Networking Column

A paper by the educator William H. Cosby Jr., better known as the entertainer Bill Cosby, on the importance of early exposure to effective science teaching is one of thousands of documents available on a new online service offered by the National Academy of Sciences.

N.A.S. Online made its debut this month on America Online, a rapidly growing computer network based in Vienna, Va. It features science, science-education, technology, and health news from the academy and its affiliates--the National Academy of Engineering, the National Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council.

"N.A.S. Online will provide us with a special opportunity to enhance the public's knowledge about how scientific research and science policies affect their daily lives," said Bruce M. Alberts, the academy's president and a leader in an elementary-science-education reform...