THE SCIENTIST
(CONTENTS PAGE & FULL ISSUE FOLLOW THIS SHORT MESSAGE)
******************************************************
Dear Reader:
Many of you have been accessing THE SCIENTIST, free of charge,
on the Internet for over a year. We thank you for your interest.
Would you please take a moment to let us have your views,
suggestions, and comments about THE SCIENTIST to enable us to
better meet your needs?
We would particularly like to know:
1. If you are working in an academic, commercial, or government
organization?
2. After you ftp each issue of THE SCIENTIST, how many others
do you share it with?
3. Do you usually ftp the file or prefer searching it via Gopher
or WAIS?
4. Finally, do you have any suggestions for ways of improving
our file or format?
Thanks and best wishes,
Eugene Garfield
Publisher
THE SCIENTIST, 3600 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104,U.S.A.
Phone :(215)243-2205 // Fax: (215)387-1266
E-mail:garfield@aurora.cis.upenn
THE SCIENTIST
VOLUME 8, No:5 MARCH 7, 1994
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
===============================================================
Articles published in THE SCIENTIST reflect the views of their
authors and not the official views of the publication,
its editorial staff, or its ownership.
===============================================================
*** THE NEXT ISSUE OF THE SCIENTIST WILL APPEAR ON ***
*** MARCH 21, 1994 ***
*** ***
*******************************************************
Subscription rates for the printed edition are:
In the United States: one year $58, two years $94
Canada : one year $82, two years $142
All other foreign : one year/air cargo $79,
one year/ airmail $133
THE SCIENTIST
(Page numbers correspond to printed edition of THE
SCIENTIST)
FOR SEARCHING PURPOSES:
AU = author
TI = title of article
TY = type
PG = page
NEXT = next article
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : CONTENTS
PG : 3
============================================================
NEWS
CONSIDERING THE ALTERNATIVES: A recent boost in funding for
the National Institutes of Health's Office of Alternative
Medicine is indicative of rising interest in and support for
research into alternative methods to treat disease--such as
mind/body control, ethnomedicine, structural manipulation
and energetic therapies, and bioelectric applications--in
many establishment biomedical settings
PG : 1
HEALTHY CLIMATE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES: Top colleges and
universities throughout the United States are responding to
the demand for environmental education programs with new
undergraduate degree programs, graduate-level research
opportunities, and environmental colloquia. Many of these
initiatives stress the importance of addressing today's
environmental issues from an interdisciplinary perspective
PG : 1
A CASE FOR SCIENCE TEACHER EDUCATION: A new National Science
Foundation grant to the Carnegie Institution of Washington,
D.C., to establish the Carnegie Academy for Science
Education (CASE) will offer training classes in science
education to Washington-area elementary schoolteachers
PG : 1
SLOWLY RISING DIVERSITY IN SCIENCE: A new analysis of the
U.S. work force by the Committee on Professionals in Science
and Technology reveals that representation of women and
minorities in science and engineering is rising, but quite
slowly
PG : 3
SCIENTISTS CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE: One way in which the
average scientist can make a direct contribution in the area
of science education reform is to participate in science
education partnerships that are springing up around the
United States, says Art Sussman, director of the Far West
Eisenhower Regional Consortium for Science and Mathematics
Education. By going into classrooms to share their expertise
with children at an early age, as well as by helping to
shape science curricula, researchers can make an immediate
impact
PG : 11
COMMENTARY: The Clinton administration is sending out mixed
messages about its commitment to biomedical research and
innovation, says John M. Clymer, vice president of Americans
for Medical Progress. On one hand, Clymer says, the
president pledged strong support for biomedical science in
his State of the Union address; yet some of the suggested
health-care reforms in the White House's Health Security
Plan may severely limit such efforts
PG : 12
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY'S TOP-CITED PAPERS: The newsletter Science
Watch recently examined the most-referenced papers in
organic chemistry, a subdiscipline that employs a
substantial number of research chemists
PG : 15
HOT PAPERS: A cell biologist discusses her paper on "switch"
kinases--MAPKs
PG : 16
BRIGHT FUTURE FOR BIOLUMINESCENCE ASSAYS: Scientists, who
searched for sensitive, nonradioactive assays to perform
tests, turned to bioluminescence assays in the mid-1980s.
Now these tests--based on light emission from a biochemical
reaction--have increased dramatically in number as their
technology has been refined
PG : 17
HELPING HAND FOR BIOTECHS: Through a new program, biotech-
nology companies on Long Island, N.Y., can get help from
local scientists and institutions in applying for federal
research grants, part of an effort to jump-start the nascent
biotech industry in the area
PG : 21
CARL STORM, former chief scientist and program manager for
Los Alamos National Laboratory's Explosives Technology and
Application Office, has become director of the Gordon
Research Conferences
PG : 22
NOTEBOOK PG : 4
CARTOON PG : 4
LETTERS PG : 12
CROSSWORD PG : 13
BIOLUMINESCENCE ASSAY PRODUCTS DIRECTORY PG : 19
NEW PRODUCTS PG : 20
OBITUARY PG : 22
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : Alternative And Conventional Biomedical Research: A
Creative Synergy
AU : FRANKLIN HOKE
TY : NEWS
PG : 1
Editor's Note: This first part of a two-part series charts
the shared ground between research into alternative medical
therapies and basic biomedical research. Increasingly,
researchers are using powerful cellular and molecular tools
to uncover biochemical pathways that may, for example,
explain increasingly evident mind-body connections in health
and illness. The second part, to appear in the March 21
issue, will explore efforts to bring rigorous methodologies
to alternative medicine and the roles being played by
private foundations and medical schools in promoting new
collaborations between alternative and establishment
medicine.
Despite tight budgeting in many sectors of biomedical research,
the fledgling Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) at the
National Institutes of Health recently learned it is slated for a
big financial uplift.
In each of its first two years of existence, 1992 and 1993, the
office received $2 million; for fiscal year 1994, however,
President Bill Clinton requested and received $3.5 million.
Although just a "drop in the bucket" of NIH's $11 billion overall
budget, as OAM spokesman Jim Bryant notes, it is still a
significant and symbolic increase for the young, high-profile
office--likely to mean more money for grants.
The jump in funding at OAM is indicative of the rising interest
in and support for research in alternative medicine in many
established biomedical settings, according to scientists and
officials. Teaching programs also are in place or planned at
several top medical schools. The establishment of such programs
suggests that tomorrow's biomedical professionals may be open to
new categories of inquiry that fall outside of what currently is
considered mainstream biomedical investigation.
For example, among the exploratory grants announced by OAM for
1994 were support for a Medical College of Ohio study of massage
therapy to counter HIV; a Pennsylvania State University College
of Medicine investigation of music therapy for psychosocial
adjustment after brain surgery; research into dance/movement
therapy for cystic fibrosis at Hahnemann University in
Philadelphia; a Harvard Medical School exploration of hatha yoga
for illicit drug use; a University of Miami School of Medicine
study of massage therapy for HIV-exposed infants; a Southern
Illinois University School of Medicine examination of ayurvedic
herbals for Parkinson's disease; Northwestern University research
into T'ai Chi to treat mild balance disorders; and a study of
prayer intervention against drug abuse at the University of New
Mexico. Several private foundations are also funding innovative
work in these areas.
And while most of the research is clinical or outcomes-oriented
investigation, a synergy is developing with a number of basic
science disciplines, some brand new, as questions arise about the
underlying biochemical mechanisms of, for example, demonstrable
mind-body interactions.
Defining The Terms
The field is not easily defined. Many researchers say simply that
alternative medicine comprises those medical practices that are
not commonly taught or used in Western medicine. Many of the
techniques now undergoing scientific scrutiny in OAM-sponsored
studies come originally from ancient traditions practiced in
China and India.
One working definition of alternative medicine might be seen in
six categories of grants currently offered by OAM: diet,
nutrition, and lifestyle; mind/body control; traditional and
ethnomedicine; structural manipulation and energetic therapies;
bioelectric applications; and pharmacological and biological
treatments.
In 1993, 30 grants in these areas were awarded by OAM. The grants
were small compared with other NIH awards; the top dollar amount
was $30,000. Other agencies, including the National Heart, Lung,
and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institute on Drug Abuse
(NIDA), National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
(NIAID), and National Cancer Institute (NCI), also have funded
research into these nontraditional studies.
A number of researchers in the field, however, say there is more
to the concept of alternative medicine than its simply being
unconventional; they claim that alternative medicine techniques
share an integrative approach to human health that has been lost
in much of Western medical practice. As such, they say,
alternative medicine represents something of a corrective, whole-
body view to the conventional, specialized approach of biomedical
science.
"It comes down to an old-fashioned word, which is physiology,"
says Candace Pert, a psychopharmacologist with Peptide Research,
a Rockville, Md., consulting firm.
Pert's research has detailed the ways in which messenger
molecules, such as neuropeptides, and their receptors extensively
interlink the brain, the immune system, and the endocrine system.
The result is a seamless, communicating whole of the brain and
body, she says, an information network with properties synonymous
with the usual concept of mind.
"The brain is not the mind," Pert says. "The molecules of the
brain and the body are a manifestation of mind. But they're also
just molecules and bands on gels."
Pert, who is also a visiting professor with the Center for
Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers University in
New Brunswick, N.J., prefers to speak of complementary--or
interdisciplinary medicine--as opposed to alternative medicine.
The integrative aspects of the new areas of study are crucial, in
her view.
"These separate disciplines make it difficult to make progress,"
Pert says. "I think we're moving toward a much more
interdisciplinary way of looking at things."
Other investigators agree that some of the new fields related to
alternative medicine appear to be building bridges between
fields. Researchers such as Pert say this aspect of their new
disciplines mirrors the growing links they are discovering among
major body systems, such as the nervous, immune, and endocrine
systems. These disciplines include, for instance,
psychopharmacology and psychoneuroimmunology.
"The field of psychoneuroimmunology, as a scientific discipline--
and I'm not talking about people who hang crystals from their
rear-view mirrors, I'm talking about hard-core research--is
showing that the nervous system and the immune system communicate
with each other massively, extensively, and continuously," says
David L. Felten, a professor of neurobiology and anatomy at the
University of Rochester School of Medicine in New York.
"There is as much a basis for biological signaling between these
two systems as there is within each of the systems," Felten adds.
"And, therefore, while it may have appeared that it was
alternative medicine to begin with, I don't view it as
alternative medicine. I view it as standard physiology,
pharmacology, and neurotransmission."
Divergent Views
Not everyone, however, sees significant connections emerging
between alternative medicine and basic biomedical sciences--at
least not yet. They say that the gap between the two is real and
substantial, and that it will not soon be bridged.
"The OAM is starting with clinical research of a very basic
kind," says Barrie R. Cassileth, an adjunct professor of medicine
at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and at Duke
University, Durham, N.C. "Once some positive results emerge--if
indeed there are any positive results--then people will start
looking into mechanisms. But most of the regimens and therapies
being investigated will be very difficult to examine in terms of
underlying processes and principles."
