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The transformation of Eastern and Central Europe in the past six months presents Europe with a fateful choice between the future and, in one sense, the bad old past. Here is one way in which it can be made.
At the beginning of the 1990s what more astonishing sight than that of Eastern Europe, a year ago still isolated behind the iron curtain, standing on the verge of reintegration into the common European home of science. The changes in Europe and the Soviet Union, as well as the rapidly-growing importance of international cooperation (and competition) in science will set many of the big science policy issues of 1990.
Up for commemoration this year are anniversaries of the death of Benjamin Franklin and the births of H. J. Muller, August Möbius and (perhaps) Dom Perignon. There is, too, the advent of the electric chair to 'celebrate'.
By neglect of consultation and expertise, the British government's new pollution bill seems designed to make even sensible decisions on environmental pollution and genetic engineering hostage to public anxiety and suspicion.
Products for the New Year include variable-intensity transilluminators for increased user safety, an in vivo cell-tracking kit and a monoclonal antibody for the localization of muscle-specific actin.
Despite the fall in the number of young people in recent years, there is cause to believe that student numbers will be 'holding up' and that employers will develop new approaches to recruitment.
