April 2007 ASCB Newsletter
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ASCB A P R I L 2 0 0 7 NEWSLETTER VOLUME 30, NUMBER 4 MBC: Eliminate Hogan, Meyerowitz Shapiro to the Printed Journal? Run for ASCB President Present Page 4 Brigid Hogan of Duke Medical Center and Elliot Meyerowitz of the California Institute Porter of Technology/HHMI are running for ASCB 47th ASCB President. The elected candidate will serve on the Society’s Executive Committee Lecture Annual Meeting as President-Elect in 2008 and as ASCB Lucy Shapiro President in 2009. of Stanford Program Brigid Hogan Duke Medical Eight candidates will compete for four three- University Page 8 Center year terms as Councilor. All those elected start School of service on January 1, 2008. Medicine has An email with a link to the Society’s been named NIH Director electronic ballot and candidate biographies Lucy Shapiro by ASCB Criticizes Bush will be sent to regular, postdoctoral, and President emeritus members. Bruce M. Stem Cell Policy The election closes on June 30. Results will Alberts to give the 26th Annual be announced in the July issue of the ASCB Keith R. Porter Lecture. Page 13 Elliot Meyerowitz Newsletter. Her lecture, “Spatial and California 2004 ASCB President Harvey F. Lodish Topological Components of Institute of of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Bacterial Cell Cycle Regulatory Inside Technology/ Circuitry,” will be presented HHMI Research served as Nominating Committee Chair; also serving on the Committee were during the 47th ASCB Annual Gary G. Borisy, Joanne Chory, Anthony P. Meeting in Washington, DC, President’s Column 2 Mahowald, Suzanne R. Pfeffer, Laura J. Robles, Pamela A. on December 4. ■ Call for Award Nominations 3 Silver, Masatoshi Takeichi, and Fiona M. Watt. ■ MBC and the Economics of Scientifi c Publishing 4 Candidates for ASCB Council Annual Meeting Program 8 InCytes from MBC 10 Each regular, postdoctoral, and emeritus member will be sent a Dear Labby 12 link to the ASCB election site. Since spam fi lters may pre- Public Policy Briefi ng 13 Ueli Aebi Holly Goodson Kathleen Green Doug vent some messages from be- University of Basel University of Northwestern Lauffenburger University Massachusetts ing received, members are en- WICB Column 16 Notre Dame Feinberg School Institute of couraged to go to www.ascb. of Medicine Technology org to vote. Your member num- ASCB Profi le 18 ber (the same number used to Members in the News 22 access MBC) will enable you to vote, and ensure that each Grants & Opportunities 23 member votes just once. If you do not receive the link and/or Member Gifts 23 do not know your member num- ber, contact the ASCB at (301) Classifed Advertising 23 Aki Nakano Paul Sternberg Clare Waterman- Maria Elena RIKEN Discovery California Storer Zavala 347-9300 or ascbinfo@ascb. Research Institute Institute of The Scripps California State org. ■ Calendar 24 Technology/HHMI Research Institute University The American Society for Cell Biology PRESIDENT’S Column 8120 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 750 Bethesda, MD 20814-2762 Tel: (301) 347-9300 Fax: (301) 347-9310 The Real “Science for Society” [email protected], www.ascb.org Recently, Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian lawyer who the NSF, less than one-fourth of U.S. adults Joan R. Goldberg won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her hu- were able to explain in their own words what it Executive Director man rights efforts, raised an important question. means to study something scientifically (NSF, Officers How, she wondered, can the U.S. be so short- 2006)? sighted and unwise in its foreign policies when Many scientists would probably answer such Bruce M. Alberts President it is so accomplished in its science? This is a dis- questions by putting the blame on others. But in Robert D. Goldman President-Elect turbing question: Why do we not apply a scien- my opinion, an important explanation for these Mary C. Beckerle Past President tific way of viewing the world paradoxes is our overly narrow Gary E. Ward Treasurer to a broader range of human view of the applicability of Jean E. Schwarzbauer Secretary problems? More narrowly, why scientific skills for society. This Council do we not even apply scientific view causes us to adopt attitudes thinking to the question of how that severely limit the spread of Kerry S. Bloom to teach science? science and its values beyond David R. Burgess our university (and science- John S. Condeelis Using the Tools of based industry) walls. Susan K. Dutcher D. Scott Emr Science Joan R. Goldberg, ex officio My 12 years at the National Making a Science Out Caroline M. Kane Academy of Sciences convinced of Science Education Sandra K. Masur me that the future success of our As a first step, can we make a Barbara J. Meyer complex human societies de- science