Notebook

In legal wrangling that is unlikely to knock the O.J. Simpson trial off the front page, a Philadelphia-based punk rock band named Thorazine has drawn the ire of SmithKline Beecham, the drug company also headquartered in the City of Brotherly Love, according to a local weekly, the City Paper (M. Detweiler, May 5, 1995, page 9). Apparently, the company feels that the band's name could dilute the distinction of Thorazine, SmithKline's brand of chlorpromazine, a tranquilizer used to suppress the more flagrant symptoms of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia. Certified letters from SmithKline attorneys received by the band's lead singer, Jo-Ann Rogan, also charge that the group's use of the Thorazine brand name "falsely implies that SmithKline is affiliated with, or sponsors the quartet." Legal action is threatened if the band doesn't choose a new name by July 1. At stake, according to the group, is some $900 in T-shirts and other band paraphernalia, as well as the title of the band's as-yet- unreleased album, Coffee, Tea or Thorazine (on the Hell Yeah label). Rogan told City Paper she hadn't decided whether to comply: "It would be a great way for a little band to [expletive deleted] with a huge corporation." Had a patent granted in 1968 for a process to produce nonexplosive fertilizer been embraced by the industry, the April 19 bombing of Oklahoma City's Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building could have been averted, according to a report in the Philadelphia Inquirer. The article (R. Gold, May 18, 1995, page B1) stated that former Thiokol Corp. chemist Charles M. Saffer, Jr., now 80, and explosives expert Samuel J. Porter, now 78, spent three years trying to stir up interest among chemical companies in their process, which uses ammonium nitrate diluted with diammonium phosphate. But they were unsuccessful, evidently because of the additional expense of the method. They also went to state legislatures in an effort to enact government mandates compelling companies to change, according to the Inquirer report, but found their initiative blocked by the Fertilizer Institute, a trade association. They gave up after a 1970 bombing of the U.S. Army Mathematics Research Center at the University of Wisconsin failed to convince the industry of the merit of their idea. Following last month's Oklahoma City bombing, the two are renewing their lobbying effort; the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Hazardous Material was scheduled to begin hearings on the issue on May 22. The patent has since expired and is now in the public domain. DEADLY DECEIT : Rohm and Haas scientists Harold E. Aller, left, and Adam C. Hsu developed an insecticide that tricks caterpillars -- and then kills them. Another patented invention, with considerably deadlier consequences--at least for caterpillars--was hailed by industry this month. Harold E. Aller and Adam C. Hsu, two research scientists from Philadelphia-based chemical firm Rohm and Haas Co., received the 1995 Inventor of the Year awards from the Intellectual Property Owners (IPO), a nonprofit association based in Washington, D.C., at a ceremony May 17 on Capitol Hill. The pair were honored for their 1991 invention of an insecticide being marketed under the name Confirm. The product, recently granted approval by the Environmental Protection Agency, kills caterpillars by mimicking the insect's natural molting hormone--inducing it to prematurely produce new skin under its old skin but never prompting the bug to shed its old skin. The insect dies after a few days. No other insect or wildlife is affected by the insecticide, which is biodegradable, according to the company. EPA allowed Confirm to be sold under an emergency permit last year for use on a cotton crop under attack by caterpillars in Mississippi. A similar caterpillar infestation caused $65 million in damage the year before. In addition, IPO honored Thomas E. McEwan, an engineer with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, with its Distinguished Inventor award for his patented creation of an ultra-wideband radar motion sensor, or "radar on a chip." It fits on a 1.5-inch square circuit board and transmits about 1 million ultra-short pulses per second. The Inventor of the Year award has been given since 1974 for the best patented American invention of the past year. Past winners include Amar G. Bose, for his loudspeaker systems; and Robert Jarvik, inventor of the Jarvik 7 artificial heart. The San Diego Regional Cancer Center (SDRCC), cofounded by monoclonal-antibody entrepreneur Ivor Royston in 1990, has added a $5 million gift from Philadelphia businessman Sidney Kimmel to its coffers. The center--which will be renamed the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center--will use the money to expand its research in gene therapy and other cancer treatments, as well as to bring on board two scientific teams currently in negotiation with Royston. The Kimmel funding is the second success this year for SDRCC: In February, it became one of two gene-therapy programs in the United States (the other is the Mayo Clinic) to receive Food and Drug Administration approval to begin clinical trials for colon-cancer treatment. Another influx of funding occurred last year, when SDRCC signed an affiliation agreement with the Sharp HealthCare system, a San Diego managed-care organization, providing development and fund-raising support. "The affiliation with Sharp HealthCare-- the largest health-care delivery system in San Diego, and one of the largest in Southern California--was really a dramatic step forward for us," says SDRCC cofounder Allan Goodman. In an article in The Scientist when SDRCC first opened its doors (R. Eisner, The Scientist, Dec. 10, 1990, page 1), observers wondered if the San Diego area--also home to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation, and the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation-- was big enough for another independent research facility. In