How strong the links between alternative medicine and
conventional biomedicine appear to an individual depends very
much on how each area is defined, and there is a distinct lack of
consensus. Moreover, not all treatments in these categories are
likely to interact productively with basic scientific
disciplines, according to researchers, especially not in the near
term. In some areas, developing a rigorous methodology to test
efficacy alone will be difficult, without addressing possible
explanations through better understanding of the body's
biochemistry.
In other areas--acupuncture, for example--alternative techniques
are finding converts in conventional medicine and the underlying
mechanisms are now being investigated. Cassileth, for instance,
does not include such practices as biofeedback and acupuncture
under the heading of alternative medicine. These, she says, are
nearly mainstream, at this point. She also does not consider
psychoneuroimmunology, which works to define the biochemical
interactions between the nervous and immune systems, to be
alternative medicine.
"We now know that these various systems are interconnected,"
Cassileth says. "That's not really alternative medicine."
"There is substantial demonstration that acupuncture is effective
in certain situations, yet we don't know how acupuncture works,"
says Fredi Kronenberg, director of the Richard and Hinda
Rosenthal Center for Alternative/Complementary Medicine at the
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New
York. "People are beginning to explore this, looking into whether
there are endorphins involved, looking into the biochemistry. But
we don't have the physiology of acupuncture well defined."
Mind-body medicine is, perhaps, the area in which biological
discoveries are most likely to correlate with alternative medical
techniques, scientists say. For example, Rochester's Felten has
carefully mapped a number of important mind-body connections.
"We've been able to show," Felten says, "that noradrenergic
nerves, coming from the sympathetic nervous system and hard-wired
back into the central nervous system, actually have terminal
endings, not just on smooth muscles and blood vessels, but also
deep in the parenchyma of lymphoid organs, ending among both
developing and mature cells of the immune system."
He adds: "So, there is an extensive communication network, going
from the central nervous system to the immune system, with real
functional consequences."
Among the implications, he says, is that the mind may be able to
directly control aspects of the immune system.
"There is the possibility that, using behavioral interventions,
we can influence the signaling, the transmitters, and the
hormones every bit as much as if we gave pharmacological agents,"
Felten says. In discussing behavioral intervention, he refers to
such treatments as stress- reduction therapies or peer support
and counseling.
Such inquiries may have far-reaching effects on conventional
biomedicine, say some researchers.
"You cannot ignore mind and have anything relevant to say about
health and disease," says Peptide Research's Pert. "Health and
disease have everything to do with emotions. They're not just
some optional thing. And that really breaks the paradigm of
Western medicine."
Special Interests?
Because of its affiliation with the prestigious NIH, OAM has
received a great deal of attention since its inception. Some
scientists, however, say that OAM was thrust upon NIH by Congress
and was not the result of scientific interest within the
institutes.
"OAM came about not because of anyone in the scientific community
believing that these things had merit or that they were
appropriate for NIH to involve itself in," says William Jarvis, a
professor of health promotion and education at Loma Linda
University School of Public Health and president of the National
Council Against Health Fraud, both based in Loma Linda, Calif.
"Certainly no one at NIH thought that.
"Rather, it was because of political influence."
Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), chairman of the subcommittee on labor,
health, and human services and education of the House
Appropriations Committee, which oversees the NIH budget, pressed
strongly for the office's creation. Former Iowa congressman
Berkeley Bedell, who claimed he had had success with an
alternative medical intervention for his prostate cancer, lobbied
Harkin on the issue, according to OAM spokesman Bryant. Harkin
himself took bee pollen therapy for allergies with some success,
as well, Bryant says.
A number of other institutes at NIH, however, are also providing
substantial funding for research that might otherwise be
considered alternative medicine, according to Joseph J. Jacobs,
director of OAM. This has been the case for a decade or more.
NHLBI, for example, funded the work of Dean Ornish, director of
the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, Calif.,
Jacobs says. Ornish developed and clinically tested a successful
heart disease reversal program based on a vegetarian diet,
meditation, exercise, and support groups. As a sign, perhaps, of
the growing acceptance of such therapies as a part of established
medicine, Ornish's program was recently approved for
reimbursement by a major insurer. NHLBI is also funding a project
at the Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa, to
study the effects of transcendental meditation on hypertension,
he says.
NIDA has funded projects looking at the use of acupuncture in
treating substance abuse, Jacobs says, and NIAID is interested in
the use of acupuncture to help people with AIDS who have
peripheral neuropathy. The relationship between nutrition and
cancer prevention is being studied at NCI, as well.
Changing Views
Overall, Jacobs says, this increasing activity represents
important shifts in perspective on the parts of both patients and
clinicians.
"There's a general awareness among clinicians that there are
significant limitations in conventional medicine," Jacobs says,
"especially if you're a primary-care practitioner, on the front
line, dealing with chronic and debilitating diseases and the
management of them."
At the same time, he says, patients often have access to research
findings as they are published. This results in their
participating, to a degree, in the ongoing controversies in
medicine.
"Physicians are no longer the high priests of this mystery,"
Jacobs says. "Everybody has access to information now."
Another factor in bringing alternative medicine to the fore at
this time is doctors' inability to counter such highly
publicized, intractable diseases as AIDS, according to Sue
Estroff, a medical anthropologist and an associate professor of
social medicine at the University of North Carolina
School of Medicine in Chapel Hill.
"People with AIDS, since there seems to be little hope for them
[with conventional medicine], have very consistently used all
kinds of other therapies," Estroff says, "and I think it's
forcing neurologists and infectious disease researchers into
closer contact with these alternative therapies than they've ever
been in their clinical and research lives. Some of them have had
conversion experiences, where they've seen a patient's T cells do
better than they should have. These are the most basic of the
basic science types, those who would be the most skeptical."
Estroff met recently with Jacobs to discuss ways that medical
anthropologists, many of whom have experience assessing non-
Western healing systems and views of illness, might contribute to
OAM's efforts. "There are complicated analyses of, for example,
the physiological and biochemical effects of three days of
dancing and drum beats," she says.
Coming Together
As interest in the area continues to grow, collaborations and
interactions between the researchers and practitioners of
alternative medicine are expected to increase, too. The two
groups may be able to mutually influence each other, giving
greater scientific rigor to studies of alternative therapies and
illness models, while simultaneously serving as a source of fresh
insights for at least some segments of the conventional research
community.
"One of the real benefits to come from this field [of
psychoneuroimmunology] is not only the reductionist delving into
mechanisms, but then the synthesis that's required, also," says
Rochester's Felten. "It's no longer acceptable just to look at,
for example, neurotransmitter effects on a cloned cell line.
That's nice, and it will give you some clues. But then the next
step is to take that back in vivo and ask what it means to the
well-being of a mouse--or of a human.
"We're actually able to span from a level of cellular and
molecular biology on the one hand, all the way to the more
holistic, in vivo, physiologic approach on the other," Felten
adds. "In fact, in this field, neither of those approaches by
itself is suitable and satisfactory alone."
The combination of new and old medical perspectives holds great
promise, Felten says:
"It's an exciting new aspect of medicine that we've had our heads
in the sand over for many, many years. Now, all of a sudden,
we've reinvented the wheel; but we've reinvented it at a time
when the cellular and molecular technology is such that we can
really go places with it."
ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE: INFLUENTIAL PUBLICATIONS
Two papers published in the past several years have served to
stimulate widespread interest in alternative medicine.
One was a study by Stanford University researcher David Spiegel
and colleagues (Lancet, 2[8668]:888-91, Oct. 14, 1989). Spiegel
divided 86 women with metastasized breast cancer into two groups.
Both groups received standard medical care, but one also
participated in group therapy. Originally, Spiegel expected the
study to show little, if any, effect from the psychosocial
support. To his surprise, he found that the women receiving group
therapy lived an average of almost twice as long as those in the
control group, 36.6 months vs. 18.9 months. In fact, after 10
years, only three women remained alive--all from the therapy
group.
The other study that captured broad interest was published by
David Eisenberg of Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel
Hospital in Boston (D. Eisenberg, et al., New England Journal of
Medicine, 328[4]:246-52, Jan. 28, 1993). In a survey of about
1,500 people, Eisenberg found that one in three reported using
alternative therapies in the previous year, a much higher rate of
use than had previously been estimated. Most respondents said
they also went to conventional physicians with their medical
complaints, but did not tell their physicians about their use of
alternative therapies. In addition, use of such therapies
correlated with higher incomes and education levels, Eisenberg
found.
--F.H.
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : Carnegie Institution's NSF Award Gives Boost To Science
Education
AU : KAREN YOUNG KREEGER
TY : NEWS
PG : 1
Scientists, educators, and policymakers are giving high marks to
a recently announced National Science Foundation grant aimed at
improving science teaching in Washington, D.C.-area elementary
schools.
The five-year, $3.7 million grant awarded to the Carnegie
Institution, located in Washington, will be used to create a new
entity: the Carnegie Academy for Science Education (CASE). The
academy will offer a series of six-week teacher-training programs
combining expertise from educators and scientists to introduce to
Washington-based teachers innovative methods for getting
elementary students excited about science.
"I'm very pleased to see that it [CASE] is happening in
Washington, D.C.... I think it's important to show what this
hands-on science education can do for children in Washington,
where it is visible to important leaders," says Bruce Alberts,
president of the National Academy of Sciences and a vocal
proponent of science education reform.
"On one hand, [CASE] is an example of the right kind of science
education we need to start with in the schools, and on the other
hand it's an example of the power of a partnership as a permanent
resource and political force" for change in United States science
education, Alberts adds.
Maxine Singer, a molecular biologist and president of the
Carnegie Institution, explains that she and other scientists at
the institution became involved in science education because of
the larger problem of science literacy in the U.S.: "When I
became president in 1988, I decided that we should take some
responsibility for the sad state of science teaching in American
schools." Singer notes that "the problem begins in elementary
school," and this is where CASE will aim its attentions.
According to Alberts, "We [the science community] have a
tremendous willingness to help" in the movement to improve
science education, but we "haven't created a pathway" to do so.
Scientists and educators involved in the CASE program say that
science education partnerships can touch the lives of scientists
on two levels--by contributing to the nurturing of future
generations of scientists, as well as informed citizens; and more
directly by contributing knowledge in their area of expertise to
educators and students.
For the most part, involvement by scientists entails volunteering
their time and knowledge to partnerships like CASE and others
across the U.S. (see accompanying story) in the form of talking
with teachers and students about their work and science in
general, checking the accuracy of subject matter in lessons, and
sometimes helping to write curriculum.
Commenting on the role scientists will play in CASE, Chuck James,
coordinator of curriculum and instruction for CASE and a
Washington, D.C.-based science teacher, says that it is "clear
that their role is going to be one of leadership." However,
Alberts adds, scientists also have knowledge to gain--CASE and
projects like it "have a very beneficial effect on how the
scientists themselves teach."
