Notebook

Another Vote To Nix The Pox Four Scientists Get Met-It Pay Help For Insomniacs? Cleaning Up The Cleanup Mullis On HIV: Where's The Beef? Hope For The Heavy Date: February 19, 1996 CONDEMNED: One of the two remaining smallpox stores Like a death-row inmate running out of chances to appeal, the last two remaining stores of smallpox virus have again been condemned to destruction. Late last month the governing board of the World Heath Organization (WHO) in Geneva recommended that the smallpo

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pox CONDEMNED: One of the two remaining smallpox stores

Tanzi FAB FOUR: The 1996 MetLife awardees are, clockwise from left, are Thomas Bird, Gerar Schellenberg, Ellen Wijsman and Rudolg Tanzi

A cluster of brain cells that helps turn on and off sleep may eventually lead to improved treatments for insomnia. Scientists from Harvard Medical School recently reported uncovering a so-called master switch in the brain that controls sleep. According to a report in the New York Times (S. Blakeslee, Jan. 12, 1996, page A18), when the switch is turned on, all brain cells involved in arousal and awareness are turned off. The brain wakes up when the switch is turned off. Clifford Saper, chairman of neurology at Beth Israel Hospital and James Jackson Putnam Professor of neurology and neuroscience at Harvard Medical School, who led the research, notes that the group of cells "is in the perfect position to be a master ...

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