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pp.4 Gray Matter Parasitology Opportunities A Very Good Month? Poster Session Art Imitates Death Why Publish? Because It's There Gray Matter Added to the chorus of voices expressing concern over the Clinton administration's health-care reform is a coalition of 67 national research, health, and senior citizen organizations calling itself the Task Force for Aging Research. In a statement released over Labor Day weekend through the Washington, D.C.-based National Alliance for Aging Research, which organized the group, the task force called upon the administration to allocate $1 billion in next year's budget for age-related health and medical research as a way to save billions in health care for older Americans. "Research to find new and better ways to prevent diseases must be the cornerstone of any health reform package and any cost-containment effort," the organization said in its statement. The coalition noted that the proposed 1994 federal budget cuts "would reduce or stop important research in aging, including Alzheimer's disease, cardiovascular diseases and stroke, osteoporosis, arthritis, hearing loss, vision loss, and physician training in geriatrics." Among the task force members are the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, National Council of Senior Citizens, and American Nurses Association. The Burroughs Wellcome Fund of Morrisville, N.C., is accepting applications for its two awards for investigators in molecular parasitology. The award program is intended to "stimulate the advancement of fundamental biochemical, pharmacological, and molecular biological knowledge of major pathogens and anthropod vectors responsible for devastating human health in developing and tropical countries." The program's scholar award supports primarily researchers at the late assistant to early associate professor level who have made significant contributions to the field with a five-year, $350,000 stipend. The new investigator award is designed for independent investigators at the early stages of their careers, generally the early to mid-assistant professor level. The award amount is $150,000, payable over three years. The application deadline for both awards is January 14. For information, contact the Molecular Parasitology Program, The Burroughs Wellcome Fund, 4709 Creekstone Dr., Suite 100, Morrisville, N.C. 25760-9771; (919) 991-5100. Fax: (919) 941-5884. Penn State University researchers have discovered that not all wines aged for a very brief period come with twist-off caps and are best served in a brown-paper bag. In fact, say the chemistry department investigators, depending on the variety, some wines do not improve with time. In studying wines made from vidal blanc grapes--grown in the Lake Erie region of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio--assistant chemistry professor Mary G. Chisolm, along with graduate student Leise A. Guiher and undergrad Susan M. Zaczkiewicz, found that after two years, the wines tended to take on a vegetable-like taste. The researchers aren't sure exactly why this happens, but, using gas chromatography and the human sense of smell, they are trying to find out. The machine breaks down the components of the wine, while the sniffers detect the quality of the aromas of the components (citrus, pungent, cooked, rubbery, and so forth). What they have come up with is "the suggestion that all wines do not need to be aged and that perhaps at least some American white varieties are better if sampled young." The trio presented their findings at last month's American Chemical Society meeting in Chicago. An offering from the National Women's History Project may find its way into some select company--joining the supermodels and athletes adorning teenagers' walls. The project is producing a series of posters called "Inventive Women," highlighting the accomplishments of women inventors. Each of the 11 women whose work and likenesses are featured on the posters holds U.S. patents for their inventions. For example, astronaut Ellen Ochoa (pictured here) holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and several patents for optical systems inventions used in robotic maneuvering and manufacturing; and Harriet Williams Strong (1844-1926), held patents on flood control/water storage dams and irrigation systems. For information on how to obtain the set of 11"x17", full-color posters, write the National Women's History Project, 7738 Bell Rd., Department P, Windsor, Calif. 95492, or call (707) 838-6000. A professor of physics at the University of California, Irvine, has written a scientific novel with a chilling plot line--it's about scientists developing technology to freeze bodies after death, and a computer hacker who believes God has instructed him to destroy them. The novel, Chiller, published by New York's Bantam Books, was penned by Gregory Benford, writing under the pseudonym Sterling Blake. Benford, who set his novel at UC-Irvine and says it's a tribute to the youth- and death-obsessed culture of Southern California, maintains that all the novel's characters--with the exception of a sociopathic killer named George--are based on people he has met in academia and while researching the book at the Riverside, Calif.-based Alcor Life Extension Foundation, a real-life nonprofit organization dedicated to freezing clients posthumously in the hopes that science will develop a way to revive them later. "It's a nice book; we rather enjoyed seeing him write it," says Hugh Hixon, a member of the board of directors of Alcor, which has 27 members currently in cryonic suspension and hundreds more signed up to be frozen after their deaths. While it may seem like rather specialized reading, a new newsletter has worldwide implications, according to its editor. The second issue of the biannual Himalayan Notes appears this month, and Rasoul Sorkhabi, the newsletter's founder and editor, says the Himalaya region's environmental troubles--the construction of large dams, floods, and deforestation--as well as the geological and ecological aspects of the region's formation are of global significance. "The Himalaya provide scientists a natural laboratory where we can study how mountains of similar type on Earth form and what impact they have on the environment," say Sorkhabi, an Arizona State University geologist. The second issue will include articles on the 40th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary's first ascent of Mount Everest and the work of India's Wadi Institute of Himalayan Geography. For information, contact Sorkhabi at (602) 965-9852.

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