5TH International Ancient DNA Conference. Divining diet and disease from DNA

Some 110 scientists from a range of disciplines gathered in the overcast British midlands for the 5th International Ancient DNA Conference, held here from 12 to 14 July. Among the attractions were new insights into the diets of early Americans gleaned from ancient human coprolites and intriguing reports of nuclear DNA and ancient viral sequences extracted from mammoth bones.     

Canadian men of science

Even by American standards, the far western universities of British Columbia and Saskatchewan have been outstanding producers of scientists. Next have been the small Maritime Province universities of Acadia and Mount Allison. The larger universities in Ontario and Quebec were much lower in scientific productivity, and the Roman Catholic schools lowest of all. Nearly half of the Canadian scientists have migrated to the United States, and, of those remaining in Canada, nearly half went to Ontario. Of the mathematicians, physicists, and psychologists, considerably more than half emigrated to the United States, whereas of the biologists, geologists, and chemists, considerably more than half remained in Canada. Two-thirds of Canada's future scientists go abroad for graduate training. Teaching remains the dominant profession for the top scientists, with some trend in evidence toward government and industry.     

ESSAYS ON SCIENCE AND SOCIETY: Selling Science to the Public

In this essay, Highfield reflects on his personal experiences as science journalist and editor at the British broadsheet the Daily Telegraph. Highfield believes that scientists can learn from journalists' dialogue approach to science communication. Highfield believes that readers are "ignorant but smart," and are sufficiently sceptical not to believe all the hype that they read. What is most important is that a dialogue is created. For example, large-scale experiments performed by the Daily Telegraph together with the BBC allow the public to get a glimpse of the scientific method that is often ignored.     

Forensic epidemiology. Vaccine theory of AIDS origins disputed at Royal Society

At center stage at a meeting on the origin of the AIDS epidemic, held here this week at the Royal Society, was a controversial theory that a contaminated polio vaccine tested in Africa more than 40 years ago sparked the epidemic. The theory took a hit when researchers revealed that tests of old samples of the vaccine provided no supporting evidence, and the main proponent of the theory, British writer Edward Hooper, endured a verbal battering himself from several prominent scientists. But Hooper, unbowed, got in plenty of jabs of his own.     

全方位强化素质教育 再创上农人才特色

本文密切联系当今一系列教育观念的更新,以及上海农业转型升级的形势,阐述了构建素质教育的新思路,并围绕再创上农人才特色,对素质教育的抓手、阵地和枢纽进行了回顾与探讨.提出应把综合素质和人才特色的养成贯穿于理论教学、实践教学和校园文化活动之中;要把图书馆、学生宿舍同课堂一样视作重要教育阵地;并充分发挥教研室、班主任和学生社团的枢纽作用,使素质教育得以全方位强化.     

Supply and demand for scientists and engineers: a national crisis in the making

Projections are analyzed for the future supply and demand of scientists and engineers. The demographics of the college-age population combined with estimates of the percentage of students who will pursue careers in science and engineering indicate significant shortfalls between supply and demand for the next several decades at both the baccalaureate and Ph.D. levels. If these projections are realized, the shortage of technical personnel will have a major impact on economic growth, international competitiveness, and national security. Various strategies for recruiting and retaining students in science and engineering are considered.     

Corrections and clarifications

The Random Samples item "The mosquito and the marigold" (12 May, p. 809) incorrectly suggested that a team of scientists in India first characterized phototoxins in marigolds that kill mosquito larvae. In fact, they were originally discovered in the early 1980s in Canada by investigators at the University of British Columbia [see J. T. Arnason, B. J. R. PhilogAne, P. Morand, K. Imrie, B. Hasspieler, A. E. R. Downe, "Naturally occurring and synthetic thiophenes as insecticides," American Chemical Society Symposium Series 387, 164 (1989)].     

旅游区客源市场结构分析与营销策略——以余荫山房为例

客源市场是旅游业赖以生存和发展的关键因素,客源分析是一个景区进行营销策划的基础。通过对抽样问卷调查的有效问卷进行分析,总结出了余荫山房客源市场的特征：主要是中青年为主、大学及以上文化程度、企事业单位的员工、教师和学生;客源地是以广州市和番禺为主占;以家庭为单位的自驾车游客较多。然后又选取了广州大学城的学生作为调查对象,问卷表明,近一半的学生表示有兴趣会去余荫山房游玩,学生的旅游偏好也证明余荫山房这种类型的景点在学生中很受欢迎,所以得出结论,即大学城将是余荫山房巨大的客源。最后根据人口统计细分市场的特点和客源地细分市场,将其核心客源市场定位于广州市客源市场和大学城客源市场的家庭游客群体、离退休游客群体和学生群体。对此,余荫山房应采取差异性的营销策略,综合地运用价格策略、促销策略。     

The physics interviewing project: a tour of interviews in Asia

The Physics Interviewing Project assists graduate physics departments in evaluating foreign applicants. Supported by some 20 universities, two interviewers, both working scientists, travel abroad and interview students individually for about 1 hour each. Prospective teaching assistants are rated on physics knowledge, problem-solving ability, and English language proficiency. Ratings on all interviewees are sent to all supporting schools and other schools as requested. The Project aids able students from countries that have no physics Ph.D. programs (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand) to obtain assistantships and Ph.D.'s abroad, assists in the technological development of those countries, and helps U.S. schools in selecting the most promising foreign candidates. A similar program should be beneficial in other sciences.     

