February 24, 1998

Latest New York Times/CBS News Poll finds that most Americans believe Pres Clinton had an affair with Monica S Lewinsky, a former White House intern, but regard it as understandable for him to lie about his sexual conduct; many express disappointment with Clinton's personal behavior as President, calling it worse than expected, but draw sharp distinctions between private and professional conduct in Oval Office; 84 percent agree with proposition that one can still be good President despite questionable personal behavior; most say investigation into Clinton's relationship with intern should be dropped; three-quarters say press has spent too much time on issue; charts (M)

Expert committee of National Research Council says US needs to invest more in key space-related technologies that no one else is developing in order to fulfill dreams of exploring solar system, finding planets around distant stars or possibly traveling to other worlds; contends that if NASA wants to continue meaningful research beyond Earth in time of constrained budgets, it needs to explore new technology unique to its goals; Dr Daniel E Hastings, chief scientist for Air Force and panel chairman, comments on future space technology prospects; illustration of Space Interferometry Mission project being worked on at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (L)

Publishers like Random House and authors debate boundaries of nonfiction as industry's quest for entertaining, vividly written stories with the mark of authenticity leads to a blurring of the line between fiction and nonfiction; some are asking whether tinkering with the truth is form of literary robbery; John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, admits he did change some facts in his nonfiction best seller; some other books whose accuracy has been questioned include The Perfect Storm and The Man Who Listens to Horses; photos (L)

Smithkline Beecham PLC and Glaxo Wellcome PLC end merger discussions; analysts say issue of who would run combined company derailed merger (L)

Some researchers who study intelligence say IQ scores around world have been increasing so fast that high proportion of people regarded as normal at turn of century would be considered way below average by today's tests; Dr Ulrich Neisser, professor at Cornell University and editor of The Rising Curve: Long-Term Gains in IQ and Related Measures, sees book as a rebuttal to The Bell Curve, 1994 book by Charles Murray and Richard J Herrnstein that linked IQ and income; worldwide pattern of rising scores in industrialized nations was discovered by James R Flynn, professor emeritus at University of Otago in New Zealand; he began looking into subject in 1980's in effort to rebut Dr Arthur Jensen, professor from University of California at Berkeley who argued that even if environments of blacks and whites were equalized, 15-point gap in IQ scores between races would only be partly eliminated; drawings (L)