News of the Week
Hercules predicts higher earnings in 1983 After a couple of years of dismal performance by the U.S. chemical industry, at least one company is keeping its head up. At a press conference in New York City last week, Hercules quite optimistically predicted that its earnings per share would be up substantially in 1983. The firm says that earnings per share will rise about 44% in 1983 to $3.20 from $2.22 in 1982. The rise is even greater if net nonrecurring items totaling 14 cents a share for last year are discounted. Then the rise amounts to more than 50%. Hercules already has a good head of steam for achieving its goal. The firm's fourth-quarter earnings were $22.4 million, an increase of 39% from the fourth quarter of 1981. On a per share basis, this translates to 49 cents a share in fourth-quarter 1982 and 38 cents a share in the final three months of 1981. To Hercules, the current turnaround crowns a broad restructuring program started in the mid1970s. The company began then to divest businesses and change direction toward specialties from its earlier concentration on commodities. As a result, Hercules chairman
Alexander F. Giacco says the company is in a position to do better financially in 1983 even if the economy flounders at the same dismal level that prevailed in 1982. Any upturn would only add more to earnings. Giacco says Hercules saw an imp r o v e m e n t in its businesses in January, relative to December. But, he adds, February is the key to the recovery. December is always bad, he notes, so that January traditional-
Genes moved into plant cells, retained in plants
Foreign genes have been moved into plant cells, which then were converted back into healthy, intact plants where those genes were retained through several generations of normal growth. Heretofore, obtaining normal plants after certain genetic engineering procedures has been a rare, if not impossible, event. This research was a joint effort involving three plant molecular biologists: Kenneth A. Barton of Getus Corp., Madison, Wis.; Andrew Binns at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; and Mary-Dell Chilton of Washington University, St. Louis. The achievement complements another recent step forward in plant genetic engineering in which foreign genes were expressed in plant cells; this was announced simultaneously last month by researchers from Monsanto and from a European group (C&EN, Jan. 24, page 6). Several sources report confidence that these two steps soon will be combined. Meanwhile, a new method for putting foreign genes into plant cells and then reliably regaining intact and apparently normal plants is available. It depends on use of the Ti plasmid, a small molecule of DNA from the bacterium Agrobacter tumefaciens, which can cause crown galls in infected plants. A gene on this plasmid can be "attenuated," Barton says, thereby preventing the plasmid from causing galls (tumors). That ability to cause tumors probably stems from a hormonal imbalance, Barton explains, now corrected by changing a single Ti gene. Because of that change, the cells readily and Giacco: Hercules will do better in 1983 somewhat fortuitously could be even if the economy remains stagnant teased into becoming intact plants. 6
February 21, 1983 C&EN
ly looks good. The real test is whether the improvement continues into February. For the full year, Hercules is basing its forecast in part on an estimate that its key durable goods markets, primarily housing and automobiles, will be 15 to 20% higher than in 1982. For 1982, Hercules had net income of $98.4 million on sales of $2.5 billion. D
So far, the yeast gene for alcohol dehydrogenase has been moved by means of this altered Ti plasmid into tobacco cells, Barton says. That yeast gene, along with about a dozen other genes from that plasmid, was retained stably but did not work in the tobacco plants because it lacks p r o p e r genetic control signals. However, getting such genes to work by supplying them with appropriate signals will soon be accomplished, he predicts. Moreover, ways of streamlining these manipulations also are being developed to avoid using the entire Ti plasmid, which is considered cumbersome. D
Heinze, Landis nominees in ACS Region III American Chemical Society councilors in Region III have chosen George E. Heinze and Phillip S. Landis as nominees for director, Region III, to fill a vacancy created by the election of Warren D. Niederhauser as ACS president-elect for 1983. Heinze is vice president of operations at Janssen Pharmaceutica and Landis is manager of the applied products research group at Mobil Research & Development. Niederhauser is director of pioneering research at Rohm & Haas. The unsuccessful candidates were Ned D. Heindel, H. S. Bunn professor at Lehigh University, and Blaine C. McKusick, retired. In accordance with ACS bylaw V, sec. 11, members entitled to vote in Region III may now nominate candidates by petition for director. Deadline for receipt of these nominations is March 21. ACS bylaws provide that the vacancy shall then be filled by vote of the members in the region.
