October 1988

The Department of Energy has kicked off a closely-watched competition to pick a team to manage the facility that will house the superconducting supercollider. More than 100 representatives of science-related companies and organizations showed up last month for a meeting in Washington to discuss the rules governing the selection of a contractor (two or more companies may submit a joint bid) to operate the new national laboratory that will be created once DOE picks a site for the SSC. Although

That favorite Washington pastime—playing politics—threatens to disrupt the operations of the National Science Board, NSF’s oversight body. The board has a rotating membership appointed by the president. Every other May, eight of its 24 members complete their six-year terms. Replacements are routinely confirmed by the Senate, and the board has hardly missed a beat—except this year and in 1976. In each instance a Democrat- controlled Senate has refused to go along with a

Entrepreneurial professors might want to set their sights on Texas: Its vigorous technology transfer community is working hard to get Lone Star State innovation to market. The Texas Technology Transfer Association, a grassroots group formed by venture capitalists and university officials earlier this year, was scheduled to hold its first conference in Houston last week. Meanwhile, the Texas A&M technology business development office has been touting its most recent success: a marriage between

Biotechnology has really hit the big time: big opportunity, big profits, and now—big crime. On August 11, former Amgen research associate John Stephen Wilson was arrested by the FBI in the first biotech “sting” operation. Wilson allegedly offered Genetics Institute, Cambridge, Mass., an explanation of how to manufacture erythropoietin, an anti-anemia drug that is Amgen’s lead product. He has been accused of trying to sell the information—valued at $50 million by

When the next Three Mile Island vents its deadly radioactive gas, when a Chernobyl threatens to melt its superheated core, who are you going to call? The Aged Team! This new group of 00 British scientists—whose average age is over 70—is now ready to tackle all future nuclear disasters. The team is the brainchild of Sir Frederick Warner, 78, visiting professor in the departments of chemistry and law at Essex University, who became alarmed by the number of young people sent into ar

The Burroughs Wellcome Fund is considering the addition of a seventh “scholar program” comparable in magnitude to its current six. Each of the existing programs award outstanding researchers $300,000 grants over five years, according to Martha G. Peck, executive director of the fund, which is based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. “Our board is reviewing underfunded areas of basic medical research for new competitive awards,” she says, “and we expect to make an

Peter Carruthers has turned also-ran Arizona into a contender in the final lap of the supercollider marathon WASHINGTON—Seven states remain in the marathon race to be chosen as home of the superconducting supercollider, and each faces the scientific version of Heartbreak Hill this week. The challenge: a one-on-one meeting with Energy Secretary John Herrington during which each state delegation makes its pitch. Although Energy Department officials have been tight-lipped about the like

Boldly venturing where no dean went before, graduate students open an international college to study the universe The topic was the best design for a manned lunar base, and in the small room at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology the discussion was heated. Building the base in space and landing the completed structure on the moon just won’t work, argued the transportation experts. “We’re talking about a quantum leap in technology here,” warned Bill Unger, a Cana

The Yanomamö are among the most violent people ever studied, yet Napoleon Chagnon is battling to protect them from the likes of us SANTA BARBARA, CALIF.—When a Yanomamö headman complained to Napoleon Chagnon that a missionary was intimidating the village’s shamans, the feisty anthropologist decided to remove his mantle of scientific detachment and take action. The next time the missionary came rushing into the village center to stop the dancing, Living with a tribe

Right after Black Monday, analysts said venture capital would dry up. This tour-page special report shows the still thriving field finding money in new places but facing increased scrutiny. CAMBRIDGE, MASS.—One year ago this month the stock market suffered its worst decline since 1929. In the wake of Black Monday, pundits prophesied dire consequences—for the economy in general and for corporate and entrepreneurial science and technology in particular. Corporate R&D budgets would

WASHlNGTON—In less than six weeks, energy Secretary John Herrington will announce where he plans to build the $5.4 billion Superconducting Supercollider Will the decision be remembered as another flagrant example of pork-barrell science ? Or will the secretary actually manage to avoid politics and make his decision on technical and scientiftc merits. Most observers feel that the Department of Energy must avoid even the appearance of political patronage if it wants its decision to be ac

The question in every one’s mind since Oct. 19, 1987, had been: ‘When would the market support an initial public offering in biotech— as it used to so enthusiastically before Black Monday? In the first nine months of 1987, for instance there had been no less than 16 initial public offerings of biotech firms that had raised a total of $263 million. But as the months dragged by into 1988, not a single offering had been acieved. Then along came NeoRx. The four-year-old Seattle

A sagging stock market and the lagging dollar have only served to add allure to overseas venture capital Ask any United States biotech executive about the industry’s problems and you’ll probably get a rousing speech on the dangers of offshore competition—especially from Japan. The U.S., you’ll be told, could lose out on biotechnology’s biggest payoffs. But nationalism sometimes bows to financial realism. At least, that was the case back in 1985 when Thousand O

