Notebook

UC VS DOE Far East to West FASEB Attracts Two Societies The Infinite Voyage Part, V The Rat Next Door A few months ago, some University of California officials hinted that the UC system's 45-year stint as caretaker of the Energy Department's national labs could come to an end if DOE officials carried out a plan to open the negotiations to other bidders on soon-to-expire contracts for running the labs. The potential crisis passed, however, as DOE announced it would be negotiating exclusively with the UC system. But now, the long-standing relationship is facing another test--a suggestion by Secretary of Energy James Watkins that the university bear liability for costs associated with resolving any environmental problems at the labs. "[DOE has] discussed the possibility of making us pay," says a UC spokesman, adding that such an arrangement would be unacceptable. DOE officials downplay the seriousness of the matter. "According to DOE regulations, financial liability only applies to for-profit institutions," says a department spokesman, adding that Watkins's suggestion was just his way of strongly encouraging the labs to clean up their environmental acts. Theoretical physicist Fang Li-Zhi, a leader of China's now-decimated pro-democracy movement, takes on a new challenge in January as a tenured member of the physics department at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Fang, who was allowed to leave China in 1990 after taking refuge for 13 months in the U.S. embassy in Beijing, currently holds a one-year appointment at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J. Two scientific societies have decided that they like recent changes in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) that give constituent groups a larger voice in the affairs of the 31,000-member organization, headquartered in Bethesda, Md. And the result is a larger, stronger FASEB. The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) has decided to upgrade its status, from an affiliate to a full voting member of the federation. And the 4,000-member Biophysical Society has decided, in principle, to join FASEB as a full member. ASCB's executive officer, Dorothea Wilson, says the shift in membership status was worth the price--paying dues of $10 for each of its 7,200 members rather than $2--because "the individual societies are now calling more of the shots." The governing board of the Biophysical Society has put the question of joining FASEB to a vote by its members. The fifth season of the science television adventure series "The Infinite Voyage" will begin with a show on the wonders of Antarctica. "Secrets From A Frozen World" will explore such issues as the impact of research on the globe's last vast wilderness, including a controversial proposal to dump a tanker load of iron filings into the southern ocean to absorb rising carbon dioxide levels in the earth's atmosphere. The program debuts Thursday, October 3, on many PBS stations. Construction crews hope to break ground next summer on the site of the $27 million Buck Center for Research on Aging in Marin County, Calif.--if they can overcome legal and procedural obstacles put in their way by animal rights activists. Opponents of the proposed aging center, which is expected to house rodents, flies, and slugs as part of efforts to understand the aging process on a molecular level, persuaded Marin County officials to order consultants to conduct a telephone survey to measure the self-esteem of residents who live near another research facility that uses rodents in its investigations. "Their feelings about animal research in general will probably come out, whether we ask them or not," says Ted Adams of EIP Associates, which will conduct the survey. EIP has also been told to measure whether the deer, cows, and birds that live on the 488-acre site will be bothered by noise from the center, and to survey the scientific literature to gauge the value of research on aging. Despite those features, which have bumped the price of the environmental impact report to $622,000, animal rights activists have said they plan to file suit to block construction of the research center once the report is completed.

Notebook

The Scientist Staff

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