out of science educa- Timothy J. Mitchison pends on using the tools of sci- tion? As scientists, we are all de- Erin K. O'Shea Anne J. Ridley ence much more broadly to Bruce Alberts voted to collecting and objec- Susan R. Wente create a knowledge base—re- tively evaluating data to build sembling the one that we have a powerful knowledge base in ASCB Newsletter in cell biology—that can be used to guide deci- our particular discipline, whether it is cell biol- is published twelve times per sion-making in many areas of human endeavor. ogy, organic chemistry, or astrophysics. But our year by The American Society for Cell Biology. Thus the National Academies have repeatedly reliance on data often stops there. Our disinter- addressed questions such as “How can we make est in collecting evidence on the learning of stu- Joan R. Goldberg Editor a science out of education?” and “How can we dents and using it to improve our own college John L. Saville Production Manager make a science out of sustainable development?” and graduate school teaching is legendary, and Nancy Moulding Production Assistant The answer is to embed research and research- it explains the current push from some farsight- Kevin Wilson Public Policy Briefing ers of the highest quality into a wide variety of ed colleagues for what they call “scientific teach- Ed Newman Advertising Manager ongoing efforts to improve the human condi- ing” (Handelsman et al., 2004). The ASCB has John Fleischman Science Writer Thea Clarke Editorial Manager tion. But thus far we have failed abysmally in had a major role in promoting these new efforts such tasks. through CBE—Life Sciences Deadlines for submission of There is clear evidence Education (www.lifescied. articles and advertising that our approach to teaching org). Led by Editor-in-Chief materials: science is ineffective. Why do we not apply William B. (Bill) Wood, this Issue Deadline According to the National a scientific way of pioneering, open-access ed- June May 1 Science Foundation (NSF), viewing the world to ucation journal has recently July June 1 more than five million people a broader range of expanded to cover the entire August July 1 in the U.S. work in careers human problems? range of biological sciences, requiring expertise in science and I encourage everyone to ASCB Newsletter ISSN 1060-8982 and technology, including both read it and contribute ar- Volume 30, Number 4 some 600,000 life and physical ticles. April 2007 scientists. How is it possible for such a science- Consider the area that I know best, K– rich society to produce high school graduates 12 science education in the U.S. For many © 2007 The American Society for Cell Biology who, in international comparisons, repeatedly decades, we have spent enormous amounts of rank near the bottom in their understanding time and money on all sorts of projects aimed Postmaster: Send change of address to ASCB Newsletter of science and mathematics? And how can we at improving science education in U.S. school The American Society for Cell Biology explain the fact that, in a survey conducted by districts, including some in San Francisco where 8120 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 750 Bethesda, MD 20814-2762 2 ASCB NEWSLETTER APRIL 2007 I have been personally involved. Along the Ph.D. training. I view this as a great opportuni- way, we have made many mistakes, from which ty. Can we begin to build a new type of scientif- we should have learned a great deal; instead, ic enterprise, one in which universities focus on failures are generally viewed as embarrassments seeding large numbers of highly skilled scientists and swept under the rug. As a result, those throughout society as future leaders in education working to improve education tend to make the research, pre-college teaching, journalism, busi- I am encouraged same mistakes over and over again in different ness, science policy, law, and politics? that we finally seem contexts. We should be ambitious in attempting to to have reached a There is a potential advantage to the highly demonstrate that our scientific way of viewing tipping point in the decentralized education system in the U.S.: It the world can have a profound, beneficial gives rise to a large number of varied approaches impact on a broad range of national and seriousness with toward a common goal. As scientists, we should international policies. A future article in this which most colleges be eager to treat these as “experiments” from series will suggest some possible strategies and universities which to collect data to build a sound basis of by which we might hope to address Ebadi’s are addressing knowledge on which to base future educational challenge. ■ the teaching of efforts. Only by honest, detailed research that —Bruce M. Alberts introductory college extracts the reasons for the many successes and science courses.