Personality and scholarship

Two groups of National Merit Scholarship students were selected on the basis of attendance at educational institutions ranked high or low in the production of future scholars and scientists. Four hypotheses pertaining to expected personality differences between matched groups from both sources were explored by means of the following instruments: the Omnibus Personality Inventory, the Strong Vocational Interest Blank, and the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values. In general, the hypotheses were firmly supported, and it was concluded that students of high ability attending highly productive institutions have a pattern of traits, values, and attitudes which is more closely related to serious intellectual pursuits than have students of high ability attending less productive institutions (16).     

Complex iron smelting and prehistoric culture in Tanzania

Western scientists and students of history have long explaind th iron bloomery process by evidence available from European archeology. Ethnographic, technological, and archeological research into the technological life of the Haya of northwestern Tanzania show that these people and their forebears 1500 to 2000 years ago practiced a highly advanced iron smelting technology based on preheating principles and, as a result, produced carbon steel. This sophisticated technology may have evolved as an adaptation to overexploited forest resources. These discoveries are significant for the history of Africa and the history of metallurgy.     

Bioethics. Financial conflicts get more scrutiny in clinical trials

At a national conference on clinical research last week, the incoming head of the federal government's new Office for Human Research Protections, Greg Koski, surprised his audience by suggesting that some conflicts should be avoided. His support for the idea that scientists should have no financial ties to companies whose products they are testing hints at an upcoming shift in government rules that govern the relationship between scientists and the pharmaceutical industry. But most of the discussion at the conference revolved around questions of how to "manage" conflicts rather than do away with them.     

Keys to Independence in the U.K. and Ireland

Funding bodies are coming to the aid of young scientists with a variety of programs aimed at helping them become independent investigators.     

Infectious disease. The enigma of West Nile.

Fifteen months after the 1999 outbreak of West Nile virus in New York City, which sickened 62 mostly elderly people and killed seven, scientists are still hard pressed to predict how abundant the virus will eventually become or how serious a public health threat it will pose. This summer, the human toll has been relatively mild, with just 18 cases and one death. But the virus has been found in more than 60 bird species and about a dozen mammals; in a little more than a year, it has spread to 11 states along the East Coast and the District of Columbia. And with no natural barriers to stop it, scientists can safely say that it will keep spreading.     

Undergraduate Origins of American Scientists

An analysis of the college attendance or college choice for four high-aptitude, high-school senior samples suggests that the differential institutional productivity of scientists and scholars is a function of the differential college attendance, paternal vocational motivations, and their implied correlates among high-aptitude students. This formulation appears to be more probable for males than for females. The institutional productivity hypothesis proposed in previous studies is not supported by the present evidence (14).     

IRANIAN SCIENCE: Iran's Scientists Cautiously Reach Out to the World

Two decades after Iran's Islamic revolution, science in this politically isolated but oil-rich nation may be on the verge of resurgence. The nation's reform-minded president, Mohammad Khatami, and his allies are promising more money for R&D, reorganizing universities to beef up graduate education and research, and cracking open the door to closer cooperation with scientists abroad, including those in the United States. But Iran's government is walking a tightrope between hard-liners on the right who oppose reforms and liberal university students eager for change.     

以英国青年就业项目为鉴论我国高校社工学生就业项目

我国高校社会工作专业自1989年北大开班以来,全国各高校设立的社会工作专业本硕班培育大批的社工人才,但在就业方面却遭遇冷门,这与我国就业环境及政府的政策有很大的关联。虽然近些年,社工队伍不断壮大,但是人才流失很严重,特别是高校社工人才选择在本专业发展的比例很少。在此,本文借鉴英国成功的就业项目和现阶段政府购买服务项目,探讨了二者的结合谈社工就业及以此为主的项目的策划。     

Toxicology. Mercury report backs strict rules

The debate, finally, seemed to be settled. After an 18-month review, a panel of the National Academy of Sciences last week weighed in on the health risks of mercury, endorsing strict safety levels proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1995. But already some scientists are contesting the panel's conclusions, and federal agencies are grappling with how to reconcile competing regulations.     

Clinical trials. Planned Ritalin trial for tots heads into uncharted waters

U.S. scientists are gearing up for a major clinical trial intended to measure the effects of a popular but controversial drug used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, methylphenidate (Ritalin), on a previously untested population--children aged 3 to 6. But in doing so, they are running up against ethical concerns about using young subjects in clinical trials. The scientists involved in the study admit that they are concerned about the drug's effect on the children's still-developing personalities and brains, as well as their inability to give informed consent. But they believe that such trials are the only way to answer concerns about rising use of the drug among this population.     

Paleontology. New feathered dino firms up bird links

Last week, Chinese scientists presented evidence from a new specimen dug up in Liaoning Province that they say strengthens the case for the bird-dinosaur link. The finding, one of several fossils displayed at a meeting here, is the third known specimen of a strange creature known as Caudipteryx which, unlike any other known dinosaur fossil, shows the unmistakable imprints of feathers. The researcher who described the new specimen at the meeting has identified 16 characteristics of the new fossil that are more similar to dinosaurs than to early birds, reinforcing the views of most Western scientists.