Notebook

Another Lasker Legacy Dedicated The Next Best Thing to Being There Turbine With A Twist Big Barbie and No-Neck Ken French Foundation Funding Renaissance Scientist NIGMS Web Site MacHome Page Brookhaven As Curator A GOOD NAME: The new biotech building honors biomedical activist Mary Lasker The late Mary Lasker, renowned for her devotion to the cause of advancing biomedical research, was honored with the dedication of a science-park building in her memory on November 2. New York City's first biotechnology and biomedical structure was dedicated as the Mary Woodard Lasker Biomedical Research Building. The facility-managed and developed by Columbia University Health Sciences Division-is the first of five planned for the Audubon Biomedical Science and Technology Park. It will house biotechnology companies, which have not sprung up in New York at a rapid rate because of a lack of commercial space. The structure is located next to the restored portion of the Audubon Ballroom, where Malcolm X was killed in 1965. Lasker, who died in 1994 at the age of 93, established the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation in 1942 along with her husband, Albert, an advertising executive. The foundation presents the Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards, considered the United States' premier biomedical prizes. She was also known for her tireless lobbying of U.S. government officials for increased research funding. A team at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has created interactive online software to allow scientists to manipulate, conduct experiments, and view images on the lab's high-voltage electron microscope from afar. The microscope's new capabilities were first demonstrated at the annual meeting of the Microscopy Society of America in Kansas City in August. Meeting-goers controlled the microscope-located 2,000 miles away in California-to observe structural changes in a heated metal alloy. Berkeley scientists also hope to be able to lock onto and track single molecules, such as DNA, with the new setup. DNA tracking software is currently being developed. In the meantime, a short video demonstrating computer visual tracking of DNA can be seen at this web address: http://www-itg.lbl.gov/ITG.hm.pg.docs/VISION/DNA_track.mpg. NATURAL CUES: Gorlov and his DNA-shaped turbine. The double helix of DNA has inspired poets and architects. But mechanical engineers? Alexander Gorlov, an engineering professor at Northeastern University, has developed a double-helical turbine for generating power. With its long, helical airfoil blades, the new turbine is faster and more efficient than standard straight blade models. The design, he says, is ideal for such areas as tidal estuaries. Conven- tional hydro- power equipment is too expensive for such sites. He suggests that the design might also be useful for energy-producing wind turbines. Gorlov, who is "intrigued" by the efficiency of the double-spiral design, came up with idea two years ago. "I followed Mother Nature," he comments. Gorlov and his backers plan to build the first demonstration project in Cape Cod Canal, a tidal estuary in Massachusetts. Here's one version of the popular dolls Barbie and Ken that won't make it to toy-store shelves this holiday season. As part of a study on unrealistic body ideals, Yale University psychologist Kelly Brownell and undergrad Melissa Napolitano calculated just how fanciful the two dolls were. Using hip measurements as a constant, Brownell figured that a normal-weight woman would have to be an hourglass-contouredgargantuan to accurately approximate Barbie, growing two feet taller, adding five more inches to her bust line, and losing six inches from her waist. UNREAL: Brownell with duaghter kristy and the famous couple. As for a normal-sized man, he would have to become a very tall version of the Incredible Hulk to reasonably resemble Ken, growing 20 inches taller and adding eight inches to his neck circumference, 11 inches to his chest, and 10 inches to his waist. "These results provide yet more evidence that individuals in industrialized countries are exposed to highly unrealistic models for shape and weight," says Brownell, whose research appears in the Interna- tional Journal of Eating Disorders (K.D. Brownell, M.A. Napolitano, "Distorting reality for children: Body size proportions of Barbie and Ken dolls," 18:295-8, 1995). The maker of the toys, Mattel Toys of El Segundo, Calif., reports that 800 million dolls have been sold since the dolls' inception and annual sales exceed $1 billion. The Paris-based Fyssen Foundation awards grants of up to 120,000 French francs (approximately $24,048 year) per year for the training and support of postdoctoral researchers (under 35 years old) working on topics in keeping with the foundation's goals "to encourage all forms of scientific inquiry into cognitive mechanisms, including thought and reasoning, that underlie animal and human behavior; their biological and cultural bases; and phylogenetic and ontogenetic development." The grants are intended to assist French scientists who wish to work in laboratories abroad as well as foreign researchers who want to work in French labs. The foundation supports research in ethology and psychology, neurobiology, anthropology/ethnology, and human paleontology. The deadline for applications is March 31. For information, contact the Fyssen Foundation, 194 Rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, France; 33 (1) 