Issue | June 1993 | June 1993 | The Scientist Magazine®

News

Tight Job Market Will Pose Tough Challenges for 1993 Science Graduates

The job market for this spring's science graduates at all levels may well be one of the tightest in decades, university career development experts say. Many also point out, however, that this year's recruitment patterns indicate that employment prospects are no longer experiencing the precipitous decline of the past several years. "Things seem to be finally leveling off and starting to go forward a bit," says Steven Kravinsky, director of career placement for the sciences, business, and libera

Are New Riches In Store For Superstars Of Research? If Some Current Trends Continue, The Answer Is Yes!

A news story you might be reading in 2003: LOS ANGELES--A bidding war broke out yesterday for the rights to publish a scientific study identifying a master gene that con~trols aging. In the end, the journal Genes & Proteins topped offers from four other journals and agreed to pay the authors of the breakthrough paper $137,000--a new record for a scientific paper sold at auction. "With this money, we'll be able to hire a couple of postdocs, and that will help speed up the work in our lab," R

In Hot Pursuit Of Post-Cold War Survival, Weapons Labs Seek Industrial Partnerships

With the bomb-building out and global economic competitiveness in, Los Alamos, Sandia, and Livermore alter focus The end of the Cold War, coupled with President Clinton's desire to make federally funded research a better engine for national competitiveness, has left the Department of Energy's three weapons laboratories searching for new missions. While weapons development is down, nuclear nonproliferation research is growing, as are environmental and energy research. And Cooperative Research

Five Americans Receive 1993 Gairdner Awards

For the first time since 1983 and only the second time in the 36- year history of the prestigious Gairdner Foundation International Awards, all recipients of this year's prizes are United States- based researchers. Traditionally, the awards have had a decidedly international flavor; over the years, winners have included scientists from 12 different nations, spanning four continents. This year, the Willowdale, Ontario-based organization will honor five American researchers in the fields of ge

Biotechnology Job Fairs...A New Method Of Searching For Research Employment

Soon after finishing school, most new science graduates will utilize the entire spectrum of traditional job-seeking methods-- such as help- wanted ads, networking, university placement services, and assistance provided by scientific societies--to begin the next stage of their career. Another method that has been gaining in popularity over the years is the science job fair--a large conference of company representatives accepting resumes and interviewing for new employees. Although these event

Berkeley Oceanographer Is Second Woman To Receive NSF's Alan T. Waterman Award

Berkeley Oceanographer Is Second Woman To Receive NSF's Alan T. Waterman Award Foundation Honors Radiation Pathologist For Lifetime Of Environmental Research Biological oceanographer Deborah L. Penry, an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has become the 18th recipient of the National Science Foundation's Alan T. Waterman Award for outstanding research by a scientist under the age of 35. The award, which includes a $500,000, three-year research grant, was prese

Notebook

International Finance Summer Colleagues Developing Third World Science Good News For Runts Running Strong Mind Reading Chance Encounters Super Forecast The Missouri Botanical Garden has signed an agreement with Madagascar's Central Bank allowing the St. Louis-based institution to purchase up to $750,000 worth of the country's international debt at 50 cents on the dollar. The agreement, reached this spring with Paris-based ING Bank--which holds Madagascar's national debt--will release fun

Opinion

Science's Negative Public Image: A Puzzling And Dissatisfying Matter

Lewis Wolpert, a professor of biology as applied to medicine, University College, London, writes in his latest book, The Unnatural Nature of Science, of a misconception widely held by the public that "scientists either pursue truth in a dispassionate manner...or that they are entirely competitive and selfish."

