Commentary in 1993

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  • The debacle of the US space programme is the consequence of the insecure, publicity-seeking policies of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

    • Thomas Gold
    Commentary
  • Two months ago, the superconducting supercollider was killed by the US Congress. Here, a particle physicist provides a post mortem and asks whether Europe should build its own collider.

    • David Ritson
    Commentary
  • What does the future hold for space research? Wrangles between groups of people with different interests must b resolved if a prescription is to be found.

    • Joan Johnson-Freese
    • George Moore
    Commentary
  • Reforms in the US system for financing health care have grave implications for academic medicine and for basic scientific research.

    • Barbara J. Culliton
    Commentary
  • How do we know the Sun will rise tomorrow? Hume's concern raises two questions: the problem of empirical inference was solved in this century by Popper; an approach to the stability of nature in time is outlined here.

    • Allan Goddard Lindh
    Commentary
  • Why is the UK's biotechnology industry still nascent? Academic institutions must exploit the commercial opportunities of the research they support if Britain is to remain internationally competitive.

    • Nicholas Scott-Ram
    Commentary
  • Contrary to the prevailing opinion that the Roman assault ramp at Masada in Israel was entirely man-made, geological observations reveal that it consists mostly of natural bedrock.

    • Dan Gill
    Commentary
  • From the structure of sodium chloride to that of a human rhinovirus complexed with its receptor — X-ray crystal analysis has taken an extraordinarily fruitful path since its inception 80 years ago.

    • John Meurig Thomas
    Commentary
  • Since 1980, volcanologists have confronted more volcanic crises than any time since the Mont Pelee catastrophe in 1902. Good science alone will not do the job of reducing volcano risk.

    • Robert I. Tilling
    • Peter W. Lipman
    Commentary
  • One of the persistent controversies that surfaces in the media about AIDS is whether the heterosexual population is at risk. The latest projections provide an emphatic affirmative.

    • Roy Anderson
    Commentary
  • The past year has seen many controversies about AIDS research and researchers. What productive events have occurred, and what is likely to happen in the next year?

    • John Moore
    Commentary
  • On the eve of the announcement by the British government of its plan to reorganize the country's scientific enterprise, how should scientists see themselves in relation to the world in which they live?

    • D. A. Rees
    Commentary
  • One of President Bill Clinton's early decisions was to lift the ban on federally supported research on human fetal tissue. Under what circumstances can research on this material be justified?

    • Diana W. Bianchi
    • Merton Bernfield
    • David G. Nathan
    Commentary
  • At UNESCO's celebration of the double helix's fortieth anniversary in Paris last week, nostalgia was overlaid by vigorous optimism about the future of molecular biology.

    • Nicholas Short
    Commentary
  • People in rural regions of the developing world are hungry for electricity to meet the most rudimentary of needs. Small solar-power systems have proved themselves to be an appropriate technology.

    • Neville Williams
    • Ken Jacobson
    • Harold Burris
    Commentary
  • How can governments ensure that wealth is created from the scientific enterprise? In an abbreviated version of his talk at Nature's recent meeting1, Sir Mark Richmond assesses the probable British strategy.

    • Mark Richmond
    Commentary
  • The effects of the inevitable discoveries emerging from the Human Genome Project will be catastrophic for some. Now is the time for preventative action to be taken.

    • Benno Müller-Hill
    Commentary
  • The British government is promising a national strategy for science and technology in its forthcoming White Paper on research. Will its bite live up to its bark? Or will it end up merely rearranging the deck-chairs on the Titanic?

    • David Dickson
    Commentary
  • A hypothesis identifying substance abuse as a main cause of AIDS has naturally excited much publicity. But such claims have no basis in fact.

    • M. S. Ascher
    • H. W. Sheppard
    • E. Vittinghoff
    Commentary