The NIH Record

February 22, 2000
Vol. LII, No. 4

Astronauts Show Movies of Mission, Delight NIH Audience

By Suzanne Lewis

Some children came prepared with a list of questions to ask the astronauts about their mission.

What's a kid's idea of a fun thing to do on a school night? Perhaps play computer games or watch television? How about talking with real-live astronauts about what it's like to go into space? That's how hundreds of kids, including patients from the Clinical Center and the Children's Inn, spent the evening of Jan. 27 at the Natcher Conference Center. The event was jointly sponsored by the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, and NASA.
M O R E . . .

If Not by Science, then by Art
Creativity Brings Former Postdoc Back to NIH

By Rich McManus

There was a time when the "glass ceiling" perceived by professional women in science was more like concrete than anything see-through; as lavish as the talk was about feminism in the early seventies, only a handful of women made it to the top. Dr. Josephine Simonds, who was already a late bloomer — having obtained her Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Maryland at age 50 — realized what the score was after 6 years as a postdoctoral trainee at the National Cancer Institute. So she did the same thing she did when, earlier in her life, her artistic talent was discouraged by a nasty high school teacher: She found a way to thrive anyway.
M O R E . . .