Silicon

Maryland is the "global hotspot for biotechnology," the state's secretary of business and economic development told a group visiting from India last month. "I made it up this morning," Aris Melissaratos acknowledged, shortly after the meeting in Montgomery County. But it could be true, he added, if you use the right justification. Building a biotech economy sometimes seems more about artful articulation than actual science. Competition for the industry is stiff, and state and country officials aren't above manipulating details to improve their home turf's place on the biotech battlefield.

WASHINGTON - A day after rejecting another company's proposal, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended yesterday that silicone breast implants made by Mentor Corp. be approved - with conditions - for women having cosmetic surgery. The 7-2 vote came with nine stipulations attached, including continuing safety monitoring studies, follow-up care of patients, special training for surgeons and voluntary tracking of every woman with implants. But the expert advisers gave a mixed message to the FDA regulators, who must make the final decision on marketing the implants, because the same panel had voted 5-4 on Tuesday to recommend disapproval of silicone implants made by Inamed Corp.

GAITHERSBURG - A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended yesterday against allowing silicone breast implants back on the market, citing concerns about possible health effects and design problems that cause some to break prematurely. The vote to disapprove the application by Inamed Corp. of Santa Barbara, Calif., to market the devices was 5-4. "I don't feel secure about safety," said Dr. Amy E. Newberger, a Scarsdale, N.Y., dermatologist who offered the motion to disapprove the device.

WASHINGTON - Pamela Dowd drove her 20-year-old motor home 2,500 miles from Boise, Idaho, to tell a government panel how her silicone breast implants led to health problems that have sapped her vitality and made her medically uninsurable. Terry Heide took time off from her Pentagon job to urge just as forcefully that women be allowed to make their own decisions about the risks and benefits of silicone gel implants, which many believe have a more natural look and feel than the available saline-filled ones.

For 45 years, Marilyn Hail made her family's favorite lemon cake in a traditional metal fluted bundt pan. But two years ago she decided to buck tradition. When her son gave her a flexible silicone mold purchased at a hardware store as a Christmas present, she gave the Space Age bakeware a try. "The texture is good. The taste is no different," the Leawood, Kan., home cook says. Her biggest criticism? "It just looks pale, like it hasn't browned enough." Hail says she still prefers standard glass, ceramic and metal baking pans, but she can see the appeal of the new heat-resistant material.

SAN FRANCISCO - The board of PeopleSoft Inc. bowed to its investors yesterday - and to one of the most aggressive executives in Silicon Valley - by agreeing to sell the company to Oracle Corp. for $10.3 billion. The deal caps a bitter, often personal 18-month fight that captivated Wall Street and Silicon Valley, even though few casual computer users know much about either company's products. Yesterday's agreement was reached over the weekend, during the first direct negotiations between Oracle and People- Soft.

SAN FRANCISCO - Google, the Web-search company that has developed a huge popular following around the world, is expected to take a tentative first step next week toward a public stock offering, a person close to the company said yesterday. But it is likely to stop short of filing a formal registration to sell shares, he said. In recent days, speculation on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley has reached a fever pitch over Google's long-awaited offering, which has become the most highly anticipated event in the technology world here since the dot-com boom collapsed in early 2001.

The Information Age is spawning faster and cheaper computers every two to three years. But each computer generation is contributing to an environmental time bomb: thousands of discarded monitors that contain tons of toxic lead. No one is sure how much "e-waste" is produced each year, whether it's thrown into trash bins or stored in attics and closets. But a California environmental group estimates that 300 to 600 million personal computers in the U.S. are obsolete and could be headed to landfills in the next few years.

To Dr. Sheri Slezak, the Food and Drug Administration's 1992 hearings on silicone-gel breast implants seemed more like a political convention than a gathering of scientific minds. Attendees donned buttons and waved signs, like party faithful pushing candidates. "People emotionally and fervently believe in whatever side they are on," said Slezak, an associate professor of plastic surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. More than 11 years after the FDA banned the sale of the implants for general use, that remains as true as ever.