Science

Washington. -- Nobel laureates are the royalty of science. Post-doctoral researchers are the serfs, working on shortcontracts while striving for secure jobs. In 1986, prospects glowed for Margot O'Toole, a 33-year-old post-doc in immunology at MIT. Then she committed a perilous act that derailed her career.Dr. O'Toole questioned the validity of a breakthrough researc paper co-authored in the prestigious journal Cell by the Nobel laureate David Baltimore and Dr. O'Toole's laboratory chief, Thereza Imanishi-Kari.

What is your "Science IQ"? To find out, take this multiple-choice quiz:1. Tides are caused by:(a) Gravity leaking out of the moon.(b) Clams burping in unison.(c) Sen. Howell Heflin.2. What is magnetism?(a) Invisible rays that shoot out of a compass.(b) The force that causes dogs to bark when you ring the doorbell.(c) The molecular attraction that forms between refrigerators and little ceramic vegetables.3. The Earth rotates:(a) Around the cosine.(b) At night.(c) In a direction away from Cleveland.

The article "Conservatives confidence in science declines" (March 30) describes how better educated conservatives' confidence in science and in the reality of climate change has declined precipitously in recent years. This confirms what I have long maintained, that education by itself is no assurance of intelligence or knowledge. I guess we now need a new category - the stupid educated class. Jack Kinstlinger, Baltimore

She enters the clinic on a walker, slow yet remarkably steady, and as Pauline Wood hails her host for the day, she gives him a bag of lemon tarts she rose early that morning to bake.  With her white hair and glasses, Wood, 89, is every inch the lovable but tough grandmother, complete with her love of puppies, her passion for raising heirloom tomatoes and her predilection for waving away offers of help with the words, "Oh my goodness, I ...

A professor of physics at the University of Maryland, College Park who specializes in fundamental questions of the structure and behavior of the universe has been named a recipient of the National Medal of Science. Sylvester James Gates Jr., 62, was among 12 researchers named by President Barack Obama on Dec. 21 to receive the award at a White House ceremony this year. The medal, created in 1959 and awarded each year, recognizes what the White House described as extraordinary knowledge and outstanding contributions in science and engineering.

Pasadena, California.--Most Americans are in awe of our Nobel laureates but hate science and math classes. We brag about having the world's largest scientific elite while we bemoan scientific illiteracy in our schools. With growing alarm, the aristocrats of American science warn that ''a leaky pipeline'' in education now threatens our global leadership.What we're seeing, in fact, is the end result of an educational ''mining and sorting'' operation designed to cast aside masses of human debris in the search for a few diamonds-in-the-rough who are capable of becoming scientists.

Washington. -- Forget about the antediluvian men's country clubs and dining societies. When it comes to retrograde attitudes toward equality of women, the really invulnerable bastions are the Washington-based organizations that run American science.Science, the embodiment of truth-seeking and enlightenment, inhospitable to women? Yes, indeed. A web of alibis has been spun to explain away the situation. But the basic fact is that the governance of science is predominantly under the control of a self-perpetuating old-boy network that has endured for decades.

ANNAPOLIS -- Ralph Wainwright, an outgoing 10-year-old, likes science in general and dinosaurs in particular, mostly because "I like the bones."Gov. William Donald Schaefer says he likes science and technology, too, and proved it yesterday by declaring April 26 to May 3 "Maryland Science Week."The governor made the announcement at a State House news conference attended by Ralph and 16 other students from Annapolis Elementary School.The state plans to publish a calendar of science events and a directory of science centers, to schedule class visits to research facilities and to distribute free federal publications on science education.

Science is a discipline that unravels many mysteries of the world around us. Yet the field always seemed stumped by this challenge: how not to be so boring. If ever a subject glazed young eyes, it was science. The teacher with slide rule in hand monotoning his or her way through a presentation on the overheard projector; that's how science was typically presented the past.Now there seems to be recognition that science wasn't being conveyed in its best light, that a numbing presentation of facts masked its appeal, even drama.