Notebook

N.Mex., is sponsoring a number of events, beginning next week, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Manhattan Project and the opening of the lab. A series of seminars and panel discussions on the scientific and policy implications of the lab's work is slated for April 12-16, featuring speakers such as former laboratory directors Harold Agnew (1970-80) and Don Kerr (1980- 85); Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.Mex.) and Pete Domenici (R-N.Mex.); and Frank von Hippel, editor of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. On June 7-10, more than 900 people who worked on the Manhattan Project have been invited to Los Alamos to view an exhibit of project memorabilia, tour the project site, and dance to big-band music. On June 11-12, Los Alamos County will sponsor a "Bridge to the Future" festival, highlighting the Hispanic and Pueblo cultures of the region. shuttle Endeavor mission. An experiment on board will test whether mutations occur in brine shrimp that hatch and develop in the microgravity of space. Brine shrimp cysts will be injected into a saline solution and videotaped for seven days as they undergo their rapid growth cycles. A parallel set of Earth- hatched shrimp will be brought along as a control group. After the shrimp return to Earth, the development, swimming patterns, and breeding habits of the two groups will be compared. The experiment's researchers, from Sierra College, Rocklin, Calif., suspect that mutations in the space-hatched shrimp may be an outcome. Andy Schmidt, president of Newark, Calif.-based San Francisco Bay Brand, which manufactures brine shrimp-based fish food and supplied the brine shrimp used in the study, points out that this is an experiment that keeps on giving: "The brine shrimp cysts produced during the space life cycle will be made available to other science programs, so the research will go on." plant that they claim will produce thicker spaghetti sauce, tomato paste, and ketchup because of its 10 percent increase in soluble solids. The West Lafayette, Ind., scientists found the gene that produces the enzyme pectin methylesterase involved in ripening, reversed it, and inserted it back into the tomato plants, yielding the more solid tomatoes. Other Purdue teams are investigating using biotechnology to make rice a complete-protein food and to develop ways to produce low-fat meats.> In a rare case of students demanding to be taught a subject, this fall the University of Southern California is launching several interdisciplinary degree programs focusing on the environment. Undergraduates in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences will be able to earn B.S. or B.A. degrees in environmental studies; students in the School of Engineering can receive a B.S. degree in environmental engineering. USC officials say the new majors are in response to a rapid rise in enrollments in existing environmental programs at USC and nationwide figures indicating that incoming freshmen believe the government is not doing enough to combat environmental pollution. All of the tracks are highly interdisciplinary, university officials note. Social science majors must take courses in biology, chemistry, geology, and other natural sciences. Natural science majors must sample courses in environmental law, economics, politics, ethics, or sociology. Engineering students, meanwhile, will be exposed to geology, biology, chemistry, physics, and political science, in addition to civil and chemical engineering., April 5, 1993) "bench-bed" gap. Through a five-year, $2.1 million grant from the Miami-based Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust, Yale will train 11 of its students to combine their knowledge of patient care `with basic biomedical laboratory techniques. The program's creators hope these physicians will learn to swiftly correlate laboratory discoveries with classical clinical treatment of human ailments. During the first six weeks of the course, the students will be exposed to advances in experimental cell and molecular biology in Yale's Life Sciences Research and Training Center. They will work on an individual research project for the next 2 1/2 years.

Notebook

The Scientist Staff

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of