Discusses reasons why empowerment is a salient issue for the information profession and explores the sources of power. Strategies are suggested for increasing position power, knowledge power, and personal power, thereby enhancing the overall power profile of the individual and the profession. Barriers to and benefits of empowerment are also…

Examines the validity of Lotka's function for a measurement of scientific productivity. A systematic deviation of this function from numerical examples has been found by introducing a different least-square formulation instead of a logarithmic linearization. Therefore, a modification of the measurement of the publication frequencies is proposed.…

Presents a brief life history of Maria Goeppert Mayer who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 for her work in atomic physics. (JRH)

Proposes that a cooperative effort among scientists, politicians, and the public will be needed to slow or reverse the destruction of cultural resources such as the pyramids of Egypt resulting from environmental factors. Factors cited leading to deterioration include air pollutants, ozone exposure, and mass tourism. (MDH)

Offers encouragement and advice to physicists who might be asked to teach a college astronomy course for nonscience majors. (JRH)

A long-standing goal of science education is teaching students to be intellectually independent of scientific experts. This article proposes that this goal be abandoned as impossible to attain, and that it be replaced by a goal of intellectual communalism between scientists and nonscientists. (LZ)

Discusses the lives of six women from different temporal periods who have made significant contributions to the biological sciences. (ZWH)

Offers suggestions to graduate students to aid in surviving in a very competitive scientific job market. Identifies attractive options for science Ph.D. holders. (ZWH)

Describes how some young scientists avoided getting stuck on the postdoc treadmill, what is expected of many postdocs, and what post-postdocs are doing with their lives. (ZWH)

Urges standardization of basic concepts in sociology. Refutes claims that standard concepts are not needed and cannot be made because sociological concepts are too context dependent and sociologists too individualistic. Insists that standardization be limited to concepts used by the discipline as a whole. Suggests that a committee be established…

Alternative employment projections of scientists, engineers, and technicians indicate growth ranging widely--from 9 percent to 59 percent over the 1990-2005 period. (Author)

Reports on a study of Association of Independent Information Professionals members conducted to determine the essential competencies for individuals in the information brokering field. A literature review is provided, the survey methodology and characteristics of the 190 respondents are described, and the 29 competencies respondents identified are…

Discusses infoethics, i.e., the ethics of information systems that address the use of information in relation to human values. Topics addressed include models of moral agency; librarians and information professionals as moral agents; the professional ethical self; levels of ethical orientation in the workplace; and ethical selves in the global…

The idea that little attention has been paid to the creativity of the craftsmanship which produces a piece of scientific writing is discussed. Examples are used to support the proposition that this craftsmanship is worth studying in biological sciences as well as the humanities. (KR)

This article highlights the scientific contributions of nineteenth-century German researchers in describing neuropsychologic dysfunction and in conceptualizing and cerebrally localizing clinical syndromes associated with learning disabilities. Noted are contributions of Pierre Paul Broca, Carl Wernicke, Ludwig Lichtheim, Hugo Karl Liepmann, B.…