In a larger sense, Alberts notes that projects like CASE can also
contribute to improving public appreciation of science by finding
convincing answers to the question: "What has the country
received from all this investment [in science]?" He hopes to
create more "fans of science" by encouraging researchers to
become visible proponents of science in their community through
volunteering in partnerships like CASE.
Guidance From First Light
Organizers hope to reach 50 teachers from five elementary schools
in CASE's first session, slated for this summer. Singer describes
the teaching methods that will be used by CASE as those that
"center on the notion of trying to teach teachers how to teach
science the way scientists do it, rather than the traditional
way, which is by memorizing." The idea is for CASE graduates to
adapt for their own classrooms what they have learned about
science subject matter and teaching methods, she says.
Many of these methods were developed in another Washington-area
partnership program, First Light, a hands-on Saturday science
class for third- through sixth-graders who attend public schools
near the institution's headquarters. Volunteer scientists and
teachers work with students to perform laboratory experiments and
go on field trips.
Margaret Jackson, a science resources teacher at Garrison
Elementary School in Washington, and a First Light volunteer,
says that children benefit tremendously from the interaction with
researchers. "With the direct involvement by scientists, they can
get an idea of how a scientist works--identifying problems,
establishing hypotheses, collecting data, interpreting data, and
formulating conclusions," she says. Jackson will also train CASE
participants and help to coordinate science activities in CASE
graduates' schools.
James, who is also director of First Light, says that CASE grew
out of the successes of First Light: "We saw we had a broader
base of people to work with." So, James explains, Singer decided
to try to directly reach teachers with the CASE venture.
Core Partnership Vital
The key players--scientists, students, and teachers--at First
Light and other science education partnerships all benefit from
the three-way interaction, supporters say. Jackson finds her
experience in First Light enriching and says she gains a lot of
knowledge from the scientists who volunteer.
Julie McMillan, a molecular biologist at the National Institutes
of Health in Bethesda, Md., and a First Light volunteer
scientist, says her involvement with the program is among the
most rewarding aspects of her career. "Apart from the personal
rewards, it's taught me effective ways of teaching that are
universally applicable," she says, referring to the hands-on
approach espoused by First Light and CASE. For example, First
Light participants conduct their own simple experiments to learn
about physics principles, or visit the local grocery store to
learn about nutrition.
McMillan adds that her experiences have "had an influence on how
I think about doing my experiments in the lab." She explains that
students are encouraged to always ask "Why?" This exchange of
questions and answers between her and the students has made her
"take less for granted the basic knowledge" and assumptions
underlying her work. She has also learned how to better
"communicate to nonscientists without talking down to them." Mc-
Millan hopes to be a volunteer for CASE, as well.
Juna Wallace, a third-grade student from a Washington, D.C.-area
elementary school and First Light participant for three years,
values her interaction with volunteer scientists: "It's very
educational for many people because it makes science fun." She
says she values the knowledge that scientists bring with them to
First Light: "You can get science facts ... like if you ask them
a question, they can answer it and give you a tip with it."
CASE also has supporters outside of the core partnership.
Margaret Cozzens, a research mathe- matician and division
director for elementary, secondary, and informal education (ESI)
at NSF, says that CASE "is apt to show more scientists that they
can actually be of some help to teachers in the schools."
Specifically, CASE was successful because it paid equal attention
to subject matter and pedagogical theory and because it included
scientists and mathematicians as part of the project team,
Cozzens says.
Cozzens adds that about half of the proposals that NSF's ESI
division receives are generated directly from scientists. The
division solicits proposals that bring together teacher
enhancement, curriculum development, and science education taking
place in organizations such as community groups, schools, and
museums.
"Our project [CASE] is really part of a movement in the science
community," Singer notes. The goal of CASE over the next five
years is to train 450 teachers and form partnerships with more
than one-third of Washington's public elementary schools, about
45 schools in total. However, as Singer points out, seeing a
difference in students' learning and interest in science and
mathematics is the primary goal. "We hope in the first year to
see a difference in the classroom [of the teachers whom CASE will
train] because that's the bottom line," she says.
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : NEW MANUAL EMPHASIZES EDUCATION PARTNERSHIPS
AU : KAREN YOUNG KREEGER
TY : NEWS
PG : 8
Science education in the United States is in the midst of a major
reform movement, scientists and educators say; it is also, some
of them warn, in crisis. "We have a tremendous national problem,"
says Bruce Alberts, president of the National Academy of
Sciences. "We are so far away from where we should be with regard
to the seriousness with which we take children's education and
the attention it gets from the whole country that we need a major
change in our whole way of thinking."
The producers of a new book hope to contribute to such a change
of thinking by suggesting how scientists and K-12 teachers can
collaborate to improve precollege science education. Recently
published by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF),
Science Education Partnerships: Manual for Scientists and K-12
Teachers is a collection of 34 articles describing ways to form
partnerships among scientists, educators, and students.
Specifically, Science Education Partnerships provides information
on:
* effective partnerships linking scientists and teachers;
* work experiences for teachers and students in laboratories;
* sources of funds for collaborations between teachers and
scientists;
* in-service programs at universities or science centers;
* methods for evaluating a collaborative program; and
* how to sponsor a science contest, establish a seminar series,
change a science curriculum, and conduct and learn from education
research.
Articles offering practical information--such as a 10-step
procedure for starting a partnership program--have been written
by prominent scientists and science educators.
According to Alberts, there is "a tremendous amount of scientists
out there who are eager to help" and create change in science
education, but "they don't know how to help." He says that
Science Education Partnerships gives examples of how scientists
can contribute to such change.
The editor of the manual, Art Sussman, director of the Far West
Eisenhower Regional Consortium for Science and Mathematics
Education--a federally funded program located in San Francisco
that coordinates educational reform efforts in California,
Arizona, Nevada, and Utah--and past science director of the UCSF
Science and Health Education Partnership, says that there are
several items in the book of interest to scientists. For
instance, articles outline funding sources for researchers
interested in collaborating with educators and describe local
science education partnership opportunities.
Science Education Partnerships was produced with part of a three-
year grant from the American Honda Foundation, based in Torrance,
Calif., to set up the UCSF Science and Health Education
Partnership. The partnership's initial aim was to produce a how-
to science education booklet of about 60 pages. However, as
Sussman writes in the manual, "As we became more involved in the
world of partnership activities, we became aware of the many
different kinds of programs and resources that universities,
science centers, and businesses share with K-12 schools,
teachers, and students." The result is a 244-page book that only
scratches the surface of partnership success stories, says
Sussman.
Science Education Partnerships is available from Science Press,
P.O. Box 31188, San Francisco, Calif. 94131; (415) 826-1626.
--K.Y.K.
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : Newest Environmental Science Programs Build On A Broader
Definition Of `Green'
Researchers at many U.S. universities are participating in
curricula that now stress hard science
AU : JULIA KING
TY : NEWS
PG : 1
Top colleges and universities throughout the United States are
responding to an unprecedented demand for environmental education
programs with new undergraduate degree programs, graduate-level
research opportunities, and environmental colloquia.
What distinguishes most of these new programs from academia's
previous environmental offerings is a high level of
interdisciplinary study and a clear focus on hard science.
Over the last two years, Harvard and Yale universities and even
Rockefeller University, which heretofore focused almost
exclusively on basic research in the life sciences, have all set
up formal environment programs that cut across traditional
academic department boundaries.
At Yale, for instance, a two-year-old undergraduate program--
entitled Earth, Environment, and Resources--is offered through
the department of geology and geophysics.
Additionally, Yale's Institute for Biospheric Studies, funded
with a $20 million gift from Texas billionaire and businessman
Edward Bass--who also funded Biosphere 2, the controversial giant
Arizona greenhouse where eight researchers lived for two years--
functions as a canopy over several other environmental studies
and research programs, including the Center for the Study of
Global Change, Center for Earth Observation, and Center for
Computational Ecology.
The proliferation of environment programs "reflects an increased
awareness of environmental issues, which has accelerated over the
past five to 10 years," says Jesse H. Ausubel, director of
Rockefeller University's nine-month-old Program for the Human
Environment. "The environment has become a mega-issue. It ranks
with health, violence, and international conflict."
At Harvard, the new Environmental Science and Public Policy
undergraduate program, which enrolled its first students last
September, is just one of several environmental initiatives under
way at the school, according to William Clark, director of the
Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy
School of Government and vice chairman of Harvard's University
Committee on the Environment.
Comprising 30 senior faculty members representing every one of
the university's schools and divisions, the group functions as a
steering committee on environmental teaching, research, and
outreach programs. All three kinds of programs have been boosted
with a $2 million grant from the V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation, a
charitable organization set up in Copenhagen in 1991 to mark the
50th anniversary of the family business. Villum Kann Rasmussen
started his eponymous company, which manufactures and sells roof
windows and skylights, in 1941 in Copenhagen. In 1975, its U.S.
distributor, Velux-America Inc., opened facilities in
Massachusetts and, later, in South Carolina.
In addition to establishing the new undergraduate program, the
committee's activities have included building a distinguished
lecture series on environmental topics and setting up a biannual,
university-wide research program on the environment. The topic of
this year's collaborative research effort is energy development
in China. Scholars participating in the program hope to produce a
book on their work once it is completed, Clark says. Overall,
more than 170 of Harvard's tenured or tenure-track faculty
members are involved in major research in the environment, he
notes.
Many other universities, including the University of California,
Santa Barbara, have added new natural sciences-oriented tracks or
study concentrations to existing undergraduate environment
programs housed under a school or faculty of arts and sciences.
Also under development at UC-Santa Barbara is a new graduate
School of Environmental Science and Management, which will begin
accepting applications in the 1994-95 academic year. Once
established, this will bring to 90-plus the number of graduate
programs in environmental toxicology, environmental chemistry,
and environmental sciences in the U.S. and Canada.
Interdisciplinary Focus
University-based environmental studies programs are by no means
new. Some got their start as early as 1970, following the signing
of the National Environmental Act, which made protection of the
environment a matter of national policy. Today's programs differ
from most predecessors in that they extend well beyond a single
discipline or handful of environmental researchers to touch base
with nearly all departments and disciplines on campus.
At Harvard, for example, students are permitted to pursue a
particular area of environmental studies, but only after
completing a broad curriculum in biology, chemistry, earth and
planetary sciences, economics, government, and mathematics. In
explaining this requirement, Clark notes that "the current crop
of environment issues aren't addressed in their entirety from
disciplinary perspectives around which the university has been
organized."
Across the board, educators emphasize that an interdisciplinary
approach is imperative if the new environment programs are to
adequately prepare young scientists to deal with this era's
highly complex environmental challenges. Solutions to problems
such as ozone depletion or global warming may be grounded in hard
science, but they also are driven by societal, political, and
economic issues, all of which environmental scientists must be
equipped to tackle.
