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The 30,000-member, Providence, R.I.-based American Mathematical Society (AMS) has joined numerous advocates for biomedical research in objecting to recently proposed federal budget cuts for scientific research. Late last month, AMSUs Committee on Science Policy issued a resolution stating that it "is very concerned that proposed reductions in the federal budget for support of scientific research will seriously damage the U.S. scientific capacity for many years. . . . Support of scientific research directly impacts the nation's technical expertise and represents an important investment in our future. . . . As Congress deliberates on the federal budget, the scientific community should be involved in decisions about how best to maintain U.S. scientific strength. The Committee urges a process which includes the full participation of the scientific community." According to AMS spokesman Tim Goggins, "this is the first time the society has made any kind of warning to Congress. It's a departure [for AMS] to take this kind of action." (The Scientist, Vol:9, #14, pg.30 , July 10, 1995) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) garfield@aurora.cis.upenn.edu A recent survey of 122 West Coast biotech and device companies that have been involved with the Food and Drug Administration approval process has found -- not surprisingly -- that many had gripes about the agency. According to the survey, conducted by University of California, San Diego/CONNECT, a university-private sector partnership working with the San Diego business community, 80 percent of respondents indicated that faster review times would enable them to bring more products to market, 20 percent indicated difficulty in talking directly to FDA reviewers to clarify issues, and 35 percent had to wait three weeks to three months to receive such clarification. Respondents also griped that the criteria FDA requires to judge product safety and efficacy are changed approximately 50 percent of the time during product development and clinical trials, and that changes in FDA personnel stopped or impeded the approval process approximately 30 percent of the time. The study, entitled "Improving America's Health: A Survey of the Working Relationship Between the Life Sciences Industry and the FDA," was released to the public last month and was reported in testimony at the Hearing on Reform of the '.". Food and Drug Administration held by the House Commerce Committee's "ubcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on May 25. For information, contact UCSD/CONNECT, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, Calif. 92093-0176; (619) 534- 6114. Fax: (619) 552-0649. (The Scientist, Vol:9, #14, pg.30 , July 10, 1995) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) garfield@aurora.cis.upenn.edu The Office of Scientific and Academic Publishing of the Washington, D.C.-based Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has published Scholarly Journals at the Crossroads; A Subversive Proposal for Electronic Publishing. The book is a printed record of an Internet discussion about the future of scientific and scholarly journals in the electronic age. Six principal participants in the online chat, joined by about two dozen others, debate the overhaul of journal publishing and the concomitant need to preserve traditional values. One discussant, Lorrin Garson, director of advanced technology at the Washington- based American Chemical Society, argues in the book that "publishing electronic journals is in fact going to be more expensive than printing. The collection, maintenance, and dissemination of these data will be more costly than printing, but the information will be much more valuable to the scientific community." The book's editors are Ann Shumelda Okerson, director of ARLUs Office of Scientific and Academic Publishing, and James J. O'Donnell, a professor of classics at the University of Pennsylvania. The 242-page volume includes a table of contents, a bibliography showing how to access materials in the book on the Internet, and a glossary. Ironically, however, it does not contain one of the most useful tools for librarians and other researchers -- an index. For information on the book, contact the Association of Research Libraries, 21 Dupont Circle, N.W., Suite 800, Washington, D.C. 20036; (202) 296-2296. Fax: (202) 872-0884. E-mail: osap@cni.org. (The Scientist, Vol:9, #14, pg.30 , July 10, 1995) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) garfield@aurora.cis.upenn.edu Helen M. Dyer, a former researcher at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Md., celebrated her 100th birthday on May 26 in Washington D.C. The winner of the 1962 Garvan Medal -- given annually to an outstanding woman chemist by the American Chemical Society -- for her achievements in biochemistry, Dyer enjoyed a career marked by many firsts: She was the first person to synthesize antimetabolites in 1938, which had a tremendous impact on the field of sulfa drugs. She was also responsible for compiling the first comprehensive index of tumor chemotherapy in 1949, which was instrumental in initiating NCI's chemotherapy program in the 1950s. Until five years ago, Dyer was still reviewing grant applications and technical papers, although she officially retired in 1972. According to various reports, she maintains an avid interest in current events and keeps up with new developments like E-mail. (The Scientist, Vol:9, #14, pg.30 , July 10, 1995) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) garfield@aurora.cis.upenn.edu Guilty verdicts returned by a federal jury in Miami late last month marked the first conviction for smuggling chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) -- the ozone-depleting refrigerant -- into the United States. Jose Prieto of Hialeah, Fla., was found guilty of conspiracy; violating the Clean Air Act, which prohibits importing the compound without the proper Environmental Protection Agency clearance; and smuggling in U.S. District Court. His codefendant, Paul J. Zborovsky, pleaded guilty to smuggling and Clean Air Act violation prior to the trial. The jury found that