July 1996

Peer Review Few discussions arouse as much emotion in the scientific community as the controversy over peer review. As the number of unfunded grants started to rise in the early 1990s, so did complaints about unfair criticisms by reviewers. Many whose applications were unsuccessful claimed that the decisions often were based on reviewers' comments that were inaccurate, irrelevant, or glibly disparaging. While critics of the peer-review system called for reform, its defenders countered that th

Of Men The impetus for this commentary came in the way of a thank-you note from a male science leader to whom I recently sent a complimentary membership in the Association for Women in Science (AWIS). As part of its 25th-anniversary celebration, which is taking place this year, AWIS offered memberships to several leaders in science and technology who continually demonstrate a strong commitment to gender equity. From the note I could see that my colleague was pleasantly surprised; it never occu

The Scientist THE SCIENTIST® The Newspaper for the Life Sciences Professional "Reading THE SCIENTIST gives me rapid insight into fast-breaking developments in all areas of science while keeping me abreast of important national political and economic trends critically important to the future of clinical research." ROY SILVERSTEIN, past president, American Federation for Clinical Research, Thorofare, N.J.; professor of medicine, Cornell University Medical College, New York As head of the

Bacterium SIZE MATTERS: Deer ticks -- vectors of Borrelia Burgdorferi -- are half the size of the common dog tick, which is not associated with Lyme disease. As a new generation of adolescent deer tick enjoys its first blood meal, scientists in the United States and abroad continue to focus their research efforts on understanding and preventing Lyme disease. Ticks infected with the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi cause more than 10,000 cases of Lyme disease in the U.S. each year, according to

Entrepreneurs When Steve Sands was studying for his Ph.D. in neuroscience in the late 1970s, he planned to write his doctoral thesis on experiments matching brain function with behavior. However, a lack of good software or computerized methods for correlating brain activity with behavior eventually forced Sands to drop his idea. "I ended up doing a thesis on animal behavior [alone] rather than the neuroscience project I really wanted to do," he recalls. Like many scientists who are frustrated

Web Savvy Hard times for science are turning out to be good times for publishers of personal bibliographic software. As scientists feel increasing pressure to apply for grants from several agencies and submit articles to multiple journals, the value of bibliographic software rises. These programs, which store detailed reference information and export them in a wide variety of formats, are ubiquitous in scientific offices and laboratories (F. Hoke, The Scientist, Jan. 11, 1993, page 18; June 27,

On June 14, a House Appropriations subcommittee gave some researchers cause for celebration when it surprisingly voted to remove a provision in a government spending bill that extended a ban on federal funding of human embryo research. However, their glee was short-lived. The full panel turned around on June 25 and adopted an amendment to continue the research ban. John Eppig, senior staff scientist at Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, doubts that the ban will be overturned anytime soon,