September 1996

Editor's Note: Owing to an editing error, an erroneous version of the following letter appeared in the July 8, 1996, issue of The Scientist (page 12). Below is the correct version of the letter. In his May 13, 1996, letter to The Scientist (page 12), Arthur W. Galston still appears somewhat confused about what ethical theories can teach us. As I stated in my previous letter, moral practices are not theories (B. Everill, The Scientist, April 1, 1996, page 13). They are accounts of nothing more

Thank you for Irving M. Klotz's Opinion article on postmodernist rhetoric [The Scientist, July 22, 1996, page 9]. The article was a great read; however, I think he may be missing the trees for the forest. The argument that scientific facts are not social constructs is being made with the most prevalent social construct in existence: language. Language was constructed by society to describe what we experience in the world-to describe "reality." In our scientific reality, the velocity of light is

With regard to the commentary about the Association for Women in Science in your July 8 issue [J. Daie, The Scientist, July 8, 1996, page 11], we would like to point out that other coed organizations are also concerned with equal opportunity for women in science. Graduate Women in Science (GWIS) is an interdisciplinary affiliate of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a national organization founded at Cornell University in 1926. It is open to anyone (male or female)

In this era of mounting deficits, we struggle to find extravagances whose elimination is practicable and effective. Among the many proposals to salvage the economy is imposition of a drastic reduction of the government support of basic research. Proponents of these austerities view research activity as frivolous-its practitioners in the laboratories as misty-eyed, impractical dreamers who are wholly out of touch with reality and the serious needs of our society. The administration favors diver

Despite the voluminous literature that supports this point, which need not be cited here, people in the research, library, and information science communities continue to claim that there are 40,000 or more "journals" in existence. The problem is that such claims do not provide either qualitative or quantitative criteria for the definition of a journal. Furthermore, thousands of deceased journals are included among these claims. Despite the steady growth of scientific literature, 150 journals

TABLE 1 -- MOST-CITED JOURNALS, 1994 AND 1989 1994Rank1989RankTitle1994 Citations(thousands) 1989 Citations(thousands) 1 1Journal of Biological Chemistry 265.3183.4 2 2 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 259.3 180.6 3 3 Nature 246.5 178.3 4 5 Science 190.9 117.1 5 4 Journal of the Am. Chemical Soc. 153.0 121.8 6 10 Cell 129.2 71.3 7 8 Physical Review B 116.6 77.7 8 7 Physical Review Letters 114.6 78.0 9 6 Journal of Chemical Physics 1

Edited by Thomas W. Durso A. Levine, R. Tenhaken, R. Dixon, C. Lamb, "H2O2 from the oxidative burst orchestrates the plant hypersensitive disease resistance response," Cell, 79:583-93, 1994. (Cited in more than 80 publications through August 1996) Comments by Chris Lamb, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, Calif. 'A VERY ACTIVE AREA': Chris Lamb notes that a burst of hydrogen peroxide causes invaded cells to die and helps protect surrounding cells. Plants under attack from invadin

Edited by Thomas W. Durso K.L. Schmeichel, M.C. Beckerle, "The LIM domain is a modular protein-binding interface," Cell, 79:211-9, 1994. (Cited in nearly 50 publications through August 1996) Comments by Mary C. Beckerle, University of Utah, Salt Lake City Its presence in several proteins that "play fundamental roles in development" is what led Karen L. Schmeichel and Mary C. Beckerle of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, to begin studying the LIM domain, a zinc-binding protein sequence.

TREND-SETTER: Engineer Y.K. Lin's popular festschrift conference became an annual event. A scientist often wears several hats-teacher, mentor, administrator, and researcher. While many prominent awards honor the research role, a festschrift volume uniquely recognizes the many facets of an outstanding and influential scientist. Meaning in German "celebratory writing," a festschrift is a unique publication devoted to the lifelong ideas and influences of an exceptional scholar. EDITOR'S ROLE:

Table 2 - Most-Productive Journals, 1994 and 1989 1994Rank1989RankTitle1994Articles 1989Articles 1 2 Journal of Biological Chemistry 4915 3292 2 1 Physical Review B 4894 3733 3 7 Journal of Applied Physics 2968 1948 4 5 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 2650 2090 5 4 American Journal of Physiology 2480 2093 6 9 Tetrahedron Letters 2448 1886 7 12 Applied Physics Letters 2254 1778 8 6 Journal of the American Chemical Society 2134 1984 9