The mantra of a patent professional is--novel, nonobvious, and useful! That is to say, in order to patent something, an inventor must demonstrate that her invention or discovery is new, substantially different from anything else that already exists, and has some sort of real use. Up until now, defining "utility" has been difficult, particularly when DNA sequences are involved. But on 5 January, t...
WANTED: Team players with an impeccable science background and a flair for analysis. Excellent written and verbal communication skills are a must, as are flexibility and the facility to handle many varied tasks simultaneously and on tight deadlines. Benefits include exposure to the very latest scientific breakthroughs and a generous salary. If this fictitious ad has piqued your interest, then a c...
As you ease gently into your plush black leather executive chair, you spot the latest copy of Fortune magazine resting on your mahogany desk. You swivel around for a better view ... and there you are on the cover! Just a few inches below your pearly whites run the words "30-Something CEO Makes It Big in Biotech." So, you've really made it--how satisfying! But suddenly a familiar voice calls out, ...
"Get a mentor!" Most of us have heard this advice at one time or another in our careers. But what, exactly, is a mentor? And how do you get one? According to the National Academies? book Adviser, Teacher, Role Model, Friend: On Being a Mentor to Students in Science and Engineering , a mentor is ?someone who takes a special interest in helping another develop into a successful professional.? So, a...
After receiving a congressional inquiry from Representative W. J. "Billy" Tauzin, the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) suspended new ethics training regulations on 20 February 2001, just months after they were announced on ORI's Web site. As Next Wave reported in December, these rules would have required all Public Health Service-supported researchers to undergo instruction in the Responsible C...
Are universities turning into businesses? This was the provocative question asked at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Spring 2001 Policy Conference, held 7 May 2001 in Bethesda, Maryland. "The university is very much a business," declared Ray White, chief scientific officer of DNA Sciences. More and more higher education institutions are establishing technolog...
Over the years, Next Wave has published a considerable collection of essays focusing on ethics and integrity in the scientific workplace. Some of these have focused on case studies and specific questions--we call these mini-features--while others are stand-alone articles exploring a particular issue. If you've missed any of our past ethics or policy mini-features and articles, no need to worry! Y...
For years, graduate students and postdocs funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH) training grants and fellowships have been required to take instruction in the responsible conduct of research (RCR), or scientific ethics. Following the NIH's lead, some institutions have elected to include all their science trainees in this obligation. And pretty soon, institutions may not have a choice--the ...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX As long as there are people with good ideas, there will be a need for patent professionals. And with the recent unveiling of the human genome sequence--to say nothing of the new drugs that are being tested every day--those working in the patent field are busier than ever. "Work just finds us!" exclaims Frederick Gibb, senior partner at McGinn and Gibb, a Washington, D.C....
It?s not just your imagination--the postdoc population is indeed increasing. In the United States alone, the number of biomedical postdocs, as of 2000, was growing three times faster than the rest of the nation?s labor force, and post-Ph.D. workers of one kind or another are fixtures in research units around the world. But are there really too many postdocs? Next Wave has been keeping careful tab...
A postdoc working at the bench across from you publishes data that are "too perfect," and his reported sample size of mice does not match up with the number of animals you know he used. Feeling it is your duty as a graduate student and as a scientist to find out what happened, you first ask him what's going on. When he doesn't give you a rational response, you go through the proper channels at yo...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX Had you told Kathie Olsen (pictured left) years ago that she, a neuroscientist, would be chief scientist at NASA and, eventually, assistant director for science at the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), she "would have started laughing!" Olsen's career started in the typical way. She earned her Ph.D. degree at the University of California, Irvine, did a post...
Ari Patrinos, associate director for biological and environmental research at the Department of Energy (DOE)--and overseer of DOE's role in the Human Genome Project--can identify with fears of genetic discrimination. Patrinos revealed at the 16 to 18 January 2001 conference "A Decade of ELSI Research" that he himself has been a target of health discrimination. Patrinos told a personal story of be...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX "What we hope to do in this series is not to promote CAM [complementary and alternative medicine] but to promote an understanding of CAM by looking at it from various perspectives," said Stephen Straus, director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) in Bethesda, Maryland, when introducing the brand-new NCCAM lecture series called "Dist...
BACK TO THE FEATURE INDEX This article was originally posted in the February 2001 GrantsNet News as the Profile of the Month. Specialized equipment for manipulating nanometer-sized molecules can be extremely expensive. So, to manipulate things on the nanometer scale, you'd better have either a very rich uncle or a lot of grant support! Well, you can't choose your relatives but you can choose wher...
Clinical research brings the latest therapies and pharmaceuticals from the laboratory bench to the bedsides of real patients. The discipline blends two different worlds--the laboratory and the clinic--and translates basic discoveries into treatments for human disease. So, who is qualified to become a clinical researcher? As Carolina Maier, a Ph.D. postdoc at Stanford University?s department of ne...
So you've perused our past ethics mini-features, but you want to know even more about scientific ethics. Well, you've come to the right place! Next Wave has gathered a large list of resources from elsewhere on the Web and invites you to explore them at your leisure. Despite our efforts, this list is by no means all inclusive,so please let us know if you have suggestions for other resources that w...
Will scientific ethics classes become mandatory for all trainees? Who will teach the old guard--the established principal investigators (PIs) who are by no means immune from ethical lapses? Should the government force institutions to implement scientific ethics instruction? These were just a few of the questions raised in an open meeting on 10 October 2002 in Washington, D.C. Within the ornate ha...
At first glance, the idea of a collaborating with a company can be very appealing. Perhaps the company is offering your lab a lucrative, multiyear contract. Or maybe it is dangling a more intellectual lure--like being on the ground floor of a major breakthrough, such as a cure for cancer. But whatever the reasons may be for considering an academia-industry partnership, both parties should look lo...
National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded graduate students and postdocs, look out: Your ethics classes may soon be getting a bit more crowded! Why? Because on 1 December, the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) published new federal regulations that greatly expand the definition of who must undergo instruction on the responsible conduct of research (RCR). Already, all NIH-funded trainees--gradua...
