Editor's Note: Just as last week's presidential sweepstakes was entering its final stages, the United States House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space, and Technology received a candid 19-page report from its chairman, George E. Brown, Jr. (D-Calif.). The report focused on a subject certain to exert major influence on the next administration, the legislators in office after January 1993, and the U.S. science community at large. The document--entitled "Report of the Task Force on the Health of Research"--was presented, Brown wrote in a letter of transmittal to his committee, in the belief that "it challenges us to create better linkages between the research that we authorize and the national goals that we seek." Following are excerpts from the report (ISBN 0-16-038862-7), the entirety of which is available from: U.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, D.C. 20402.
The U.S. system of scientific, engineering, and mathematical ...
