Science/Technology lecular and developmental biology. Eric S. Lander, a mathematician at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Mass., explain ed h o w restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) are provid ing markers in the h u m a n genome to track a variety of genetic disor ders. Although such RFLP analysis is limited to tracking simple genet ic disorders, Lander discussed re search on applying it to more com plex patterns of inheritance. Francis S. Collins, a geneticist at the University of Michigan, A n n Arbor, followed Lander with a dis cussion of the intensive effort being mounted to use RFLP analysis to locate the gene responsible for the disease cystic fibrosis. Collins con trasted the current effort on cystic fibrosis with the effort that would be required after completion of the h u m a n genome project. The infor mation provided by genetic, physi cal, and nucleotide sequence maps of the h u m a n genome would enor mously facilitate the search for such genes. Gary Struhl of Columbia Univer sity and Scott Fraser of the Univer sity of California, Irvine, concluded the symposium with two talks on the progress being made in under standing the factors that control de velopment of a fertilized egg into a highly diversified organism. Speaking about the meeting gen erally, Columbia's Barton, one of the organizers, believes it was suc cessful. ' T h e meeting, which was an experiment, exceeded our expec tations," she says. "It provided an opportunity for participants to gain a better perspective on science and the relationships among different areas of science." Enthusiasm among the participants was strong e n o u g h for NAS to decide to sponsor a sec o n d such s y m p o s i u m next year, Barton says. A n d w h e t h e r symposium partici pants understood all that was pre sented (which almost certainly very few, if any, did) is, perhaps, besides the point. They were reminded, as one scientist observed, w h y they chose to pursue science in the first place: because of the vast range of mystifying and wonderful phenom ena nature presents for mankind's consideration. Π 24
March 20, 1989 CAEN
SOFTWARE/DATABASE UPDATE m Enflex 313 (ERM Computer Ser vices, Circle 250) helps compa nies calculate chemical releasee and assists in compliance with Section 313 of the Superfund Amendments & Reauthorization Act. The program determines which chemicals are subject to reporting requirements, generates required documentation (Form R reports), and performs mass bal ance calculations on industrial processes. It is available in ver sions for IBM PCs and compat ibles ($3295), DEC MicroVAXes ($6000), and IBM 3090 mainframes ($30,000). • HPLC-Metabolexpert (CompuDrug USA, Circle 251) combines capabilities of the Metabolexpert system (which predicts metabol ic pathways for organic com pounds) with an additional mod ule that estimates HPLC retention times of predicted metabolites. The program can read from and write to Molfile (Molecular De sign Ltd.) molecular structure files. One version of the program ($9900 for first copy, $5400 each for subsequent copies) runs on IBM XTs, ATs, PS/2s, and com patibles, and a second version ($33,000) runs on DEC VAX com puters.
awareness database on business aspects of biotechnology, has been expanded to include directorystyle entries on nearly 1000 bio technology organizations found worldwide. The database is file 286 on the Dialog information service. • Massbal (PPS Systems, $50, Cir cle 254) is a process simulator used to calculate material balances for chemical, mineral, and met allurgical processes with up to 50 process streams and 10 com ponents. The program's simula tor functions include stream add ing, stream splitting, component splitting, and chemical reactor and storage tank simulation. It operates on IBM XTs, ATs, and compatibles. • Cedar (MCAE Technologies, $495, Circle 255) combines vari ational geometry analysis, engi neering formula processing, and documentation capabilities. The program provides scientists and engineers with tools for analyz ing and reporting multiple de sign options. The program runs on IBM XTs, ATs, PS/2s, and compatibles.
literature • "Laboratory and Science book" (Digital Equipment, 256) covers Digital and party products that serve tific computing needs.
Hand Circle thirdscien
• NWA LIMS (Northwest Ana lytical, $10,000 to $25,000, Circle 252) is a laboratory information management system for small and medium-sized labs, includ ing in-plant process monitoring and quality control labs. The sys tem handles database manage ment, sample tracking, worklist management, report generation, and quality assurance. Small sys tems (up to 15 users) run on 80386-based IBM PCs and com patibles with Xenix operating sys tems. Larger systems (up to 30 data stations) run on selected larg er computers (such as Sun work stations) w i t h Unix operating systems.
• Pamphlet (Beckman Instru ments, Circle 258) describes struc ture and capabilities of Peak Pro, a new VAX-based software pack age used to automate chroma tography laboratories.
• BioCommerce Abstracts and Di rectory (BioCommerce Data, Cir cle 253), a twice-monthly current
For information on these items or numbered ads, see Reader Ser vice Card
• Brochure (National Instru ments, Circle 257) discusses fea tures of Lotus Measure (version 2.0), a data acquisition and in strument control software pack age for IBM XTs, ATs, PS /2s, and compatibles.
