November 1992

Just before his 71st birthday in the summer of 1982, Van Rensselaer Potter, Hilldale Professor of Oncology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, officially retired. During his career, Potter had distinguished himself in the field of cancer research and accumulated numerous accolades for his work, including the American Cancer Society's Medal of Honor in 1986. He also had coined the term "bioethics," referring to "the equitable application of medical and biological knowledge to assuring the s

In the coming year, biotechnology companies will continue to confront an unstable business climate, characterized by volatile financing markets and an unpredictable regulatory environment, according to a recent report on the industry's future. Company heads also say that biotechnology faces an added degree of instability injected into its plans by the prospect of change in Washington. Industry leaders are responding to these factors by using a number of tactics to "accelerate commercialization

Administrative Positions Date: November 9, 1992 From congressional scrutiny of universities' indirect costs to public concerns over biohazards and the ethics of animal studies, issues surrounding sponsored academic research have been dominating the headlines recently. For universities and research institutions around the United States, that means their job is getting harder, as government agencies, legislators, and even the schools themselves surround the research process with an increasingly

A recent federal court copyright decision should help protect the publishers of scientific and technical journals, according to those involved in the case and other observers. The court's decision in American Geophysical Union, et al. v. Texaco Inc., a test case brought by a group of academic publishers, mandates that permission fees be paid for photocopying done by research scientists in profit-making settings--revenues to which the publishers have long felt entitled. The case will result in

A report from the National Research Council outlining an agenda for the future of computer science has attracted stinging comments from nearly 1,000 computer scientists, including some of the major names in the field. The critics say the report completely ignores large areas of computer science, such as artificial intelligence (AI). They are calling for the document to be withdrawn and revised. On September 4, the detractors sent a petition to the E-mail message boards of the United States' la

Academic science in the United States is in for some rough times from the government, according to the newly appointed president of the Association of American Universities (AAU). "This is a time of challenge, perhaps more than we've seen in several decades--when major research universities are acting under some duress and, perhaps, when some science in the U.S. has come somewhat into question," says Cornelius J. Pings, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the University o

The system of federal support for biomedical research is ailing, according to National Institutes of Health director Bernadine Healy. In an interview published in Science (257:312, 1992), she stated that "with the average success rate on applications, now hovering around 25 percent, numerous meritorious research projects are not receiving NIH support.... "Perhaps the most serious long-term problem for biomedical research," she went on, "is that the young seem to be shying away. Fewer scientist

As a foreign visitor, I am not involved in the politics behind many of the scientific issues being discussed today in the United States. I strongly believe that science should be independent of politicians, but this is, clearly, naivete on my part. In any case, I would like to point out what to me is a contradiction: Every time a scientist dares to speak against the supposed mainstream ideas (therefore being politically incorrect), she or he is accused of being influenced by politicians. Who,

Sherry Leonard's opinion piece (The Scientist, Aug. 31, 1992, page 11) remarking on the need for a scientific "Consumer Reports" struck a resonant note. As president of ECRI (Emergency Care Research Institute), a nonprofit agency that evaluates medical equipment and publishes the results, much as Consumer Reports does for consumer products, I can well understand both the value of and the need for such a service. Since 1971, we at ECRI have undertaken comparative evaluations and published recom

Research into the links between genes and heart disease is attracting more attention from both cardiologists and granting agencies. Both groups are coming to accept what cell biologists have suspected for some time--that dissecting the genetic causes of extremely rare diseases will yield important clues to the pathogenesis of more common maladies. Since 1989, the genes behind a handful of inherited cardio-vascular conditions have been identified, shifting the focus of the field to genetic studi

L.D. Kerr, J.-I. Inoue, N. Davis, E. Link, et al., "The Rel- associated pp40 protein prevents DNA binding of Rel and NF-kB: relationship with IkBb and regulation by phosphorylation," Genes & Development, 5:1464-76, 1991. Lawrence Kerr (The Salk Institute, La Jolla, Calif.): "The regulation of protooncogene Rel, a transcription factor belonging to the family of NF-kB transcription factors, is important for the well-being of the cell because its altered form, v-rel, causes lymphoid leukemias. Wh