"Cross-cutting may be the viable way to go because there's a
green dimension to everything," says Rockefeller's Ausubel.
Unpublicized Funding Sources
Although Ausubel won't reveal exactly how his Rockefeller program
is being funded "because it's political"--a sentiment that other
environment educators echo--he does say that the
interdisciplinary nature of today's environment programs has
worked to attract a broad funding base, including "foundation
money, some government money, and funds from industry."
The problem, Ausubel explains, "is that nobody's money is
considered quite clean by the public. Industry looks at private
foundations as liberal do-gooders. A lot of citizens view
industry with suspicion. The Department of Energy and government
agencies are also looked at with suspicion. So it's best to have
a balance of sources of funds."
Philanthropists like Bass, meanwhile, seem to view the university
as an ideal place to funnel funds for environmental research and
teaching. "Yale has great strength in the basic sciences," Bass
noted in presenting the university with his gift of $20 million.
As such, "I am convinced that Yale has extraordinary potential to
take the lead in advancing understanding of the biosphere and in
refining creative approaches to environmental issues," he
added.
Rockefeller's relatively small environment program is home to two
full-time researchers in addition to director Ausubel: a
physicist concentrating on materials flows in the environment,
and an applied mathematician/computer scientist whose research
centers on systems modeling and the use of computational tools.
Ausubel says that one of the program's main research themes is
the long-term interaction of technological change with ecosystems
and human health. Through seminars, workshops, and research
collaborations, the program aims to "knit a community of interest
and to cut across the compartments into which universities
inevitably divide themselves," he says.
The goal of Stanford University's Global Environment Program,
part of the Institute for International Studies, is similar,
according to Donald Kennedy, a biologist and former Stanford
president who is now Bing Professor of Environmental Science at
the institute, as well as a biology professor at the university.
"The institute's role is to bring people together for
collaborative research on environmental topics with international
implications," Kennedy says. Research topics have included the
use of herbicides in rice production in Southeast Asia and the
implementation of market-based--as opposed to regulatory--
approaches to achieve environmental goals.
At the undergraduate level, Stanford also offers a degree in
earth systems through its earth sciences department. Students in
this program have the option of taking a junior-year seminar
offered through the Global Environment Program. This
undergraduate seminar and research program is funded in part by a
grant from the San Francisco-based Richard and Rhoda Goldman
Foundation, Kennedy notes.
Currently, Kennedy says, Stanford has no immediate plans to offer
graduate degrees in environmental studies through the Institute
for International Affairs. For now, the focus is on putting
together useful collaborations. Once that has been done, he says,
the university would consider setting up a formal graduate-level
program and research center.
`A Broad Perspective'
The interdisciplinary approach is one that is being repeated
throughout virtually all of the new environment programs,
according to Thomas F. Malone, director of the Sigma Xi Center--a
study branch of the honorary science society Sigma Xi--which
sponsored a 1992 University Colloquium on Environmental Research
and Education that was attended by representatives of more than
50 academic institutions. What's driving this approach is "the
increasing interdependence of the world," Malone says.
"We humans compartmentalize things, but the environment doesn't
care about scientists or nonscientists or politics or economics,"
notes UC-Santa Barbara physicist and environmental studies
professor Mel Manalis. "We need to produce people with a broad
perspective."
Still, to offset the risk of creating students who know only a
little bit about everything, including science, today's
interdisciplinary environment programs also are placing a much
stronger emphasis than ever before on chemistry, biology,
physics, and mathematics.
"The route we've taken is that whether you're working in a
technical area, [in] law, or at a nongovernmental organization, a
firm grounding in the sciences matters a lot," says Harvard's
Clark.
"People coming out of the [new undergraduate] program could go on
to a graduate program in earth and environmental sciences, and
they will have had chemistry for chemists and physics for
physicists, not chemistry and physics for poets," Clark says.
According to UC-Santa Barbara's Manalis, it's especially
critical to educate liberal arts students in environmental
programs in the hard sciences "because it's these people who
often turn out to be the movers and shakers in environmental
policy."
Grounding an environment program in a thorough course of study in
the natural sciences also works to lend it more credibility,
according to Karl Turekian, a geology professor and director of
Yale's Center for the Study of Global Change.
"The reason Yale created the Earth, Environment, and Resources
program in the department of geology and geophysics was to give a
hard science bias to environmental study," Turekian says.
Job Opportunities
About 50 percent of students currently enrolled at Yale's geology
and geophysics department are pursuing a bachelor of arts degree
under the Earth, Environment, and Resources program. From there,
Turekian says, most will go to medical school, law school, or a
professional school.
"People who take the environment track do so because that's where
they figure the jobs are going to be," says Turekian. "It's not
because they're all altruistic. They know they're not going to
find oil anymore."
All in all, educators foresee a growth in job opportunities for
program graduates, especially as environmental issues continue to
move up higher on the national and global economic and
sociopolitical agendas. Indeed, if the employment picture tracks
that for environmental engineers, there could well be a shortfall
of environmental scientists, some say. An estimate by Kenneth
Noll, chairman of the Illinois Institute of Technology's Pritzker
Department of Environmental Engineering, pegs the current annual
shortfall of environmental engineers at about 3,000, for example.
Moreover, Rockefeller's Ausubel notes that over the last two
years, he has received many more queries from institutions
looking to hire high-level environmental researchers than
inquiries from candidates seeking jobs.
"In a period when the job market is generally depressed, I've had
an awful lot of calls from people wanting to hire," he says.
"People do not call for a midlevel person to work at an
[Environmental Protection Agency] lab, but for people at the high
end of the market," he notes. "I'm not aware of any unemployed
first-rate people or first-rate graduates."
Julia King is a freelance writer based in Ridley Park, Pa.
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
-----------------------------------------------------------
TI : Report: Gender, Ethnic Diversity Coming Slowly To Science
AU : NEERAJA SANKARAN
TY : NEWS
PG : 3
The latest analysis of the composition of the United States
work force by the Washington, D.C.-based Commission on
Professionals in Science and Technology (CPST) shows that
the number of women and minorities in science and technology
is increasing, albeit slowly. The commission, a nonprofit
corporation whose purpose is to collect, analyze, and
disseminate reliable information about human resources in
the sciences and technology, released its findings in a book
titled Professional Women and Minorities: A Total Human
Resources Data Compendium, published in January.
The statistical compendium shows that a significant number
of women are getting higher educational degrees (54 percent
of bachelor's and master's degrees in all fields in 1991
were obtained by women), but are still represented
relatively poorly in the natural sciences and engineering,
compared with their male counterparts, earning between 22
percent and 31 percent of the degrees conferred at the
various levels (bachelor's, mas-ter's, and Ph.D.).
In the U.S. labor force, too, women's representation among
professionals is on the rise, accounting for a very high
percentage among psychologists and economists employed, the
report found. A majority (87 percent) of the employees in
health-related fields, such as nurses, dietitians, and
pharmacists, are also women. However, women constitute only
about 10 percent of those employed in engineering and the
physical sciences professions (see accompanying chart). In
academia, women made up about 22 percent of the total
science faculty.
"More women are getting better prepared [educated]," says
Eleanor Babco, associate director of CPST, adding that this
is not necessarily reflected immediately in the overall
employment picture. "Adding even 10,000 [women] to a base
population of 3 million [total employees in the work force]
will not change the proportion significantly."
"While these tables show the success of attraction
strategies," says Catherine Didion, executive director of
the Washington, D.C.-based Association for Women in Science
(AWIS), referring to efforts to draw more women toward
studying science, "[employers] still need to work on
retention strategies." The exit rates, excluding retirement,
for women from careers in science and engineering were twice
as high as those of men in the seven-year period between
1982 and 1989, according to a 1992 report prepared for the
New York City-based Alfred P. Sloan Foundation by Anne E.
Preston, a professor of economics at the Harriman School for
Management and Policy at the State University of New York,
Stony Brook.
"Keeping the people in; that is the sticky part," says
Didion. "This is where the need for systemic changes becomes
obvious."
A membership survey conducted by AWIS in 1992 (J. Hart, AWIS
Magazine, 23:14, January/February 1994) reveals that
members' most pressing concerns include inequity in pay and
tenure for women vs. men (according to the CPST data
compendium, only half of women faculty are tenured, compared
with 73 percent of the men), as well as child-care and
family-leave issues.
"A lot of these issues are marginalized as `women's'
issues," says Didion, "but we are kidding ourselves if we
think everyone does not have to deal with them. It is in the
interest of the employers to address them."
The CPST compendium notes that the fastest-growing ethnic
minority in the United States is Hispanics, constituting
about 9.5 percent of the total population, according to
census data. However, statistics for 1991 show that they
made up only about 3 percent of total 1991 college
graduates, with roughly similar graduation rates in the
sciences and engineering.
"This is a very low representation," says Orlando Gutierrez,
national president of the Society of Hispanic Professional
Engineers (SHPE), a member society of CPST. "On the positive
side, though, we have seen an increase from 2.5 percent to 3
percent--that is, a 20 percent increase--in the past five
years among engineering graduates."
Gutierrez, a retired engineer who worked for the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration in Washington, D.C.,
for three decades, says that the key to better
representation is to provide better motivation and training
from the pre-collegiate level on. "SHPE has several programs
in place to prepare students early on by providing them with
mentors and role models to prevent early college dropout,"
he says. "College dropout rates are highest in the freshman
and sophomore years. Networking is proving to have good
results. Student members of the college chapters of SHPE
show a much higher graduation rate--70 percent in the past
five years--than [Hispanic] students who are not members."
Raul Alvarado, Jr., an aerospace engineer with McDonnell
Douglas Aerospace Corp. in Huntington Beach, Calif., and
chairman of the Los Angeles-based SHPE Foundation, whose
function is to raise funds for supporting student members
via scholarships, feels that the 3 percent graduation figure
"... may be a little conservative."
"Quality is the real key," says Alvarado, stating that the
working Hispanic population demonstrates a high level of
competence.
"Our goal is to motivate more students to get their
Ph.D.'s," says Gutierrez, adding that Hispanic
representation is particularly low in academia. The
compendium shows, however, that more Hispanic Americans are
getting doctoral degrees, reaching a total of 755 in 1992;
147 of these were in science subjects and 58 were
engineering Ph.D.'s.
Statistics also show that increasing numbers of Ph.D.'s in
the sciences are awarded to foreign nationals, from 31
percent of the total in 1991 to 39 percent in 1992.
These statistics are compiled in more than 300 charts and
tables in Professional Women and Minorities. "The big thing
is that we have been able to use all the census data from
1990, which gives us a better idea of what the population is
looking like," says Babco.
For information on how to obtain the compendium, contact
CPST, 1500 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Suite 831, Washington
D.C. 20005; (202) 223-6995. Fax: (202)-223-6444.
