Laboratories

Scientists studying the natural links between Maryland's mountain streams and its bay marshes are beginning work in a state-funded $20 million laboratory that officially opened yesterday on the campus of Frostburg State University.House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr., an Allegany County Democrat, was the keynote speaker at the unveiling of the lab, which was built to house researchers for the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. The center's three laboratories -- near Cambridge, on Solomons Island and at Frostburg -- specialize in research aimed at protecting and restoring the Chesapeake Bay and other coastal waters.

Biospherics Inc.With its multimillion-dollar automation and equipment-upgrading project behind it, this Beltsville environmental analysis and health information company must reel in new clients to make full use of its newly automated and re-equipped laboratories, said Margaret E. Grayson, finance vice president.Though Biospherics' information services, biotechnology and hazard-assessment divisions are profitable, the laboratory division makes up about 40 percent of the company, Ms. Grayson said.

HCC to oversee technology grant Howard Community College will serve as the lead institution for a three-year Technology Assessment Program (TAP) grant of $599,491. The program's goal is to expand the infrastructure for innovation in the Baltimore-Washington corridor; it includes an effort to speed technology-transfer from researchers to the private sector. The college is developing a course, "Technology Transfer from Invention to Marketplace," to be offered in the fall through its entrepreneurship program.

BioWhittaker loses Legg Mason listingLegg Mason Wood Walker Inc. has taken BioWhittaker Inc. of Frederick County off its recommended list for investors because the company's earnings have slipped.Sales of the company's diagnostics have suffered due to a change in federal regulation, and the company had to take a $1.1 million nonrecurring charge this past quarter. Net income, which was at least $1 million in each quarter of 1992, slipped to $500,000 during the first quarter of 1993."While we continue to think that the longer-term future of this small biomedical company is very bright, the near-term market action of the stock may be unexciting until its earnings growth resumes," Legg Mason's monthly report says.

CONGRESS wanted to know how spending decisions are made at America's favorite government agency, the disease-fighting National Institutes of Health. The establishment organization to which it assigned the question last year has now provided predictably mushy and soothing answers that NIH can easily accept: Everything is OK at NIH, but would be even better if the NIH public-relations operation were revved up considerably.In fact, much is far from OK at NIH. And the difficulties wouldn't be eased by that prescription, which calls for greater "outreach" and a bigger role for "the public" in decision-making at NIH headquarters.

Lewis H. Battee, a retired laboratory manager and avid crabber, died June 14 of pneumonia at Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City. The former Linthicum Heights resident was 95. Born one of nine in Baltimore and raised near Patterson Park, Mr. Battee was the son of a city police officer and a homemaker. He dropped out of city public schools when he was 15 to help support his family. He went to work at the Koppers Co. and rose through the ranks. At the time of his 1977 retirement, he was head of Koppers' metrology laboratory.

So you live in a charming bungalow with vinyl tile floors in the kitchen and a basement full of aged, gray, insulated pipes. Or you own an apartment with '50s-style popcorn coating on one ceiling and suspended acoustical tile on the others.Yup. Sounds like asbestos, all right. Here's what you do:If you rent, call the landlord. He or she should be aware of any materials in the place containing asbestos and should be willing to make sure that they are safe.Heating insulation, popcorn ceilings and acoustical tile are friable materials.

Chesapeake Biological Laboratories Inc., a Baltimore-based biotechnology company, reported a 55 percent increase in revenues in the 12 months ended March 31 as it increased its manufacturing capacity. The company reported a net loss of $8,000 in contrast to earnings of $632,000 a year earlier. However, the 1991 earnings included $1.3 million in other income and a gain from the sale of technology and licensing fees.Year ended 03/31/92....Revenue ....... Net....... Share'92... $2,263,463...

For SeaSafe Technologies and PRIDE Systems, two of Maryland's newest high-technology companies, the road from the laboratory to the marketplace ran right through Room 143 of the University of Baltimore's new business center.That was where the student members of the teams that will launch the two companies stood up recently and submitted their conclusion that they were prepared to take a homework assignment and turn it into a business.The teams' presentations were part of a groundbreaking project that brings together graduate students from varying disciplines to shepherd a potentially lucrative technology from a federal or corporate research laboratory to the commercial marketplace.