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IN BRIEF: AIN WRECK A 60-car CSX freight train derailed and burned in a 1.7-mile tunnel in downtown Baltimore on June 18, causing a huge watermain break and virtually shutting down the inner city. Nine of the cars were carrying hazardous chemicals—five tank cars of acids, plus cars of ethylhexyl phthalate, propylene, and tripropylene glycol. Many of the others were filled with wood pulp and other combustible material.
UNBIASED SCIENCE ADVICE SOUGHT GAO faults effort to identify conflict of interest on EPA's advisory board
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HERE ARE MAJOR SHORT-
comings in the procedures that EPA uses to evaluate potential conflicts of interest for its Science Advisory Board (SAB) members, according to a General Accounting Office (GAO) report released last week. Established in 1978, SAB consists of more than 100 technical experts from academe, industry, public health, and environmental groups. SAB panels provide independent scientific and engineering advice to the agency But the EPA staff who supports SAB have "not routinely
ensured that the panelists' financial disclosures are complete and that it has obtained sufficient information to evaluate potential conflicts of interest," the report says. In addition, staff follow-up on SAB members' financial information is inadequate, the report says. For instance, some panelists did not identify all sources of income or did not provide complete information on the standardized federal financial disclosure form. GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, says that EPA staffers need to answer such ques-
EXHIBIT
INTO THE BRAIN Interactive exhibit leads visitors on tour of'world inside our heads' SYNAPSE POP Kids see how neurons function by sending a small ball through tubes representing axons.
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TEP INTO A WEB OF AXONS
and dendrites surrounded by myelin, mixed with several neuroglia, and get a good look at a dog brain. It may sound crazy
2001
or even a little frightening, but that is just what you can do at the Smithsonian Institution's new interactive exhibit, "Brain: The World Inside Your Head." The exhibit that opened onjuly 2 is funded by a grant from Pfizer Inc. in collaboration with NIH. Using virtual reality, video games, optical illusions, and interactive displays, "Brain" aims to teach kids and parents more about the 'Svorld inside our heads." Consisting of as many neurons as stars in the Milky Way (more than 100 billion), the cauliflowershaped mass inside our skulls is in control of everything we think, say, and do. The "Brain" exhibit strives to teach visitors as much as possible about its subject in the
tions as whether board members owning stock in chemical companies might gainfinanciallyfrom the advice they provide to EPA if that advice affects regulatory decisions on chemicals produced by those firms. GAO also faulted the board staff for selecting SAB panel members before completing review of— or even receiving—their financial disclosure statements. The National Academies, in contrast, does not make final selections for its panels until staffmembers have reviewed and evaluated possible conflicts of interest and biases of proposed members. Donald G Barnes, SAB staff director, says EPA is developing new procedures to address the problems identified by GAO. The agency did a pilot run of those new procedures when it selected an SAB panel to review the benefits of lowering the amount of arsenic allowed in drinking water, he says. -CHERYLHOGUE
most interactive environment available. Visitors can look at real brains ranging from the tiny duck's brain (only 4.75 g) to a whale's brain (between 12 and 17 lb) and even see a brain cavity cast of a triceratops' skull. Interactive activities teach visitors about the workings of the brain. The electrochemical storms that rage inside our heads are explained in games that simulate phantom pain from missing limbs and show how electrical and chemical messengers jump the synapses from neuron to neuron. The games even allow children to perform brain surgery The exhibit will be at the Arts & Industries Building at the Smithsonian until Jan. 2, 2002, when it will begin a national tour of 15 major science centers and natural history museums. More information, including a touring schedule and a virtual "Brain" tour, is available online at http:// www pfizer. com/brain.—ALLISON BYRUM
HTTP://PUB5.ACS.ORG/CEN