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
NOTEBOOK
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : Probe Of Stewart And Feder Transfer
TY : NEWS (NOTEBOOK)
PG : 4
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) announced February 14 that the
General Accounting Office had agreed to undertake an
investigation of the April 1993 forced reassignments of Walter
Stewart and Ned Feder at the National Institutes of Health. The
internal personnel transfer effectively ended the pair's long-
standing but controversial scientific misconduct investigations
at NIH. Their offices, containing confidential files on many
cases of potential misconduct, have been sealed since the
transfer. In September 1993, Grassley and Sen. William Cohen (R-
Maine) asked for a GAO investigation of the action against
Stewart and Feder as a possible violation of the Whistleblower
Protection Act of 1989, of which the two senators were
cosponsors. "I believe it is vital that those who reveal waste
and fraud of taxpayer money be protected from reprisal," Grassley
said in a statement.
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : Going To The Source
TY : NEWS (NOTEBOOK)
PG : 4
As readers of The Scientist's Jan. 24, 1994, issue learned,
National Science Foundation director Neal Lane recognizes that
women are "underrepresented" in science. He expressed his
feelings on page 12 of that issue in a commentary titled "Women
In Science: Much Has Been Accomplished, But Much Remains To Be
Done." Lane called on members of the science, math, and
engineering community "to accelerate progress to provide women
the same opportunities as men," and invited readers to share with
him any ideas on this issue by writing to him at: NSF, 4201
Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va. 22230. Now, Lane has established an
ad hoc E-mail address dedicated to receiving suggestions on
improving the status of women in science.
Readers are invited to submit their ideas to Lane at the
following address:
eowomen@nsf.gov.
This direct link will be in effect until mid-August.
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : NIH AIDS Office Head Named
TY : NEWS (NOTEBOOK)
PG : 4
On February 16, National Institutes of Health director Harold
Varmus named a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases (NIAID) immunologist, William E. Paul, to head the
Office of AIDS Research (OAR). Paul was a member of the search
committee for the position until other committee members
prevailed upon him to consider the post himself. He will oversee
an OAR newly consolidated by the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993.
Under that law, OAR will directly control the $1.3 billion in
AIDS funding for all of the NIH institutes, including a $100
million discretionary research fund. The 1993 legislation also
removed OAR from the jurisdiction of Paul's former boss, NIAID
director Anthony S. Fauci, who had originally created a less-
powerful version of OAR in 1988. AIDS activists say they are
pleased with the appointment, but will be watching closely to see
how the Paul-Fauci relationship develops.
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : Does It Pay To Advertise?
TY : NEWS (NOTEBOOK)
PG : 4
Launched last November and running through this coming May, a
celebratory series of lectures, seminars, and symposia at New
York City's Rockefeller University honors three scientists--
Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty. As noted in the
Feb. 21, 1994, issue of The Scientist (J. Lederberg, page 11),
this year marks the 50th anniversary of the publication by this
trio of a research report that, essentially, showed that genes
are made of DNA ("Studies on the chemical nature of the substance
inducing transformation of pneumococcal types," Journal of
Experimental Medicine, 79:137-58, Feb. 1, 1944). According to
many scientists intimately acquainted with the team's
achievements, it is a disappointing footnote to the history of
20th-century genetics that Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty were never
awarded the Nobel Prize--despite their reputation for having
provided the gateway to modern biomedical research. At one of the
celebratory events last month, Nobel Prize-winning molecular
virologist Alfred Hershey posed a relatively simple explanation
for the team's regrettable underrecognition; in so doing, Hershey
may have delivered a subtle message to those of today's
scientists who consider self-promotion a vice: "If their work did
not have a more immediate impact," Hershey said of the Avery
team, "it was due to their modesty. They refused to advertise."
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : Scents And Sensibility
TY : NEWS (NOTEBOOK)
PG : 4
Researchers at the University of Washington's Center for Process
Analytical Chemistry (CPAC) have fashioned a device to detect
odors--especially bad ones, indicating spoilage--in foods during
their processing. The artificial "nose" consists of four quartz
crystals, each coated with a polymer film sensor to selectively
bind molecules belonging to four distinct aroma groups. The
molecules cause changes in the surface properties (temperature or
mass) of the crystals, which in turn affect the frequency and
speed of sound waves vibrating in the crystal.
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : Information Freebie
TY : NEWS (NOTEBOOK)
PG : 4
Searching for information on the National Library of Medicine's
(NLM) AIDS-related databases is now free. This change in policy
is a direct result of recommendations made at the National
Institutes of Health HIV/AIDS Information Services Conference
last June, where attendees said that fees were inhibiting their
access to information. Four databases are affected: AIDSLINE,
with 90,000 references in journals, books, audiovisuals, and
conference abstracts; AIDSTRIALS, containing information on 500
clinical trials of drugs and vaccines; AIDSDRUGS, which lists 190
agents tested in clinical trials; and DIRLINE, with information
on 15,000 organizations and information services that provide
HIV/AIDS and health-related information to the public. For more
information, contact Robert Mehnert, Office of Public
Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of
Health, Bethesda, Md. 20894; (301) 496-6308.
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : Law Enforcement's Other `Bug'
TY : NEWS (NOTEBOOK)
PG : 4
Forensic experts may be able to use insects in determining
the geographic location of a murder. Alexis Byrne, a
biochemistry major in her senior year at the University of
Georgia, Athens, has shown that the biochemical composition
of an insect's cuticle--the creatures' hard-shell outer
covering--can give valuable information regarding the type
of area it normally inhabits. As insects are among the first
living things to discover and infiltrate a dead body, Byrne
and Karl Espelie, a professor of entomology at Georgia,
speculate that it would be possible to determine whether a
dead body was moved from the original scene of the crime by
investigating the insects associated with it. Byrne, who
conducted this research as part of her senior project under
Espelie's guidance, was awarded the President's Prize at a
research presentation competition sponsored by the
Entomological Society of America.
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
OPINION
----------------------------------------------------------
TI : Education Partnerships Foster Students' Science
Literacy
AU : ART SUSSMAN
TY : OPINION
PG : 11
Scholarly reports and headlines in the popular press
continue sounding the alarm: United States students,
compared with students of other nations, perform at mediocre
to abysmal levels in science and mathematics. We see
evidence of this deficiency in our classrooms, work
settings, and social interactions. Today's high school
graduates, generally speaking, do not understand basic
science concepts, have no interest in pursuing scientific
careers, and have numerous misconceptions about and mistrust
toward scientists and scientific institutions.
To help remedy this situation, many scientists these days
are taking time to share their world--and themselves--with
teachers and students from kindergarten through high school.
These scientists have a variety of motives: Some simply want
to provide assistance in response to a pressing need; they
are expressing a concern for providing the next generation
of scientists and technicians. Others are seeking a way to
reciprocate for the mentoring and programs that inspired
them as students. Still others have a professional
motivation; they want to help create an educated citizenry
that understands the need for funding basic research,
expanding laboratory facilities, and taking well-informed
positions on such volatile issues as the use of animals in
research.
Meanwhile, government policy- makers, in calling for reforms
in science education, often cite national economic
interests--the need for a scientifically literate and
mathematically empowered work force to compete in the global
marketplace.
I prefer to emphasize that all members of our society need
to be scientifically literate for their own well-being and
for the health of our society. Our democracy depends on the
ability of citizens to solve problems, address technical
issues, and make wise choices for themselves, their country,
and the planet.
Maximizing The Benefits
How can scientists provide the most valuable services to the
precollege education community? The simplest way is to
personally participate in these partnerships--to volunteer
in a school, perhaps one that their children attend or one
that is close to home or work. Another effective way is for
scientists to help form ongoing partnerships between the
local school systems and their colleges, universities, or
companies.
As increasing numbers of scientists, universities, and
businesses have become involved in such partnerships,
questions have been raised about how to maximize the
benefits they provide. A hopeful sign in this regard is the
current emergence of a national consensus concerning the
kinds of reforms that are needed in precollege science
education. Publications from the American Association for
the Advancement of Science (AAAS), preliminary science
education standards from the National Academy of Sciences,
and state guides such as the California Science Framework
for Public Schools all describe mutually supportive guiding
principles for reforming science education.
To be most effective, science education partnerships should
align themselves with this consensus; the scientists,
universities, and businesses involved will thus be
addressing the same issues in similar ways, and the
resulting partnerships will be far better able to provide
the kinds of services that schools need. The pertinent
issues have to do with new models of curriculum content and
pedagogy; different ways of finding out what students know
and have learned; and realistic appraisals of the additional
training and support that teachers need.
Changing Roles
The science education reform movement has several key
features. Perhaps most important, it aims to reach all
students. Science is not a subject that is reserved for an
elite group of white males. Everybody should be able to
enjoy and succeed in science. Thus, the need to reach all
citizens is particularly important when it comes to those
groups that are underrepresented in science. In this
respect, reform particularly must seek to correct current
gross inequities suffered by ethnic minorities and females--
inequities that reflect deficiencies in our educational
system as well as our society.
The reform framework also calls for a radical change in the
roles of the student and the teacher. The term
"constructivism" is often used to describe the new approach.
The students construct their own meaning as they
individually integrate new learning experiences with their
prior conceptions. The teacher, meanwhile, does not lecture,
merely pouring information into an empty vessel; rather, the
teacher provides an environment in which students directly
experience rich situations and then, often working in
cooperative groups, utilize higher-order thinking and
problem-solving skills to relate problems directly to their
own lives--and thus, make sense of the real world.
Excellence and equity go hand in hand. Many of the reform
changes--such as replacing lessons that emphasize lecture
and vocabulary with active student exploration--increase the
success rate for underrepresented groups.
Radical reform in science education also necessitates
radical change in the nature of schools and the teaching
profession. As things now stand, teachers have low status in
the community; are often poorly trained to do the job that
the modern world requires; lack essential equipment,
supplies, and preparation time; do not have the power to
make the changes that are needed in their workplace; and are
isolated from each other and from the adult world.
Science education partnerships can be of great help here.
Scientists can provide expertise in content knowledge,
helping teachers to focus lessons on the important concepts
and increasing teachers' knowledge base. They can also help
relate the classroom experiences to today's world of
research and make the direct connections between the lessons
and students' lives. They can provide these services by
running workshops for teachers, participating in classroom
lessons and laboratory activities, judging student science
contests, and working with curriculum developers.
When successful scientists regard and treat classroom
educators as equals, their efforts combat teacher isolation
and help promote the teacher's standing within the
community. Many science education partnerships bring the
richness of the scientific world directly into the classroom
for students to experience scientists as normal human beings
and scientific issues as relevant to them and within their
grasp. An additional advantage is gained when female and
ethnic minority role models take part and thereby serve as
living proof that the technical and scientific professions
can be open to all.
