Notebook

No More Room At The Top Can't Come, But Send Money A Picture Worth A Thousand Hearings SSC-Backed Students Win Science Bowl An Embarrassment Of Riches The National Academy of Sciences has rejected a drive to increase the number of scientists elected each year. That figure stands at 60, but this year the chairmen of the six disciplinary classes that make up NAS petitioned for nine more slots--a 15 percent increase--arguing that the number of scientists has grown so rapidly in the past decade that NAS-caliber scientists are being squeezed out in the annual balloting. Even though he thinks the number is too small in his own field, biologist and NAS home secretary Peter Raven says that "the prevailing view is that the number should not be increased." The proposal was rejected last month at the academy's annual business meeting, which is closed to the public. Raven predicts that "the issue will come up again, but not very soon." The Human Frontiers Science Program, Japan's contribution to funding international collaboration in brain and molecular biology research, last month announced its second round of winners. Teams led by U.S. scientists received 15 of the 32 awards, which average $252,000 per year for three years. But the program's two-year fellowships tell a different story. Only eight of the 90 fellowships went to U.S. scientists, none of whom will be working in Japanese labs. At the same time, 57 of the fellows, including 24 Japanese scientists, plan to study in the U.S. "Americans are still intimidated by the prospect of going into a lab where they don't speak the language," says Joseph E. Rall, NIH deputy director of intramural research and chairman of the program's Council of Scientists. Federal policymakers have come up with a new unit of measurement to gauge the impact of the indirect costs controversy on science: the Herblock cartoon. Kevin Moley, assistant secretary for management and budget in the Department of Health and Human Services, explained the meaning of the new tool during a hearing last month before the science panel of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, which is looking into ways to curb the amount that universities charge the government for administering federal grants. "Any time an issue becomes the subject of a Herblock cartoon in the Washington Post, there's trouble," Moley informed panel chairman Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.). They may not know exactly what their sponsors do for a living, but a five-member team from Lubbock (Texas) High School knew enough to roll to victory last month in the country's first National Science Bowl. The contest was put on by the Department of Energy to focus attention on its national laboratories as part of National Science and Technology Week (April 22-26). The team from Lubbock twice defeated a high school squad representing Brookhaven National Laboratory in the finals of the double-elimination tournament, which brought 18 regional winners to Washington. Ironically, one of the few questions that stumped the Lubbock team involved the names of particles associated with the four fundamental forces of matter. That subject lies at the heart of the work to be carried out by their sponsor, the Superconducting Supercollider lab. Last month President Bush traveled to the National Academy of Sciences to plug his "America 2000" program to strengthen U.S. precollege education. Included in that proposal is $1 million for each of 535 special schools, one per congressional district, that will offer a high-powered science and math curriculum. While some policymakers have complained that the plan is long on rhetoric and short on cash, at least one high-level federal science education official sees it the other way around. "The average school spends about $20,000 on all instructional materials," he noted. "What the heck are these schools going to do with $1 million?" He warned that, "if this thing goes through, you're going to see a lot of money going to waste."

Notebook

The Scientist Staff

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of