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WEST BERLIN—The forging of stronger ties among researchers, and between academia and industry, are two important goals of this city’s new Academy of Science (see THE SCIENTIST, March 9, p. 5). The academy, after opening ceremonies later this week, will begin work on a research agenda that will span the natural and medical sciences as well as technology assessment. The first six projects, chosen from 39 proposals and each expected to last three years, will cover automation and the

CAMBRIDGE, U.K.—The former director of the Plant Breeding Institute here has endorsed the government’s selection of Unilever as the new owner of the facility. The sale of the PBI and the National Seed Development Organization is part of Prime Minister Thatcher’s strategy to privatize many government-owned companies and institutions. The PBI is the country’s major institute for research on plant breeding, and the NSDO earned nearly $7 million last year by marketing se

WASHINGTON—In many areas of science or technology—from climate changes to new manufacturing technology—the lines between science and foreign policy blur and sometimes disappear. “Things that used to be domestic aren’t any more,” said Robert W. Rycroft, deputy director of the graduate program in science, technology and public policy at George Washington University and an associate professor of public affairs and political science. “There are severe i

WASHINGTON—This month’s deadline for submitting proposals for the $44 billion Superconducting Supercoilider has left the Department of Energy with 43 places to put the world’s biggest scientific construction project. All of the states expected to be in the running (see THE SCIENTIST, March 9, p. 1) submitted their bids on time, although California’s arrived with only eight minutes to spare after a legislative fight on affirmative action hiring goals. Some states couldn

PARIS—Only a few weeks before UNESCO’s 50-nation Executive Board meets here for its semiannual session, a scientific front-runner has emerged in the race to succeed Senegal’s Amadou Mahtar M’Bow as director-general. He is Federico Mayor Zaragoza, a 53-year-old Spanish biochemist and pharmacologist who was deputy director-general for UNESCO, the chief U.N. agency for scientific research from 1978 to 1981. He has since served as minister of education and research in Ma

WASHINGTON—The Presidential Young Investigators award program is supposed to lure newly minted scientists and engineers away from industry and into academia by offering them up to $100,000 a year for their research. The 200 young scientists chosen each year by the National Science Foundation are also asked, somewhat paradoxically, to build ties with industry by obtaining matching funds for the federal dollars they receive. But four years after it was begun, the PYI program has failed

Jorge Rocca is not your average Presidential Young Investigator. Unlike the majority of his colleagues, he says the award was ‘‘a big factor’’ in his decision to remain in academia. ‘‘We like what we do,’’ he said about young researchers who have begun to build a record of achievement. ‘‘But the award strongly biases you to stay and make good use of the money." Rocca, who is using part of his PYI money to build short-wavelength laser

WEST BERLIN—West and East Germany have agreed to pursue more than two dozen scientific and technological projects as part of a joint agreement signed last week. The announcement was made on the occasion of the first visit to Bonn by East German General Secretary Erich Honecker The agreement comes after 34 rounds of negotiations in the 15 years since the two countries first established formal relationships. A panel of government officials and scientists from each country will be create

BOZEMAN, MONT.—The deliberate violation by a Montana State University scientist of EPA regulations on the release of genetically engineered organisms has evoked sharply different reactions from scientists and top administrators on campus. While colleagues criticize him in harsh terms, university officials say they welcome the increased attention to the impact of federal regulations on science. At issue is plant pathology professor Gary Strobel’s June release into the wild of a ge

TOKYO—Stung by foreign criticism of its scant contributions to basic research, Japan has taken steps to break down its traditionally rigid system of funding university research and to launch new ventures. Budget figures released this summer show that government support is strongest, in fact, for the least traditional of the new programs, some of which involve substantial foreign participation. The Science and Technology Agency (STA) achieved a 23 percent increase in funds for its nont

WASHINGTON—Last spring’s newspaper stories that described how IBM researchers had boosted the critical current density of a superconductive thin-film crystal by a factor of 100 were also bringing news of the discovery to most scientists. Not until six weeks later were the details published in Physical Review Letters. Increasingly, scientists in fast-paced fields are announcing breakthroughs at meetings or press conferences. Long before results appear in scientific journals, they

SAN FRANCISCO—A battle is brewing over a Federal Communications Commission proposal that could double the cost of accessing many on-line computer networks. Users affected by the proposal include the thousands of research labs across the nation that regularly use on-line computer services to keep them up-to-date on specific topics or to assist otherwise in their work. The change could force such labs to severely curtail or drop their use of such services. At issue is the right of so-ca