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<jats:p> <jats:bold>MOSCOW</jats:bold> —Most Western grant programs in the former Soviet Union now insist on collaborative research and Western-style peer review rather than the old, hierarchical style of Soviet funding. Getting used to the competitive ways of the West is tough for some researchers, but Western officials see it as part of their mission to teach them: not only to improve their chances of carryingout successful collaborations with other nations but also to improve the quality of Russian science. </jats:p>

<jats:p> <jats:bold>HEMPSTEAD, NEW YORK</jats:bold> —Collaborating with colleagues in the West is now a necessity for Russian scientists. But at a 3-day symposium last October on Long Island, organized by the Russian government, Russian researchers learned that touting their goods in a crowded marketplace is not easy, and the Russian government learned that it has much to do before it becomes a force in initiating East-West collaborations. </jats:p>

<jats:p>News that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has cut off funding for Mark Hughes, a geneticist who pioneered a technique for screening for mutations in the DNA of a single cell, has dismayed Hughes's colleagues. NIH says Hughes used federal funds to conduct tests on eight-cell human embryos, in contravention of a congressional ban on such activities. Hughes's colleagues say the incident will drive more embryology research into private clinics, where it is unregulated.</jats:p>

<jats:p> <jats:bold>LONDON</jats:bold> —A report by a panel of British government advisers gave an amber light last week for research into the transplantation of pig organs into humans. The panel agreed that the procedure was ethically acceptable but ruled out clinical trials until further research has shown that such transplants are safe and that patients will benefit. </jats:p>

<jats:p>Ties between the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, frayed since the events at Tiananmen Square in 1989, were repaired last week as the leaders of the two organizations met in Beijing. The two academies agreed to begin holding a series of meetings between young scientists from both countries and discussed support for joint research projects in energy and sustained development.</jats:p>

<jats:p>In the wake of the Oklahoma City and Atlanta bombings, Congress asked the National Research Council to study whether to implement a nationwide plan for adding chemical “tags” to explosives. But a recent workshop in Washington, D.C., showed just how difficult it will be to settle on a workable plan.</jats:p>

<jats:p> <jats:bold>BERLIN</jats:bold> —In a highly unusual appeal, leaders of five of Germany's premier scientific organizations last week issued a dire public statement about the future of German research. They warned that their nation—which has produced some of the century's greatest scientists—is in danger of squandering golden opportunities for scientific achievement unless government and industry “significantly increase” their investments in research and work to make higher education more competitive. </jats:p>

<jats:p> <jats:bold>CHICAGO</jats:bold> —Black-hole theorists are leaving present observations far behind as they conceive and study strange variants of these superdense, light-swallowing objects, confident that observers will eventually catch up. They have conjured up donut-shaped black holes, discerned clues toa fundamental graininess of space-time in the properties of black holes, and—thanks to Hawking's latest brainstorm—contemplated the possibility that invisible black holes might be gobbling information right under our noses. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Black holes are flourishing in theorists' computers and on their blackboards (see <jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/275/5299/477" xlink:type="simple">related item</jats:ext-link> ). But these objects—the children of Einstein's theory of gravity—are also alive and well in the universe, observers are finding. They are detecting increasingly strong signs of black holes at the centers of galaxies and, closer to home, in turbulent x-ray beacons. </jats:p>

<jats:p> <jats:bold>WASHINGTON, D.C.</jats:bold> —The latest images of Jupiter's moon Europa, released at aNASA press conference, reveal a landscape in turmoil. To team members poring over images returned bythe Galileo spacecraft, the wild jumble of ridges, grooves, pits, ice flows, and chaotic terrain showsever more signs that heat forged Europa's icy surface. </jats:p> <jats:p> For images of Europa's surface, see the <jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/galileo/" xlink:type="simple">Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Web page</jats:ext-link> . </jats:p>