Industry R D

Macabre headlines rip through the air like shots from a machine gun at the daily staff meeting of Industry R&D--a television research company that scours the back roads of the country in search of the brutal, the bizarre and, occasionally, the uplifting. A man who murdered his parents when he was 13 kills his wife and children many years later. An HIV-positive transsexual is accused of attempting to kill others through sex. A 9-year-old genius is denied entrance to college.

IIn 1945, Vannevar Bush, a pragmatic engineer who had been Franklin Roosevelt's science advisor during World War II, submitted a report to President Truman that was destined to serve as the cornerstone of postwar science policy. In "Science, the Endless Frontier," Bush argued that the national interest demanded federal investment in research performed in universities--basic research that would ultimately lay the groundwork for new products and new processes for industry.

IIn 1945, Vannevar Bush, a pragmatic engineer who had been Franklin Roosevelt's science advisor during World War II, submitted a report to President Truman that was destined to serve as the cornerstone of postwar science policy. In "Science, the Endless Frontier," Bush argued that the national interest demanded federal investment in research performed in universities--basic research that would ultimately lay the groundwork for new products and new processes for industry.

Macabre headlines rip through the air like shots from a machine gun at the daily staff meeting of Industry R&D--a television research company that scours the back roads of the country in search of the brutal, the bizarre and, occasionally, the uplifting. A man who murdered his parents when he was 13 kills his wife and children many years later. An HIV-positive transsexual is accused of attempting to kill others through sex. A 9-year-old genius is denied entrance to college.

Every time I come across a big-number statistic about the size or significance of some industrial activity, my nose wrinkles. You know the figures I mean: The porn business takes in $10 billion to $14 billion a year. California's marijuana harvest is worth $14 billion a year, making it the state's biggest cash crop . NCAA March Madness costs employers $1.8 billion in lost productivity . Figures like these have several things in common: They're eye-catchingly big, they're unverifiable by empirical means and they reek of fakery.

And now for the good news. Despite California's protracted economic downturn, people continue to land good jobs. Up-the-ladder kind of stuff. Even career-advancing leaps. "Most of my candidates are having a tough time," acknowledges Richard Knowdell, executive director of the Career Planning & Adult Development Network, a nationwide organization of career counselors based in San Jose. But, he adds, there are success stories out there. Some are high profile.

When the spinal cord is severed in an accident, it's like a telephone that has been unplugged: The electrical signals from the brain and the muscles in the legs are disconnected, resulting in paralysis. But more than 300 patients with spinal-cord injuries across the country have learned to walk again with the Parastep System developed at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

A consumer health advocacy group blasted the pharmaceutical industry Wednesday with a study saying drug makers spend far more on overhead, lavish executive compensation and marketing campaigns aimed at hospitals, doctors and patients than they do on research and development.

Bobo Wang can remember coming to Hsinchu in 1980 to see for himself the place that Taiwan's government had declared would usher it into the age of high technology. He found a barren land in a rural area most famous for its peanuts. There were no trees. No paved roads. No electricity. "Just wind and desert," the high-tech entrepreneur recalled.

What did the Dodgers and the Eastern heat and humidity have in common last week? No relief in sight. . . . Oh well, at least the boys of slumber are back where they want to be--the Dodgers at home and the Angels on the road. . . . It's homecoming night for Philadelphia Manager Jim Fregosi, who was a mere youth when he played shortstop for the Los Angeles Angels at Dodger Stadium from 1962 to 1965. . . . Without Lenny Dykstra, the Phillies were 24-37. With him, they are 16-15. . . .

After years of basking in the glow of huge profits and a sterling public image, the big brand-name drug companies are reeling from attacks by senior citizen groups, AIDS activists and state and federal regulators. The industry is under tremendous pressures that experts say are likely to transform it in the coming decade and perhaps even alter the flow of new drugs to the marketplace.

It cost $350 million and was eight years in the making. Inside the seven-story edifice, which resembles a hangar for an exotic, oversized spacecraft, about 250 of the country's most talented scientists hoped to use huge magnetic mirrors to harness fusion--the process that powers the sun and that could, theoretically, provide the world with safe and limitless energy. If all had gone as expected, the experiment would have taken mankind one step closer to solving the world's energy crisis.