The foundation has not only handed them each $1 million tax-free and with no strings, but also praised them as the successors to Einstein, Darwin and Galileo.

``I have a hard time explaining to people that I'm going to spend the money on research,'' and not a Corvette, said Stanislas Dahaene, 33, of INSERM, in Paris, during an informal chat. He is, the McDonnell Foundation notes, ``an acknowledged world leader'' in the cognitive neuroscience of numeracy that is, the human sense of numbers and how it is represented in the brain.Daniel Povinelli, 34, of the University of Southwestern Louisiana, whose research on the human mind involves working with chimpanzees, said he'd like to show that blurb comparing him to Einstein, et al., to his local newspaper. When the paper learned abouthis prize, he noted with a wince, there were headlines along the lines of `$1 million means more bananas'.

The 10 winners, who learned of their good fortune in January, were recently honoured at a symposium. ``It feels like a million bucks,'' confessed Kathleen Akins, 40, of Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, who is seeking to unravel philosophical questions about human thought by studying sensory systems.

The fellowships are aimed at scientist-scholars under 40 whose work ``will contribute substantially to the development of knowledge and its responsible application in the next century.''

Still, some of the winners said it took $1 million to get their family and friends to understand and respect their work. ``Most people have no way of judging what we do,'' said Stefan Rahmstorf, 38. ``Before, at parties, when I'd tell people I was a physicist, it was a definite conversation-stopper. Women would turn away and talk to another guy.'' A million dollars holds their attention, he said.

``It's a`clean' million,'' said McDonnell spokesman Dale Didion. All the money goes to the winners. Because it flows through the university (or other institution) at which the recipient works, the individual does not pay taxes on it. But, in contrast to ordinary grants, the universities don't get to take out their usual share for ``overhead'' expenses such as secretarial and library services. ``The overhead usually amounts to about 40 per cent,'' Didion added, ``so it's more like the winners are getting $2 million.'' Furthermore, if a winner changes universities, the money follows him or her.

By contrast, Nobel laureates have to pay taxes on their prizes, Didion said. And although the cash award for a given Nobel category approaches or sometimes exceeds $1 million, the amount is often divided among several winners.

But everything is a trade-off, even for these million-dollar babies. ``Before the award,'' Rahmstorf added, ``I spent 20 per cent of my time doing grant proposals. Now I spend 15 per cent doing mediainterviews.''In some fields, $1 million just doesn't go that far. ``One million dollars is not enough to build the telescope I want to build,'' said John Eric Carlstrom, 41, of the University of Chicago. ``But now I'm getting other people to contribute. And this telescope will enrich the whole field of astronomy.''

Others don't need much in the way of tools. In the ``philosophy of science'' category, for example, ``that million will buy a lot of pencils,'' one veteran physicist joked.

``Philosophers are cheap,'' said Akins. ``You can buy 20 philosophers for $1 million.'' And that is just about what she intends to do, she said: buy a bigger staff.

``In my field, $1 million is a very useful quantity,'' laughed Mercedes Pascual, 38, of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, who uses mathematical modeling to try to untangle complexity in ecological systems. ``Scientists spend more and more time pursuing funding. The freedom you get with the $1 million, plus no strings, makes this verydifferent.''

The special prizes are being awarded to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of James S McDonnell, founder of the McDonnell Douglas Corp. (now part of Boeing Co.), who established the foundation in 1950. The foundation hands out about $20 million a year in smaller chunks to support biomedical and behavioral research.

Paying for nothing

AT&T customers have been made to pay at least $3 per month for long distance phone service, even if they don't make any calls. That means approximately 35 million ``basic-rate'' customers will be drawn into this net.

The company estimates that about 9.5 million of those will see their bills rise due to the change, because they make less than $3 in calls monthly, reports Washington Post.

The nation's largest long-distance phone company said the move was necessary to keep it from taking a loss on these customers, who run up expenses for AT&T in maintaining their accounts. ``We believe we're justified in covering our costs,''said AT&T spokesman Jim McGann.

The company began charging new basic-rate customers -- people who have not asked to be on a discount plan -- this way last summer. Now it is expanding the system to all basic-rate customers. Critics - including the top telephone regulator in the US - said the move punishes low-volume telephone users who may not want to sign up for a discount calling plan, which typically has a $3 per month minimum.

``Clearly I'm not happy about it,'' said William E Kennard, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. ``I am concerned that these low-volume consumers are bearing the brunt of these rate increases. That shouldn't happen and I would like to address that.''

Kennard hinted he would urge other FCC members to rectify the matter as part of an upcoming cut in rates that AT&T and other long-distance phone companies pay to local phone companies to put calls onto their networks. AT&T would be urged to divert some of these savings to reduce the bills of these low-usecustomers.

Sam Simon, chairman of the non-profit Telecommunications Research and Action Center, suggested that low-volume phone users could avoid the fee on their own by notifying their local telephone company that they no longer want to have a long-distance carrier. Then, he said, they could use prepaid calling cards or a 10-10 ``dial around'' service for long-distance phone calls.

AT&T, in July 1996, agreed to cut prices to basic-rate customers by 5 per cent to 15 per cent, as part of a deal with the FCC that gave AT&T $900 million in reductions in local phone access fees.

AT&T was spurring more customers to leave the basic-rate schedule. To that end, it introduced a new calling plan that offers 30 minutes of calling for $3, which at a dime a minute is about half the current basic daytime per-minute rate.