Systemic Reform
Today's science education partnerships are beginning to
effectively weave together the different strands of the
science reform movement. Earlier reform efforts tended to
emphasize just one aspect of the problem--inadequate
textbooks, for example, or inappropriate examination
formats--and believed that correcting that single aspect
would remedy science education in general. The better
partnerships today, however, recognize the many dimensions
of the current situation that need to be addressed
simultaneously. Teachers need instruction in new content
and skills, lessons and materials that embody the new
philosophy, samples of and training in alternative
assessment tools, and support in the school and the
community--or else the vast inertia of the existing
school culture will doom all efforts toward improvement.
"Systemic reform" or "systemic change" is the currently used
term for this kind of integrated, comprehensive, and radical
change. In addition to projects at the local level, the
systemic change movement has a national and a state policy
component. One articulation of the systemic reform model
emphasizes the description of a vision of excellence in the
form of standards. Three panels under the aegis of the
National Research Council (NRC) are currently developing
national science education standards in the areas of
curriculum, assessment, and teaching.
The science curriculum standards will define what students
should know and be able to do in science at different grade
levels. These standards will provide a broad view of the
content and processes that students should master.
Scientific skills in observing, reasoning, investigating,
and problem-solving will be at least as important as the
content knowledge base. The standards will also call for
students to have the skills and desire to apply their
knowledge outside the classroom.
Measuring Up
Assessment is the tool that is supposed to inform us if we
are going in the right direction, if we are achieving the
outcomes that we desire. Assessment plays important roles at
the daily classroom level by teachers as well as at the
school, state, and national levels. In addition to being a
diagnostic tool, assessment very directly tells students,
teachers, and parents what the education system thinks is
important. All too often, teachers and students alike focus
their efforts on "the test." But if we truly want the entire
educational community to place a high value on hands-on
experiences and higher-order thinking skills, we sabotage
our efforts if we grade students on multiple-choice exams
that primarily reward them for memorizing vocabulary and
isolated facts. The new science assessment standards will
define protocols for gauging stu-dents' accomplishments in
ways that are valid and that reinforce the learning outcomes
that we desire.
The teacher is the key to effective science reform. All the
other pieces can be in place, but the reform movement will
fail if classroom instructors do not have satisfactory
training, knowledge, and support systems. Science teaching
standards will define the skills and knowledge that teachers
will need as well as the necessary components of
professional training programs for certifying beginning
teachers and providing essential staff development for
existing teachers. The new teaching standards will also
define the support systems and resources that need to be in
place at a school.
How can these national standards help effect dramatic change
at the local level? Informally, they can provide powerful
support that reform advocates can use with school boards and
education administrators at state, county, and individual-
site levels. On a more formalized state level, most states
traditionally adopt science curriculum frameworks that
describe the parameters for science education. These
documents vary in their scope and authority, but they can
have great influence on classroom teaching. Many states are
already revising existing science curriculum frameworks so
they embody new standards such as those emerging from NRC or
AAAS's Project 2601 education program.
Two-Way Streets
Partnerships can play a vital role in translating these
standards, frameworks, and assessments from the realm of
abstract principles to the world of actual classroom
practice. Science education partnerships are a very flexible
tool for bringing rich scientific resources into the hands
and minds of teachers and students. In addition, the
scientists who participate in these programs can then
contribute much more meaningfully to the continuing efforts
to define and implement a truly effective science education
system. The committees developing the standards, frameworks,
and assessment methods include scientists who have some real
knowledge of elementary and secondary schools because they
have actually worked inside classrooms and side by side with
teachers as a result of partnership programs (see story on
page 8).
A true partnership is a two-way street--not a unidirectional
flow of services from a science-rich institution to needy
schools. In the most successful partnerships, colleges and
universities also benefit greatly from interactions with
their precollege partners. For example, professors who
volunteer in schools often report that the experience
markedly changes their approaches to undergraduate
education, challenging them to move away from lecture
formats to more effective interactive approaches. They also
can learn from their experiences with precollege reform to
make their own assessment instruments more authentic.
We still have a long way to go in helping our K-12 students
attain world-class standards of achievement. There are many
systemic barriers in all of our institutions. Just getting
the different departments within a university or within a
school system to collaborate often can be a daunting task.
Yet, when we experience the enthusiasm of teachers,
scientists, and students who have participated in science
partnership activities, we feel justified and well rewarded
for our efforts.
Art Sussman is the director of the Far West Eisenhower
Regional Consortium for Science and Mathematics Education,
serving Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah. He also is
the editor of Science Education Partnerships: Manual for
Scientists and K-12 Teachers, published by Science Press,
P.O. Box 31188, San Francisco, Calif. 94131.
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
COMMENTARY
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : The Clinton Administration's Mixed Messages
On Biomedical Research And Innovation
AU : JOHN CLYMER
TY : OPINION (COMMENTARY)
PG : 12
Do Bill Clinton and the leaders of his health-care reform
task force share the same goals? Compare the rhetoric in the
president's State of the Union address in January with the
Health Security Plan produced by the White House and you'll
see big discrepancies on the subject of medical innovation.
In his eloquent speech, the president said reform should
"strengthen what is good about our health-care system--the
world's best health-care professionals, cutting edge
research, and wonderful research institutions." I agree.
The United States is the world leader in biomedical research
and innovation. At a breathtaking pace, our scientists and
laboratories produce new drugs, medical devices, and
surgical techniques that prolong and improve human life and
reduce the cost of health care. When these new drugs,
devices, and techniques enable people to remain productive
instead of becoming disabled, our country's economic well-
being improves; and when these same innovations replace
older, more costly treatments, quality health care becomes
more affordable for all.
Unfortunately, many suggested health-care "reforms" would
diminish medical innovation. Some policymakers, including
the White House health-care task force, have recommended de
facto price controls on breakthrough drugs. However,
economists--liberals and conservatives alike--agree that
price controls don't work. When government limits prices by
fiat, producers supply less of the affected goods and
services. Remember the gas shortage and blocks-long lines of
cars leading to gas stations in the late 1970s? That
illustrates how price controls work; it was decontrol of gas
prices that eventually eased the shortage.
Despite quantum leaps in technology, the search for new
cures and therapies is still a risky, trial-and-error
process. Development of just one new drug may require the
testing of 5,000 compounds, and all these tests cost a lot
of money: According to Congress' Office of Technology
Assessment, developing a new drug costs a company, on
average, about $359 million before taxes--about $194 million
after the company takes advantage of tax breaks associated
with its R&D. And it takes years to move a drug from the
drawing board, through clinical tests, then government
approval, to market.
The companies--pharmaceuticals, biotechs, equipment
manufacturers--that produce medical innovations pour
billions of dollars into research and development annually.
To induce investors to risk so much capital requires the
possibility of reasonable profits. Price controls sharply
limit profit potential and scare investors away from the
"cutting-edge research" President Clinton praised in his
speech. Kirk Raab, chief executive of Genentech Inc., says
that, if the government imposes price controls, "my board of
directors is not going to be very enthusiastic about my
spending a lot of money on research on an AIDS vaccine."
That investors are sensitive to regulatory changes is clear
from the fact that the mere mention of drug price controls
has cut the market valuation of pharmaceutical and
biotechnology stocks by $120 billion.
If you don't think private investment in biomedical research
matters, consider this. In 1993, America's pharmaceutical
companies invested $12.6 billion on R&D. That's 41 percent
more than the entire budget of the National Institutes of
Health. Biotechnology companies spent an additional $5
billion on R&D. Medical and surgical instrument makers and
other innovators invested billions more.
New, improved medical technologies enable people to live
longer, healthier lives. New surgical techniques reduce
pain, shorten patients' hospital stays, and speed their
recovery. Fewer, shorter hospitalizations, less need for
surgery, and other benefits of medical innovation reduce the
cost of health care.
The president is right to want "to strengthen what is good
about our health-care system," namely, research. I hope the
rest of his team paid attention to his declaration. So far,
the evidence suggests they didn't.
John M. Clymer is vice president of Americans for Medical
Progress, an Arlington, Va.-based nonprofit organization
whose mission is to educate the public, the media, and
policymakers about biomedical research.
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
LETTERS
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : Animals In Research
AU : ODETTE GROSZ
TY : OPINION (LETTERS)
PG : 12
In reference to your Nov. 15, 1993, article "Animal Rights
Movement Threatens Progress Of U.S. Medical Research" (D. Hubel,
page 11): I take issue with the statement that "The use of
animals in research is closely regulated by local, state, and
federal committees...." This is not a fact. The Animal Welfare
Act is seldom enforced and at best only when forced by the animal
rights movement.
Anesthesia and analgesia are not the rule; in fact, in most forms
of research they are the exception. If the experimenter chooses
not to use painkillers, they are not required. Most experimenters
choose not to use the anesthesia and analgesia to cut expenses.
Hubel states: "A student in a few hours at the library can come
up with a long list of medical successes resulting from animal
research ...." A student in a few hours at the library can come
up with just as long a list of medical mistakes resulting from
animal research.
ODETTE GROSZ
New Orleans, La. 70124-4029
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : ANIMALS IN RESEARCH
AU : SUE LUNSON FARINATO
TY : OPINION (LETTERS
PG : 12
Regarding David Hubel's article on animal experimentation, it is
not true that "most states make the use of pound animals for
research and teaching purposes illegal." Only 14 states have
outlawed pound seizure, with the remaining states leaving it to
local authorities to determine the fate of animals in public
pounds. Five states actually require that public pound animals be
turned over to experimenters: Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, South
Dakota, and Utah.
The use of animals in experiments is not closely regulated by
local, state, and federal committees. The Animal Welfare Act
pertains mainly to space, shelter, food, water, and cleanliness
in laboratories. It does not protect animals in experiments. In
fact, the administration of painkillers can be waived if an
experimenter feels it might conflict with the experiment. In
1985, the United States General Accounting Office reported that
many laboratories were not inspected at all, including 51.7
percent of the labs in California and 48.7 percent of the labs in
New York state, homes to the highest number of research
facilities. As for local and state anticruelty regulations, I am
not aware of even one example when these laws restricted an
experimenter in the treatment of an animal in a laboratory.
Some of the best medical schools in the U.S. today offer no
animal experimentation laboratories at all. Medical schools at
Yale, George Washington, Georgetown, Michigan State,
Northwestern, and New York universities have all found it cheaper
and more efficient to teach basic physiological concepts using
entirely nonanimal methods.
SUE LUNSON FARINATO
Physicians Committee for
Responsible Medicine
5100 Wisconsin Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20016
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : SSC Shutdown
AU : STEPHEN B. CHRISTENSEN
TY : OPINION (LETTERS)
PG : 12
Leon Lederman (The Scientist, Nov. 29, 1993, page 12) apparently
feels that anyone who didn't support the superconducting
supercollider (SSC) lacked the "reasonable science savvy" to
"vote correctly" on the matter. This sounds like the tired old
argument: "You must not understand the issue or you would agree
with me."