the 1990 article, Goodman challenged such critics to "come visit us in five years and see how we are getting along." Contained in an interstellar cloud about 10,000 light years from Earth is enough pure alcohol to sustain even the hardiest party animal. Astronomers studying the cloud estimate it contains enough ethanol to make 400 trillion trillion pints of beers. The content of the besotted cloud was discovered when English astronomer Tom Millar applied the laboratory research of two Ohio State University physicists to his work on the birth of stars. Ohio State researchers Eric Herbst and Frank De Lucia study the radio frequencies of ethanol gas using a tabletop microwave spectrometer. Gas molecules absorb radiation emitted by the apparatus at frequencies identical with those emitted by molecules in space. Astronomers matched unknown signals from the cloud to the known frequencies of ethanol identified by Herbst and De Lucia in the lab. "It seems the ethanol molecule is found in relatively high concentrations in regions where stars are forming," reports Herbst. Astronomers are also able to determine the cloud's temperature and density from the intensity of the radio frequencies. Last month, the New York-based American Federation for Aging Research announced the first 10 Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholars (K.Y. Kreeger, The Scientist, Oct. 17, 1994, page 1). This year's awards--10 are to be granted annually--are designed to boost the careers of leading junior faculty who engage in aging-related research, teaching, and practice. Billed as the largest nongovernmental grant program to support this field, it provides three-year awards of up to $450,000 each. The 1995 recipients are: Lina M. Obeid, Duke University Medical Center; Peter Reaven, University of California, San Diego; Mark S. Lachs, Cornell University Medical College; Ted M. Dawson, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; Edward H. Koo, Harvard Medical School; David M. Holtzman, Washington University School of Medicine; Richard A. Marottoli, Yale University School of Medicine; Frank M. Longo, University of California, San Francisco; Alan R. Shuldiner, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; and Ashley I. Bush, Harvard Medical School. For half a century, Brookline, Mass., allergist Bernard Berman kept a terrible secret from friends, family, almost everyone who knew him: He had never completed the courses he needed for his undergraduate degree, remaining one hygiene class shy of his bachelor's. Nonetheless, he went on to medical school at Tufts, graduating in 1948, and became a prominent allergist. This year, Tufts officially let him slide, granting his bachelor of science degree and allowing him to sit with his class for its 50th reunion at graduation ceremonies earlier this month. He was just one course away from his degree when he was shipped out by the Navy to fight--that is, to be a pharmacist mate, second class--in World War II. The Navy shipped him back to attend medical school, which, in the chaos surrounding the war, overlooked his course-load discrepancy and admitted him. The rest is history. But Berman was reluctant to attend the reunion of his undergraduate class without a degree, so he inquired about his academic standing at the school. Tufts senior vice president and provost Sol Gittleman wrote back to telling him he would be granted his degree and to attend this year's graduation. "We're doing more than giving Bernie Berman the bachelor's degree he deserves," Gittleman said in a statement. "We are honoring a whole generation of young men who fought the good war and sacrificed their time and future--many of whom never came back." Francesca T. Grifo has joined the staff of the American Museum of Natural History as director of the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, the museum announced. Prior to her appointment, Grifo was program manager for the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups Program in the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health, where she managed cooperative research agreements to integrate biodiversity conservation, drug discovery, and economic activity. The Center for Biodiversity and Conservation was established in 1993 to provide a framework for coordinated biodiversity research and an expanded international program for advanced training in systematics; and to develop new programs and collaborations for environmental policy and conservation. Grifo has been senior program officer for the Biodiversity Support Program, a consortium of the World Wildlife Fund, the Nature Conservancy, and the World Resources Institute, for which she supervised biodiversity projects in Eastern Europe. She received her A.B. in biological sciences from Smith College in 1977 and her Ph.D. in systemic botany from Cornell University. Researchers will be converging on the University of Maryland's College Park campus June 8-10 to examine the merits of computer modeling of cognitive and brain disorders. Specific disorders to be examined at the conference include Alzheimer's disease and memory disorders, epilepsy, stroke, aphasia, acquired dyslexia, schizophrenia, depression, and Parkinson's disease. Scientists in this area have been focusing on simulating damage to neural networks to study disorders in neurology, neuropsychology, and psychiatry. Organizers say a whole new approach may be available for studying the development and treatment of many brain diseases--or not. "By bringing together the many different researchers in this rapidly expanding area, we hope to assess its impact and future potential," says James Reggia, a physician and a professor of computer science at Maryland. "Is this work of marginal significance, or are we seeing the beginning of a revolutionary new way of studying brain and mental diseases?" For more information, contact Reggia at (301) 405-2686.

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May 1995

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