Overall, they feel, researchers pressed their disciplines forward on many fronts, advancing fundamental knowledge and clinical capabilities dramatically.
However, those interviewed during recent weeks by The Scientist also tend to share the opinion that the most important developments for science took place not in academic and industry labs throughout the United States, but in the nation's capital, in the halls of Congress and the agencies in whose hands lie the fate of America's research future.
Many sources agree, for example, that the most arresting single event this year--and hardly a scientific step forward--was the cancellation by Congress of the superconducting supercollider (SSC). Also cited as highly significant, if less dramatic, are the well-received science appointments that followed President Bill Clinton's inauguration in January, specifically those of Harold Varmus to head the National Institutes of Health and Neal Lane to be director of the National Science Foundation. In addition, a major ...