No one is going to argue that the knowledge the SSC could provide
is not worth obtaining. But just because something is worth doing
does not mean that it is worth doing at any cost. Why isn't it
reasonable to consider what else could be done with those
billions of public dolars? Yes, it would be nice to support
particle physics, but what about cancer research, or the fight
against crime? Just because I apply a cost-benefit analysis to
the question of how to spend our limited tax dollars and come up
with a different answer from Lederman's should not brand me as
scientifically illiterate. Perhaps the fact that he feels it does
shows that it may be the scientists who are out of touch--not the
politicians.
STEPHEN B. CHRISTENSEN
Dow North America
Midland, Mich. 48667
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
WHERE TO WRITE:
Letters to the Editor
The Scientist
3600 Market Street, Suite 450
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Fax:(215)387-7542
E-mail:
Bitnet: garfield@aurora.cis.upenn.edu
71764.2561@compuserve.com
THE SCIENTIST welcomes letters from its readers. Anonymous
letters will not be considered for publication. Please
include a daytime telephone number for verification
purposes. If you wish to have raders of THE SCIENTIST
communicate with you electronically, please include an
e-mail address and indicate that it is for publication.
=====================================
NEXT:
RESEARCH
---------------------------------------------------------
TI : Citation Analysis Reveals Organic Chemistry's Most
Active Research
Editor's Note: In its July-August 1993 issue (4[7]:7-8,
1993), the newsletter Science Watch, published by the
Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) in
Philadelphia, reported on its most recent examination
of publishing productivity in the field of organic
chemistry. Using information from ISI's Science
Indicators database, Science Watch listed the most-
referenced papers in organic chemistry--a subdiscipline
of chemistry that employs a substantial number of
research chemists--for the years 1988 to 1991.
Following is Science Watch's report, written for the
newsletter by John Emsley, who is a science writer in
residence at the department of chemistry, Imperial
College, London. The article is reprinted here with
permission of Science Watch and ISI.
TY : RESEARCH
PG : 15
In alternating issues, Science Watch reviews the top 10
most-cited papers in chemistry. For more than two years the
lists have been dominated by fullerene papers, sometimes
exclusively so, with only an occasional paper on organic
chemistry making the grade. This is rather odd, because most
chemists who are engaged in chemical research are using
organic chemistry. Rather than wait for the flood tide of
fullerene citations to ebb, Science Watch decided to look
beneath the waves and see what pearls of organic chemistry
are lying unnoticed.
We have combed the ISI lists of highly cited papers for the
years 1988 through 1991, specifically seeking those that
cover organic topics. The three top-cited papers for each
year are listed in the accompanying table.
In drawing up the list, I considered only primary research
papers and not reviews, which by their very nature collect
many citations. Having carried out the citations exercise in
organic chemistry, we then needed to check if the topics
being cited most really were the hot areas of organic
chemistry.
I consulted one of Britain's leading organic chemists, Steve
Ley of the University of Cambridge, and asked what he
regarded as the active areas of organic chemistry at
present. His reply was immediate and reassuring: asymmetric
synthesis methods, catalytic antibodies, enediynes, taxol,
and immunosuppressants, such as rapamycin. The subjects in
the table cover three of these current hot topics.
Jumping JACS
The papers featured in the list are from well-known organic
chemists: K.B. Sharpless, C.-H. Wong, D.A. Evans, E.J.
Corey, D.P. Curran, E. Negishi, P.B. Dervan, R. Noyori, and
S.L. Schreiber. Their publications are, for the most part,
short communications in the Journal of the American Chemical
Society, which attests to the continuing dominance of this
primary journal.
Asymmetric synthesis accounts for more than half of the
subjects in the table, and drug-related research most of the
remainder. Two names appear twice: K. Barry Sharpless,
formerly of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
now of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif.,
and David A. Evans of Harvard University, the former in the
top three for 1988 and 1989, the latter in 1988 and 1991.
Not all the articles are short communications; witness the
1988 paper on asymmetric synthesis by Evans and colleagues.
This runs to 19 pages, of which 10 are devoted to
experimental details. His 1991 paper, on the other hand, is
less than two pages long.
The first of the Evans papers deals with a variant of the
Diels-Alder reaction, which was discovered more than 60
years ago as a useful method of synthesis starting with a
diene and ending with a cyclic compound. Evans reports that
unsaturated N-oxazolidinones make very versatile Diels-Alder
reagents. (The oxazolidine ring is five-membered, with a
nitrogen and oxygen atom separated by carbon.) These chiral
compounds, with various substituents attached to the
nitrogen, have several advantages: They are easy to make and
are often crystalline; they are highly reactive; and, most
important of all, they are diastereoselective, in many cases
giving yields of more than 99 percent of the endo isomer.
Clearly the significance of Evans's discovery was not lost
on others in the field, hence the frequency of citations.
His 1991 paper is also devoted to asymmetric synthesis using
bis(oxazolines) in which two of these five-membered rings
are directly linked, or joined through an intervening
carbon. These compounds are used in the form of Cu(I)
complexes to catalyze the conversion of styrene to a mixture
of cis and trans cyclopropane molecules, again with a marked
preference for one of the forms.
And what of the future? What topics might we see heading a
list of the most-cited papers in organic chemistry in four
years' time?
For a glimpse into the crystal ball I turned to 41-year-old
Tony Barrett, holder of the newly created Glaxo Chair of
Chemistry at Imperial College, London. The three topics he
thought might be found on such a list were catalytic
asymmetric synthesis; non-linear optical materials; and
"smart" polymers. Would-be chemistry stars, please note.
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : MOST-CITED PAPERS IN ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, 1988-91
TY : RESEARCH
PG : 15
Rank 1988 Total
Citations
1 E.N. Jacobsen, I. Marko, W.S. Mungall, G. 154
Schroder, K.B. Sharpless, "Asymmetric
dihydroxylation via ligand-accelerated
catalysis," Journal of the American
Chemical Society, 110:1968-70, 1988.
2 Y.-F. Wang, J.J. Lalonde. M. Momongan, D.E. 131
Bergbreiter, C.-H. Wong, "Lipase-catalyzed
irreversible transesterifications using enol
esters as acylating reagents: Preparative
enantio- and regioselective syntheses of
alcohols, glycerol derivatives, sugars,
and Organometallics," J. Amer. Chem. Soc.,
110:7200-5, 1988.
3 D.A. Evans, K.T. Chapman, J. Bisaha, 113
"Asymmetric 113 Diels-Alder cycloaddition
reactions with chiral a, b-unsaturated N-
acyloxazolidinones," J. Amer. Chem. Soc.,
110:1238-56, 1988.
1989
1 E.J. Corey, R. Imwinkelried, S. Pikul, Y.B. 118
Xiang, "Practical 118 enantioselective
Diels-Alder and aldol reactions using a new
chiral controller system," J. Amer. Chem.
Soc. 111:5493-5, 1989.
2 J.S.M. Wai, I. Mark", J.S. Svendsen, M.G. 89
Finn, E.N. Jacobsen, K.B. Sharpless, "A
mechanistic insight leads to a greatly
improved osmium-catalyzed asymmetric
dihydroxylation process," J. Amer. Chem.
Soc., 111:1123-5, 1989.
3 D.P. Curran, C.-T. Chang, "Atom transfer 88
cyclization reactions of a-iodo esters,
ketones, and malonates: Examples of selective
5-Exo, 6-Endo, 6-Exo, and 7-Endo ring
closures," Journal of Organic Chemistry,
54:3140-57, 1989.
1990
1 E. Negishi, S.J. Holmes, J.M. Tour, J.A. Miller, 72
F.E. Cederbaum, D.R. Swanson, T. Takahashi,
"Metal-promoted cyclization. 19. Novel
bicyclization of enynes and diynes promoted
by zirconocene derivatives and conversion of
zirconabicycles into bicyclic enones via
carbonylation," J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 111:3336-46,
1989.*
2 M. Konishi, H. Ohkuma, T. Tsuno, T. Oki, G.D. 53
VanDuyne, J. Clardy, "Crystal and molecular
structure of dynemicin-A: a novel 1,5-Diyn-3-
ene antitumor antibiotic," J. Amer. Chem. Soc.,
112:3715-6, 1990.
3 D.A. Horne, P.B. Dervan, "Recognition of 53
mixed-sequence duplex DNA by alternate-strand
triple-helix formation," J. Amer. Chem. Soc.,
112:2435-7, 1990.
1991
1 D.A. Evans, K.A. Woerpel, M.M. Hinman, M.M. 51
Faul, "Bis(oxazolines) as chiral ligands in
metal-catalyzed asymmetric reactions:
Catalytic, asymmetric cyclopropanation
of olefins," J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 113:726-8, 1991.
2 R. Noyori, M. Kitamura, "Enantioselective 50
addition of organometallic reagents to carbonyl
compounds: Chirality transfer, multiplication, a
and amplification," Angewandte Chemie-
International Edition in English, 30:46-9, 1991.
3 H. Fretz, M.W. Albers, A. Galat, R.F. 43
Standaert, W.S. Lane, S.J. Burakoff, B.E.
Bierer, S.L. Schreiber, "Rapamycin and
FK506 binding proteins (immunophilins),"
J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 113:1409-11, 1991.
*Article appeared late in 1989 and was not cited until 1990.
~Source: ISI's Science Indicators Database, 1988-92.
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
HOT PAPERS
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : IMMUNOLOGY
TY : RESEARCH (HOT PAPERS)
PG : 16
J.G. Bodmer, S.G.E. Marsh, E.D. Albert, W.F. Bodmer, B.
Dupont, H.A. Erlich, B. Mach, W.R. Mayr, P. Parham, T.
Sasazuki, G.M.Th. Schreuder, J.L. Strominger, A. Svej-gaard,
P.I. Terasaki, "Nomenclature for factors of the HLA system,
1991," Tissue Antigens, 39:161-73, 1992.
Julia G. Bodmer (Tissue Antigen Laboratory, Imperial Cancer
Research Fund, London): "`The dull catalogue of common
things.' These words of the 19th-century English poet John
Keats would sound like an apt description of a nomenclature
report. Yet for the second time in three years an HLA
nomenclature report has been selected as a hot paper (see
Hot Papers, The Scientist, March 18, 1991, page 15). To draw
an analogy, the columns of figures in a company report look
utterly boring to the uninitiated, but to the cognoscenti
they tell the story of the company as enthrallingly as any
thriller. Thus it is with nomenclature reports. In the dry
tables and lists of names of new genes and alleles we can
trace the progress of the field.
"The acceleration of progress can be measured by the number
of new genes and alleles identified since the last report--
35 genes and 275 alleles, compared with 23 genes and 188
alleles between the previous two reports. This, of course,
reflects the technological advances that have occurred in
this period, making it easier to sequence genes and
attracting many more laboratories. There are now 119
laboratories that have submitted sequences for naming.
"However, when the genes so far recognized and named are
placed on the map of the p region of chromosome 6 (J.
