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ITHACA, N.Y.—Two years after its creation, the Reagan administration’s policy council for coordinating biotechnology regulation faces an uncertain future. Presidential science adviser William Graham has decided to replace the Biotechnology Science Coordinating Committee (BSCC) with a group more directly under his control. Two weeks ago he told THE SCIENTIST that “BSCC has been suspended. it is no longer in operation.” A clause in the BSCC charter required review and

OTTAWA—The Canadian Institute of Advanced Studies, which has lured home a number of Canadian scientists through its network of university research fellows (see THE SCIENTIST, April 20, p.1), has now sparked the formation of an industry consortium to put their findings to practical use. Precarn Associates Inc. is a nonprofit association of 22 corporations that, according to its prospectus, “will sponsor, manage and disseminate the results of longterm pre-competitive research projec

PHILADELPHIA—Nobel prizes in science normally recognize research of extraordinary excellence, as judged by literature citations to it and awards that have accumulated over a period of years. This year, however, the Nobel committee awarded the physics prize for recent research that illuminated the physical science community with the brilliance of a supernova. New physics laureates J. Georg Bednorz and K. Alex Milller, of IBM’s Zurich Research Labora tory, published their seminal pap

SYDNEY—Australian scientists are bracing for an era of tighter government funding for basic research following release of the federal budget. Although the country’s fiscal year began July 1, the new budget was not announced until mid-September because of elections held July 11. The delay was unsettling for Australia’s research community, which in one way or another derives about 80 percent of its support from the government. Government minister John Dawkins has bluntly to

WASHINGTON—Two recent public opinion surveys indicate that a substantial majority of adult Americans do not know what genetic engineering is and are ignorant of the ethical and scientific issues surrounding it. Nearly two in five people (39 percent) had not heard of genetic engineering, according to a survey conducted last spring for Novo Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company. The poll also found that nearly two-thirds of the remaining group—representing a total of 80 percent o

WASHINGTON—Thirty-Six states would like to be home to the central research facility for a proposed $250 million-a-year program aimed at developing cheaper and better semiconductors. Congress, spurred by concern over declining U.S. competitiveness, is preparing to pour up to $100 million a year into the joint government-industry venture. An industry panel assigned the task of picking a site for the semiconductor technology program—known as Sematech—has been “overwhelme

WASHINGTON—Since 1950, more than 2,000 Japanese researchers have passed through the National Institutes of Health—more than from any other foreign country. Now, in NIH’s centennial year, members of that group have formed the first NIH alumni association chapter overseas. Osamu Hayaishi, who in 195 1-52 was among the first Japanese scientists to visit NIH, said the NIH Alumni Association in Japan has been established “to express our gratitude to NIH and also to cultivat

DUBLIN—An environmental institute praised for the quality of its research is being closed by the Irish government as part of a new round of civil service cuts to combat the country’s financial crisis. About 100 environmental scientists expect to lose their jobs at the An Foras Forbartha (AFF), which was set up to do research and provide technical information for the Department of the Environment. AFF is the most serious of several blows to science in the government campaign to tr

LONDON—The 13-nation European Space Agency is expected to endorse a series of projects later this month that could boost the agency’s annual budget from $1.7 billion to $3 billion by 1993. The new efforts include a more powerful version of its Ariane satellite launcher, a manned Hermes spacecraft and the Columbus orbitbig laboratory that would be part of the U.S. space station. Hermes, which zoom into orbit atop the improved Ariane rocket, would give Western Europe its first opport

CHICAGO—A campaign to increase federal support for research and industrial applications of new technology began last month with a series of conferences held throughout the country. The conferences were designed both to garner support and thinking on new R&D initiatives and to provide regional views on global competitiveness and the declining technological status of the United States. Sponsored by the businessoriented Conference Board and the Council on Research and Technology (CORETECH

OSLO—Last year’s slump in oil prices not only ended a heady period of growth for Norway’s economy, but it also plunged the nation into its worst fiscal crisis in decades. Despite these problems, the government’s firm belief in the value of technological development has led to a promise to increase R&D spending significantly over the next five years. Norway’s continued commitment to science is made possible in part by its having prepared during the recent boom ye

WASHINGTON—A large black bust of Thomas Edison greets visitors to the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) here. Established in 1923 at the famous inventor’s urging, the lab was for more than 20 years the federal govemment’s sole facility for fundamental research in the physical sciences. NRL remains the Pentagon’s flagship research facility, conducting work in such fields as space, new materials, microelectronics and artificial intelligence. Some 700 of its 1,600 scienti