You have full access to this article via your institution. Download PDF ‘SCIENCE ENDOWMENT SHOULD TAKE RISKS’, UK MINISTER TOLD london The UK government's proposed National Endowment

for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) should take risks and not be fearful of public reaction to its choices of beneficiaries. That was the call from representatives of the arts,

crafts, engineering and sciences at a meeting held in London last week to mark the close of national consultations about NESTA's role (see _Nature_ 386, 749; 1997) Chris Smith, minister

for heritage and arts, emphasized Britain needed to make wealth out of its “creative industries”. But some delegates, including Britain's most recent Nobel laureate, Sir Harry Kroto,

innovators. Criticisms were expressed that consultations suffered from a lack of detail. The government will now draft legislation to establish NESTA next spring. MAGNETIC SCATTERING DEVICE

OPENS AT ESRF london A £2-million instrument enabling British scientists to study the atomic and magnetic properties of magnetic materials will be opened tomorrow (19 September) at the

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France. The X-Ray Magnetic Scattering device (known as XMaS) took four years to build and involved scientists from the Universities of

Warwick, Keele and Liverpool. It was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, which has also awarded £2.3-million to the universities of Liverpool and Warwick for a

five-year programme of experiments. CONGRESS URGED TO ACT ON MEDICAL PRIVACY washington The US government last week called on Congress to enact a national law that would make it a criminal

offence to improperly obtain or divulge protected medical information (see _Nature_ 388, 611; 1997). Donna Shalala, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, sent Congress an 81-page

report asking it to impose criminal and civil penalties on doctors, hospitals, researchers, insurance companies and others who fail to adequately safeguard identifiable patient information

or who obtain it improperly. The proposed law would also allow patients the right to see their records and discover who else has seen them. Researchers conducting blinded trials, however,

would be allowed to ask patients to waive this right. Researchers would also retain access to identifiable records without patient consent if local ethical review boards approved. ‘CONSENSUS

CONFERENCE’ ON HUMAN GENETICS leeds, england The British government is to mount a ‘consensus conference’ on human genetics, designed to help promote public agreement on key aspects of

modern genetics and their social implications. John Battle, the minister for science, energy and industry, said last week that the meeting, which is still at an early planning stage, is to

be organized in collaboration with the Human Genetics Advisory Commission, set up last year to monitor such issues. Speaking during the annual meeting of the British Association for the

Advancement of Science in Leeds, Battle said he was keen to stimulate greater involvement by the public in debates about science as part of a broad move to “bring science in from the

margins” of modern culture. But he also wanted to ensure the genetics meeting “is a consensus conference and not a conflictual one”. LAZAR APPOINTED TO LEAD RESEARCH COOPERATION paris

Philippe Lazar, an epidemiologist who was president of INSERM, the French national biomedical research organization, from 1982 to 1996, has been appointed president of the board of ORSTOM,

France's agency for research cooperation with developing countries. Jean Nemo will remain the agency's director-general. A spokeswoman for the agency welcomed Lazar's

appointment as “good news”, as it suggests the government does not intend to abolish the agency, a move that was considered in July (see _Nature_ 388, 7; 1997). But the spokeswoman said

Lazar had made it clear he had no intention of taking up the post if it meant overseeing the “liquidation” of the agency. GERMAN PRESIDENT HOSTS ‘SCIENCE GARDEN PARTY’ munich Roman Herzog,

the German president, last week held a heavily publicized ‘_Fest der Ideen_’ — festival of ideas — in the garden of his Berlin home, inviting 5,000 inventors and researchers to present their

ideas, as a way of encouraging creativity in science and technology. The diverse and often highly photogenic products included a self-steering balloon, a machine that takes the top off

boiled eggs, a pocket-size laser which can be used for medical purposes, and graffiti-resistant paint. In the past few months, Herzog has been actively campaigning for more risk-taking and

imagination in German society, in order to stimulate the long-term growth of the economy. There is too much pessimism about the use of new technologies, he told the gathering in his garden.

“Germans have been discussing for too long only risks and dangers,” he said. “But missed opportunities are a risk as well.” EATON PLANS TO QUIT GEOLOGICAL AGENCY washington Gordon Eaton, the

director of the US Geological Survey, announced last week that he would leave the agency on 1 October. The 68-year-old Eaton joined the survey in 1994, and his tenure was marked by

reorganization and downsizing, including the absorption of the National Biological Service, which became the USGS Biological Resources Division. Most recently, Eaton handed down a

controversial decision to relocate the agency's offices in Menlo Park, California (see _Nature_ 389, 3; 1997) Credit: CHRISTOPHER BERKEY/AP Fallout from that move is not believed to

have played a major role in his decision to leave, however. In a farewell letter to employees, Eaton wrote: “From the beginning it was understood that my tenure would be relatively short,

for my 65th birthday was behind me when I took office.” Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is expected to name an acting director “soon” while searching for a permanent replacement. SATCHER

NOMINATED AS US SURGEON GENERAL washington President Bill Clinton last week nominated David Satcher, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), to be Surgeon General,

vacant since 1994. Clinton also nominated Satcher, an expert in sickle cell disease, to be assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services. This would add a

policy-making responsibility to the Surgeon General's role as the country's top public health advocate. Satcher, who is 56, has headed the CDCP since 1993. Before that, he was

president of Meharry Medical College, a historically black medical school in Nashville, Tennessee. Satcher pushed for Clinton's apology this year to victims of the Tuskegee experiment,

in which black men suffering from syphilis in Alabama, Satcher's home state, were left untreated (see _Nature_ 387, 116; 1997) RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS

ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE News in Brief. _Nature_ 389, 222–223 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/38369 Download citation * Issue Date: 18 September 1997 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/38369

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