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Block That Kick! Study That Gene! Fiction, Fact - As Long As It's Science Patently Outstanding Take A Meeting Dubious Distinction Camden, N.J.-based Coriell Institute for Medical Research is putting a lot of muscle into its effort to survive the budget crunch facing research institutions. On April 15, a fund-raising event dubbed "Coriell Sports Day: Sports & Science United" is being held at the Eagles' Nest Country Club in Sewell, N.J., owned by former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski, a member of the board of the nonprofit biomedical research facility. Among other local nonscientists slated to appear with Jaworski are former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Tug McGraw and former Philadelphia Flyers goalie Bernie Parent. Colleges trying to lure the public onto campus might take a look at the Arthur Holly Compton Lecture Series given each spring and fall by the interdisciplinary Enrico Fermi Institute of the University of Chicago. Given free every Saturday morning, each lecture addresses a topic that will interest the broader public. This spring's series, running through June, is titled "To Boldly Go Where No Universe Has Gone Before," and features McCormick Fellow Ruth Gregory lecturing on cosmic strings, parallel universes, and other "parts of physics that are most poorly understood [and] the most interesting," says Gregory. Previous series topics have been "Denizens of the Subatomic Zone" and "Handedness." With scientists wrestling with one another over patents on genes, blood tests, and possibly even new organisms, it's nice to know that in some parts of the industry people still patent plain old good ideas and complicated machines. General Motors in March announced the presentation of its "Boss" Kettering Award to 23 engineers and scientists for their parts in 10 mechanical inventions that netted patents for GM. Named for the late GM vice president Charles F. Kettering, the award carries with it a trophy and a cash stipend. Inventions recognized included expert engineering systems, camshaft belt grinders, and special circuitry that ensures "pleasing FM radio reception." After a visit to Moscow last June along with a Boston-area investment executive seeking technology-based commercial ventures, MIT materials science professor Keith H. Johnson came up with a joint project of his own. He wrote a screenplay called Natalya's Dilemma, about a Russian dancer who has to decide whether to remain in her home country amid the revolutionary political changes of 1991, or find fame in Hollywood. His initial screenplay treatment instantly found favor with the Twin Eagle Entertainment Corp., which is coproducing Natalya's Dilemma with Lenfilm Studios in St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest film studio. Johnson isn't tipping his hand on what Natalya decides, but as for himself, he notes, "I'm still primarily a scientist." Of course, he goes on, "I am working on a second script." The meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear plant was an event big enough to spawn its own database. ChernoLit is now available to run on IBM-compatible personal computers and contains 4,500 references concerning the biological and environmental aspects of the accident and its aftermath, with all titles and abstracts in English. The cost for the database is $395, and it is available on floppy disk from Battelle Press in Columbus, Ohio. The actual resource documents, as well as translations of articles published in Russian, will be available from ChernoLit developer Pacific Northwest Laboratories, located on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in eastern Washington--which, some scientists feel, is so thoroughly contaminated as a result of poor nuclear waste containment that it could create its own database.

Notebook

The Scientist Staff

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