The European molecular biology laboratory

The need for collaborative ventures in Europe has long been stressed in the editorial pages of this journal, and more than ten years ago (Endeavour, 28, 54, 1969) we gave strong support for a proposal to establish a European Laboratory of Molecular Biology. For this we then incurred some criticism, on the ground that such a laboratory would weaken national academic institutes striving to establish themselves in this rapidly developing field. Nevertheless, we continued to maintain (30, 2, '71) ‘the great political and scientific importance of this [concept]—and of other such collaborative enterprises—if Europe is to maintain the initiative in fields where the great institutions of the United States have established a dominant position.’ In the event, the Laboratory was established at Heidelberg in 1974, though not formally opened until 1978. The Director-General, Sir John Kendrew, here surveys the policy and achievements of this important new institute.     

Measuring patent assessment quality—Analyzing the degree and kind of (in)consistency in patent offices’ decision making

We argue that consistent decision making in judging a patent's validity and basing this on its underlying technological quality are important elements of patent office service (“assessment”) quality. To understand which level of assessment quality patent offices (can) provide, particularly in new technological areas, we study the concordance of the European Patent Office's (EPO) granting and opposition decisions for individual patents. Using the biotechnology industry in the 1980s (an emerging patenting area then) as an example, we find no empirical evidence that the EPO provided maximal or optimal assessment quality as far as can be told from bibliographic indicators. We discuss research limitations and consequences of this first empirical analysis, and suggest ideas for refinements in future work.     

Fluorescent probes: a new way to study lymphocyte activation

Fluorescent dyes can be used as cell probes which bind, according to their chemical structure, to particular subcellular regions of lymphocytes. Because of their sensitivity to variations in the local molecular environment, expressed by changes in fluorescence emission, they provide a means of studying the early events of lymphocyte activation to antigens and mitogens. The technology also yields a rapid assay of lymphocyte activation and thus new diagnostic tests of cell-mediated immunity, for example to organ transplants and to cancer.     

Effects of axial conduction in laminar tube flow with convective boundaries

Heat transfer in laminar tube flow with convective boundary conditions and axial heat conduction in the fluid is solved exactly. The effects of the external Biot numbers and the axial conduction in fluid on the temperature distribution and the local Nusselt number are determined for both the upstream and the downstream regions. In order to illustrate the effects of velocity profile, the results for the slug flow and the parabolic velocity profiles are plotted simultaneously. The heat transfer characteristics of the flow are found to be rather sensitive to the Péclét number, the external Biot numbers and the velocity profile in the thermal entrance region.