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October 1995 Physiology on the World-Wide Web Daniel Gardner Department of Physiology Cornell University Medical College The World-Wide Web, a part of the Internet, is the fastest- eration of sites renders less gloomy A.J. Liebling’s famous growing communication network in the history of humanity dictum that freedom of the press is restricted to those who and potentially one of the most important advances ever in own one. scientific communication. Software available at little or no However, it is this anarchic and explosive growth that cost permits an individual using any contemporary desktop makes it difficult to find the addresses (called Uniform computer to select and view text and images, including sound Resource Locators or URLs) of pages of interest or even to and video, created and provided by a remote computer. know what sites exist. There is no official central registry or Because the Web is machine independent, users with directory, and unlike the earlier Gopher protocols, there is no one type of computer, such as a Macintosh, can readily select hierarchical tree structure. (There is an art to deducing URLs and view documents created and provided by any computer, known to experienced Web users. It is based on a variety of whether Mac, IBM PC, or UNIX. An intuitive point-and- formal or informal conventions, but the guess must be exact.) click interface provides easy-to-use navigation of “links” One approach to keeping track of the continuing growth (underlined in Fig. 1) from document to document. This of this new medium is provided by on-line indexing and graphical interface largely shields the user from having to directory tools. A major indexing resource is the World-Wide know the actual site-the location on the Internet of the Web Virtual Library (WWWVL), a set of distributed subject remote computer--or even whether related documents are catalogs. One of these is the WWWVL: Physiology & stored on the same machine or on computers at different Biophysics, maintained at the Department of Physiology at sites. Further navigation by button or menu permits retracing Cornell University Medical College. This Virtual Library a series of links or revisiting any of a set of personally select- serves as an index and guide to physiology sites on the Web ed sites. and as a list of other sites that are likely to be of particular Posting documents (“pages”) on the Web is technologi- interest to physiologists. By combining the functions of a cally almost as simple as reading them. The resulting prolif- directory and index, the Virtual Library provides a contem- porary and informal definition of physiology. As the name implies, usage of this Virtual Library is indeed world wide. During one typical 24-hour period begin- INSIDE ning noon on August 14th, the site was used by hundreds: The Training of Physiologists 189 academics at 40 US and Canadian universities; US govern- ment, commercial, and military organizations; and other On-line and Into the Future 192 users from 18 foreign countries as geographically diverse as First Summer Institute Held 198 Australia, Brazil, Estonia, India, and Malaysia. for Teacher Research Fellows Experimental Biology ‘96 Preview 203 Origins APS Conference: New Discoveries i As a developer of this new technology at Cornell, I began by Within the Pancreatic Polypeptide constructing a local Web site that indexes and describes Family: Molecules to Medicine research, teaching, and people within my department. This con tin lred 011page 193 Vol. 38, No. 5, 1995 187 CONTENTS FEATURE: ARTICLES EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY ‘96 187 Physiology on the World-Wide Web 203 Symposia Preview D. Gardner 212 Bowditch Award, Cannon Award 189 The Training of Physiologists for the 21st 212 Distinguished Lectureships Century J. A. Williams PUBLIC AFFAIRS 214 Legislative Alert: Oppose the “Animal A MATTER OF OPINION Experimentation Right to Know Act” 192 On-line and Into the Future 215 APS Council Approves Resolution on “Class B” Dealers APS NEWS 216 Coronado Sentenced, RepudiatesOwn Activism 195 Letter to the Editor 195 Council Meets in Bethesda, MD 217 SUSTAINING Assocr~m 197 Council Thanks APS Staff 221 PEOPLE AND PLACES EDUCATION 223 SENIOR PHYSIOIA~GISTS 198 First Summer Institute Held for Teacher 224 POSITIONS AVAILABLE ResearchFellows 199 Education Staff to Promote APS Programs 225 BOOKS RECEIVED at Fall Teacher Conferences 225 BOOKREVIEWS APS CONFERENCES ANNOUNCEMENTS 200 Conference Report. Understanding the 228 XXX111 International Congressof Physiological Biological Clock Sciences 201 1996 Conference. Neural Control of Breathing: 229 Director, Division of ResearchGrants, NIH Molecular to Organismal Perspectives Position Open 202 1996 Conference. pHysiology of Acid-Based 230 Scientific Meetings and Congresses Regulation: From Molecules to Humans 202 1996 Intersociety Meeting. The Integrative Biology of Exercise Publications Committee: Chuirman, Leonard R. Johnson; The Phvsiologist Members. Dale Benos, Jerome A. Dempsey, Lorne Mendell, John A. Published bimonthly and distributed by Williams, and Loring R. Rowe11 (ex officio). Publications Manager, The American Physiological Society Brenda B. Rauner. 