi, 67, has had great success in academia and industry, in developed and developing

Gordon M. Shepherd, a professor of neuroscience in the neurobiology section, Yale University School of Medicine, has been appointed deputy provost for biomedical sciences. He began his duties July 1, succeeding Edward A. Adelberg, who has retired. Among other duties, the deputy provost oversees the Office of University Safety and the Advisory Committee for Animals in Research and Teaching, and coordinates Howard Hughes Medical Institute programs on campus. Shepherd, in conjunction with the depu

The Polymer Education Committee of the American Chemical Society offers annual awards for excellence to high school and junior high school science teachers who have introduced the study of polymer chemistry into their classrooms. Previous award recipients have instituted courses in polymer chemistry; developed texts, demonstrations, lab experiments, computer programs, and videotapes that facilitate inclusion of polymer chemistry concepts in already existing science courses; or shared their own

The Smithsonian Institution's new George E. Burch Fellowship in Theoretic Medicine and Affiliated Theoretic Sciences will be awarded to young researchers with demonstrated potential for ground-breaking studies in a health-related discipline. An endowment from the Burch Heart Research and Education Fund will allow the institution to award one fellowship each year. The late George E. Burch, Jr. was a cardiologist and champion of what he called "venture research," the pursuit of philosophical con

The National Institutes of Health offers a variety of funding opportunities for the study of pediatric AIDS. AIDS in children differs from the disease in adults in its means of transmission, symptoms, and care, and therefore requires separate studies. Areas of special interest include AIDS-related developmental and behavioral disorders, early infection of the nervous system, accurate methods for assessing psychological or neurological damage in children, therapies especially suited for use with

The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute offer support for promising investigators in hematology research and its clinical applications. The NIH institutes offer postdoctoral fellowships, with stipends ranging from $18,600 to $32,300 per year for three years, to younger scientists who wish to receive training that will enable them to pursue hematologic research. More experienced investigators may apply for senior fel

Maybe It Should Be General Healy Retirements Not Seen As Hurting NASA Not Now Dear, I Have A Political Headache The High Cost Of Outreach Mixed News on NSF Funding Trends President Bush came to NIH last month to swear in the agency's new director, Bernadine Healy. While the occasion was entirely ceremonial--she took office April 9--Healy used it to make a characteristically bold statement about NIH's mission. Referring to its mandate to improve the nation's health, Healy declared that