R.S. Stolarski, P. Bloomfield, R.D. McPeters, J.R. Herman, "Total ozone trends deduced from Nimbus 7 TOMS data," Geophysical Research Letters, 18:1015-18, 1991. Jay Herman (National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.): Ozone measurements, made for the past 14 years from NASA's Nimbus-7/TOMS orbiting satellite, show that the global ozone amount has declined by about 2.6 percent during the past decade. Larger ozone loss rates, 6 percent to 8 percent

A.L. Burkhardt, M. Brunswick, J.B. Bolen, J.J. Mond, "Anti- immunoglobulin stimulation of B lymphocytes activates src-related protein-tyrosine kinases," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 88:741-14, 1991. Joseph Bolen (Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute, Princeton, N.J.): "The biochemical mechanisms involved in transducing signals from the outside of a cell to the cell's interior have been the subject of countless studies. Only in recent years has it been appr

Largely unchanged since the 1960s and virtually ignored by researchers over the past decade, the analytical ultracentrifuge has been the focus of energetic new interest in the past few years. Recently, a redesigned--nearly reinvented--version of the instrument has been released, according to a small, tightly knit group of molecular biologists. The new instrument, intended mainly for characterizing proteins and nucleic acids, has already helped to shatter the working models of some important bi

The range of average salaries paid to agronomy professors with Ph.D.'s at government-funded schools, including land-grant colleges, was stagnant in the 1991-92 academic year, a recent survey has found. The static salaries for these researchers, who study soil management and field-crop production, are a reflection of the downturn in the economy, according to officials at the Madison, Wis.-based American Society of Agronomy. The society co- sponsored the survey with the Crop Science Society of Am

W. Henry Sebrell, director of the National Institutes of Health from 1950 to 1955, died September 29 at his home in Pompano Beach, Fla. He was 91 years old. During Sebrell's tenure, NIH created its $64 million, 500-bed clinical center in Bethesda, Md. Sebrell's research centered on nutrition and vitamins; he published nearly 300 papers. In the 1930s he helped discover the cure for pellagra, a fatal disease caused by a niacin deficiency. Sebrell earned his M.D. from the University of Virginia

Five academics received the 1992 Charles A. Dana Awards for Pioneering Achievements in Health and Education on November 4. Four $50,000 awards were given out; two liberal arts professors and one scientist each received individual awards and two other scientists split a fourth award. The New York City-based Charles A. Dana Foundation also presented a Distinguished Achievement Award to National Institutes of Health director Bernadine P. Healy. Following are the other recipients: Stanley B. Prusi

The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine's Oncology Center in Baltimore has named oncology professor Martin D. Abeloff as its new director. Currently, the university is planning the construction of a new building for the facility. The Oncology Center was created under the National Cancer Act of 1976. Along with an 84-bed hospital, the center has research programs in nearly every type of cancer, including breast, lung, colon, prostate, brain, and ovarian cancer, as well as leukemia. Abeloff had bee

New Interest in Nubia The Right Stuff The Next Best Thing To Being There Thanks, But No Thanks Disaster Education Collaborative Measures Don't Bring Marshmallows The University of Pennsylvania's University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology's newest exhibition is a collection of artifacts from ancient Nubia, an African civilization that thrived from 3100 B.C. to 400 A.D. and was Egypt's political rival. The exhibit, which opened October 10 and runs to Oct. 3, 1993, has become the m

Editor's Note: Just as last week's presidential sweepstakes was entering its final stages, the United States House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space, and Technology received a candid 19-page report from its chairman, George E. Brown, Jr. (D-Calif.). The report focused on a subject certain to exert major influence on the next administration, the legislators in office after January 1993, and the U.S. science community at large. The document--entitled "Report of the Task Force on the