Harvard and other universities with prominent medical schools and hospital affiliations are prospering amid optimism over research into the human genome and diseases like AIDS and Alzheimer's. The laboratories, universities, institutes and companies, both large and small, doing that research have enjoyed a windfall, actually straining the infrastructure at some universities built for more modest work.
Some scientists worry, though, that they are missing out on the government's investment.
Smaller agencies are facing even bleaker futures. Stagnant budgets have made it difficult to modernize monitoring equipment for earthquakes, water quality, and rivers, said Bob Hirsch, the agency's associate director for water. Staff has suffered, too. Since 1992, a water research group at the agency has lost 59 scientists. The decline was even more precipitous when engineering was taken alone.