Issue | July 1996 | July 1996 | The Scientist Magazine®

NCI Cancer Genetics Network Promises To Widen Testing, Information Access

Testing, Information Access Many question whether the initiative can adequately address issues of privacy and the need for education. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is planning to launch a potentially controversial national information network in the fall. It will provide cancer genetic testing information to physicians and patients in an attempt to help them stay up-to-date, as well as access to the latest genetic testing protocols that NCI offers. IN FAVOR: OncorMed's Doug Dolginow b

New Animal Care Guide Leaves Details To Scientists' Discretion

Sidebars How to Get the Guide Committee to Revise the ILAR Guide REVISIONIST: Retired teacher Jo Ann Steggerda's presence on the panel was criticized. Most laboratory scientists, and even some animal-welfare advocates, are applauding the newly published seventh edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. The new edition, the first update since 1985, was published by the National Research Council's Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources (ILAR). It places far greater rel

Hunt For Viable Vectors Leads To Jobs For Gene Therapy Researchers

Therapy Researchers Sidebar: Summary Table of Vectors PROGRESS: Forrest Anthony says some FDA concerns have been allayed. Despite safety questions from federal agencies, the gene therapy industry is hotly pursuing new vectors. Since 1990, dozens of biotech and gene therapy companies have hired life scientists and launched research programs to find safe, effective carriers to shuttle therapeutic genes into the body. According to the Pasteur Institute, a nonprofit research organization in Pari

HHS Panel Issues Proposals For Implementing Misconduct Report

SIDEBARS Implementation Group on Research Integrity and Misconduct Definitions of Misconduct in Science Scientific misconduct is front-page news again. Late last month, Tufts University immunologist Thereza Imanishi-Kari was cleared of misconduct by an appeals panel of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In October 1994, she had been found guilty by the department's Office of Research Integrity (ORI) of fabrication and falsification related to a 1986 paper entitled "Altered re

The Scientist - Crossword Puzzle - July 22, 1996

By Eric Albert Email: ealbert@world.std.com ACROSS 1 Euxenite element 6 Sympathetic start? 9 Gram's solution, e.g. 10 .00000003937 inches 12 Chiral molecule, for one 13 You can see right through this 16 Experimentees, often 17 _____ bone (ilium + ischium + pubis) 22 It helps you pay attention to the little things 23 Living, in Latin 25 T cell adjective 27 Lemming or porcupine, say 31 Research pathogen 32 Curriculum ____ 33 Blade + petiole 34 Eubacterium Click here for answers! DOWN 1 Inter

The Scientist - Crossword Puzzle Answers - July 22, 1996

By Eric Albert Email: ealbert@world.std.com ACROSS 1 Euxenite element 6 Sympathetic start? 9 Gram's solution, e.g. 10 .00000003937 inches 12 Chiral molecule, for one 13 You can see right through this 16 Experimentees, often 17 _____ bone (ilium + ischium + pubis) 22 It helps you pay attention to the little things 23 Living, in Latin 25 T cell adjective 27 Lemming or porcupine, say 31 Research pathogen 32 Curriculum ____ 33 Blade + petiole 34 Eubacterium DOWN 1 Intervertebral fibrocartilage

Clarification

The article "As NIAAA Ends Anniversary Celebration, New Research Efforts Abound" (A. Mack, The Scientist, June 24, 1996, page 12) gave an incorrect figure for the 1995 budget for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism. The 1995 budget for the study was $6.3 million.

Postmodernist Rhetoric Does Not Change Fundamental Scientific Facts

Scientific Facts Few natural scientists have heard of philosophers Paul de Man, Jacques Derrida, and Michel Foucault, or any of their followers in the modes of literary criticism, historical analysis, and social studies known collectively as "postmodernist criticism." These approaches-also given new names, such as deconstructionism, structuralism, and social constructionism-question the justifications for authoritative statements on meaning or significance of facts or concepts in the natural s

Public Support For Research Depends On Humane Treatment Of Lab Animals

From left, Deborah Rudacille, Joanne Zurlo, and Alan M. Goldberg Independent surveys carried out over the past 15 years in the United States and Europe have consistently revealed that animal protection is no longer a fringe issue. However, relatively few in the widely defined animal-protection community identify themselves as "antivivisectionists." In fact, a majority of U.S. and European citizens support animal research-when they see evidence that researchers respect laboratory animals, tak