Trowsdale and R.D. Campbell, Immunology Today, 14:349-52,
1993), we see that there are still gaps in which it is
reasonable to presume there will be many more genes to be
identified and, of course, named. Furthermore, for many of
the well-established genes, increasing numbers of alleles
are being recognized. If theories that relatively rapid
evolution of polymorphism is still taking place--as, for
example, in the American Indians--are correct, we may not in
the foreseeable future get to the end of identifying and
naming genes and alleles in the HLA region. It follows that
the more rapidly new genes and alleles are identified, the
more essential it is to keep the nomenclature up to date.
Thus we must--and apparently from the number of quotations
of the report we do--treat nomenclature reports not just as
necessary paperwork but as life-saving marine charts,
without which we would all be on the rocks."
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : CELL BIOLOGY
TY : RESEARCH (HOT PAPERS)
PG : 16
S.M. Thomas, M. DeMarco, G. D'Arcangelo, S. Halegoua, J.S.
Brugge, "Ras is essential for nerve growth factor- and
phorbol ester-induced tyrosine phosphorylation of MAP
kinases," Cell, 68:1031-40, 1992.
Joan S. Brugge (Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cambridge,
Mass.): "Growth factor activation of receptor protein
tyrosine kinases induces tyrosine phosphorylation of MAP
kinases (MAPKs). MAPKs have been referred to as `switch'
kinases, since they are activated by tyrosine
phosphorylation but function as serine/threonine kinases.
Our studies demonstrated that phosphorylation of MAPKs could
be distinguished from other nerve growth factor (NGF)-
induced tyrosine phosphorylation events by its dependence on
Ras (smGTP binding protein).
"Tyrosine phosphorylation of MAPKs was inhibited in NGF-
treated PC12 cells expressing a dominant-interfering vari-
ant of Ras and stimulated in cells expressing oncogenic Ras.
These results indicated that the tyrosine kinase re-
sponsible for MAPK phosphorylation acts downstream from Ras,
placing Ras between the NGF receptor and MAPK (see A below).
During the last year, a concerted effort by many
laboratories has resulted in the identification of the
cellular proteins that couple growth factor receptors and
MAPKs through Ras (see B below).
"Activated receptors bind to Shc, a PTK substrate, and/or
Grb-2. Grb-2 interacts with SOS, which activates Ras by
exchanging GDP for GTP. Activated Ras then binds Raf. After
activation, Raf then phosphorylates MEK, a
serine/threonine/tyrosine kinase that phosphorylates MAPKs.
"Thus, a linear pathway can now be drawn between the
receptor and MAPKs; however, MAPK activation is not quite as
straightforward as depicted. Clearly, branches exist that
lead to and from individual components of the pathway. For
instance, activation of protein kinase C by phorbol esters
or activation of G-protein coupled receptors can lead to
MAPK activation, and kinases other than Raf and MEK can also
regulate MAPK activation. In addition, the regulation of Raf
and the precise function of MAPKs in the growth and
differentiation process remain ambiguous. Given the rapidity
with which molecules involved in MAPK activation were
identified, these issues should be resolved quickly."
A. ? ?
Receptor-->>-->>-->>RAS-->>-->>-->>MAPK
PTK
B.
Receptor->>-SHC->>GRB-2->>SOS->>RAS->>RAF->>MEK->>MAPK
PTK
(The Scientist, Vol:8, #5, March 7, 1994)
(Copyright, The Scientist, Inc.)
================================
NEXT:
TOOLS & TECHNOLOGY
------------------------------------------------------------
TI : Refinements In Bioluminescence Assays Expand
Technique's Applications
AU : RICKI LEWIS
TY : TOOLS & TECHNOLOGY
PG : 17
Chemists, biologists, and medical researchers are
continually looking for sensitive, nonradioactive assays. In
the mid-1980s, many scientists turned to newly developed
bioluminescence assays for their needs. Now, in just the
past few years, the uses for these tests--based on the
phenomenon of light emission from a biochemical reaction--
have increased dramatically in number, as the underlying
technology has been refined and extended.
Bioluminescence occurs in certain jellyfish, bacteria,
mushrooms, fungi, crustaceans, fishes, worms, and beetles,
including the familiar Photinus pyralis, a type of firefly.
Harnessed for use in the laboratory, bioluminescence can be
used to detect bacterial contamination in soft drink
bottles; to predict the effect of chemotherapies on cancer
cells; and as a reporter molecule to highlight gene
expression in molecular biology experiments. More broadly,
using recombinant technologies, researchers are
incorporating bioluminescence into immunoassays and DNA
probes.
"There is a tremendous range of applications of
bioluminescence," says Larry Kricka, a professor in the
department of pathology and laboratory medicine at the
University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
A bioluminescence experiment basically requires a paired set
of biochemicals: an enzyme, variously called a luciferase or
a photoprotein, and a substrate, which is a molecule that
emits light upon interacting with the enzyme or
photoprotein. Each bioluminescent system requires unique co-
factors and buffers.
"There are a lot of natural, biological, light-producing
systems, and the enzymes in all of them are called
luciferases," says Julie Molloy, business manager of
Analytical Luminescence Laboratory, San Diego, which
specializes in kits using firefly luciferase. The substrates
for luciferases are called luciferins. Both terms were
coined by German physiologist Emil Heinrich DuBois-Reymond
near the end of the 19th century, in connection with his
work on the glowing clam Pholas dactylus.
Luciferases and luciferins are not interchangeable between
bioluminescent species, where they may be involved in
totally different reactions. For example, luciferase from
Photobacterium fischeri, often just called bacterial
luciferase, catalyzes reactions involving the molecules
FMNH2 and NADH, and is used to trace certain metabolic
reactions. The more commonly used firefly luciferase, by
contrast, detects the biological energy molecule ATP
(adenosine triphosphate). Bioluminescent proteins from sea
organisms take part in yet a third type of reaction.
Firefly Luciferase
Harnessing bioluminescence began in the 1940s, when
Baltimore schoolchildren brought jars of fireflies to the
Johns Hopkins University laboratory of William McElroy and
Marlene DeLuca. Over the next three decades, this team
isolated and described the reactants and enzymes of the
bioluminescence reaction. They found that light emission
occurs when firefly luciferin, which is an organic acid,
reacts with ATP to form an intermediate compound, luciferyl
adenylate. In the presence of oxygen and magnesium or
manganese ions, luciferase catalyzes oxidation of the
intermediate, producing a compound called oxyluciferin--and
a flash of light.
The rationale for using firefly bioluminescence in many of
today's assays is simply that where there is life, there is
ATP. Measuring the light produced in the bioluminescent
reaction with ATP is, therefore, also a measure of metabolic
activity.
"But it wasn't until the late 1970s and early 1980s that
there were active applications," says Molloy. "One of the
first areas looked at was a rapid urine screen for urinary
tract infections. The technique was also carried aboard the
Viking spacecraft as one of the methods to detect potential
life on Mars."
DeLuca and McElroy eventually relocated to the University of
California, San Diego, and founded the nearby Analytical
Luminescence Laboratory in 1981.
"Today people use firefly luciferase to test for ATP in all
sorts of different applications," says Kricka. "It is a
rapid microbiological test for bacterial contamination. For
example, Coca Cola uses it to test beverages before they are
bottled."
In 1986, bioluminescence entered the age of molecular
biology in an arresting figure of a glowing tobacco plant
published by researchers in the departments of biology and
chemistry at UC-San Diego (David W. Ow, et. al., Science,
234[4778]:856-9, 1986). They linked a complementary DNA
(cDNA) product corresponding to the gene for firefly
luciferase to a plant virus promoter (control sequence),
then inserted this into a bacterial plasmid (a ring of DNA)
and infected tobacco leaf cells in culture. Transgenic
tobacco plants were regenerated from cultures that glowed
when exposed to oxygen and luciferin.
A wide variety of researchers now use the firefly luciferase
gene as a reporter molecule by linking it to different genes
of interest. An investigator is then able to follow gene
expression by detecting bioluminescence in different cells
and tissues at different stages of development in a
transgenic organism.
"The gene for firefly luciferase has become a powerful tool
in genetic engineering and molecular biology, used instead
of the [bacterial] CAT [chloramphenicol acetyltrans-ferase]
gene as a reporter," says Kricka. "It is nonradioisotopic
and very, very sensitive."
Analytical Luminescence Laboratory offers firefly luciferin,
luciferase, buffers, and standards in a variety of
combinations, plus protocols for applications in genetic
engineering and for detecting bacteria and yeast. Firefly
luciferin and luciferase are also offered by Accurate
Chemical and Scientific Corp., Westbury, N.Y.; Boehringer
Mannheim Biochemicals Inc., Indianapolis; Calbiochem-
Novabiochem Corp., San Diego; ICN Biomedicals, Costa Mesa,
Calif.; Promega Corp., Madison, Wis.; R&D Systems Corp.,
Minneapolis; Sigma Chemical Corp., St. Louis; Worthington
Biochemical Corp., Freehold, N.J.; and others.
While Analytical Luminescence Laboratory gets its luciferin
and luciferase from freeze-dried firefly abdomens shipped
from an East Coast company, many of the other vendors obtain
luciferase from a firefly luci-ferase cDNA cloned in E. coli
bacteria. This source, as with most proteins derived from
recombinant DNA technology, is purer than the direct
biological source. And for teachers interested in a glowing
lesson, the Carolina Biological Supply Co. of Burlington,
N.C., sells freeze-dried firefly tails in kits with all
materials needed for students to extract luciferin and
luciferase and then conduct a bioluminescence reaction.
BATLE Luminetrics Enterprises Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.,
is developing a very specific use of firefly
bioluminescence. An in vitro TCA-100 Tumor Chemosensitivity
Assay uses firefly luciferase to assess whether tumor cells
respond to specific drugs in vitro, before testing the drugs
on the patient.
"You culture tumor cells, expose the cells to combinations
of drugs, and estimate the numbers of cells by
bioluminescence with firefly luciferase," says Kricka.
Declining luminescence indicates falling ATP production,
which means that the cells are being killed. Company
literature suggests that a physician can use TCA-100 along
with other information to choose among recommended standard
chemotherapeutic protocols for a particular tumor type, to
try drugs on drug-resistant tumors, or to evaluate
chemotherapies for cancers so rare that standard protocols
don't exist.
Several vendors also sell the key instrumentation for
bioluminescence systems. Luminometers to detect
bioluminescence can be purchased from Analytical
Luminescence Laboratory, San Diego; Dynatech Laboratories
Inc., Chantilly, Va.; Labsystems Inc., Shrewsbury, Mass.;
MGM Instruments Inc., Hamden, Conn.; and others.
Bioluminescence From The Sea
Tapping the sea for bioluminescent organisms has ancient
roots--Roman scholar Pliny the Elder (23-79
Return to The Skeptic Tank's main Index page.
The views and opinions stated within this web page are those of the
author or authors which wrote them and may not reflect the views and
opinions of the ISP or account user which hosts the web page. The
opinions may or may not be those of the Chairman of The Skeptic Tank.