42-97-53-16; Fax: 33 (1) 42-60-17-95. MAKING BOOK: The Nobelist's latest Roald Hoffmann, who shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in chemistry and is also a published poet, has combined his passions for science and writing in The Same and Not the Same, a book recently published by Columbia University Press. The text-supplemented by more than 100 illustrations-uses examples from music, art, literature, and philosophy to address major ethical controversies in chemistry, including environmental issues, the debate over alar, and the tragedy of thalidomide children. Hoffmann, John A. Newman Professor of Physical Science at Cornell University, writes in the preface to the volume: "In this book I argue that chemistry is interesting, both to the practitioners of the molecular art, craft, science, and business and to the reflective consumers of its products. . . . There is a second, connected aim of this book-to tell you what chemists really do." Referring to the public's ambivalence about chemistry, Hoffmann writes: "To understand is to give oneself the possibility of not being afraid, perchance be interested." The National Institute of General Medical Sciences has announced that biomed- ical researchers can now access information about the institute over the World Wide Web at http://www.nih.gov/nigms/. According to an institute statement, the NIGMS home page targets "scientists interested in grant information, journalists interested in the results of Institute-supported research, and those interested in non-technical descriptions of certain areas of science." NIGMS funds basic research in such areas as cell biology, genetics, and biochemistry (K.Y. Kreeger, The Scientist, Dec. 12, 1994, page 14). The site includes information on funding, news releases, materials for science educators, and Internet links to such other biomedical resources as protein and nucleic-acid databases. And for those planning a visit to the institute, there's a section containing maps of the NIH campus and Washington, D.C., subway system. For more information, contact Alisa Zapp at (301) 496-7301. E-mail: webmaster@gml.nigms.nih.gov. SOCIETY PAGE: MacSciTech's offering MacHome Page Not to be outdone, the MacSciTech Association, an independent association of more than 1,500 scientists and engineers from research, medical, academic, and manufacturing organizations, has announced the launch of the organization's home page on the World Wide Web: http://www.macscitech.org/. The online resource is intended to provide technical and educational resources for scientists and engineers who use the Macintosh computing environment. Among the options provided are direct links to the association's FTP site (ftp://ftp.ari.net/pub/MacSciTech), the location for "public-domain software packages, technical notes, and images for a wide range of applications using the Macintosh, including biology, chemistry, physics, electrical engineering, space sciences, [and] test and measurement," according to the association. Also included among the home page's options is the Technical Experts Panel, a select group of volunteer MacSciTech members who answer questions specific to their disciplines about general application areas, such as molecular modeling, or specific Macintosh products like LabVIEW or Mathematica. The organization is also introducing the Consultant's Network, members who provide Mac and online consulting services for a fee. Another MacSciTech home page feature is access to back issues of SciTech Journal, the association's technical publication. Chemists are being pressed into service as art historians at Upton, N.Y.-based Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). Using a technique called neutron activation analysis, researchers at the Department of Energy lab have determined the geographical origins of approximately 1,500 French medieval limestone sculptures currently in the collections of United States museums. To analyze the sculptures, scientists irradiated a sample of sculpture or quarry stone with neutrons from the lab's two research nuclear reactors. Twenty chemical elements that became radioactive were then measured with gamma ray counters. Because each element has a characteristic spectrum of gamma rays, the researchers were able to able to determine the amount of each element of the stone to obtain the stone's "fingerprint." These fingerprints can then be matched to other sculptures and the quarries where the stone came from. Project staff and French and American collaborators analyzed limestone samples from approximately 50 quarries in Ile-de-France, Normandy, Burgundy, and southwestern France and compared the quarry samples with the stone in the sculptures, some of which came from such famous cathedrals as Chartres, Notre-Dame, and Reims. The data allow art historians to identify possible copies and restorations of the sculptures, as well as pinpoint sources of the stone to aid in conservation and restoration of some pieces. The scientists' work, which began in 1990 (although BNL has been using neutron activation to examine art objects and archaeological artifacts since the 1960s), has been conducted with some sense of urgency "because of the urbanization of France," according to BNL project researcher Garman Harbottle. "Shopping centers are being built over the medieval quarries, which may soon be destroyed or buried. Many more sculptures remain unidentified."

Notebook

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