Notebook

Eyes Forward Xenotransplant IIf Microchip Masterpieces Physicists, China Collide Prehistoric Desk Reference In one of his last public appearances before the 1992 presidential election, White House science adviser D. Allan Bromley dwelled somewhat on the past but set his sights on the future. In Philadelphia October 19 to accept an honorary doctorate of science from Drexel University, Bromley, during the presentation ceremony, lauded the Bush administration's achievements in science during the past four years. However, in an interview with The Scientist before the speech, Bromley didn't speak of politics, but discussed how the future of the United States depends on young scientists looking to industry for careers: "It is, I think, a failure on the part of my colleagues in the universities to let their students understand and appreciate the tremendous opportunities that lie outside of academia. The challenge at the moment is to maintain the strength of our universities in basic research and in training young people, but, at the same time, sensitize people in universities to the opportunities and challenges that are available in industry and outside the academic circle. They will have enormously satisfying careers and will help the private sector, if we can just broaden their career horizons a little bit." Following close on the June 28 baboon-to-human liver transplant at the University of Pittsburgh, which ended in the patient's death September 6, a surgical team at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles implanted a pig liver in a dying 26-year-old woman October 11. Efforts to find a human liver for her had been unsuccessful, and she was near death when the pig liver was transplanted as a stopgap measure. "All we did was try to buy her time," surgeon Leonard Makowka said (New York Times, Oct. 18, 1992, page 6-E). A human liver was subsequently found and, although originally marked for another patient, redirected to Cedars-Sinai. Unfortunately, the woman died on the operating table before the human liver was transplanted, and the organ was immediately sent on to the other patient. While some see medical progress in such animal-to-human transplants--or xenotransplants- -others see the operations as driven more by the desperate shortage of human donor organs than by sound medical science. Some in the transplant community have also complained that such emergency tactics unfairly vault a patient to the top of a very competitive waiting list for organs. For those computer scientists who may be too focused on their work to appreciate the aesthetic value of the microchip, the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., is showcasing an exhibition that, according to its sponsor, is the first to examine the computer chip as a work of art. Running through December 15, "Information Art: Diagramming Microchips" features circuit designs from 13 academic and industrial sources, including AT&T Bell Laboratories of Murray Hill, N.J.; Digital Equipment Corp. of Maynard, Mass.; Hewlett-Packard Co. of Palo Alto, Calif.; IBM Corp. of Armonk, N.Y.; the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; and Intel Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif., the exhibition's sponsor. A terse petition protesting the imprisonment and reported torture of Liu Gang, a Chinese graduate student of physics being held for his part in the prodemocracy reform movement of 1989, was delivered to Chinese officials October 20, according to human rights activists. Signed by more than 350 U.S.-based physicists, the petition is the latest move by physicists--strikingly active in promoting international human rights--to help persecuted colleagues in China. At the 21st International Conference on the Physics of Semiconductors (ICPS-21), held in Beijing in August, U.S. and European physicists dedicated papers to imprisoned Chinese scientists, spoke with Chinese officials about specific prisoner cases, and signed an earlier petition calling for the release of Liu Gang. Horst Stormer, director of physical research at AT&T Bell Laboratories, said in July that he was concerned about confined Chinese colleagues but did not plan any public statements at the ICPS-21 meeting (Franklin Hoke, The Scientist, July 20, 1992, page 1). Once in China, however, he did raise the issue in his talk to the conference, and his signature was the first on the August petition for Liu Gang. An assistant professor of classics at the University of Cincinnati has identified a nearly 1,500-year-old text that is believed to be the oldest surviving medical book written by a female physician. Holt Parker, who presented his research last month at a Bzyantine studies conference at the University of Illinois, says the text, written by a Greek woman named Metrodora, is the first known medical book to be ordered alphabetically by cures. Earlier texts, he says, were listed alphabetically by single drugs or ingredients or were organized by parts of the body, starting with the head and working down to the feet. Metrodora's text, about 40 pages long, includes "cures" for hemorrhoids, uterine cancer, and infections; regimens for getting pregnant, restoring the appearance of virginity, and keeping breast size small; and recipes for aphrodisiacs. While some of Metrodora's treatments may really have been therapeutic, many today would be considered ineffective, or even potentially harmful, Parker says.

Notebook

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