Notebook

Franklin Institute Honorees Global Warming Clues Let The Games Begin Toward Healthier Potatoes Dermatology Funding Tanager Alert Monkeys At Work pp. 4. Philadelphia's Franklin Institute combined its Bower Award ceremonies with its traditional "Medal Day" last month, honoring six scientists and a businessman at a gala ceremony. Individual medals, which do not carry a cash prize but are a time-honored tradition at the institute--some dating back more than 100 years--were awarded to Marvin H. Caruthers of the University of Colorado's department of chemistry and biochemistry, for his contribution to the synthesis of DNA oligonucleotides; Joseph Braat of Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, for his work on optical data recording, making possible compact discs; Harold J. Kushner of Brown University's division of applied mathematics, for research on stochastic systems; Stirling A. Colgate of Los Alamos National Laboratory, for his studies of stellar collapse and supernova explosions; and Barbara V. Howard of George Washington University's department of medicine, for her studies of diet and coronary heart disease. The Bower Award for Business Leadership, also carrying no cash prize, was presented to Robert W. Galvin, chairman of the executive committee of Motorola Inc. in Schaumburg, Ill. The major award of the evening, the $250,000 Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science, went to Isabella L. Karle, senior scientist at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. (E.R. Silverman, The Scientist, Jan. 10, 1994, page 4), for her work in determining the structure of molecules. Pine needles hoarded by pack rats tens of thousands of years ago may contribute to answering questions about global climate change, researchers at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) expect. Measurements from nearly 1,200 needles preserved from rat dunghills found in Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona indicate that limber pine tree physiology changed in response to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide at the end of the last ice age. Specifically, they found that the number of stomata--leaf pores through which carbon is taken in for photosynthesis--decreased as carbon dioxide increased during the last deglaciation between 12,000 and 15,000 years ago. USGS's Julio Betancourt anticipates that this information will be used to corroborate other measures of variation in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Betancourt says that the discovery provides evidence for one of the main assumptions underlying global warming research--that large changes in Earth's climate have been associated with equally large changes in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. On May 20-21, the University of Arizona, Tucson, will host the 10th Annual Science Olympiad National Tournament--an academic competition with rival teams representing 100 high schools from 48 states. More than 2,500 student participants and 1,500 family members will converge on the Arizona campus. The tournament consists of 32 individual and team events following the format of popular board games, TV shows, and athletic games. Events cover the disciplines of biology, earth science, chemistry, physics, computers, and technology. For more information, contact Arizona's Gil McLaughlin at (602) 621-4515. A team of researchers at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., has created a genetically engineered potato that is resistant to late blight disease. The infection, attributable to the fungus Phytophthora infestans, was the cause of the Irish potato famine of 1845 and is still the No. 1 affliction of potato plants, Purdue scientists say. The engineered spuds are made resistant by the introduction of a gene that produces an antifungal protein called osmotin, which specifically recognizes the fungi and kills them by drilling holes in their membranes. By overexpressing the gene in the plants, the investigators have been able to delay the onset of the disease, which could greatly decrease the damage done to the crops. Applications are now available for research awards sponsored by the Dermatology Foundation of Evanston, Ill. The new Clinical Career Development Award in the Area of Health Care/Policies provides funding for patient outcome research. The Leader Society Clinical Career Development Award supports the work of young, clinically oriented academic investigators. Career Development Awards in Skin Research are designed to assist junior academic investigators in the transition from fellow to established investigator. Each of the three awards provides a $40,000-per- year stipend. In addition, the foundation offers $25,000 fellowships for postdocs to support research training in dermatology and cutaneous biology. The foundation also awards $10,000 grants to initiate studies in dermatology and cutaneous biology, as well as skin cancer, dermatologic surgery and oncology, and epidermolysis bullosa. The deadline for all of the awards is October 1. For information, contact the Medical and Scientific Committee, Dermatology Foundation, 1560 Sherman Ave., Evanston, Ill. 60201; (708) 328-2256. Fax: (708) 328-0509. As part of a research project to examine the impact of forest fragmentation on bird populations, the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology is conducting a census of tanager populations this spring and summer. The program, supported by the National Science Foundation, is looking for at least 1,000 volunteers in the United States and Canada to watch for and count the birds. According to some conservation biologists, forest fragmentation may be the reason for the decline of several bird populations, such as rose-breasted grosbeaks and wood thrushes of the East, and the rufous hummingbirds and Wilson's warblers in the West. The bird census will use the data on the abundant, widespread tanagers as an index for trends among less common bird species. Volunteers may join by writing to Project Tanager, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd., Ithaca, N.Y. 14850; (607) 254-2446. A team led by William Newsome, a professor of neurobiology at Stanford University School of Medicine, found that when rhesus monkeys performed a repeated task, their neuronal sensitivity temporarily increased between 15 percent and 20 percent. The monkeys' task was to indicate, with a movement of their eyes, the direction of moving dots on a video screen. To make the job harder, researchers would occasionally decrease the percentage of coherently moving dots. Throughout the trials, they found that the accuracy of monkeys' performance and the electrical activity of brain cells that specialize in detecting movement increased by a proportionally similar amount. The fact that the improvement is only temporary raises the question, the scientists say, of whether they have observed the neural processes responsible for acquiring long-term skills for motion perception.

Notebook

The Scientist Staff

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