Today's Globe: math and culture, cervical cancer vaccine, Brockton suit, rheumaotid arthritis drug, schizophrenia drug, uninsured outreach, Elizabeth Bennett Rice

Small nations that nurtured female mathematicians often produced more top competitors than far larger and wealthier nations, according to a study in next month's Notices of the American Mathematical Society.

One in four teen girls have rolled up their sleeves for the relatively new vaccine against cervical cancer, federal health officials said yesterday.

A lawsuit contends that before a cancer patient crashed her car into Brockton Hospital, she had complained to her physicians about suffering dizzy spells while driving (third item).

"With both the economy and the state's revenues plummeting, no one envies Governor Patrick the task of cutting a budget that was approved by the Legislature just a few months ago," a Globe editorial says. "But one item the governor should spare is the $3.5 million outreach program to enroll - and keep enrolled - the uninsured in the state's pioneering universal healthcare plan."

Biogen Idec Inc., which makes treatments for muscular sclerosis, will halt work on a drug for rheumatoid arthritis because it failed in studies (fifth item).

Alkermes Inc. said a long-acting version of its schizophrenia drug Risperdal has been approved for injection into the arm by the Food and Drug Administration (sixth item).

Elizabeth A. Bennett Rice, who went from being a secretary to a business executive and launched a foundation dedicated to ovarian cancer awareness, died from the disease Oct. 2 in her New Castle, N.H., home. She was 55.