Issue | May 1992 | May 1992 | The Scientist Magazine®

News

Scientists Skeptical Of NIH Strategic Plan

While the agency moves to identify long-term goals, critics question the plan's feasibility as well as its fairness More than a year into the process, an atmosphere of fear, mistrust, and even hostility is clouding the formulation of the National Institutes of Health's long-range strategic plan. Although the process is alive and advancing, there are skeptics in the biomedical research community whose perceptions of what a strategic planning process is, what it should be, and what it can accom

Although Some Cynics Call Them Elitist, Math And Science Magnet Schools Flourish

Two decades after the bold concept of these specialized high schools was hatched, they are demonstrating their worth By now, the gruesome statistics have made it clear that primary and secondary science and math education in the United States is in bad shape, with youngsters manifesting what many officials consider an ominous combination of ineptitude and disinterest: * The nation ranks 14th among developed countries in terms of students' ability to perform advanced algebra. * Korean school

Survey Shows Rise In Biotech Pay

Continued industry growth and the rush to develop new products had a hand in raising average annual salaries for scientists working in biotechnology in 1991, according to a recently released survey. The increases also reflected additional funds raised in stock offerings. These helped pay for new or expanded research projects, many of which necessitated hiring more staff, often at higher salaries, according to J. Robert Scott, a Boston-based consulting firm that conducted the survey. Among the

Sports Scientists See Their Work Yielding Gains In Public Health

But more visibility and funding are needed if their esoteric studies are to have impact beyond the playing field Like many sports scientists, David Lamb came to his profession by way of an interest in athletics. "I wanted to be a coach, but my [physical education] student teaching was one of the stereotypical worst experiences. So I decided to go back to school." It was there, at Michigan State University, says Lamb--now a professor of preventive medicine and health at Ohio State University

Presidential Panel Urges Upgrade Of Science Appointments

The diminishing capacity of the government to recruit top candidates for key government scientific positions has "long-term consequences ... very serious for the nation," a recent report issued by the Panel on Presidentially Appointed Scientists and Engineers states. "There is considerable evidence of increasing difficulty in recruiting ... highly qualified appointees," according to "Science and Technology Leadership in American Government," and this has "a significant and harmful effect on t

JUST HOW EFFECTIVE ARE THE SCIENCE AND MATH MAGNET SCHOOLS?

JUST HOW EFFECTIVE ARE THE SCIENCE AND MATH MAGNET SCHOOLS? Author: Susan L-J Dickinson A 1990 study conducted by the North Carolina School of Science and Math (NCSSM) on the occasion of its 10th anniversary covered some 900 alumni from the school's first eight classes (1982-1989), and revealed the following statistics: * 99 percent of NCSSM students attended or were attending four-year colleges, vs. 58 percent of all students nationally and 39 percent in the state of North Car

AAUP President Claims Campuses Plagued With `Administrative Bloat'

For most of this century, United States colleges and universities adhered to a dogma that the best way to compete for students, faculty, and research dollars is to expand. But this approach has led to large, complicated bureaucracies, according to Barbara Bergmann, president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). The net result of this, Bergmann says, is a debilitating malady called "administrative bloat." Bergmann, a professor of economics at American University, contend

Computer Networks: Priming For High-Speed Applications

The High Performance Computing Act, which became law last December, provides a boost in federal funds to improve and integrate the confusing collection of computer networks used by scientists to transmit data and electronic mail. The ultimate goal is to create a high-speed national computer network, analogous to the interstate highway system, with a capacity to transmit data at one gigabit (1 billion bits) per second, a speed 700 times greater than today's system. Such a system would provide e

Notebook

Pay-Per-View At HHMI Campaign Contributions More From The Land Of Opportunity Salamander Sex Proving Their Productivity The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has produced a new video on lab safety techniques and distributed it to each of its units and laboratories. The 12 1/2-minute tape, entitled What You Should Know About Laboratory Safety, features correct procedures for such functions as storing, transporting, and disposing of hazardous chemicals; removing contaminated gloves; and ha

Opinion

Gigabit Guru Farber Sees Surprises In High-Speed Networks

****** Editor's note: David Farber, a professor of computer and information sciences at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, says he has developed a keen interest in high- speed computer networking through "20 years of being buried inside of networks." He started work at Bell Telephone Labs, now called AT&T Bell Laboratories, in Murray Hill, N.J., where he was involved in the design of the first electronic central office and was an originator of SNOBOL, a symbolic- and string-manipu

Letter

Multiple Authorships

I appreciated the recent article on multiple authorships in the Feb. 17, 1992, issue of The Scientist [page 1]. Authorship is something that I've thought about as a physicist committed to research. Deciding who merits recognition as coauthor is similar to deciding what is good science--in both cases we must adhere to a standard of credibility. Misrepresentation in coauthorship, as in content, weakens this credibility. Awarding honorary coauthorships is one such misrepresentation that undermine

Scientific Prizes

The commentary by Robert L. Brent in the Feb. 3, 1992, issue of The Scientist [page 12] makes some legitimate points. Nevertheless, I am afraid that its principal effect will be to discourage young scientists. I cannot agree with the implications of Brent's remarks that individuals don't count and that awards are meaningless or, worse, the symptom of a corrupt, politicized scientific system. After more than 40 years of scientific research I still believe that recognition does come rather auto

