March 1991

Professional Cassandras who foresee the end of the United States' scientific preeminence read doom in the stars, doom in the schools, and doom, especially, in the minds of young people. Reputable experts debate whether declining enrollments will lead to drastic shortages of Ph.D.'s in the 21st century, a prelude to America's scientific downfall. Some point to ominous, but by now shop-worn, roadsigns of national decline. These include anything from falling achievement test scores to the rise in

Scientific literacy constitutes the knowledge you need to understand public issues. It is a mix of facts, vocabulary, concepts, history, and philosophy. It is not the specialized stuff of the experts, but the more general, less precise knowledge used in political discourse. If you can understand the news of the day as it relates to science, if you can take articles with headlines about genetic engineering and the ozone hole and put them in a meaningful context--in short, if you can treat news a

What is scientific literacy, and why are youngsters in the United States lacking in it? What constitutes an adequate science education? Why have we so few inspiring science educators? These are just a few of the questions raised in the following two essays, one written by a science student, the other by a pair of physics professors. For different reasons, all three authors come to the same conclusion: Scientist must look within their own community and at themselves as individuals for answers

When a play opens on Broadway, it's sure to be reviewed in the New York Times and other major papers, while off-Broadway productions may open and close without getting even a single mention in the press. Similarly, most papers brought to readers of such prestigious publications as the New England Journal of Medicine, Science, and Nature will be "reviewed"--that is, cited--in the science press, while thousands published in lower-impact journals may not be quoted even after 10 years. The extent

My congratulations for the excellent essays "Lives In the Balance: Assessing The Risks Of Waiting For Perfectly Accurate Tests," by Dorothy C. Wertz, and "Advantages Of Genetic Testing Outweigh Arguments Against Widespread Screening," by Philip R. Reilly, regarding testing in cystic fibrosis [Opinion, "Unanswered Ethical Questions Forestall Genetic Testing," The Scientist, Jan. 21, 1991, page 9]. Both essays highlight the need for education and counseling that must accompany such testing. With

I was truly surprised by your lead article "Scientists Wary As New Year Dawns" ["Science In 1991,"The Scientist, Jan. 7, 1991, page 1] by Julia King, in which no industrial scientists were asked for their opinions. (The Bell Labs are a minor exception, since they do not reflect the true industrial laboratory setting in our country.) Indeed, the article seemed to confirm overwhelmingly the short shrift given industrial science by The Scientist. Most scientists work in industry, and we feel tha

The article titled "Flow Of Scientific Progress Creates Wave Of New Journals" [The Scientist, Nov. 12, 1990, page 17], which lists high-impact journals, errs in stating that none of the high-impact journals listed began publishing after 1981. Contrary to the statement, Neuron, which is ranked third on the high-impact list of neuroscience journals, began in March 1988 and is just completing its third year of publication. It is indeed the only journal on the three lists you published to have star

Volume 5, #6The Scientist March 18, 1991 WINDOWS ON THE VIRTUAL WORLD: HEAD-MOUNTED DISPLAYS If Alice Through the Looking Glass were written today, the heroine might have used a head-mounted display to go through to the other side, instead of a mirror. Inside head-mounted displays, explains Walter Robinett, director of the head-mounted display project at the University of North Carolina, "are two 3-inch- square liquid crystal display television screens. In front of them are some

X-ray crystallographer Vivian Cody has found a way to sit--virtually--in the midst of enzyme drug binding sites. She especially likes to experience the feel of it all--the pushes and pulls that a drug goes through as it finds the coziest place to rest on a protein. Although this kind of molecular space exploration sounds like fun and games, some scientists in academia, industry, and government see it as a most serious and advanced application of "virtual reality," an emerging computer technolog

The cooling of the Pacific Ocean between 11,000 and 10,000 years ago (the so-called Younger Dryas event), which has been indicated by paleovegetation studies in Alaska and Japan, has now been confirmed by radiocarbon-dated oxygen isotope studies of cores from the deep waters of the Sulu Sea, near the Philippines. This demonstrates clearly that the cooling event was not confined to the North Atlantic, as was once supposed, but was a major global shift in climate. The cause of the reversal of the

During the recent period of relative seismic quiescence along the Parkfield segment of the San Andreas fault (late 1986-late 1988), the average magnitude of earthquakes was lower than usual. Throughout 1989, however, it was back to normal. This pattern has been observed before other mainshocks and, by comparison, suggests that the mainshock expected at Parkfield should occur "in the near future." M. Wyss, "Changes of mean magnitude of Parkfield seismicity: a part of the precursory process?" Ge

Tribology, the study of friction, has been around for many years. In the last few years, atomic-scale investigations of friction have brought the field of "nanotribology" into existence. A recent report gives detailed data and analysis of liquid and solid monolayers on "smooth" and "rough" substrates. J. Krim, D.H. Solina, R. Chiarello, "Nanotribology of a Kr Monolayer: A quartz-crystal microbalance study of atomic scale friction," Physical Review Letters, 66, 181-4, 14 January 1991. (Northeas

Synthetic approaches using preassembled clusters as building blocks are described as a means to identify the critical features of the reactive sites in catalytic metalloenzymes. D. Coucouvanis, "Use of preassembled Fe/S and Fe/Mo/S clusters in the stepwise synthesis of potential analogues for the Fe/Mo/S site in nitrogenase," Accounts of Chemical Research, 24, 1-9, January 1991. (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) A concise summary covers the panoply of techniques involving enzyme-catalyzed r

The determination of whether the crystal structure of a protein is the same as that in solution, and the ability to solve structures of proteins that do not form crystals, are issues that require a marriage of X-ray diffraction crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Here is the first solution of an X-ray structure using a previously obtained NMR structure. The differences in the structures for the short, 72-amino acid polypeptide are small but important. E.T. Baldwi

Scientists most often work with collaborators in the same or closely related disciplines, and they usually strike up their relationships in professional settings or at social gatherings. Unusual, then, is the collaboration between Glenn C. Conroy and Michael W. Vannier. Conroy is a biological anthropologist and paleontologist, while Vannier is a radiologist--and their relationship was launched by a trip to the grocery that Conroy took one day. While waiting in the checkout line, Conroy browsed

The first time John Kemeny heard of the Louis Robinson Award was last summer, when the mathematician, computer scientist, and former Dartmouth College president was notified that he had won it. Now, in the second of four years in which the Robinson is slated to be given, award administrators are hoping that Kemeny's name will come to be automatically associated with the honor, which recognizes lifetime achievement in applying computer technology to education. "It is the body of previous winner

Boston Museum Honors GTE Chemist With 1991 New England Inventor Award (The Scientist, Vol:5, #6, pg. 22, March 18, 1991) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) ---------- Martha J.B. Thomas, former director of technical services at GTE Electrical Products Group in Danvers, Mass., has been named the 1991 New England Inventor by the Museum of Science in Boston. The award is given annually to an individual whose application of science and technology, creativity, and independent thought h

Since personal computers first came into widespread use in the early 1980s, they have become essential for virtually all scientists. The best thing about these now-ubiquitous machines, aside from their ability to revolutionize research, is that as time goes by, they continue to get faster, smaller, and--relative to their power--cheaper. And with this increasing power, and the new software that it fuels, will come additional fundamental changes in the way scientists work. Advancing technology a