October 1990

EUGENE, Oreg.--Janis Weeks looks up and smiles as the sounds of young voices drift through an open window on the University of Oregon campus. The neurobiologist points out her young son, one of a half-dozen youngsters walking hand-in-hand across the quad to the day care center. Her belly bulging, Weeks is expecting her second child sometime this month. Weeks is a proud mother and she is also the proud recipient of a 1989 Presidential Young Investigator (PYI) award, a prestigious honor bestowed

A move is on in academia and government to shatter barriers that traditionally have stymied U.S. females' pursuit of science careers The warning cry sounds loud and clear throughout the science community and well beyond--in the halls of Congress and in the financial community: The United States is suffering from severe and worsening shortage of scientists, one that threatens the nation's ability to compete internationally Everyone, from the president to academicians to industry leaders, is wor

The Hauglands cultivated their booming enterprise by anticipating the demand for new fluorescent probes It was 1975, and husband-and-wife chemists Dick and Rosaria Haugland were short on cash. Rosaria had taken time out from academic research in biochemistry to raise the couple's two children, and Dick regretted having no time for research in his first teaching job at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn. As a way to make extra money and as an excuse to spend more time in the laboratory Dick

In an unprecedented deal, RiboGene Inc. is putting a Soviet team's advanced research into production with American money MENLO PARK, Calif.A year and a half ago, venture capitalist Petri Vainio was considering buying into a proposal from protein chemist and would-be entrepreneur Kin-Ping Wong. So Vainio began an investigation commonly performed by patent attorneys to see whether any other inventor, anywhere in the world, had come up with a similar idea. Vainio discovered that a group of Sovie

WASHINGTON When top federal jobs are handed out in Washington, few plums the most desirable and highest-profile positions go to women. And a new survey shows that they don't get the prunes the less visible but most demanding jobs either. And this goes for science jobs, as well as other kinds of jobs. Indeed, last year a private think-tank here, the Council for Excellence in Government, identified 100 prune jobs throughout the government. This year the council has narrowed its focus to select t

Before Margaret Rossiter wrote her book Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940 (Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1982), science historians had not paid much attention to women scientists. There was the occasional bibliography, but no survey of what Rossiter found were large numbers of underrecognized and underemployed women who had managed to work in the lab. Rossiter transformed dusty records archived letters, manuscripts and obituaries of women's past scientif

Author: Julia King Evelyn Fox Keller received her Ph.D. in theoretical physics, with a dissertation in molecular biology, in 1963. For 12 years, she pursued a research career in mathematical physics and biology. Over the past 15 years, Keller shifted to the history and philosophy of science. She is well known for her investigations into the role of gender ideology in the development of science. In 1985, she published Reflections on Gender and Science (Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.),

An April 1989 report from the National Science Foundation's Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering tells us that, in 1983, when women represented more than 50 percent of all undergraduates in United States colleges and universities, they earned only 30 percent or 116,000 of all the science and engineering bachelor's degrees awarded. The report also tells us that in 1985 women received only 198 or 6.7 percent of the 2,967 engineering doctorates handed out in the U.S. Such st

The latest twist in the ongoing debate about the use of animals in biomedical research is Leland C. Clark's charge that, according to the headline over his article, The Animal Rights Movement Threatens To Make Scientists An Endangered Species (The Scientist, Sept. 3, 1990, page 11). Surely, Clark was referring to animal research-oriented scientists only. Physicians and patients are increasingly aware that procedures and treatments developed through animal research the artificial heart comes to

I wish to correct some misinformation in the article Lawsuits Threaten ACS' Nonprofit Status, Financial Health [The Scientist, Aug. 20, 1990, page 3]. It is stated that last year our Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) generated a profit of more than $4 million on revenues of approximately $45 million. That is not correct. Last year, CAS generated $105.9 million in revenues, and after expenses, made a net contribution to the ACS of $4.2 million. Therefore, the return is approximately 4 percent, ra

As a physicist, I very much enjoyed reading the very speculative article Twelve Prolific Physicists: Likely 1990 Nobel Contenders [The Scientist, Sept. 3, 1990, page 16]. However, if the Nobel Prize Selection Committee uses citation indices as its primary gauge of excellence, then it seems to me they have cheapened the prize by resorting to such cold and shallow criteria. Moreover, they will have overlooked (again) the seminal contributions of the most profound and original physicist in the wo

In The Scientist [Feb. 19, 1990, page 5] I read about the Association of Engineers and Scientists for New Americans. I am a Soviet (Jewish) scientist; I have received the refugee status and I hope to emigrate this autumn. I belong to the category of Soviet emigrants mentioned in the article, of those who know nothing about the procedure of an interview, the techniques of finding a job, and so forth. Several of my friends are in a similar position. So, we will be very grateful for any informati