Commentary

We Must Not Allow High Scientific Standards To Become Engulfed In An Egalitarian Fog

In recent comments to the National Academy of Sciences (The Scientist, Jan. 20, 1992, page 3), Radcliffe College president Linda Wilson criticized a research culture dominated by white males and called for an atmosphere more hospitable to women and minorities. In a follow-up essay aimed at clarifying her remarks (The Scientist, March 16, 1992, page 11), she urged recognition of a "broader set of stakeholders" in government, academia, and industry, and she warned "those who inhabit the system" a

Research

Global Warming Researchers Say They Need Breathing Room

It's an exhilarating time for climate researchers: The pressing questions of when the greenhouse effect will begin to be felt and how severe it will be have thrust their work into the eyes of the public and the policymakers. But while high visibility has injected money into the climate research field and imbued scientists with a sense of social relevance, it's also brought frustrations. Climatologists say the frustrations include dealing with impatient politicians and the media, who often triv

Hot Paper

Biochemistry

T.A. Steitz, "Structural studies of protein-nucleic acid interaction: the sources of sequence-specific binding," Quarterly Reviews of Biophysics, 23:205-80, 1990. Thomas A. Steitz (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Yale University): "The explosion of information on the structural basis of DNA and RNA recognition by proteins has been made possible in part by the ability of structural biologists to obtain large quantities of normally rare proteins and nucleic acids through cloning and chemical sy

Biochemistry

M. Glotzer, A.W. Murray, M.W. Kirschner, "Cyclin is degraded by the ubiquitin pathway," Nature, 349:132-38, 1991. Michael Glotzer (University of California, San Francisco): "A molecular understanding of the cell cycle has been emerging rapidly over the past few years. A class of proteins called cyclins regulates the cell cycle at several transition points. Tim Hunt and his students at Woods Hole discovered the first member of this family when they noticed it was synthesized and degraded during

Medicine

G. Brown, J.J. Albers, L.D. Fisher, S.M. Schaefer, et al., "Regression of coronary artery disease as a result of intensive lipid-lowering therapy in men with high levels of apolipopro-tein B," New England Journal of Medicine, 323:1289-98, 1990. Greg Brown (University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle): "We have long known that cholesterol-loaded arteries in experimental animals will improve under conditions of low blood cholesterol; and clinical studies have been completed showing that red

Chemical Physics

P.A. Heiney, J.E. Fischer, A.R. McGhie, W.J. Romanow, et al., "Orientation Ordering Transition in Solid C60," Physical Review Letters, 66:2911, 1991. Paul A. Heiney (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia): "In materials such as liquid crystals or quasicrystals, the shape and symmetry of the constituent molecules or atomic clusters form the basis for unusual structural properties. The atoms in a `buckyball' (C60) form a sphere that is only slightly `bumpy.' Our X-ray measurements showed that

Profession

The unexpected--and unprecedented--success of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes created a big bang of its own in the world of publishing. The Cambridge University re- searcher's textual flight through space and time, published by New York's Bantam Books in April 1988, earned rave reviews the world over and spent 100 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, ringing up sales of some 1 million copies in its hardcover edition alone

People: University Of Texas Astronomer Wins NASA Exceptional Achievement Award

William Jefferys, Harlan J. Smith Centennial Professor in Astronomy at the University of Texas, Austin, and principal investigator of the Hubble Space Telescope Astrometry Science Team, has received the 1992 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Exceptional Scientific Achievement Award. He was presented with the award on March 27 at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Astrometry, explains Jefferys, 51, is the "measurement of positions and motions of stars and other celest

People: Top Physicist From Former Soviet Union Moves To University Of California, Irvine

Igor E. Dzyaloshinskii, former head of Moscow's Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics, has been appointed a professor in the department of physics at the University of California, Irvine. Dzyaloshinskii, 61, was a student of Lev Landau, considered a father of modern science in the former Soviet Union. He headed the Landau Institute, named for his mentor, from 1965 until 1991. His areas of research specialization include magnetism, liquid crystals, and high-temperature superconductivity. Acc

Briefs

People Briefs: Susan G. O'Leary

Susan G. O'Leary, director of clinical training in the psychology department at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, and an associate professor in the department, has been elected chairwoman of the Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology for 1992-94. The council includes directors of 144 doctoral programs in the United States and Canada. O'Leary earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1972 from SUNY-Stony Brook. At Stony Brook, she was an assistant professor in 1973

People Briefs: Robert E. Pollock

Robert E. Pollock, Distinguished Professor of Physics at Indiana University, Bloomington, and Henry G. Blosser, University Distinguished Professor of physics at Michigan State University, have received the American Physical Society's Tom W. Bonner Prize. The prize, APS's highest honor in experimental nuclear physics, was presented on April 22 at the society's meeting in Washington, D.C. Pollock and Blosser will share the $5,000 cash award. Pollock, 56, conceived and designed the cooler facilit