Physicist Luis Walter Alvarez, a age 77, lost a long battle with can cer on September 1,1988—and the scientific community lost one of it most creative and feisty members Luie, as he was known by colleagues and castigators alike, won numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968 for his work in developing, and experimenting with, the hydrogen bubble chamber a device used to track the paths of, and thus identify, elementary particles. But long before that he bad been a k

I enjoyed reading the articles on "welcoming corrections,"and the Duesberg controversy (The Scientist, July 25). Historically, science and what, at the time, represents mainstream thought has been consistently shown to be less than accurate by future researchers. In condemning "renegade" scientists, we join the ranks of those who backed the "obvious" theories of the earth being flat, matter never being created or destroyed, bleeding being a healthy treatment, and the superiority of certain rac

In your June 27 edition, you published over 25 photographs of white males. No women, no blacks, and only one Asian (H.T. Kung). In future, please try to be on your guard against such perpetuations of racism and sexism in science. A cover article lamented the "insufficient interest by students in pursuing careers in science." Active encouragement and modeling of women and minority scientists could eliminate the problem. EVE PATTON 116 W. University Pkwy #315 Baltimore, Md. 21210

Your columns have carried considerable discussion of the privileged nature, or otherwise, of peer reviews of funding applications (for example, The Scientist, July 11, page 11). There has always been trouble in this direction—ever since Columbus failed to quote previous work by others in his field and omitted to submit 18 copies. More recently, in 1845, the British engineer J.J. Waterston, with an interest in mathematical physics, wrote a paper on the molecular theory of gases, which a

Grammar checkers (The Scientist, June 27, 1988, page 25) don't check grammar. Some users may find them useful, but like "idea processors" (outline editors) and "desktop publishing systems" (personal typesetting systems), the name is far more ambitious than the product. Grammar checkers are far from being able to worry about the subtleties of "Time flies like an arrow"; even simple errors like "You knows" or "He has going" or "I want to sheep" (two sheep? to sleep?) are beyond them. They do c

I found the statistics presented in your article "Where Does Basic Research Money Go?" (June 27, page 21) most interesting. The role played by nonprofit independent research institutes is not fully appreciated in the federal legislative process, in spite of these figures. There are 63 nonprofit independent research institutes in the Association of Independent Research Institutes (AIRI). Very high approval rates by the peer-review system (exceeding 90%) of competitive research project grant ap

In the Government Briefs section of the May16 issue of The Scientist (page 5), an article entitled "Finding Fault With Buffalo" made reference to "financial tremors" that are supposedly "running through" the NSF-funded National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (NCEER) at the State University of New York, Buffalo. The piece went on to state that the center is "having trouble keeping its part of the agreement" and that "the $25 million, five-year federal grant called for an annual $5

In late September, representatives from NATO-member countries met at the organization’s headquarters in Brussels. The topic of discussion was not the military strength of the Warsaw Pact nations. Neither was it the political strategies to defend Western Europe. Rather, over 100 representatives came together to talk about the state of civil science in the Eastern Bloc. The gathering was a follow-up to another held in September 1986 on nonmilitary science in the Soviet Union, the procee

On October 1, 1987, the Los Angeles region experienced a strong and damaging earthquake of magnitude 6, followed four days later by an aftershock of magnitude 5.5 that caused further damage. The usual fears and uncertainties about earthquakes were heightened by a disturbing lack of sound, scientifically based information about the event in the minutes, hours, and days following the main shock. This lack of information was especially disturbing to seismologists, who realize that the technolo

The Scientist has asked a group of experts to periodically comment upon recent articles that they have found noteworthy. Their selections, presented here in every Issue, are neither endorsements of content nor the result of systematic searching. Rather, they are personal choices of articles they believe the scientific community as a whole may also find interesting. Reprints of any article. cited here may be ordered through The Genuine Article, 3501 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19104, o

The Scientist has asked a group of experts to periodically comment upon recent articles that they have found noteworthy. Their selections, presented here in every Issue, are neither endorsements of content nor the result of systematic searching. Rather, they are personal choices of articles they believe the scientific community as a whole may also find interesting. Reprints of any article. cited here may be ordered through The Genuine Article, 3501 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19104, o

The Scientist has asked a group of experts to periodically comment upon recent articles that they have found noteworthy. Their selections, presented here in every Issue, are neither endorsements of content nor the result of systematic searching. Rather, they are personal choices of articles they believe the scientific community as a whole may also find interesting. Reprints of any article. cited here may be ordered through The Genuine Article, 3501 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19104, o

The Scientist has asked a group of experts to periodically comment upon recent articles that they have found noteworthy. Their selections, presented here in every Issue, are neither endorsements of content nor the result of systematic searching. Rather, they are personal choices of articles they believe the scientific community as a whole may also find interesting. Reprints of any article. cited here may be ordered through The Genuine Article, 3501 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19104, o