University Briefs

Decade Of The Desert "We as scientists do not understand the deserts, so how can we best know how to use them?" asks Farouk El-Baz, director of the Boston University Center for Remote Sensing. That basic lack of understanding that El-Baz perceives prompted him and fellow scientists from more than 20 countries to meet in Trieste, Italy, at a conference sponsored by the Third World Academy of Sciences and the Canadian International Development Agency. The attendees declared the 1990s the Decade of the Desert. Says El-Baz, who directed the conference: "We need that many years to understand changes in the [desert] environment," changes he says may be governed by the 11-year solar cycle. A key goal of the Decade of the Desert is to establish the International Center for Dryland Research, which would primarily function as a data storehouse. The Sudan government has so far donated a piece of land and promised to construct the building. The facility, which El-Baz hopes will be ready in three years, will have a library staff and a research staff. To understand the desert, however, requires more than just a new facility, says El-Baz, who will chair the center's advisory board. "We need a whole new breed of geologists," a breed that would ask rudimentary questions. "Our science began in southern England, Germany, and France," he says. "And Europe is the only continent that does not have a desert. The fathers of geology did not have examples of arid landforms to study." In addition to a new approach to research, the Egyptian-born El-Baz believes that scientists should spend some time talking with desert dwellers. "I have learned from the bedouins and other peoples a hell of lot more [about deserts] than from all my fancy geology courses." Why study deserts? "We need to understand their ecosystems," says El-Baz. "What happens there definitely affects the other two thirds of the earth." Theorists Think Tank Nuclear physics theorists from around the world will soon have a place to call home. The U.S. Department of Energy recently selected the University of Washington, Seattle, to house the nation's first Institute for Nuclear Theory. "This would be a place to generate new ideas, hold summer workshops, studies," says David L. Hendrie, head of the DOE division of nuclear physics. "It will bring the people in the field together." Selecting the location for the new institute was no easy task. "We had a series of absolutely excellent proposals," says Hendrie. "It was a very tough choice." But UW's tradition of holding summer seminars, good temporary and proposed future facilities, and strong financial support gave the university the competitive edge. The staff of the institute will consist of a permanent director and two senior fellows, two junior fellows with five-year appointments, and three or four postdocs with two- or three-year appointments. The institute will also accommodate eight to 10 visiting fellows each year. Ernest Henley, UW physics professor and acting director of the institute for 1990, says the first program, scheduled to begin in March will focus on quarks in nuclei. "Even though it's a theoretical physics institute," says Henley, "we feel that connections to the experimentalists and other related fields are important." The institute, he says, "will make physics much more lively than what it already is." As for the projected success of the institute, says DOE's Hendrie, "It's a superb opportunity for great science."

University Briefs

The Scientist Staff

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