9650 Rockville Pike Subscriptions: Distributed to members as part of their membership. Bethesda, Maryland 208 14-399 1 Nonmembers in the USA: individuals $25.00; institutions $37.00. ISSN 003 l-9376 Nonmembers elsewhere: individuals $35.00; institutions $48.00. Single copies and back issues when available, $10.00 each; single Martin Frank copies and back issues of Abstracts issues when available, $20.00. Editor and Executive Director Subscribers to The Physiologist also receive abstracts of the Conferences of the American Physiological Society. Leonard S. Jefferson President The American Physiological Society assumes no responsibility for Brian R. Duling Past President the statements and opinions advanced by contributors to The James A. Schafer Presider2 t- Elect Physiologist. Deadline for submission of material for publication: Jan. 1, February Councillors issue; March 1, April issue; May 1, June issue; July 1, August issue; Walter E Boron, Gerald I?. DiBona, D. Neil &anger, Sept. I, October issue; Nov. 1, December issue. Barbara A. Horwitz, Diana L. Kunze, Heinz Valtin Please notify the central office as soon as possible if you change Ex O@cio your address or telephone number. Leonard R. Johnson, Franklyn G. Knox, Francis L. Belloni, Headquarters phone: 301-530-7 118. Fax: 301-57 I-8305. Ethan R. Nadel, Richard J. ‘bystman Printed in the USA. 188 THE PHYSIOLOGIST THE TRAINING OF PHYSIOLOGISTS The Training of Physiologists for t e 21st Century John A. Williams Department of Physiology University of Michigan In the last year I have been involved in a number of discus- We need to develop sions and read articles about the oversupply-real, per- ceived, or potential- of PhD scientists in the US. The issue a better understanding has become prominent enough that it was addressed last fall of the physiology pipeline in a meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) that considered for the first time PhD An understanding of the physiology pipeline as it relates to the production of physiologists in North America is impor- degree programs in medical schools and will be the subject tant both for our discipline as a whole and for individual again this year at a similar meeting. institutions mounting a significant training effort. While The oversupply of PhDs is generally believed to result there is no cluestion of the importance and need for improve- from an increased number of individuals being trained cou- ment in precollege and college science education, I am start- pled with a decline in the number of positions available in ing my consideration at the entrance to graduate school. both academia and industry. David Goodstein of the At this point students who have majored in a variety of California Institute of Technology has pointed out that if the areas, frequently biology or chemistry, and who typically past exponential increase of individuals receiving PhDs con- have had significant research experience, enroll in a PhD tinued until 2080, every man, woman, and child in the US program seeking a degree in physiology. will have a PhD in physics (1). Nationwide figures from the AAMC suggest the number Until recently it was fashionable to speak of how many of enrolled physiology students has remained relatively con- PhD students one had trained. The implicit assumption was stant at 1,200 to 1,400 while the number receiving degrees that these students would all find jobs as science grew and has declined somewhat from 1980 to the 1990s and is now that by training as many scientists as possible, the day would about 200 per year (2). be hastened when the benefits of science would be brought At my school, the University of Michigan, the number to bear on an array of problems affecting mankind. Now we of enrolled PhD students has declined gradually and is now tend to talk of how many people are applying for each avail- lower than any time in the previous fifteen years. able job or how many people register at the placement office In our case this recent decline reflects a reduction in the at the annual meeting. number of highly qualified American applicants, little With the growing realization that society may not be growth in funds to support graduate training, and a signifi- able to support all conceivable scientific research, that the cantly higher annual cost in stipend, tuition, and insurance costs of health care need to be brought under control, and per trainee, which now totals about $30,000 for out-of-state that certain political groups are espousing large cuts in gov- ernment spending at all levels, we are starting to hear that we students. It will be important to understand whether the dwindling should reduce graduate training. applicant pool reflects the general state of graduate educa- Obviously, physiologists make up only a small portion tion in the biomedical sciences or reflects the perception by of biological scientists.
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