Letter

Duplicate Research

I read with interest the story by Paul McCarthy on the problem of redundant publication in the March 8, 1993, issue of The Scientist (page 1) and the commentary on the subject by Eugene Garfield in the April 19 issue (page 12). Garfield is right, of course, that there is a long-standing problem that could be solved by editors' and researchers' making better use of citation searches. However, I believe the emphasis on "publication" is misplaced. Duplication of the research itself is more i

Chemistry Opportunities

This letter is in response to Ronald Breslow's Commentary titled "Let's Put an End to `Chemophobia' " (The Scientist, March 22, 1993, page 12). As a 1984 Ph.D. who has held entry-level industrial chemistry positions, I agree with Breslow's claims that chemistry is important. He concludes by encouraging students to consider chemistry. The real reason that students are not going into chemistry does not have much to do with "image." Instead, students are recognizing that while chemistry is very

Commentary

What Is The Best Way To Determine A Student's Aptitude For The Science Profession?

The article "Do High School Science Competitions Predict Success?" (Linda Marsa, The Scientist, April 19, 1993, page 21) is excellent but misses a very important point: Precollege science competitions are not all the same. Some are based on written examinations, some on students' essays, and some on independent scientific research. With such differences, one can well ask whether the different categories of competitions predict entry into a field--or adult occupational success in that field-- eq

Research

United States National Labs: How Does Their Research Measure Up?

Editor's Note: An article on page 1 of this issue addresses the government officials, and the United States public concerning ongoing funding and focus of the major national weapons labs-- Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, and Sandia. The article points out that this shift, in fact, marks a time of vast change for all Department of Energy-managed labs, as the quest for global economic gain supplants the fear of global war as the prime reason for continued support of these facilities. Among the mo

Hot Paper

Plant Science

H. Ohta, K. Shida, Y.-L. Peng, I. Furusawa, et al., "A lipoxygenase pathway is activated in rice after infection with the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe grisea," Plant Physiology, 97:94-8, 1991. Hiroyuki Ohta (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan): "When plants are infected with a pathogen, they show a series of quick protective responses. A well-known response to fungal attack is production of phytoalexins, which have inhibitory effects on the growth of the fungus. When fungi infect plants, th

Materials Science

Bruno, C. Chappert, "Oscillatory coupling between ferromagnetic layers separated by a nonmagnetic metal spacer," Physical Review Letters, 67:1602-5, 1991. Patrick Bruno (Institut d'Electronique Fondamentale, Orsay, France): "Magnetic multilayers are currently attracting considerable interest as new artificial materials. Among them, those consisting of an alternated stacking of a ferromagnetic metal (such as iron, cobalt, or nickel) and a nonmagnetic metal (such as copper, silver, chromium, o

Cell Biology

A. Lerman, B.S. Edwards, J.W. Hallett, D.M. Heublein, et al., "Circulating and tissue endothelin immunoreactivity in advanced atherosclerosis," New England Journal of Medicine, 325:997- 1001, 1991. Amir Lerman (Mayo Clinic, Ro-chester, Minn.): "It is clear that the endothelium is much more than a semipermeable barrier between the blood and the vascular smooth muscle. Indeed, the endothelial system must now be regarded as a highly active endocrine organ. The endothelium contributes to local v

Technology

Scientific Graphing Software Tools Fill Important Niche

Scientists have tough demands when it comes to presenting their data graphically, whether for presentation or publication. To meet these demands, they used to call upon the skills of technical graphic artists, but the resulting cycles of corrections and alterations were often inefficient and taxing to both parties. "You handed a rough idea of what you wanted to a graphic artist," says former biologist Robert Simons, explaining how he came to write the graphing package CoPlot, from CoHort Sof

Profession

Foundation Honors Radiation Pathologist For Lifetime Of Environmental Research

Foundation Honors Radiation Pathologist For Lifetime Of Environmental Research Author: Ron Kaufman Arthur Canfield Upton a lifelong researcher in radiation pathology, has been named the first recipient of the Lovelace Medical Foundation's Award for Excellence in Environmental Health Research. Based in Albuquerque, N.Mex., the 46-year-old foundation established the award this year to recognize excellence in basic or applied research dealing with the relationship between the enviro