Prieto and Zborovsky attempted to fraudulently import 1,200 cylinders of dichlorodifluoromethane (CFC-12) for the U.S. domestic market. Their scheme aimed to avoid more than $200,000 in federal excise taxes and other fees. According to evidence presented by the Miami U.S. Attorney's Office, the two were caught when they approached an owner of a warehouse -- who happened to be cooperating with U.S. Customs and EPA agents -- for help falsifying shipping documents. Prieto and Zborovsky each could be slapped with up to five years in prison on each charge and fines exceeding $860,000. Sentencing is set for early September. (The Scientist, Vol:9, #14, pg.30 , July 10, 1995) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) garfield@aurora.cis.upenn.edu With a device dubbed the frog-logger, ecologists all over the United States are discovering previously unknown populations of the amphibians. Information on the diversity and relative abundance of frogs and toads serves as an indicator of an ecosystem's overall health, say environmental researchers. The logger -- a self-contained sound-recording system -- tapes the distinctive chirps, ribbets, and choruses of various species at research sites. The gadget -- developed by Michael Dorcas, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory; his father, Eugene, an electrical engineer; and Dorcas' doctoral adviser, Idaho State University's Charles Peterson -- is self-activated in order to automatically catch the vocalizations. In one example, Richard Siegel of Southeastern Louisiana University detected a breeding population of barking treefrogs at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near Kennedy Space Center, Fla. -- a habitat where the species had heretofore been represented by only one road-killed specimen in 19 years of fieldwork. Currently Dorcas is working out the bugs of the logger: "You can build up a lot of tapes." To decrease the backlog, he is collaborating with Ontario Hydro Technologies in Toronto to develop software that identifies species from the cacophony on the recordings. (The Scientist, Vol:9, #14, pg.30 , July 10, 1995) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) garfield@aurora.cis.upenn.edu Over the past 65 years, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) has been home to nine Nobel laureates and the site of leading-edge high-energy physics research. In that time, the laboratory has also been known by several names: "The Radiation Laboratory" (1936), "Lawrence Radiation Laboratory" (1958, named in memory of the lab founder, Nobelist Ernest O. Lawrence), and "Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory" (1971, recognizing the University of California operator of the lab). Seemingly overlooked in these name changes was the word "national," recognizing its primary affiliation, the United States government. But lab officials have taken swift and sure action to remedy this oversight. As the result of a three-year study, the lab is now officially known as the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Here's how it happened, according to a lab statement: "The Berkeley laboratory's current examination of its identity is an outgrowth of its 1992 Strategic Plan and a subsequent year-long effort which produced a comprehensive Laboratory Communications Plan. The priority goal of that latter plan was to promote a distinctive identity and visibility, especially with local and national public constituents." But with that task completed, lab officials are not content to rest on their laurels. The next challenge, the statement reveals, is to Rexplore various options for a short common reference that will attempt to clarify public confusion about the three East Bay science facilities named after Lawrence -- Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the Lawrence Hall of Science." (The Scientist, Vol:9, #14, pg.30 , July 10, 1995) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) garfield@aurora.cis.upenn.edu MEMORY MIMICRY: Biomedical Engineer Theodore Berger compares his computer-chip version of the hippocampus with the real thing. Almost halfway through the Decade of the Brain (N. Sankaran, The Scientist, June 27, 1994, page 15), an interdisciplinary team of neurobiologists, computer scientists, physicists, and electronics engineers has devised an electronic version of the hippocampus -- the brain's center for memory and learning. The research group, led by Theodore W. Berger, a professor of bio-medical engineering at the University of Southern California, first created a computer program whose behavior is identical to the intricate neuronal firings of a rabbit's dentate gyrus, a region of the hippocampus. Next, they hardwired the program into a computer chip. "In principle, we have the ability to create an artificial hippocampus, one that might actually function in a living animal or replace a hippocampus damaged by trauma or disease in a human," explains Berger. Now, using neuron cell cultures, the team is working on ways to connect the electronics to living tissue. (The Scientist, Vol:9, #14, pg.30 , July 10, 1995) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) garfield@aurora.cis.upenn.edu The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development are soliciting grant applications for basic and clinical research studies on the effects of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) on health. The research is aimed at determining the effects of EMF action on: cellular responses, such as DNA synthesis, modulation of iron binding, and interaction with hormones and growth factors; reproductive, developmental, and nervous systems in vivo and in vitro; and cancer processes in vivo and in vitro. The institutes are also interested in development of "well- characterized EMF exposure systems for assessing biological effects." For information, contact Eugene Streicher, Director, Division of Fundamental Neurosciences, NINDS, Federal Building, Room 916, Bethesda, Md. 20892; (301) 496-5745. (The Scientist, Vol:9, #14, pg.30 , July 10, 1995) (Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.) garfield@aurora.cis.upenn.edu

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