Mina Bissell

The Scientist Date: July 22, 1996 THE SCIENTIST® The Newspaper for the Life Sciences Professional "Science is inseparable from other issues that confront us in our daily lives, and THE SCIENTIST presents both sides of controversial issues thoroughly....THE SCIENTIST tells our stories." Mina Bissell, director, Life Sciences Division, Berkeley National Laboratory; president-elect, American Society for Cell Biology, Washington, D.C. From the outset of her career as a scientist, Mina Bissell

Publish Or Perish

Your article on the origins of "publish or perish" (E. Garfield, The Scientist, June 10, 1996, page 11) presented an interesting challenge. In an effort to help track down the origin, I consulted Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 8th ed. (Paul Beale, ed., New York, Macmillan Publishing Co., 1984). Paul Beale was Partridge's (1894-1979) long-time colleague. What I found was not particularly helpful, but it did have an interesting viewpoint: "Public[sic]-or-peris

Amateur Science

Thank you for Bruce V. Bigelow's article on amateur science (The Scientist, June 10, 1996, page 1). Prior to this century, most science was conducted by people with little or no formal scientific training. Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Charles Darwin, and Michael Faraday come to mind. Even today, a Ph.D. is not a prerequisite for making discoveries and publishing one's findings in peer-reviewed literature. A classic example is Donald Parker, a Florida anesthesiologist who spends his ev

Citation Analysis Reveals Leading Institutions, Scientists Researching AIDS

Scientists Researching AIDS Sidebars TOP 25 RESEARCHERS RANKED BY TOTAL CITATIONS AND CITATION IMPACT OF AIDS JOURNAL ARTICLES, 1993-95 RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS RANKED BY TOTAL CITATIONS AND CITATION IMPACT OF AIDS JOURNAL ARTICLES, 1993-95 Editor's Note: Early in the AIDS epidemic, a small group of investigators and research centers focused on studying the syndrome. Now, more than 15 years later, the field has grown to encompass hundreds of scientists worldwide and several journals specificall

Human Genetics

Edited by: Karen Young Kreeger J.R. Burke, M.S. Wingfield, K.E. Lewis, A.D. Roses, J.E. Lee, C. Hulette, M.A. Pericak-Vance, J.M. Vance, "The Haw River Syndrome: Dentatorubropallidoluysian atrophy (DRPLA) in an African-American family," Nature Genetics, 7:521-4, 1994. (Cited in nearly 60 publications as of June 1996) Comments by James R. Burke and Jeffery M. Vance, Duke University Medical Center Many discoveries in the study of human genetic diseases come from reproductively isolated populati

Cell Biology

Edited by: Karen Young Kreeger A.G. Batzer, D. Rotin, J.M. Urena, E.Y. Skolnik, J. Schlessinger, "Hierarchy of binding sites for Grb2 and Shc on the epidermal growth factor receptor," Molecular and Cellular Biology, 14:5192-201, 1994. (Cited in more than 60 publications as of June 1996) Comments by Andreas Batzer, T-Cell Sciences Inc., Needham, Mass. Teasing out the intricate biochemical details of how a hormone or growth factor binds to a cell-surface receptor-in turn activating genes inside

Researchers Network, Keep Current With Continuing-Education Courses

Continuing-Education Courses SIDEBAR: Selected Organizations Sponsoring Continuing-Education Programs for Life Scientists As students put away their books for the summer, some life scientists pick up theirs and head off to continuing-education programs. These workshops and short courses offer participants opportunities to brush up on their technique as well as an informal environment for nurturing professional networks and research collaborations. Selected Organizations Sponsoring Continuing-

Software Helps Researchers In Sorting Through The Human Genome

The Human Genome SIDEBAR : Selected Suppliers of Software for Gene Discovery and Analysis Genetics has been an informational science since the elucidation of DNA's structure. Today's researchers say the field shifted to a more computational mode in 1990-the year that research groups began mapping genes to specific chromosomal sites for the Human Genome Project. "That year was pivotal, because it was then that the need to sequence significant amounts of DNA became compelling," says Richard Gib

Notebook

OVERSATURATED: "There are more funded projects than we can absorb," says HGS's William Haseltine. Earlier this month, Human Genome Sciences Inc. (HGS), a biotech firm in Rockville, Md., and Philadelphia-based pharmaceutical giant SmithKline Beecham widened their almost three-year-old exclusive agreement to include more companies in their bioprospecting of the human genome. In research and marketing deals totaling more than $90 million over the next five years, Schering Plough Corp. of Madison

July 1996

July 1996

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